‘No, I don’t want her to look like me, I want her to look exactly like herself. I even want to call her Abbie.’
‘A clone?’
‘Yes.’
‘A little genetocrat. Character?’
‘Just like … Well, actually, perhaps she could be just a bit less obstinate. After all, if she hadn’t been so intransigent she’d still be here with us.’
‘Intelligence?’
‘Enough to cultivate and appreciate the beauty of our life here but not enough to keep asking awkward questions about life down there. Perhaps she could have a talent for singing, too?’
‘We can download Abbie’s mind from our metacomputers and modify it slightly. I suppose you want her to be healthy?’
‘Oh yes. Perhaps just a few childhood illnesses so that we can show her how much we love her.’
‘And how do you want her to be born?’
‘Out of me.’
‘Really? A nature brat?’
‘Yes. I want to feel her heart beat under mine, to feel her kick, to feel the squelching astonishment as she shoots out of me.’ ‘All that blood and mess and pain?’ ‘Oh yes.’
‘What a primitive you still are, Jenny. It will cause quite a scandal, but I’ll talk to Pierre about it. Would you like our baby for the anniversary of our contract on the twelfth of October?’
‘That’s only eight months. That might affect her development. I want to carry her to term.’
‘I’ll try not to be so jealous this time.’
‘Yes, this time it will be perfect.’
PETER OWEN PUBLISHERS
81 Ridge Road, London N8 9NP
Peter Owen books are distributed in the USA and Canada by
Independent Publishers Group/Trafalgar Square
814 North Franklin Street, Chicago, IL 60610, USA
First published in Great Britain 2007 by
Peter Owen Publishers
This ebook edition 2014
© Miranda Miller 2007
‘Every Little Movement’
Words and music by Fred E. Cliffe and Charles J. Moore © 1912
Reproduced by permission of B. Feldman & Co. Ltd, London WC2H 0QY
All Rights Reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the written permission of the publishers.
PAPERBACK ISBN 978-0-7206-1275-2
EPUB ISBN 978-0-7206-1477-0
MOBIPOCKET ISBN 978-0-7206-1478-7
PDF ISBN 978-0-7206-1479-4
BY THE SAME AUTHOR
Novels
Under the Rainbow
Family
Before Natasha
Smiles and the Millennium
Loving Mephistopheles (Peter Owen)
Nina in Utopia (first in the ‘Bedlam Trilogy’; Peter Owen)
The Fairy Visions of Richard Dadd (second in the ‘Bedlam Trilogy’; Peter Owen)
Short Stories
A Thousand and One Coffee Mornings (Peter Owen)
Non-fiction
Bed and Breakfast: Women and Homelessness Today
Loving Mephistopeles Page 38