CLONER : a Sci-Fi Novel about Human Cloning (A Captivating Story about Reproduction Outside the Womb and Identical Humans) by Emma Lorant Read Free Book Online

butter, patting it into box shapes all over again. ‘Makes me feel agitated. What Don don’t know about farming just baint worth the knowing.’
    ‘He doesn’t like the look of what, Meg?’
    ‘All they multiple births. He do keep saying it “baint natural”.’
    ‘I expect he just remembers the way things were done in his young days,’ Lisa said absently, not sure what Meg was getting at, or why she took so much notice of Don. ‘Lambs are bred for twinning now; that means double the profit. Farming must have changed out of all recognition since he was young.’
    ‘Too much of a good thing. The hens be laying more than ever them did, and mostly double-yolkers. Seems creepy, somehow.’
    ‘Would you rather they didn’t lay at all?’ Lisa laughed.
    Meg had a way of looking along her nose which Lisa didn’t much care for.
    ‘What us do mean,’ she added hurriedly, ‘is that it might all just as easily go the other way. You said it yourself, it all evens out in the end. You can’t fool nature.’
    Meg shrugged her ample shoulders and heaved a milk container to one side.
    ‘Take some of my goat’s milk cheese,’ Meg urged Lisa. ‘I’ve started making ewe cheese as well. Better for you than factory cheddar, any day.’ She wrapped small cylinders of cheese in greaseproof paper. ‘And mind now; goat’s milk be better for babies than cow’s milk. We got plenty enough. There be two nannies, now.’
    ‘That’s really sweet of you. I’m going to try breast feeding again. Perhaps I’ll have more luck this time!’
    ‘Always the best,’ Meg agreed sagely. ‘You could try taking basil tea. Just the job for stimulating milk.’
    ‘Really?’
    ‘Easy to make.’ Meg smiled. ‘And just get Alec to bring Seb over if you’re pushed,’ she went on. ‘You know, if you feel tired, or the contractions start earlier than you’d planned on.’
    ‘It’s wonderful to know you’ll stand by,’ Lisa said gratefully. She was already sure she’d need Meg’s help. A frisson of happy anticipation shivered through her, then suddenly turned to dread. What if her wish for twins ended in tragedy? Was she wishing trouble on her family by being greedy?
    ‘Susan be very good,’ Meg reassured her again. ‘She saw me right.’
    ‘Didn’t Gilmore insist on hospital once the scan showed two?’
    ‘Gilmore? We didn’t bother none with him. No, t’was all agreed between Susan and me. Us managed very nicely, thank you!’
    ‘I hope I’m not early,’ Lisa said absently. ‘Susan’s going on holiday soon. Even Dr Gilmore might be away then.’
    ‘The relief midwife do seem sound enough,’ Meg put in quickly. Speed wasn’t Meg’s way, Lisa knew. It meant the relief midwife’s reputation wasn’t yet established.
    ‘What about Gareth Witherton? He’s the new doctor in the practice, isn’t he? I thought he was supposed to be specially keen on home confinements.’
    ‘Don’t know nothing about he.’ Meg rushed for Seb who was about to place his plastic duck in her butter churn. ‘Us don’t often feel poorly. Frank puts it down to sticking to organic grub. Pays to pay that bit more attention to proper food.’
    ‘And now the Flaxton fertilisers are producing results beyond inorganic farming, anyway.’
    There was just a moment too long before Meg answered. Was she holding something back? A premonition of danger flitted through Lisa’s mind, then disappeared.
    Meg looked her usual self as she hefted the double pushchair over a drainage gully. ‘That be you lot out of harm’s way.’ She gently kissed her twins. The love in her voice was entirely reassuring. She turned back to Lisa, her eyes faintly clouded. ‘Frank do say as Multiplier be organically based. Should be just the job.’
    ‘But you don’t entirely trust it?’
    ‘Don’t rightly know; nothing us can put our finger on for sure. Too good to be true, somehow. Something for nothing.’
    Meg collected her butter, gleaming gold, a faintly acrid