When her mother went downstairs to make them both a cup of tea, Jo couldn’t help but feel it wasn’t only Clara who was out of sorts. Her mother seemed most unlike herself too. Normally, Maureen Campbell could take every parenting challenge life could throw at her and fix it within seconds. But normally her mum had her dad with her, and it had been a long time since she had parented a six-year-old. Jo tried to push away her worries but promised herself she would keep a closer eye on how her mother was doing.

She padded into her own room and changed into her pyjamas. Then, sitting on the floor so that she wouldn’t wake Clara, Jo switched on her laptop. Without second-guessing herself, she emailed her book to Libby. Then she looked up Ewan McLachlan and downloaded the McCreadie books onto her Kindle. She really needed to refresh her memory of them before Thursday’s signing.

Monday was Jo’s day off, which she was glad of. She had stayed up much later than planned, having become completely engrossed in the first of the DS Tom McCreadie series – the handsome Scottish policeman, who Jo pictured as looking not too dissimilar to Gerard Butler. That she had long had a crush on Gerard Butler was a pure coincidence.

She had been unable to put the book down as DS McCreadie solved the case of the ‘Lady in the Loch’ – a poor, unfortunate woman offed by her ungrateful children and dumped in Loch Ness, as food for the monster presumably.

It had been dark and gritty but accessible and extremely addictive. So addictive in fact that the sun was starting to rise as she read the last page and closed her eyes – just as Clara opened hers.

‘It’s morning time!’ Clara chirped with the enthusiasm of a Disney princess about to greet the forest animals.

All Jo wanted to do was roll over and pull the duvet up over her head and drift back to sleep. Clara, however, had other plans.

‘It’s not time for more sleep, Jojo,’ she said, her voice stern. ‘It’s time to get up. It’s a school day!’

Mustering all the strength she had, Jo opened one eye to look at the clock on her bedside table. Yes, it was a school day, but it was very early on a school day. Too early, if the truth be told.

‘It’s only half six,’ she mumbled.

‘But the sun is shining and when the sun is shining, it’s time to get up!’ Clara said, with all the innocent logic of someone so young.

Jo cursed under her breath, which earned her a nudge from her sister.

‘I heard that bad word,’ Clara said defiantly.