I didn’t say a single word about being a ‘normal’ teenager.

Joan, like all of us, was one hundred per cent her own person.

Unlike most of us, she knew who that was and she was completely happy with it.

Plus, how can you console a child having to leave her dog behind?

I would have let her take him, as much as it would have killed me to lose Joan and Nesbit in one go, but Peter was highly allergic to animal fur, and more than ten seconds in an enclosed space with Nesbit resulted in startlingly violent sneezes.

‘I’ll talk to your mum about how often you can come and visit, and I promise I’ll bring Nesbit to see you.’

‘He’d hate it in Chester.’

The phrase that stuck in my windpipe like a fishhook was that it might not be forever, or even for long – just until her mum was back on her feet. Leanne had closed down her business and handed in her notice to the landlord, with a payment from Peter to cover the rest of the rent. Carole spent an afternoon showing Joan the website to a private girls’ school with independent thinking and creating confidence as its key values.

‘Look, Grandad helped build the new arts centre. Isn’t it great?’

Joan nodded politely, but said nothing.

‘I know she’s sad about leaving,’ Leanne said one evening as we sat in the garden listening to the birds while Joan helped her grandparents pack up some of her things. ‘I’m sad about it. I’m not underestimating how big and scary this change is. But kids move all the time – Joan used to live in Liverpool, and she managed the transition to here fine. I know that leaving her dog is a tough one, but she’s only had him a couple of months, and we can get a guinea pig that can live in the garden away from Dad. I’ve said I’ll look into that dog-borrowing scheme once we’re settled.’

‘Sounds great,’ I replied.

Leanne sighed. ‘No it doesn’t, it sounds like I’m kidding myself. After all this, I’m uprooting her from everything she loves and plonking her down in a strange place, with no trees or streams or all the things that she loves. Don’t think for one second that I’m not in bits about it.’

‘That’s not true.’

‘Excuse me?’ Leanne squinted at me sideways. ‘Just because I don’t show her or Mum and Dad how I feel.’

‘It’s not true that you’re taking her away from everything she loves.’ I gave her a nudge. ‘Not only you. She’s gained a family, which was her biggest dream. And besides, they have libraries up north, don’t they?’

She gave a wry laugh. ‘I think Dad’d buy her a whole bookshop if it made her happy.’