‘But this technology promises even more. With continued use, you can use the app and the hardware to actually reprogramme your brain. Want to lose weight? Manage stress? Stop smoking? Have more confidence? The only limit is you.

‘Intrigued? We hope you are. Be the first to experience the new sleep technology that will change the world – one sleep at a time.

‘Morpheus.

‘Dream your way to a better you.’

The envelope from Ing Enterprises held only two slim cards. On one was the link to the audio file she had just listened to with the words ‘One-time use only’ printed underneath.

The other card simply said:

Preliminary Meeting

Your Sleep Guru is: Harriet Stowe

Venue: Home address

Time: Saturday 16th Sept, 11 a.m.

Chapter 5

Thea felt much the same about people visiting her house as she did about splinters – she wanted them out.

Her house was tiny for a start: the stairs were in the living room and the living room was nearly in the kitchen, with the dining room as merely a cramped corner. She liked it like that. It was her small safe space where she could crawl and hide after an exhausting day spent trying to seem human.

Two people in it seemed too much.

‘So,’ Harriet Stowe said, sat at Thea’s dining table and glancing at an open folder in front of her. ‘I hope you understand the slightly clandestine route we have had to take. Our competitors are ruthless, and we cannot let any significant information out into the public domain, certainly not until we have launched.’

Harriet had put her voluminous, purple-lined coat on the newel post of the stairs. Thea’s fingers itched to move it to the coat hook, where coats were expected to be.

She had no other choice but to be strict about the house. It had to have the right lighting and temperature, it had to have candles and a scent diffuser constantly puffing out clouds of lavender mist. It had to be quiet and clean and peaceful, because that’s what every article about sleep had impressed upon her: you had to create the right environment for it to come, blinking into sight, like a shy, rare animal.

‘I always find, in circumstances such as these, it’s best to be led by the client,’ Harriet continued, pushing her cat’s-eye reading glasses down her nose so she could peer at her paperwork. ‘Please feel free to ask me any questions about the trial that may be on your mind.’

Moving into her kitchen, which was the size of a postage stamp, Thea attempted to remember how much instant coffee a normal person put in their mug. Two tablespoons of it was definitely too much.

‘Thea?’ Harriet steepled her fingers together and rested her little pointed chin on them.