‘Will you tell me a story?’

Yes, of course I will. You sit in my lap and I’ll tuck your brothers into bed, okay?

‘Okay. Can we do Jack and the Beanstalk? Or Hansel and Gretel? Or maybe we do inside things today.’

‘It’s sleepy time now. You can fall asleep while I tell the story.’

‘I wanna see pictures.’

‘You make pictures in your head then, okay?’

‘I don’t like that poster. It makes me scared.’

‘The poster on the wall? It’s just a lion at the circus, baby. We’ll tell another story.’

‘Okay.’ He curls up small, little blonde ringlets shining in the lamplight. His mother tells the story, and she does all the voices, and he can see the rabbit with the irish accent in his head.

‘I like the rabbit,’ he mumbles. ‘It’s nice.’

His brothers ask for the blue light. She holds up a finger and traces it around them.

‘It will protect you all through the night,’ she says, and they can almost see it glowing.

‘See,’ says the littlest one. ‘This is my mummy. She protects me.’