The following is an excerpt from Margaret's latest novel:

'THE GIFT OF GRACE'

Prologue

She awoke around 4.45 a.m. as she often did, and lay quietly in her bed, listening. She was always at her happiest when the whole family was safe under the one roof. Sometimes, but not often, one of the children would spend a night in someone else's house, and when that happened she felt a deep sense of unease until they finally returned.

This morning she had nothing to worry about. Nathan, Daniel and Leah were all tucked up in their beds, Patience the cat was fast asleep at the bottom of her own bed and, as usual, her husband Samuel was already in his study, where he liked to pray for an hour or two while the rest of the family were sleeping.

Despite all this, there was something worrying her. She could feel the worry trying to nudge its way into her sleepy brain, and she sighed. She often wished that she was more like other people, and could simply accept life's little worries without feeling obliged to do something about them. However, she wasn't like other people.

As she continued to lie there, her brain running through the forthcoming day's events, the worry finally managed to find its way through the hazy leftover fog of sleep, jolting her sharply into full consciousness and causing her whole body to tremble.

Leah had a boyfriend.

For a moment she could hardly breathe as the shocking discovery of the previous evening flooded through her mind. Then, as she always did at times like this, she turned to the one person who could always calm and comfort her, the one person who always knew what to say in order to assist her in solving her problems. Closing her eyes she clasped her hands together beneath her duvet and began to pray softly, in her surprisingly light and childlike voice. 'Dear God,' she murmured fervently, 'please make Leah's boyfriend die soon.'