Jenna steps forward. On the one hand she feels sorry for Kate; what happened to her as a child was breath-takingly awful, but as an adult she finds the woman overbearing, controlling and cruel. As their eyes meet, Jenna catches her breath at the undisguised loathing in Kate’s eyes. In a blink the emotion is gone and Kate taps her on the shoulder with the lavender.

‘I cleanse you of negativity.’

The scent of burning sage wafts into Jenna’s nostrils. It smells of weed or cigarette smoke. Kate taps her other shoulder then bends at the knees to move the lavender down the length of her body. Her eyes meet Jenna’s again, just for a split second, as she straightens back up then she nods for Jenna to make her way into the sweat lodge.

Jenna slips her dressing gown from her shoulders and shivers as the wind whips at her skin. She can feel Kate watching as she drops the dressing gown onto the towering pile, peels back the tent flap and ducks to go in.

The heat is like nothing Jenna has ever known; her eyes sting, her skin, slick with sweat, feels like it’s peeling from her body and each breath blisters her throat and burns her lungs. She’d give everything she owns for a sip of water, a lungful of cool May air or a cold towel on her skin but there’s no respite.

‘Suffering is part of life,’ Tom announced earlier. ‘This is the hardest thing you will ever do but if you can make it through, if you can last until the end, you will be rewarded. You will find peace.’

Everyone clapped and a rousing chorus of ‘we can do this!’ went up.

They were all so excited when the sweat lodge ceremony began. Tom poured water onto the hot stones in the centre of the tent and a fizzing sound filled the air. Seconds later, Kate edged through the flaps with a Bucara-style drum tucked under her arm. The flaps closed behind her as she picked her way through the cross-legged guests, and then they were plunged into darkness.

‘Room for a little one?’ Kate asked as she squeezed into the gap between Erica and Jenna.