Jenna takes a step back. Erica’s standing too close and she feels smothered. ‘What warnings? What are you talking about?’

‘The nail varnish, the bird, the rock.’

Erica did those things? Erica who held her hand during the flight, nearly crying with fear? Erica who slept in the bed beside her and wished her sweet dreams every night?

‘Why?’ Jenna asks. ‘Why would you do that?’

‘To protect Kate.’

‘From what?’

‘You. I knew you’d try and steal Tom away from her.’

Jenna feels a jolt of surprise. ‘You know they’re together?’

‘Of course I do.’ Erica looks gleeful. ‘I saw them kissing, in private, on the first retreat I went to. Tom didn’t know what to say when I knocked on the window but Kate took me to one side and confided in me. She told me that they were married but they were keeping it a secret. They didn’t want their relationship to make the guests feel awkward about confiding in Tom. She made me promise not to tell anyone and I never have. She trusts me.’ Her expression darkens. ‘You’re not the only woman to fall for Tom. It happens on every retreat – the flirting, the hair flicking, the long looks. I make them stop.’

‘What do you mean you “make them stop”?’

‘I warn them off. Just like I warned you.’

Jenna stares at her incredulously. ‘By throwing a rock at my head? What the fuck? You need help.’

The accusation glances off her roommate. Erica’s stopped listening, locked in her own little world, talking at a hundred miles an hour, her cheeks pinched pink from the cold, her huge, dark eyes looking not at Jenna, but through her.

‘I respect Kate. I think she’s incredible. She’s the strongest woman I know and she works so hard. Tom’s great too, obviously, he’s really helped me with … a lot of things … but Kate’s the one who cares, who looks after us, who makes the retreats so amazing.’

Jenna glances past her, to the sweat lodge in the distance. The noise levels have dropped but there are people everywhere, scurrying around like ants. She catches glimpses of them, lit by the orange glow of torches that sweep the wasteland. The light darts around, catching the wall of the sweat lodge, the roof of the marquee, the hard, dry ground.

‘Kate would never do anything to jeopardise the SoulShrink retreats.’ Erica’s still talking, firing out thoughts, machine gun fast. She’s not well; Jenna can see it in her eyes. ‘But Tom’s weak. That’s why he needs my help and I will always—’

‘Stop it.’ Jenna grabs her by the shoulders and shakes her. ‘Erica, stop it.’

‘Renata.’

‘What?’

‘My name’s Renata.’