Carola’s smile faded. ‘It would be convenient if we could decide in advance that feelings are going to be temporary. In my experience, your feelings are in charge of you, not the other way around.’

‘Sage words.’ Lily knew she ought to listen to them … but butterflies were having a rave in her stomach whenever she thought about having a temporary thing with Isaac. It was even outweighing her nerves at the prospect of meeting Garrick for the first time.

Carola led the way to the coffee shop to try a Swiss pastry with coffee while they watched traffic stream beneath them along a road cutting between snowy hills. Isaac joined them. Although he grinned, he didn’t mention the sex shop.

Next Neil and Franciszka turned up, having tired of the snowball fight. ‘Those kids, they will be turned to ice,’ Franciszka observed in her swirling Polish accent, blowing across the surface of her cup of hot mocha chocolate.

Sure enough, five shivering teens soon arrived, still laughing but wringing pink, pinched hands. They too warmed up with mocha chocolate but there were a few raised eyebrows at a price tag of nearly six Swiss francs.

Isaac shrugged. ‘It’s always been expensive here. Ideally, you need a Swiss salary to go with the Swiss cost of living. Or live in France, Germany or Italy and work in Switzerland.’ He began to talk enthusiastically about his plans to change careers and his hopes that it would involve travel.

Lily reminded her butterflies that Isaac had plans but, watching him chat and laugh with the others, hair gleaming, eyes smiling, the butterflies didn’t seem inclined to listen.

Chapter Fourteen

They drove towards black-and-white peaks that wore clouds around their heads like scarves. Steep fields and tall pines interspersed modern buildings and traditional Swiss chalets. Lily lost count of the tunnels they whizzed through but for the last fifteen minutes their route had taken them east of a lake called Ägerisee, climbing steadily up, up and up, through a village called Alosen, the snow cleared tidily to the sides of the roads.

Then, finally, they passed a sign saying Schützenberg and Emily shouted, ‘We’re here!’ They all craned to drink in the rows of houses perched as if on ledges and shuttered and painted gasthauses, one flying the Swiss flag. Shops clustered together near a church with such a tall, pointed spire that the snow had failed to cling except in a band around the base like an Elizabethan ruff. Cheery Christmas trees or star-shaped lights decorated balconies. Snow lay on every roof like cotton wool and, for some reason, a big orange model of a cow stood on a porch wearing a string of Christmas lights. Its enormous eyes made it look shocked to see the minibus emerging through the snowflakes.