‘I’ll cope. They’ll be here any minute.’ Wouldn’t they? How long had it been? Forty minutes? Surely they should be here by now? She suppressed a tremor of fear at the prospect of being stuck out here all night. They’d die of exposure on this rock.

They sank into silence. As much as they struggled with being in each other’s company, for once she was glad of it. She felt grateful for the sound of his steady breathing, telling her she wasn’t alone in the dark. She could still remember the feel of his arm swooping around her waist, knocking her sideways and pushing her into the lee of the slope.

‘. . . I keep thinking of Mikey’s parents,’ she whispered.

‘I know,’ he murmured back. She looked over and saw that his head was hanging.

‘Did you know him?’

‘Not as well as you.’

She recoiled, taken aback by the comment, a sudden flash of his usual temper.

‘Sorry,’ he said quickly. ‘Shit, I . . . I didn’t mean that . . . I really didn’t.’ She heard him inhale. ‘I just . . . didn’t behave well, the last time I saw him.’

She remembered the pushing and shoving between them at the chairlift, Mikey’s bafflement. ‘Why?’

He looked sidelong at her. ‘I don’t know,’ he said after a pause. ‘I don’t know.’

A northerly gust rounded the cliff and hit them square in the face. She gave another shiver, which he saw. He leaned over and looked at her more closely. ‘Your lips are going blue,’ he murmured. He pulled off a glove and pressed the back of his hand to her cheek. ‘You’re freezing.’

‘I’m fine.’

‘Stop saying that.’ He put his glove back on and carefully scooched over to her. ‘You need to get out of the wind. Lean in to me.’

‘What?’

He held his arms and legs out wide. ‘You need body heat. Lean in to me.’

‘No.’

‘Fuck’s sake, Clo. This isn’t a cuddle. You’ll suffer from exposure. Lean in to me.’

More than anything, she was surprised by him calling her Clo. But reluctantly, she let go of the sapling and scurried on her bottom over to where he sat.

‘No. Face the other way.’

‘So bossy,’ she muttered. She changed direction, sitting side on to him, her back now to the wind. He lifted up his knees and brought his arms around her in a windbreak. He tipped her off-centre so that she was leaning against him. Immediately she felt warmer.

‘That any better?’

She nodded, her hair rustling against his jacket.

‘Good.’ She felt him drop his head down, trying to keep warm too, his breath warm into her hair. She closed her eyes, trying not to remember the last time . . . ‘Don’t tense your muscles. It restricts blood flow.’

She tried to relax them. She could hear his heart against her ear, slow and steady.