It made her heart sing that Ezra enjoyed being up here as much as she did. Unfortunately, the girls were no longer so enthusiastic. At fourteen, they would be starting their GCSE courses in September and had morphed from girls to young women in the space of a couple of months. These days they didn’t want to scramble over the boulders, or pick bilberries to make into a pie, or have a picnic. Instead, their time was spent deliberating about hair and eyebrows, nails and spots and clothes. So much stress! Sara thought it had been much easier when she’d been young, with no social media or filtered photos setting impossible standards and instilling a fear of not being quite good enough.

At least the girls had each other; but did they spend too much time together behind their closed bedroom door? Recently it seemed they only came out of there to eat and go out with friends or to football practice with Matt, and she hardly had a proper conversation with them. It saddened her that their relationship was becoming more distant than she would like.

‘Mummy! Mummy, what are you staring at?’

Startled by Ezra’s voice, Sara realised she’d arrived at the car park on autopilot, lost in her thoughts, and now she was sitting staring out of the windscreen, not even registering the landscape in front of her.

‘Nothing, little smudge.’ She turned and grinned at him as he wriggled in his seat, desperate to be freed.

She got out and unfastened his seat belt, waiting for him to clamber out of the car before leaning over to grab the rucksack containing their lunch. He reached for her hand. ‘Let’s say hello to the cow and then the calf, shall we, Mummy?’

Sara laughed. The Cow and Calf was a rock formation at the top of the hill and a favourite picnic spot with the most wonderful views. The rocks also gave shelter from the wind, whatever direction it might be coming from.

‘Okay. Let’s go.’ She swung her arms, doing an exaggerated walk, and they laughed their way up the path, making up silly marching songs as they went.

Once they’d found a good spot for their lunch, and Ezra had made sure their blanket was in exactly the right place, he went insect-hunting with his magnifying glass, while Sara gazed across the valley, thinking about Matt and how their relationship had cooled over recent years. Ever since Ezra was born, if she was honest. That was when the problems had started.