She uncorks the champagne – which seems odd to me as the mood is hardly celebratory, but I guess people expect champagne before dinner in a high-end chalet like this. It was the kind of thing I aspired to the last time I was here, after all, but couldn’t yet quite afford. Or rather, Will and his little girlfriend couldn’t. A few years on, this would probably have been me, if it hadn’t been for what happened on the mountain. I haven’t skied since.

‘Will Ria be joining us for dinner?’ Millie asks Hugo.

He sighs loudly. ‘I’m not sure. She was … she said she wasn’t feeling too well earlier. I’ll go and check on her in a minute if that’s OK?’

She nods. ‘Of course. I only wanted to know how many to set the table for. But no rush.’

‘No problem. I’ll go and see what she says,’ Hugo replies.

Millie hands everyone champagne flutes and I sit down. There is an awkward silence.

‘So, um, have you had a good week?’ I venture. May as well stick to the standard ski holiday chat I just about remember, as no one is going to want to talk about my dead brother. Least of all me.

‘Weather hasn’t been the best, obviously,’ Simon says, ‘but we got one day in the sun and then some amazing powder, so can’t complain. And anyway, under the circumstances … well, there are worse things than bad weather.’

Simon turns a deeper shade of red and takes a large gulp of his champagne. I can’t cope with much more of this. I put my glass down on the table and draw my hand across my mouth.

‘Look, I appreciate your … solicitude and kindness and I’m sorry to be intruding on your holiday like this. But Will, my brother, died a long time ago. I’ve come to terms with that. Identifying his body is an unpleasant formality and, as I’m sure you will understand, there are many places I’d rather be than here, but there’s no need to handle me with kid gloves.’

Silence.

‘And now I feel like I’m being incredibly rude.’ I stand up. ‘Perhaps I should go up to my room, leave you good people to it.’

Simon stands up too. ‘You’re not being rude. We’re being insensitive. Please, you must be tired and ravenous after travelling for however long it’s been. Stay and have dinner with us. We’ll feel terrible if we’ve driven you away.’