Al is standing in the doorway in her bare feet, a fluffy baby blue dressing gown wrapped over her hospital gown, her hands in the pockets. Her face is still wan but it’s lost its deathly pale pallor. Liz takes a step back as Al pads across the floor towards me.

“Al.” I force myself to look her in the eye. “I’m so sorry, I’m so, incredibly—”

She pulls me into her arms before I can finish my sentence, and holds me as I cry into her shoulder.

“I’ll give you some time,” Liz says softly. Her shoes squeak on the lino as she leaves the room.

“A Valium overdose?”

“Yeah.” Al reaches for the jug of water beside the bed and pours herself a glass. “The doctors think she must have crumpled some tablets into the flask of tea she gave me when we arrived at Green Fields. They don’t think she meant to kill me …” She pauses to take a sip of water. “She was a mess, Emma. She told me that she started the fire at Ekanta Yatra. She waited two days for Isaac and Daisy to come back, and, when they didn’t, she became convinced that something was going on and everyone was keeping it from her. Isis and Cera tried to calm her down – they said Isaac and Daisy had probably gone to Pokhara together – but Kane, who was drunk, started winding her up. He told her that Isaac and Daisy had run off together and left her behind. She believed him, I don’t know why. She said she was the happiest she’d ever been at Ekanta Yatra, that she’d finally found her home, but maybe a part of her believed that would only ever be transitory. Anyway” – she shrugs – “she got really drunk and really angry that Isaac had used her just so he could sleep with her friends. She set fire to his study when everyone was asleep. She walked out of the gate with her passport in one hand and all Isaac’s money in the other.”

“Oh, my God. Was she in Pokhara when you were still in the hospital?”

Al nods. “Apparently so. We could have ended up on the same flight back to Kathmandu as her, but she said she decided to stay in Pokhara for a bit. She said she thought that Isaac and Daisy were hiding out from her, and she was determined to find them.”

“How long did she stay there?”

“About three months, she said. Then she met someone in a bar who told her that they’d heard about Ekanta Yatra burning down, and there was a rumour going about that Isaac was starting up a new one back in the UK.”

“So she came back?”