Leanne shivers and pulls the blanket over her head. “Is this because you’ve got no reception on your phone? I know it’s hard because you can’t check to see if Simone has texted you, but that’s part of the reason we’re here. You’ve got an unhealthy attachment to her. You need to acknowledge your past so you can free yourself from it. Isaac thinks—”

“I don’t give two fucks what Isaac thinks.”

Daisy and I exchange a look. Al’s never snapped at Leanne like that before.

“Seriously.” Al stands up straight so she’s no longer resting against the tree trunk. “You need to listen to yourself, Leanne. Ever since we got here it’s been Isaac this, Isaac that. Toxic minds, unhealthy attachment, meditating on nothingness; you’re even starting to sound like him.”

“And is that such a bad thing?” The yak blanket slips from Leanne’s head as she pulls herself up to her full five-foot height. Her beady eyes peer up at Al from under her glasses. “Isaac’s happy, Isis is happy, Cera is happy, everyone here is happy – and we’re not. Why do you think that is? Because they haven’t got any unhealthy attachments, and we have.”

“I’d like to get unhealthily attached to Isaac,” Daisy says, but no one laughs. She glances back towards the patio. I can’t see Isaac’s face but I can tell from the angle of his body that he’s gazing down past the gardens and into the orchard, watching us.

Al draws on her cigarette then tips back her head and exhales. The grey smoke spirals into the darkness and then disappears. “So how did purging yourself of your past work for you, Leanne? Are you a happy little sunbeam now?”

Leanne bristles. “There’s no need to be a bitch about it.”

“Sorry!” Al holds up her hands. “I don’t want to fall out with you, Leanne, honestly, but this place is doing my head in. I want to leave, I need to, and it’s got nothing to do with Simone.”

“Give it a couple of days,” Daisy says. “There’s going to be a big party once Gabe and Ruth get back from Pokhara. There’ll be vodka, lots of it! Brought up here on a donkey – a donkey, for goodness’ sake! Although how they can call themselves a business and run out of food and drink when they’ve got guests staying, I don’t know.”

Al shakes her head. “Sorry, mate, not interested. I’d rather be back down at the hotel in Pokhara with my feet in the pool.”

“But we wouldn’t be there.”

“I’ll cope. It won’t be long until you lot join me.” Al grinds her cigarette butt into the ground with the heel of her flip-flop. “I’d better go and get packed if I want to leave tonight.”

“Tonight?”