I’m slick with sweat. It soaks the back of my T-shirt, runs between my breasts, drips suncream into my eyes. Luckily, only the cows are witnessing my sorry state. Léa is far ahead, more or less skipping up the slope, Michel and Luca not long behind her.

I place one foot in front of the other, trying to keep as regular a rhythm as my straining lungs will allow. Big brown eyes look up as I pick my way over loose stones and dried cowpats. I hear the swish of their tails and the discordant, irregular chime of the bells around their necks, smell the rich pong of the countryside. The grass is speckled with wildflowers whose names I don’t know, and I think of Maggie and her garden. She’d know. I pull out my phone and crouch down to take a picture of a bright pink flower to text to her, glad of the excuse for a momentary pause.

‘Ça va, Jess?’ Michel says when I finally reach the top where the three of them are sprawled on the grass near a giant metal cross. I nod, hands on hips, gulping greedy breaths until my pulse starts to slow.

‘Wow,’ I say when I can speak again. ‘It’s stunning up here.’ The lake puddles below us, shadows sliding over its vast surface. I instantly don’t care about the pain and the sweat. It’s completely worth it.

‘Yes, it’s nice here,’ Michel says, and my mouth drops open at his understatement.

‘Nice? It’s incredible. I’ve never seen anything like it.’

He laughs. ‘There are a lot of good views in Switzerland. It’s not even that high up here.’

Not that high? I look at the three of them. They’ve barely broken a sweat and I realise with dismay that what’s been a Herculean task for me is simply a stroll in the park for them. ‘Well,’ I say, ‘this isn’t half bad for my first-ever hike.’

He looks at me, eyebrows raised. ‘You have never hiked before?’

I feel my cheeks burn, but then it doesn’t matter, they’re red anyway. ‘Er, no, not really. Not for a long time anyway.’ I look down at the top-of-the-range leather hiking boots I bought especially for the trip, a little present to myself after my last payday at St Mary’s. Maggie came with me to choose them and clapped her hands when she saw me. You’re all set now. Ready for Switzerland. I’d sighed at myself in the shop mirror. All the gear, no idea.