But it was too soon to confront that prospect.

Only one bedroom was left, with two narrow beds, a foot apart. Fully dressed, they fell into these and pulled the blankets up to their ears.

‘Goodnight,’ Renzo said.

‘Goodnight.’

With the lights out she might almost have thought that everything was fine, except for the cold that made her huddle up. She wondered if Renzo was cold in the other bed.

If you let your thoughts dwell on the reality you could go mad, she thought. Because reality wasn’t reality. What was happening was impossible, so it wasn’t really happening at all. It was only in her head that the snow was all around, which meant that if she thought hard she could make it go away-only it wouldn’t go away, no matter how frantically she-

‘Mandy, Mandy, wake up!’ She thought that was Renzo’s voice but she couldn’t hear him properly because someone was screaming. ‘Mandy, hush, hush!’

Then she knew it was herself screaming, but she couldn’t stop until he drew her close, burying her face in his shoulder until she fell silent.

‘OK, OK, are you awake now?’

‘Yes,’ she choked, clinging to him.

At last she stopped shivering and he released her, just a little.

‘You were having a nightmare,’ he said softly. ‘I’m not surprised, but don’t worry, it won’t be much longer.’

‘Renzo, you don’t have to tell me kind lies,’ she said quietly. ‘I can take the truth.’

‘We could still be rescued-’

‘I know. But there’s every chance that we won’t be, and that’s a fact.’

He grew very still, not answering but holding her close, and a feeling of contentment spread over her. It was incredible in the circumstances but it was as though his arms had the power to fend off disaster. She found she could even manage a mild joke.

‘You don’t have to protect me. I’m not really that delicate, you know.’