Joe swept the beam of the torch slowly over Alex, from his feet to his head, then back down again.

‘Hi, Alex,’ he replied, without shaking hands. ‘So, you’re the alpha male. Introduce me to your friends.’

‘Marie and Carina,’ Alex said, ignoring the comment.

‘Hi, girls.’ For a second the torch dazzled Marie, but she didn’t have time to shade her eyes before Joe moved on to Carina. He allowed it to linger on her face for quite a while before turning to Bruno.

‘And you are?’

‘Bruno.’

‘Are you in charge of the food?’ Joe gestured towards the stack of foil boxes containing leftovers. ‘We’ve ridden a long way today and we’re hungry. If you want to try your luck with her, food would be a good start.’

‘What?’

Bruno was clearly trying to work out if Joe was joking, but the darkness made it impossible to read his expression.

‘And here we have the troubadour.’ The beam focused on Simon. ‘No, don’t stop playing. I mean, it’s not a proper campfire without “Blowin’ in the Wind”.’

Marie was about to tell the cocky stranger and his trashy sister to go to hell, but Tanya got there first.

‘Pack it in, Joe.’ She grabbed the torch and shone it directly in Joe’s face, just as he’d done with the others.

‘Please forgive my brother – he can be a real arsehole, but deep down he’s just a whining brat with low blood sugar.’

Joe held up his hands in an attempt to block the light, then gave up and lowered his arms, laughing. ‘Tanya’s right – I’m an idiot. A hungry idiot. Sorry if I upset anyone.’

Tanya switched off the torch and turned to Bruno, the glow of the fire illuminating her face. She was heavily made up, with thick black kohl around her eyes, and dark lipstick. The shadows created by the fire intensified the effect.

‘If you can spare any food we’d really appreciate it,’ she said, gently placing a hand on Bruno’s arm.

Bruno cleared his throat. ‘No problem.’ He moved towards the containers.

‘Hang on a minute, Bruno,’ Alex said. He turned to their guests. ‘You said something about sharing what you’ve got?’

Joe smiled, reached into his pocket and pulled out a half-full transparent bag. ‘Plenty for everyone,’ he said with a smile.

Alex slapped him on the back, then took a couple of beers out of the nearest cool bag. He handed one to Joe and one to Tanya, holding on to her can for a couple of seconds so that she had to meet his gaze. Marie glanced over at Carina, expecting her to be annoyed by the overtly flirty gesture, but to her surprise Carina looked as if she couldn’t care less.