As they walked on down the dell and away from the camp, Claire squeezed Josh’s hard-muscled arm and smiled up at him. No doubt about it, Josh was a prize to be coveted and she was proud of him. He was tall with a fine fighter’s build and a head of thick pale-brown hair that always bleached to blond in the summer. His profile was strong and his heart-stoppingly pale grey eyes gave him an almost luminous aura. All the girls looked at him, not just Shauna, but he belonged to Claire. He had been hers since they were small. While ‘grabbing’ was the norm among gypsy folk – where a boy fancied a girl and wrestled her for a kiss or even more – that had never happened with Josh. He treated Claire with absolute respect. Although she was seventeen, she was still as pure as the day she was born.

‘It’s beyond me why you bother,’ said Rowan Cleaver as Shauna moodily flounced over to where him and his brother stood.

Shauna’s eyes had followed Josh and Claire out of sight. Her face was grim as she watched the happy pair walk away, hand in hand. She turned to Rowan.

‘Why don’t you shut the fuck up?’ she said.

Rowan laughed. Rowan was always the one loitering in the background, giggling like a hyena. He was his older brother Ciaran’s lap dog and his younger brother Jeb’s whipping boy, everyone knew that. If Ciaran or Jeb said jump, Rowan asked how high.

‘He got a point, ain’t he,’ said Ciaran. ‘Josh Flynn ain’t never going to look twice at you, gal. He’s been mooning over that Claire Milo ever since he could crawl.’

‘That’s the truth,’ said Rowan, grinning.

‘So just be grateful for what you have got,’ said Ciaran, snaking an arm around Shauna’s waist and pulling her in close.

Shauna quickly pushed herself free of him. The youngest Cleaver boy, Jeb, she could just about stomach. He was good-looking, if you went for the brutish heavy-muscled sort. Ciaran wasn’t all that, though. That ugly milky-white eye gave him an evil look. A pony had kicked him in it when he was eight years old, blinding that eye in an instant. As for Rowan, he made her want to throw up. But all three Cleaver boys were useful in their way. A lot of people were scared of them, but they were always willing to do favours for Shauna. It was all a matter of knowing how to handle them – and Shauna had it down to a fine art.

‘Ah, she’s pissed off because the Flynn boy’s always off with that Claire,’ said Rowan.

‘Give it up, gal,’ said Ciaran. ‘Serious. You’re wasting your time.’