I cocked my head. ‘Do you think that you’ll catch a disease by touching me?’ I asked. ‘Or are you afraid that I’ll take offence that you touched me and murder you tonight in your sleep?’

His younger Clan companion joined him, expression blazing. ‘Adair,’ he snarled. ‘You think you’re important now. Once the Foinse is dealt with, you will crawl back to the dirty hole you came from. You’re no one.’

Aifric threw an arm round his shoulders. ‘Relax, Malcolm. We are all friends here.’

Malcolm Kincaid didn’t look happy but he didn’t throw off Aifric’s arm either. He subsided in a series of grumbles before eventually going to the other side of the fire –as far away from me as possible.

Aware of Byron watching me, I picked up a hunk of crusty bread then said to no-one in particular, ‘A man asked his friend, “Want to hear a joke about butter?” His friend was like, “Sure.” The man thought about it then changed his mind. “Nah, I butter not tell you. You might spread it.”’

They all stared at me. ‘Not my best, I admit,’ I said, then ignored them all and ate my dinner.

*

The next day, as we started to ride again, my muscles screamed with pain. I couldn’t stop thinking about Darth Vader. He was evil. In fact, he was arguably one of the best science fiction villains ever created. When Taylor introduced me to Star Wars not long after I joined him, I was utterly terrified. But I was convinced that, while I might tread on the wrong side of the law and I was far from perfect, I wasn’t evil. And, in the end, as well as the beginning (although I refused to dwell too much on those films), Darth Vader wasn’t bad. He was also Luke Skywalker’s father.

Darth Vader and my dad were not all that different. It’d be nice to think that my father didn’t go in for the whole heavy breathing thing, though – that was just creepy.

‘I’m Luke,’ I said decisively to Lily, who was dreamily gazing up at the sky. ‘I don’t have a light saber – and I wouldn’t want to use it even if I did have one –but I think I’m Luke.’

Barbie whinnied in agreement.

‘Lookee, lookee,’ Lily hummed.

‘Of course,’ I grumbled, ‘people generally liked Luke. No-one bullied him. He was a hero.’

‘Gale Adair was a hero,’ Lily said.

I froze. ‘Was he?’ I asked carefully. ‘Can you explain why?’

She gazed at me, her expression reflecting a clarity I’d not seen since we set off yesterday. ‘He saved people,’ she said. ‘They say he didn’t but he did. He was a good man.’