Ed sat in the front passenger seat, studying a big road map, while Lewis adjusted his seat and checked all the controls. The route was simple – follow the road west until they joined the M4 and then just keep going until the milometer had added twenty miles.

‘All set?’ he asked Lewis without looking up.

‘Hold up, boss,’ said Kyle from the back and Ed saw Brooke coming down the long ramp from the museum entrance. She’d changed out of the weird old-fashioned dress she’d been wearing since Ed had arrived, and was wearing jeans and trainers with some kind of rugged, zip-up jacket. She had a small pack slung over one shoulder and was carrying a sword in a scabbard in her free hand. She still had a bandage across her forehead, probably as much to hide her scar as to protect it. And she had a knitted cap jammed over it, half covering the white of the bandage. She looked almost boyish. About as different to the girl he’d first met last year as you could get. Back then she’d been a fashion victim, overdressed, over-made-up, mouthy and cruel. In a funny way Ed almost missed the old Brooke. At least he’d known where he was with her.

‘You going somewhere?’ he asked when she got to the car and leant in his window.

‘I’m coming with you,’ she replied.

‘You’re what?’

‘You heard me.’ Brooke had a very determined look about her. She wasn’t going to be told no. ‘I owe you, Ed. If it wasn’t for me DogNut wouldn’t of got himself killed.’

‘You don’t owe me. You don’t have to come.’

‘You scared I can’t look after myself?’

‘I didn’t want to say it, but …’

Brooke stepped back, yanked the sword from its scabbard and swiped it through the air.

‘Since we were attacked by Green Park I’ve been practising,’ she said. ‘Jackson’s been showing me how to fight. Lewis even gave a few tips.’

Ed looked to Lewis who shrugged.

‘She all right,’ he said. ‘She won’t hold us back none.’

‘Besides,’ said Brooke, putting the sword away and giving the lads in the back of the car a once-over, ‘I think you could do with having a girl along. This is in danger of looking like a gay day trip. I mean, I don’t want to spoil your bromance at all, but really …’

‘I’m not gay,’ said Ebenezer seriously. He looked put out.

‘I was joking,’ said Brooke and she laughed, which only made Ebenezer more angry.

‘That is not funny,’ he said. ‘Not something to joke about.’

‘Ooh, hit a nerve there,’ said Brooke.

‘It’s all right, Ebenezer.’ Ed shot Brooke a dirty look. This was more like how she used to be, stirring it up.

‘We can fit you in,’ he said and Brooke leant in again.