I shrugged. Trying to be dead casual. “Okay. But let’s make it a little more interesting. I’ll go first. We’ll time it. And whoever is slower has to do it again.”

And for the first time I saw Patrick Kelly’s confidence waver. It was his turn to be trapped. “No problem.”

What stupid boys we were! As Catherine was quick enough to point out to me when I pulled Peter away across the playground to give him a piece of my mind.

“You’re insane,” she said. “It’s about a hundred foot fucking high, that bridge. If you fall you’re dead. Nothing surer.”

“I won’t fall.”

“Well, I hope you don’t. Cos if you do, I won’t have the chance to say I told you so.” She paused. “How are you going to get out of The Dean?”

I had never told anyone about my night-time jaunts to the village and the cemetery, and was a little reluctant now to reveal my secret. “Oh, there’s a way,” I said casually.

“Well, you’d better fucking tell me. Cos I’m coming, too.”

“And me,” Peter piped in.

I stopped and glared from one to the other. “No, you’re not. Either of you.”

“And who’s going to fucking stop us?” Catherine said.

“Aye, who’s going to fucking stop us?” Peter puffed up his chest defiantly. It was almost shocking to hear him swear like that. Catherine was a bad influence. But I knew I was beaten.

I said to Catherine, “Why would you want to come anyway?”

“Well, if you’re going to do the walk against the clock, someone’s got to keep the time.” She paused and sighed. “Besides, if you do fall, someone needs to be there to make sure Peter gets safely back to The Dean.”

I couldn’t have slept at lights out, even if I had wanted to. Three hours to go and I was feeling sick. What on earth had possessed me to get sucked into this stupid dare? Even more annoying, Peter had fallen asleep almost immediately, with an absolute confidence that I would wake him when it was time to go. I toyed with the idea of sneaking out without him, but knew that the uncertain nature of his response if waking to find me gone would only make it dangerous for both of us.

And so I lay beneath the blankets, unable for some reason to get warm, and shivered from the cold and my own fear. Of course, word had spread like wildfire amongst the kids at school and everyone at The Dean that there was a dare between the Kellys and the McBrides. No one seemed to know why, but I knew it wouldn’t be long before Peter’s tattoo became public knowledge, and then only a matter of time before the powers that be got wind of it, too.