“He’s dead, Maggie.” A fat tear slid down her face. “Your mayor – she told those men to kill him. And then she took me back to her house.”

She thought he was dead. Ever since Saturday – she’d thought her dad was dead.

“No. No! He’s not dead, Una. He’s alive. I’ve seen him.”

She stared at me.

“I saw him – while you were at the mayor’s house. He told me about your brother. About Felix. He told me about everything. He’s alive, Una. He was mending his glasses and taking the antibiotics and fixing the Cleercan.” I squeezed her hands harder. “He’s alive. Really he is.”

Her mouth moved, but no words came out.

“Alive, is he?” A voice behind me. “Parkers made a hash of it, I suppose.”

Mayor Anderson.

“Keep away from her.” I stood strong, in between Una and the mayor.

“KEEP AWAY!” I said it again, shouted it, loud as you like.

Everyone turned. Dad, Doctor Sunita, Mr Wetheral. Teachers, dairy workers, eldests, youngests, middlers. Everyone who’d come to help or to gawp. They all turned towards us.

Mayor Anderson looked down at the ground. Shook her head. “We’ve seen a terrible thing happen in Fennis Wick this morning. Disaster has been avoided only by the quick actions of our very own Han Wetheral. And I have to confess—” she held up her hands— “this near disaster is partly my own fault.”

Her own fault? Was she going to tell the truth?

“It’s my fault because I brought a wanderer – a dirty, dangerous, deceitful wanderer – into our town.” She looked at Una.

The crowd whispered. Is she the wanderer? Is that her?

“And Maggie Cruise – a confused middler – set the wanderer free in the early hours of this morning, and very nearly paid a terrible price for doing so. I apologise to you all, and I promise that I will remove this wanderer girl—”

“Her name’s Una,” I said.

“I will remove this wanderer girl and arsonist,” continued the mayor, “from our town immediately.”

The crowd bulged forwards. Arsonist. Wanderer. Murderer.

I stepped in front of Una. “No one’s taking her anywhere.” I said it loud and clear. “It’s not true – Una didn’t set our house on fire – Mayor Anderson did. Una just helped me save Trig – you all saw it.”

“That’s absurd.” The mayor tapped her fingers on her leg. One, two, three, four, five. One, two, three, four, five. “Look, it’s been a long night. It’s time everyone went home. I’ve got the jeep waiting in the square to take the wanderer to camp and I’m sure none of you want to hold me up.”

“She’s lying,” I said. “About everything. Una’s not dangerous, and camp doesn’t exist anymore. The Quiet War finished years ago.”

“That’s ridiculous.” The spidery veins on Mayor Anderson’s face grew redder.