Sometimes the hardest thing is admitting you were wrong. It’s hard to say you need to be forgiven.

As a rule, I had murder in my mind. That day, I had it in my heart.

So that was where we were in our relationship.Derwent’s scale ran all the way from wouldn’t piss-on-you-if-you-were-on-fire to would-kill-for-you-no-need-to-ask-twice. I was quite glad to be somewhere near the middle.

Speculation is a dangerous thing without any evidence to back it up.

He’d have denied it to his dying breath but Derwent wasn’t as tough as he pretended to be. For the very small number of people he cared about, Derwent would give his all. It made him vulnerable, and every now and then that vulnerability showed.

Because of course, for every revelation of weakness, there had to be an equal and opposite show of strength.