‘Open it.’ He reached out an arm, put his hand on hers. ‘I agree we should talk about this baby stuff, we should plan it. And this,’ he tapped the envelope, ‘is a perfect time and place for that conversation.’

Unable to wait any longer, mollified by the unexpected gift, she carefully opened the envelope.

Tickets.

She put them in her lap, read them carefully, then raised her face to look at him.

‘Tommy! A cruise?’

‘Yes.’ He grinned. ‘On the maiden voyage of the Ruby Spirit, setting sail from Southampton and heading for Iceland.’

Paula gasped and clutched the tickets to her chest.

‘To see the Northern Lights,’ he added.

‘Oh my God!’ she squealed.

‘And,’ he said, drawing out his words for maximum effect, ‘we leave in a week.’

‘Good day, intrepid adventurers, and welcome to the maiden voyage of the Ruby Spirit. This is your captain speaking! We will be cruising off at a rate of fifteen knots as we wave goodbye to Southampton and travel down the Solent before we ease into the North Sea, where we will sail up past Ouddorp and Åndalsnes before turning in a north-westerly direction towards Iceland.

‘I’m pleased to tell you that a veritable smorgasbord of charming astronomical sights is anticipated in November’s cold, crisp night sky. We will be praying to Poseidon for clear skies in which we will be blessed to capture such prominent constellations as Pegasus, Andromeda and Cassiopeia.

‘Something that should be seen at least once on your cruise this week is the Leonid meteor shower, which will occur from the second week of November right through to the end of the month. This celestial shower is renowned for its fast-moving meteors, which appear to hang in the sky for several seconds. The shower is due to peak on the seventeenth, when around twenty meteors per hour are expected. And as always, don’t forget that the spectacular Northern Lights can appear at any time, so keep watching!’

Chapter 4

Later, as Paula sat on the edge of the bed and applied her moisturiser, she couldn’t help but smile as she looked at the tickets, propped up on the mantelpiece in their bedroom. What a turn of events!