Apparently she wasn’t the only one eager to disembark. In the lobby near the boarding doors, people stood in clusters. There was a hum of excited chatter and the rustle of maps, while phones lit up with routes and tour websites.

‘Where are we going to go?’ Paula raised her voice to be heard above the dozens of other conversations.

Tommy showed her his own phone: a photo of a lake with people in it, steam rising off the water.

‘It’s a thermal lake, naturally heated seawater.’

‘I haven’t got my swimming costume,’ she said.

He huffed out a sigh. ‘You knew I wanted to go and see the lakes,’ he said. ‘Hurry up and get it.’

‘Sorry,’ she said as she reached for the lanyard around her neck that held her key card. ‘I’ll be really quick.’

She ducked out of the crowd of people into the corridor just as the lift doors opened and another trickle of passengers came out. She drew in a sharp breath when Anna emerged.

But Anna hadn’t seen her, and Paula turned her head away. To her left was a restroom, and on a whim, she pushed open the door and slipped inside, unwilling – unable – to walk past the woman and have to make eye contact with her. It had a porthole window, and she put her face up to it. The elevator crowd swept past, Anna among them. The hallway was narrow, and their bodies pressed against the toilet door as they crammed their way through to the large waiting area.

She might have missed it, but in the silence of the restroom there came a very definitive click. She gasped in fury, knowing instantly what had happened and who had done it. The times before, in the sauna, in her suite, she had been frightened. Anger was a welcome change.

She gripped the handle and pushed, knowing the door wouldn’t budge, swearing anyway when she was proved right. She stood on tiptoes again, peering out of the porthole. Anna’s blonde head bobbed through the throng of people, marking a trajectory towards… Tommy?

‘Oh no, you don’t,’ hissed Paula. ‘Not this time.’

She kicked the door, beat her hands against the glass. Toughened glass, she realised, and the noise of excited chatter in the waiting area drowned out her cries and the sound of her fists. All eyes were fixed on the doors that led out to Iceland. Nobody was even looking in her direction.

She knew what would happen: Anna would tag on to Tommy’s group, they would leave without her, and she would miss out, stuck, imprisoned again. How had it even happened? One minute Anna had been exiting the elevator and Paula had ducked into the loo, certain that the other woman hadn’t even seen her. But she clearly had. Anna had it in for her, was ready at every single opportunity. But why?

Tommy’s fan club.