The confusion cleared; she saw it as the clouds vanished from his eyes. They were blue lasers now, sharp and bright, as they would have been when he was young. His instinct to fight and survive took over, and he bucked his lower body, a sudden surge of strength that nearly threw her sideways. Swearing under her breath, she clambered up and over him, pinning his scrawny bird arms down with her thighs, clamping at his airways once more, careful not to scratch his face, trying not to leave a trace of herself on him.

It didn’t take long, but to Anna it felt like hours.

Outside the front of the Southampton hotel, Paula wrapped her arms around herself as protection against the cold. She watched as Tommy walked up and down, peering into the road for the taxi that would take them to the cruise ship.

As she waited patiently, thoughts crowded her head. It was a horrible thing she’d done. A terrible, awful thing. She hadn’t slept since flushing the birth control pills away, had even thought about calling the doctor’s surgery and making up some excuse that she’d lost a pack and needed another prescription.

Awful.

Wicked.

Tommy would be furious if he found out.

Or would he? Her breath quickened. After all, he had booked this holiday in order for them to plan a baby, hadn’t he? So, all she had done was get a head start on it. Maybe he didn’t need to know what she’d done.

But still. Disappointment in herself hung heavy around her like a cloud. She had done Tommy a disservice, and he deserved better.

It was too late now; they were about to get on the cruise ship. The time to request a repeat prescription had passed.

She shook her head to dispel thoughts of her bad behaviour. As Tommy approached, she turned to him with a bright smile.

‘What actually are the Northern Lights?’ she asked.

‘They’re electronically charged particles in the atmosphere that interact with each other,’ he said. ‘Cool, huh?’ His face crumpled into a pout. ‘I really hope we see them.’

Paula frowned. ‘What do you mean? Of course we’re going to see them; it’s what this whole cruise is about!’

‘Yeah, but they’re not always there. Thousands of people do this and never see them. It depends on cloud cover. Ideally, we’ll need a clear, dark night.’ He flashed a smile at her. ‘There are lots of other things happening up there, though.’ He glanced upwards, into the white sky.

Paula followed his gaze, seeing nothing but clouds. ‘Like what?’ she asked.