Paula smiled, but to Anna it seemed forced. ‘Ignore me, I think it’s the after-effects of this afternoon’s horrific disaster.’

Anna sat back. She could feel the anger creaking through her very marrow, and she breathed deeply to contain herself. Being locked in a spa for an hour was not a horrific disaster. Being forced to lie with an old man so he continued to pay your salary was awful. Homelessness and sofa surfing was horrific. Joblessness and poverty was disastrous.

She bit her lip to stop it trembling. Inside her mouth the familiar metallic taste of blood brought her back to the present just as her salad was placed in front of her. She regarded it carefully, running her hand over her concave stomach. There were no curves now, hadn’t been since she had been a teenager. At least that was one part of her life that she could control.

‘I’m going to the salon tomorrow,’ she said conversationally, looking away as Paula cut into her steak. ‘Maybe you’d like to come along, get a deep-conditioning treatment on your hair?’

Tommy slid back into his chair, rubbing his hands together, and tucked into his steak with relish. ‘The boys are doing a bit of deep-sea fishing tomorrow; they’ve invited me to join them,’ he said with his mouth full. ‘It should be fun.’

On the other side of her, Anna felt the look that Paula aimed at her husband.

‘Really?’ she asked. ‘On our first full day?’

Anna glanced at Tommy, saw the eye roll. She nibbled at a piece of lettuce as the tension grew like a cloud of black smoke. She could practically smell the hurt coming off Paula in waves.

Eventually Paula addressed Anna. ‘I’d love to come to the salon with you tomorrow, thank you.’

Anna smiled and pushed her plate away.

She was done.

‘Good morning, this is your captain speaking. Today I would like to bring your attention to the Square of Pegasus. Pegasus can be seen in both the northern and southern hemispheres, but in the southern hemisphere it is upside down!

‘Pegasus, our winged horse, consists of four stars of almost equal brightness. This two-thousand-year-old constellation can be tricky to see with the naked eye, but a simple pair of binoculars will show you all the stars within the square.

‘According to Greek mythology, Pegasus had a hand in defeating Chimera, a fire-breathing monster, and was duly rewarded by being presented with the seventh largest place in our skies.

‘Pegasus is one hundred and ninety-six light years away from earth, which if you think about it makes you feel really rather small in our otherwise limitless galaxy…’

Chapter 8