‘So, she’s skinny, independent, got her own money; she doesn’t sound very desirable at all,’ replied Julie drily.

‘She barely even spoke to Tommy, she hung out with me,’ said Paula defensively. ‘Anyway, I have to go now because she’s picking me up soon. We’re going to the hair salon together.’

‘It’s your first full day on the cruise, where’s Tommy?’ asked Julie.

‘On a fishing trip with some guys he met.’ Paula closed her eyes and clutched the phone tight, suddenly unable to listen to the disapproving sound of Julie’s silence. ‘Gotta go, babe, I’ll call you again!’

She hung up just as a knock sounded on the suite door. She hurried over, opened it and greeted Anna, noting as she did the spots of colour in the woman’s high cheekbones and the thick winter coat she was wearing.

‘Have you been out on deck?’ she asked.

‘Yes, just waving the boys off on their fishing trip,’ Anna said. ‘I thought you might be there.’

Paula frowned. She hadn’t been invited to wave them off, she hadn’t even known what time they were leaving. How had Anna known?

‘I had a lie-in,’ she answered lamely. ‘Did Tommy tell you what time they were going?’ And if so, when? she wondered. They’d not spoken much last night, and she was sure he hadn’t mentioned the details of the fishing trip.

‘No, I was just taking a walk up there before our appointment. We’re already at Bruges, you know. It was great docking and watching the day-trippers speed away on the boats. We’re docking again later in Ouddorp and picking them up there.’

Suddenly it seemed to Paula that Anna knew an awful lot more about her husband’s trip than she did. She hadn’t even realised the cruise ship would dock to let them off and collect them again later at a different place.

She thought of Julie’s words of warning and felt something dislodge inside her. Why hadn’t Tommy asked her if she’d see him off this morning? She smiled brightly at Anna, pushing her paranoia deep down inside. After all, if Anna was trying her luck with Tommy, she could have easily gone on the fishing expedition herself. ‘I’ll be sure to meet them when they get back,’ she said as she glanced at her watch. ‘But first, let’s go to the salon and get my hair sorted out!’

Chapter 9

Before

My mother was both a prostitute and a drug addict.

Or so I was informed on my first day at secondary school.

At eleven years old I knew the basics of sex, but to me it was what people in their twenties did, not women like my mother. And drugs?