Anna tilted her head as she studied her. The hair…

It was Paula’s normal glossy black hair. Had she returned to the salon? But no, there was no way they would have been able to repair the bleach damage in such a short space of time.

Tommy, previously attentive to Anna, saw his wife approaching, and Anna watched, increasingly disconcerted, as he smiled, wide and happy. He raised his hand, bellowed out for Paula to come over. When she arrived, he stood up and kissed her cheek.

‘You look great,’ he said. ‘Where’ve you been? Anna said there was a problem at the salon.’

Anna reached out a hand and touched Paula’s fingers, mustering up the enthusiasm to sound friendly. ‘It looks great,’ she said. ‘Did they sort you out?’

Paula fixed a smile on her face. ‘I’m going back at some point, but it’s okay for now,’ she replied. She turned to Tommy, her back to Anna now. ‘How come you’re here? What happened to your trip?’

With his arm around his wife’s shoulders, he pulled her down to sit next to him. As he repeated his story of the wild seas and torrential wind and rain, Anna sat back in her own chair. It was all very civilised, and she was still at their table, but somehow it was as though she had lost. Husband and wife talked quietly together, their heads close, looking just like he and Anna had done all afternoon.

Resigned, she came to the conclusion that it was over for today.

But just for one day.

Tomorrow she would start again.

She murmured some excuse to the remaining few men who had been on Tommy’s day trip with him and stood up, walking briskly away from the table towards the elevator. As she waited for it to arrive, she watched the couple carefully.

Maybe it was time to step things up a bit.

As Anna made her way up and out onto the top deck, she thought about Tommy Ellis. He was easy on the eye, fit and strong, and as long as he was talking about something that interested him, he was a good conversationalist. But all of those plus points were irrelevant. He was a man with a home and very good financial security. He had no children who would lay claim to his inheritance; he had no siblings, no dependants. Soon he would be a widower.

It was such a simple idea. It wasn’t that much different from what she had planned with William, though that had ended sooner than she had banked on. Because of his son. If Jason hadn’t suddenly appeared, Anna would have spent a good few more years squirrelling away William’s money, siphoning transactions here and there. Laying a base plan for her own survival so that she never had to go back to the way her life had once been.