The exchange of package, money and receipt took place without further conversation. The bell tinkled prettily as she left.

Åndalsnes was very green, thought Anna as she moved through the small, unremarkable town centre. Soon enough, she found herself at the bottom of a steep path that wound up, up, up. From where she was standing, it seemed to reach to the clouds. The pathway didn’t seem particularly well-kept; tree roots blasted out of what seemed like hastily made concrete steps. But she had a while, and suddenly she found she wanted to be up there, looking down at the little people milling around, unaware of her watching them from above.

She slung her bag over her shoulder and started to climb.

After twenty minutes, she put a hand to her chest, felt her breath coming thin and uneven. The stone steps swam hazily in her view. She felt her head fall forward, recognised the feeling at once.

From her bag she pulled out a breakfast roll. She hadn’t covered or wrapped it; the bread was hard and flaky. She broke off a tiny corner and shoved it in her mouth, chewing slowly as she resumed her journey.

As she went higher, she thought about Tommy, and their chat over breakfast. He was out here somewhere, with his wife. He planned to catch some game at a sports bar he had googled.

‘What are Paula’s plans?’ she had asked.

He’d shrugged as he scraped the last of the egg from his plate. ‘Shopping, I suppose,’ he replied, his mouth full.

Oh, they were such a clichéd couple, she thought now, a small smile breaking through the grimace on her face at the toughness of the hill. She didn’t much care; she wouldn’t try to change Tommy when he was hers at the end of this holiday. She would keep him around for a while, see if there was anything that needed doing to the house, make sure he took out some decent life insurance, ensure his will was changed to name her. They might not have enough time to get married, but as long as all the paperwork was in order, that was all that mattered.

Her thoughts turned to Mark, back in her cabin. Mentally she ticked off the steps she had taken that morning. She had wrapped him in the plastic and moved him close to the patio door, behind the two-seater sofa. The ‘do not disturb’ sign was on, and a chair had been pulled as close to the door as possible, in case Housekeeping ignored the sign and tried to get into the room.

She nodded to herself; all was good back on the ship. There was no need to rush.