Finally, she reached the last set of steps, and staggered up them to find herself on a platform. Her breath caught in her throat as she turned to survey the view. Ahead of her was the Romsdalshornet mountain, breathtaking in its vastness. Rivers ran around it, sparkling emerald green in the sudden sunshine, the banks lush and covered with wild flowers. Beneath her was the port of Åndalsnes. She stared at the tiny figures moving around the town that she had climbed from.

‘Excuse me!’

She jumped, yanked from her solitude and appreciation by a loud, American-accented voice directly behind her.

She turned, scowling, as she came face to face with a couple she hadn’t even known were there. She looked them up and down, saw a middle-aged man and woman, red-faced and breathing heavily, the climb evidently harder for their heavier frames than it had been for her own starved body.

‘Yes?’ she asked.

The man held out a camera. ‘We wondered if you would mind taking our photo?’ he asked, as he and his wife gave her matching Hollywood smiles.

She nodded and took the camera carefully, studying it as they made their way to the edge of the platform, fussing with each other, checking over their shoulders to ensure the mountain was in the centre of their intended shot.

The camera was a Hasselblad; one of the most expensive pieces of equipment out there, Anna knew. She weighed it in her hands and wrapped her fingers around it. Glancing up, she imagined the finished photo, suddenly sad that she would never see the quality of it. She took a few shots, then moved in for a close-up. The couple changed position, and she lowered the camera to wait for them.

How easy it would be to march up to them and swipe them off the platform with a simple back-handed blow. A smile twitched on her face as she looked over the edge at the rocky face that led to the river below. The camera sat heavy in her hands and she gripped it a little tighter. How wonderful it would be to leave this beautiful spot with a camera like this, a piece of equipment that even with William’s money she couldn’t afford.

She tapped her finger thoughtfully on the lens and considered any potential problems. This couple could be sailing on the Ruby Spirit, and she wasn’t sure whether they did some sort of head count when the passengers returned from their day trips. She thought of Mark, back in the Arctic Suite. She couldn’t send him out to sea until the Ruby Spirit was in the open ocean, and she wanted him gone as soon as possible. A delay wouldn’t do.

Reluctantly, she handed the camera back.

‘Thank you,’ gushed the woman. ‘Would you like us to take a picture of you?’

Anna turned away from them. ‘No,’ she said.