When she awoke, it was almost nine o’clock and the sun was streaming through the doors. Another couple of days and they would be in Iceland. She remembered how she had locked Paula in last night. When she had slipped into the Expedition Suite, Paula had been dead to the world in her drugged sleep. She would be feeling terrible this morning; groggy, almost like a hangover. Which meant she had probably declined breakfast.

Which meant Tommy would be in the restaurant by himself. Or if not alone, with his pals.

She slid out from between the sheets and dressed hurriedly, pulling on skinny jeans and a thick knitted jumper. The jeans gaped at the waistband and she smiled.

It was going to be a good day.

Anna swept out of the elevator and into the restaurant, wrinkling her nose at the smell of the hot buffet. As if in reaction, her stomach growled noisily, and she frowned, holding her breath as she walked past. She poured herself half a cup of black coffee and took a single slice of melon before looking around the busy room.

There was Tommy in his normal spot, a full English in front of him, along with a newspaper. He was shovelling bacon into his mouth while turning the pages of the paper.

She hesitated, thinking that maybe she should wait until he’d finished eating like he was in some sort of competition. But she steeled herself and walked over to his table. Putting her coffee and melon slice down, she smiled at him.

‘Good morning,’ she said. ‘Is this seat taken?’

His mouth was full and he chewed frantically, though her question hadn’t been a request for permission. She started to pull the chair out.

‘It is taken, I’m afraid.’

The voice came from behind her, and spinning around, she came face to face with Paula.

‘Oh, er, hello, good morning,’ Anna said, stumbling over her words. ‘How are you?’

She’d got it wrong. She cursed herself, hearing the concern in her own voice, feeling the frown that knitted her brow. As though she already knew that Paula had had a shitty night locked in her suite. She waited, hoping neither of them had picked up on her tone.

‘Good, thanks, looks like it’s going to be a lovely day.’ Paula nudged her way in front of Anna and pulled out the chair. ‘Excuse me.’

It was awful, uncomfortable, and Anna froze, her mind unable to catch up with the faux pas. The tension dragged on until Tommy pushed Anna’s coffee cup and plate to the left of him. ‘This seat’s free,’ he said, over-cheerful, compensating for his wife’s frostiness.

Anna pulled out the chair and sat down. She picked up her coffee cup and cradled it in her hands.

‘Anything exciting going on?’ she asked, gesturing to his newspaper.