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The wind suddenly changed, and the Captain’s ashes blew back and covered Kath’s damp coat. She grinned as they set like cement. ‘It looks like you’ll coming with me, dear captain,’ Kath giggled. ‘We’ll both carry on cruising.’

When it was Selwyn’s turn, he added the last of the contents from his Typhoo Tea tin and said his final goodbye to Flo. Perhaps she was already enjoying paradise together with the Captain. In death, she’d experienced what she’d never known in life as Selwyn distributed her ashes around the Caribbean. He hoped that she’d enjoyed her post-death experiences and that wherever her spirit had come to rest, she was happy.

Selwyn himself could not have been happier.

He’d left the ship with Jane on the morning of New Year’s Day and never looked back. They’d heard Peter shouting as they’d walked away, his voice full of concern as he told them they had to be accounted for and would miss their flight. But a missed flight was immaterial as they’d climbed into a taxi to head for an expensive west coast hotel and begin plans for their marriage, on a beach in Barbados.

Jane held the Captain’s ashes in her hand and felt the soft gritty substance as she stood on the sea’s edge, her classy new boots touching the icy water. She smiled as her diamond-studded wedding ring glinted in the morning sunshine. As she flung the Captain’s ashes, Jane wanted to pinch herself, for she still wondered if her new life was a dream.

A dream she could never have imagined at the start of the cruise.

Now married and madly in love, Jane was about to begin a career as a TV chef on a morning show. Her afternoons with Jaden had paid off. Unbeknown to Jane, an executive from Optimax TV had watched her on the ship and invited her for a screen test in London. They had adored her easy-going natural style, and the executive assured Jane that she would be a massive hit. He said thatJazz It Up With Janewould capture the nation’s heart and viewers would love her.

Jane thought of the young team from the production company who’d outed her many months ago and smiled.

But her biggest surprise had been Selwyn.

She’d worried about moving in with him in Lambeth. What would his daughters think of their father replacing their mother in the marital home, so soon after her demise?

Selwyn had merely smiled and, sitting Jane down on the soft sand of a Caribbean beach at sunset, he took her hand and told her he had a secret.

During their marriage, Selwyn said, while Flo gave money to the church each month, he’d also put a little to one side. In time he’d accumulated enough for a deposit on a terraced house in Notting Hill. The modest rent he charged underprivileged folk who needed a roof over their heads while they established themselves easily covered the mortgage. Soon, with property value increasing, Selwyn bought another terraced house on the same road. As Jane listened, he explained that property at the end of the 70s and in the early 80s was affordable.

‘My goodness, the houses must be worth a fortune now.’ Jane was astonished.

‘Both houses, recently sold, had an eye-watering value, as have the other six I have in the portfolio.’

‘S-so what are you saying?’ Jane was staggered.

‘Flo never wanted riches, so I never gave them to her,’ he said. ‘She was content with what she had. I’ve waited to find the right person. My family will benefit and of course, the church, but you and I can find our own place where we will start our new life together.’

And that is how Jane found herself viewing apartments overlooking the River Thames with the man of her dreams and planning their future together. She thought back to the meeting in the pub all those months ago when Anne had told her about Sylvia Adams-Anstruther’s husband hunting at sea. ‘Who would have thought it? Jane said as she felt Selwyn’s warm hand snake around her body.

Far into the distance, a weak British sun began to peek between the line of grey sea and a cloudy sky as a cruise liner moved slowly on the horizon. Jane wondered where the ship was heading and what adventures the passengers would experience on their journey.

‘To the cruise,’ Jane whispered

‘The cruise,’ her husband replied.