Two minutes later, he reappeared and raced away on his Vespa. Harry came out of the office, stood for a moment, following Elias with his eyes and grinning. ‘My son needs to grow up, I’m afraid,’ he said with a chuckle in his voice. ‘He’s had everything he’s wanted all his life, my fault. Consequently, he considers nobody but himself.’

‘Look, Harry, I really don’t want to come between father and son.’

‘Tough. I have wishes too. Come on, it’s an adventure! I’m really looking forward to it.’ He grinned, hooked my arm, and marched me onto the ferry. ‘Quick, up to the top deck so you can get some pictures of the lighthouse as we pass. Then, we almost go over the Britannic. You need to imagine how it was. Well, no you don’t because the lighthouse and little church next to it were exactly the same, just the port itself was sparse in those days, but you have the old postcards, yes?’

She nodded, looking out over the sea. ‘I’m trying to imagine the Britannic, on the bottom. The sheer size of her is mind-blowing. I mean, nine hundred feet long! I can’t get my head around it.’

‘OK, try to imagine ten of these ferry boats end to end, heading for this island while it’s bow ploughed ever deeper into the Aegean. The captain, Captain Bartlett, must have felt sure she would make it, and perhaps he would have, if the portholes hadn’t been open.’

Shelly’s thoughts snapped to her great-grandmother with an urgent wish to change the subject. ‘Tell me, how come your English father ended up here?’ she asked.

‘Ah, that’s quite a story. I’ll tell you shortly, but take a note of all the windmills on the island as we pass.’

They stared at the landscape as Kea disappeared into the distance. In the lounge, Harry ordered eggs on toast and fresh orange juice.

‘It all started just after the Second World War,’ he said. ‘My grandfather, Gerrard Dennis, was working for the British government.’

Shelly’s eyes widened. ‘He was a spy?’

Harry laughed. ‘Nothing so dramatic. Britain feared they would run out of coal, even then, and were searching for alternative energy. Kea had the largest windmill complex in the Cyclades.’

‘So your grandfather came to work on a project and fell in love with the island?’

‘He did, but it was more than that. He fell in love with my mother and married her. He became good friends with another man who was half English and helped him with the language. Then, one day when they were working on a windmill, tragedy struck.’

‘What happened?’