From the sound of his voice, she feared he would go back to sleep. She leapt out of bed and turned the big light on.

Harry’s face scrunched. ‘Evil woman.’

She laughed, pure joy exploding inside her chest as she slung her camera around her neck. Five minutes later, they bustled out of the door and headed for the beach across the road. Harry handed her a torch. ‘It’s infrared. No need to worry about it disorientating the turtles. They won’t see it.’

She smiled at him, resisting the urge to say, I know.

‘I don’t want to walk along the sand in case we step on other nests. Let’s walk along the water’s edge,’ she suggested. They slipped their shoes off, left them on the pavement, then strolled, side by side in the shallows until they came to the right spot. ‘It’s here, Harry,’ she whispered.

They stopped and shone their red torchlight onto the sand. ‘I don’t see any movement, perhaps it’s still too warm.’

‘Ah, you know everything about them, yes?’ Harry said.

‘I know they’ll only emerge when the sand’s cool enough down there. The heat was still coming up from the tarmac when I got off the ferry, so it must have been a very hot day. Let’s go further along, perhaps there are others.’

He nodded, his hand taking hold of hers.

Apart from an irregular row of tamarisk trees and a couple of varnished council benches, the beach was empty and the port completely quiet. Only the sound of wavelets lapping the shoreline interrupted the silence. Their eyes had adjusted to the dark. She looked up towards the horizon, but avoided staring at the lighthouse that pulsed, two flashes every six seconds. She didn’t want to lose her night-vision. They saw no other sign of an emerging clutch and turned back. Then he stopped, pulled her against him, her camera hard between their chests. A cockerel, sensing the approach of dawn, crowed somewhere behind the village.

‘Excuse me,’ she whispered, moving her camera around to the side. He pulled her back into his arms and she felt his body harden against her.

‘I’m so glad you’re here,’ he whispered. ‘I feel as though I’ve been waiting for you all my life. Does that sound crazy?’

She smiled, staring into the darkness, positively fizzing with happiness. Being wanted was so uplifting, and at the same time empowering.

Movement near their feet caught her attention. ‘Harry, the ground’s boiling. Look,’ she whispered urgently, breaking away from his embrace.

They both stared as a creature, resembling a tiny piecrust with flippers, broke through the sand. Flapping fins that seemed a little oversized, it trundled and bumped towards the waterline like a clockwork toy. Seconds later, dozens of miniature turtles scrabbled up through the sand, setting their sights on the Aegean waterline.