Dora surveyed him critically. She had rather liked the shambolic professor look, but the twinkle was still there, thank goodness. ‘You look like a superior Italian lounge lizard,’ she announced.

‘I take that as rather a compliment for a Cambridge professor of classical antiquity.’

‘Emeritus professor,’ she reminded him, laughing.

‘Ouch,’ he replied with an engaging grin. ‘Emeritus professor. Shall we sit down?’

She was about to sit next to him, when he shook his head. ‘Sit opposite,’ he suggested as they sat down at a pretty table under a huge mulberry tree with a glorious view of the beach. ‘Then I can admire the view.’

‘But the sea’s in the other direction,’ she pointed out.

‘Precisely,’ he replied with his twinkly smile.

‘Thank you, kind sir.’ Dora pretended to bat her eyelashes, thinking of a silly magazine article she’d read that said you sit next to a friend and opposite a lover. How ridiculous.

The chaotic charm of the place ran to home-made pottery plates, water jugs and beakers instead of wine glasses, and a menu written out by hand. They ordered aubergines roasted with tomatoes and the local soft cheese, followed by sheftalia, spicy meatballs flavoured with fresh coriander, for Dora and kleftiko, slow-roasted lamb shanks, for Karl.

‘Did you know kleftiko literally means “stolen meat”?’ Karl asked. ‘It used to be illegal for poor people to own animals so they stole a sheep and cooked it in a hole in the hillside with lots of fresh herbs for maybe twelve hours, so deep the smoke wouldn’t show and the smell of roasting meat wouldn’t give them away. That’s why it’s so delicious.’

Dora surprised herself by finding she was really interested. ‘It’s fascinating to learn about a culture through things like that. Ariadne – she’s the girl who found the hand of the statue – knows how every herb can be used for healing, because that was what they used before they had doctors and drugs. Did you know, if you scratch yourself you can use lavender? And that rose petals can reduce swelling?’

‘Aren’t we the folklore experts?’ he laughed. ‘By the way, I was talking to a colleague in Athens. These stolen statues are much bigger business than I thought. It’s got so common here that they even had an advertising campaign to tell people why dealing in antiquities is stealing, and terrible for Greece as a country.’

The waiter was just arriving with their food. ‘Tell you what –’ unconsciously Dora’s voice had dropped to a whisper – ‘tomorrow I’ll take you to the caves. I haven’t given up on the missing Venus yet, I promise you.’

‘Good,’ he grinned back. ‘That’s why I came, after all.’

The meal was delicious. Dora abandoned all thoughts of calories and ordered a baklava for pudding, followed by two thick Greek coffees accompanied by fragrant slices of lemony Turkish Delight dipped in icing sugar.