‘We can see Santorini now, if you want a look,’ Nikos called down.

‘I’ll stay here with Naomi,’ Willow said angrily. ‘Why don’t you all go up? Some fresh air might do you good.’

On deck, they all stood watching the picture-postcard beauty of the famous island with its blue-domed churches, pretty jumble of painted houses, white windmills and bright splashes of pink and purple bougainvillaea.

Penny was surprised to find they had to negotiate their way past a giant cruise ship, with another queuing behind it.

‘Aren’t they vast?’ She stared up at five storeys of windows and balconies. The ship resembled a floating hotel more than any vessel she’d seen before.

‘Tourism is a strange thing,’ Nikos shrugged. ‘Santorini is capping cruise visitors at eight thousand a day. They have more than two million tourists a year! All crowding the tiny streets, standing on each other’s shoulders to see the sunset, which is admittedly a dramatic one. And we don’t even have eight hundred a week.’ He looked back to the cabin. ‘How is the baby? There will be taxis on the quay which will take you straight to the hospital. I will moor the boat and join you.’

He found a mooring, jumped neatly off onto the wooden jetty and tied up the boat, then held out his hand to help them all off. Willow went first with the baby, then Nell, Marigold and last of all, Penny.

What should she tell him?

There was no time anyway, as they ran from the quay and found a taxi.

The hospital was amazing. They had expected an unassuming little clinic. Instead it was an architectural gem with a modern façade of white-painted pillars that echoed ancient Greek buildings. They rushed into the more humble emergency wing and were seen more quickly than if they had been at home, which amazed them given the state of the Greek economy.

‘The treatment is to put the infant in a tent of humidified and heated oxygen,’ the doctor informed them gently. ‘At her age it is the best treatment. The steam passes through the bronchial tubes and clears them out.’

‘How long will it take?’ Willow asked anxiously.

‘Perhaps a week, but two of you can stay with here if you wish.’ He indicated a pull-out bed under the examining table. ‘We are used to having fathers and mothers.’

Willow reached out a hand to Nell. ‘Will you stay with me, Mum?’

Nell felt her heart lurch. Willow actually needed and wanted her. She put her arms round her daughter. ‘Of course I will.’

‘I really don’t know why they wouldn’t let me in,’ Marigold complained to Penny and Moira in the white and pristine waiting area. ‘I am the child’s grandmother as well as Nell.’