‘The goats are all penned up. Nobody has seen her at all this morning.’

They finished breakfast and headed up the track towards the olive grove. It was another beautiful morning, early enough that the sparse numbers of tourists had not yet arrived on the ferry. The sun was beating down from a cloudless blue sky and the sea glinted invitingly through the olive grove.

‘Have you taken the supplies for the feast over already?’ Penny asked.

‘Yes. Wonderful Nell asked Nikos to give her a lift. We couldn’t fit it all on our bicycles.’

From the crest of the hill, they started to walk down towards the beach below.

‘It is an amazing spot,’ commented Dora. ‘How many olive trees do you think there are?’

Karl looked round. ‘Fifty or sixty. Old ones, too, from the look of the trunks. They’ve probably stood here for hundreds of years.’ He looked up into the silvery leaves, where the olives were already beginning to ripen. ‘It will be a tragedy if any of this goes.’

Suddenly Dora grabbed his arm and stopped him.

‘What is it?’

‘The scent! Just breathe it in!’

Karl took a deep breath. ‘What is it? Quite pleasant and fresh, with a faint tone of something aromatic, like eucalyptus.’

Dora stared at him. ‘It’s myrtle. It’s the scent of the goddess.’

‘OK, I’ll believe you. Where are the flowers?’ He looked around him. ‘What do they look like, anyway?’

‘They’re small and white, with fluffy stamens with yellow dots on the end. But there aren’t any anywhere near, that’s the whole point.’

‘Don’t be ridiculous, Dora.’ His voice was every inch the calm rationalist from Cambridge University.

‘OK,’ Dora challenged. ‘Explain it. You wanted to meet the goddess. If Ariadne were here she’d tell you you’ve just missed her.’

For once Karl could think of absolutely no answer.

‘I know!’ Dora became suddenly as stiff as a board. ‘I think I know where she might have gone.’ She turned and started to run back up through the olive grove. ‘We need Nikos! I hope to God he’s still down at Treasure Island. Come on, Moira!’

‘What the hell has got into Dora?’

‘I think she may have had a mystical experience.’ Karl shrugged. ‘Let’s try and keep up.’

They followed the suddenly fleet-footed Dora, still wearing her supermarket plimsolls, as she led them through the trees and down the path to the beach below.

Fifteen

‘Nikos!’ Dora shouted. ‘Wait!’

Nikos stopped pulling up the anchor and watched Dora’s approach. There was something in her voice that had alarmed him, especially coming from the cool and cynical Dora. It spoke of panic and held a disturbing edge of hysteria, as if she were only just holding herself together.

He caught sight of Penny just behind her and attempted a look of interrogation, but Penny just shrugged. She had no more idea than he did.