Penny undid the tissue paper to reveal a silver snake bracelet, with glowing eyes made of blue glass, that you wrapped round your upper arm.

‘Oh God,’ Penny bit her lip. ‘I really did have one just like this! I bought it from a street vendor and couldn’t eat for a day because it took all my money. Thanks, Dora.’

‘Now you can feel young and daring again. Sorry for being a party pooper.’

‘Maybe not young.’ Penny slipped the bracelet onto her arm. ‘But certainly daring.’ Something about the snake armband already made her feel a little more fearless. And if she and Nell went island-hopping, she wouldn’t have to let Colin know it had all gone wrong.

‘Tell you what,’ Dora suggested. ‘Why don’t we all go out for a last blowout dinner together?’

Three

Penny touched the talisman of her new bracelet for courage as they climbed on board the ferry next morning. She hadn’t even called Colin to tell him of their change of plan, and he certainly hadn’t got in touch with her. ‘I think I’ll stay on deck,’ she said to Nell. ‘Which island do you think we should go to?’

‘Moira thinks definitely Ios,’ Nell grinned. ‘She slept through it on the way out so she’s going to make a dash to Homer’s tomb when we stop. She says we can go with her. Lucky us.’

‘OK, Ios it is!’ Penny agreed. ‘But didn’t Dora say it was the party island?’ she added dubiously. She didn’t want to find herself on another Zanthos.

Nell waved her guidebook. ‘This says Ios is the prettiest island in the Cyclades. Has anyone seen Moira, by the way? Lost in her guidebooks as usual?’

Penny looked round the deck. Moira was usually at the front of the boat, eager to point things out to them. ‘Oh, I know,’ she suddenly remembered. ‘She said she was going for a little lie down in Dora’s cabin.’

‘That’s not like Moira. Too much retsina last night?’

They smiled conspiratorially, imagining that with their new plan there would be plenty more carousing to come, as they watched Zanthos gradually receding beyond the frothy white path of the ferry’s wake.

‘I hope you don’t mind too much?’ Nell asked Penny. ‘About Zanthos not working out?’

‘Not since you came up with your brilliant suggestion. Zanthos turned out to be a big disappointment. Unless I roman-ticized the place in the beginning.’

‘No you didn’t,’ Nell reassured her. ‘It was amazing back then. Friendly. Unspoilt. Genuinely Greek.’ They remembered the sight of the overweight nudists, and began to laugh. ‘I wonder if it’s what the locals wanted: to be invaded by cruise ships and Russians drinking beer for breakfast?’

‘I suppose once you invite mass tourism in, you don’t get much choice.’