Penny, the first to emerge for the evening, was wondering if she should leave them to it, when Stelios noticed her and produced one of his trademark roars of delight. ‘Penelope! Faithful wife to Odysseus, ignore us stupid men. We were just arguing over the Venus. I say she should stay here in Kyri, where they can look after her, while Nikos here insists the Minister must decide. Look what happened to the Venus de Milo, my friend. She ended up in Paris, in the Louvre.’

‘That was three hundred years ago. Besides, it’s the law.’ Nikos smiled tenderly at Penny.

‘Come on, we’re Greek. We don’t believe in laws,’ declared Stelios.

‘I thought we invented democracy,’ Nikos countered.

‘The Minister will probably find out anyway,’ said Nell, who had just appeared beside Penny. ‘That paper – the Athens Times – has got all of us on the front page with the Venus tomorrow! I’ve just had a call from them.’

‘That was quick,’ Stelios marvelled.

‘The power of social media,’ Nell shrugged. ‘Newspapers get half their stories from the internet these days. Plus, of course, I sent them the picture.’

‘Did you hear that, Takis?’ Stelios shouted. ‘The lovely English ladies are going to make Kyri famous!’

Takis dropped what he was doing behind the bar and dashed over, boiling over with excitement. He began to wring Penny and Nell’s hands so hard they had to shake them afterwards. ‘But this is such good news! At last Kyri will be on the map! Forget Sifnos with its food and Santorini with its cruise ships! It will be Kyri the tourists want to visit at last. Nikos, we must build her a temple where she can be safe and happy, and not have drunken louts lean on her and pretend to kiss her on the mouth!’

‘Do they really do that?’ asked Penny.

‘Yes! I have seen them!’ insisted Takis in outraged tones.

‘Hello, Mum.’ Penny whipped round to find Wendy behind her.

‘Hello, darling, how was your spa?’

‘The spa was great. I don’t think I’ve ever had my toes and fingernails match before. But the hotel was gruesome. Everything was so white that I kept on bumping into things. You couldn’t tell where the furniture ended and the wall began. It was like staying in an overheated igloo full of pretentious people. Ugh!’

‘You missed all the drama!’ Penny stepped back to reveal the Venus a few feet in front of Wendy.

‘Oh my God! You found it!’ She hugged Penny and Nell. ‘What heroines you are! And what’s happened to the wicked Athenian?’

‘Disappeared to evade capture,’ said Nell.

‘We sent out a search party,’ Nikos explained, ‘but we suspect he’s managed to get off the island.’

‘They only have one policeman,’ Stelios added, trying to keep a straight face.

‘Willow’s already blogged about it. There’s even some journalist on the Daily Post interested!’