‘He discovered the king was going to hang him for treason anyway, so he hid the Venus somewhere on the island. And no one’s been able to find it since!’

‘That does sound rather amazing,’ conceded Penny.

‘And the other amazing thing,’ Moira enthused, ‘is that five thousand people lived on Kyri then. Now it’s about five hundred.’

‘Goodness.’ Penny looked anxious on behalf of all five hundred residents. ‘No wonder they’re worried about all the young people leaving. Do you think there’s anything we could do to help?’

‘Like what?’ Moira asked sceptically.

‘Well, there’s hardly anywhere to stay apart from the hotel. I wondered about those fishermen’s cottages we saw on the boat. Just imagine if we could do up the empty boat garages. We could paint the huge doors all different colours and do up the rooms with the balconies above. I bet they’d be snapped up on Airbnb!’

Nell looked at her, impressed. ‘Maybe my daughter Willow could help. She’s the queen of Instagram. She uses it all the time.’

Moira was too busy thinking about her pirates, but Penny noticed the wistful tone in Nell’s voice when she mentioned Willow, and wondered what the story was about her daughter. She didn’t talk much about Willow.

‘Why don’t you talk to Takis?’ Nell suggested. ‘He seems to know everything and everyone. The only thing is, you wouldn’t want this island to get like Zanthos, full of fat nudists drinking beer, would you?’

As they said goodbye to Moira, Penny was conscious of a sense of relief that the doctor wanted Moira to stay in bed. That meant they needed to stay on the island too.

Back at the hotel, she approached Takis straight away about the feasibility of doing up the boathouses.

‘Some of them will agree, but others will ask how much it will cost them when maybe no one will come. Shall I fix for us to meet them and maybe have a look round?’ Takis enquired.

‘That would be brilliant. Would tomorrow be possible, do you think?’ Penny asked, conscious of time passing. It was probably mad to get involved, but maybe they could just start the thing off.

Takis replied with one of his rubbery Mr Bean smiles. ‘I’ll see what I can do.’

Nell and Penny sat down at their usual table on the harbourside. ‘I wonder where Dora’s got to. She said something about going to the beach bar. Maybe she’s stayed and had a swim and sunbathe.’

‘Hello girls!’ They turned to find Dora emerging from the hotel in another of her unsuitable outfits, a cocktail dress in red velvet which would have been ideal at a film premiere but seemed a tad overdressed on the quay in Kyri. She sat down and ordered a strange-looking liqueur called Mastiha.