They stared down from their windows until they found the source of the drumming. It was Takis, and he was banging squid against the harbour wall.

‘What are you doing?’ Penny called out, horrified.

‘This is how we tenderize them,’ he shouted back. He took in Penny’s alarmed expression. ‘Don’t worry, Penelope, I know you care for living creatures but they are all dead!’

Penny couldn’t help laughing at the reputation she seemed to have acquired so quickly.

‘Sorry,’ Nell apologized, ‘that’s probably my fault. I couldn’t resist telling him the old story of you hitting the donkey man in Zanthos with your handbag.’

‘That donkey was skin and bone. It could hardly stand up!’ Penny replied, sounding as angry now as she had then.

They smiled at each other and stood for a moment looking out at the village below. Beyond the row of cafes and restaurants was the small beach, fringed by tamarisk trees, where the sea sparkled in the morning sunshine and the white sand made you want to run across it barefoot.

‘It’s probably raining in England,’ Nell commented smugly.

‘Why don’t we go for an early morning swim?’

Five minutes later they hurried past a group of old men in caps and berets who cheered at the sight of the two English ladies stripping off to their swimsuits and running, laughing, into the waves.

‘Daxi! Daxi!’ they congratulated, as Nell and Penny splashed each other out of sheer physical delight at being in a warm Greek sea with the sun beating down and the air already hot at nine in the morning.

‘I could get used to this,’ Nell sighed, feeling the water envelop her in its comforting embrace.

‘Bliss!’ pronounced Penny.

‘Bliss!’ agreed Nell.

‘Breakfast ready!’ shouted Takis, who had come to watch them with the old men.

‘Have we died and gone to a heaven where the men make the breakfast?’ Nell demanded, laughing.

Colin flashed into Penny’s mind, but for once she refused to let him take over her thoughts. He couldn’t be allowed to spoil everything.

‘I hate to disillusion you,’ she called to Nell as she reached for her towel, ‘but I think Cassandra’s the one who’s been up since six making yogurt.’

‘Well then,’ Nell shook out her wet hair, ‘we’d better not disappoint her and go and eat it!’

Moira was feeling distinctly better. She didn’t know whether it was the antibiotics, the enforced rest or the amazing care from the doctor and his wife, but whatever it was, she was almost herself again. And with that came a feeling of restlessness.

‘Eleni, do you think we could at least go for a little stroll? Just ten minutes? I will go mad otherwise!’

Eleni smiled indulgently. ‘I will ask my husband.’

She disappeared off downstairs to the surgery, and returned ten minutes later nodding his assent.