Nell glanced over at Dora, who was elegantly raising a real old-fashioned cigarette to her shimmering bronze-lipsticked lips. ‘Yes,’ she replied calmly. ‘The same question had occurred to me.’

To add to Dora’s annoyance, the boat was packed with people returning home for the festival of a local and much-revered saint. The green fabric banquettes had been instantly colonized by entire families, the children sitting on their parents’ knees or running up and down screaming with joyful exuberance; the passageways were choked up with suitcases and baskets full of food being taken home for the festival. The only available seating was in the cafe area.

Nell went off to inspect the menu. ‘Well, basically, girls,’ she reported cheerily, ‘it’s moussaka and chips or moussaka and chips.’

Above their heads an enormous TV screen relayed a football match at maximum volume. ‘Time to resort to the grape,’ Dora announced, plonking down a bottle of retsina and four glasses. ‘Let’s see if it tastes as bad as we remember.’

Moira rather primly put her hand over her glass. ‘I don’t really drink.’

The others looked at her in amazement.

‘Euch!’ winced Dora. ‘It really does taste like Dettol!’ But she drank it all the same.

After they’d finished, Dora went off to explore whether there was any chance of a cabin, announcing that it was the only way she could survive the night.

‘There must be some reason she’s come,’ Moira insisted. ‘I mean, slumming it with the likes of us is hardly her scene.’

‘Of course she came!’ Penny replied, shocked. ‘It’s a reunion. I’m sure she wouldn’t have missed it for the world.’

Outside the cafe window, the sky was turning apricot with streaks of magenta. ‘Come on.’ Moira grabbed her rucksack. ‘We’ll miss the sunset.’

‘But what about the seats?’ Nell asked, panicking at the thought of a whole night sitting on the crowded and none too clean floor. ‘Why don’t I stay here and keep them?’

Their dilemma was solved by the return of Dora, announcing she had secured a cabin with four bunk beds. ‘Imagine – the purser said we could have it cheaper if we let a stranger have one of the bunks, but I couldn’t see who would agree to sleep on the floor.’

‘I would have,’ instantly volunteered Penny.

‘I know you would, Penny,’ replied Dora, who seemed to have softened somewhat now she had the prospect of a cabin. ‘But I was only joking.’

‘Come and see the sunset before you go to bed,’ Moira suggested.

‘Yes, come on Dora,’ Nell seconded. ‘It’s your first night in Greece! Enjoy it! You don’t have to stay up late.’