She tended to avoid mirrors, but now she deliberately crossed the room and stared at her own face. Why did she still wear this silly schoolgirl hairband? With a sudden surge of joy, she tore it off and shook her hair out.

Tomorrow was another day, as Scarlett O’Hara said in Gone with the Wind. From now on she was going to be a bit more like wilful, selfish but somehow admirable Scarlett.

‘What’s happened to Penny?’ hissed Dora to Nell the next morning, as they sat in the pretty breakfast room with its nautical paintings and doors open to the sunny harbour. ‘She’s ditched the hairband and suddenly seems full of the joys of spring. Any minute she’ll start singing that Kyri is alive with the sound of music.’

‘Maybe she’s excited about the boathouses,’ Nell shrugged. Penny did seem somehow happier. ‘She told me she’s done a bit of interior design at home, but never had the chance to take it seriously. Perhaps we’re going to witness the flowering of her talent.’

‘It must be bloody boring being a housewife, being dependent on someone else and not having any freedom,’ commented Dora, secretly feeling she would love someone else to run her life just at the moment.

‘Especially with a husband like Charmless Colin, who manages to attractively combine being rich and mean.’

‘He can’t be that mean, if he paid for Penny to come on this little jaunt to Greece without him,’ commented Dora.

‘Don’t you remember, she paid for this herself? A legacy from her dad, I think she said. Anyway, shh – she’s coming.’

Penny sat down with them, her tray loaded with yogurt, honey and walnuts, a baklava and a large glass of freshly squeezed orange juice. ‘The breakfast from heaven,’ she announced. ‘And all thanks to Ariadne’s goats. Do you meet them on your daily trip to the beach?’

At that moment, the elegant Xan Georgiades emerged from the tiny lift in the lobby like some god appearing out of Zeus’s head.

‘Good morning, ladies,’ he said stiffly, his eyes fixed on Dora. ‘Are you doing any exploring today?’

‘As a matter of fact,’ Penny answered gaily, ‘we’re having a painting party down at the boathouses. We’re going to help the owners get them ready to rent on Airbnb.’

‘Indeed?’ he replied frostily. ‘Then I sincerely hope you have the right building permit.’

He swept out and hailed a taxi from the rather ramshackle taxi rank on the quay outside the hotel.

‘Oh dear,’ Penny asked, losing her carefree gloss of happiness for a moment. ‘Do you think he’s right about the permit?’