‘Hades, the god of the underworld, kidnapped her. She could only be rescued if she hadn’t eaten or drunk anything while she was down there. Unfortunately he tricked her into eating six pomegranate seeds. That meant she had to go back down to the underworld for six months of every year, and only return to earth for the other six. That’s why we have winter and summer.’

‘So if I ate these seeds, I might not be able to go home and would have to stay here for six months?’ Penny asked, her eyes on his.

‘That could be one interpretation.’

Still looking at him, she slowly ate them.

Nell looked away, taken by surprise at Penny’s behaviour and feeling she was witnessing something both strangely erotic and intensely private.

‘Right,’ she announced crisply. ‘Time I cleared away these dishes and let you get on with the painting.’

By the end of the afternoon everyone was exhausted, but the boathouse doors were all painted in an array of glorious colours from bright red to turquoise, primrose yellow, Greek blue and orange, with the shutters and balconies of the floors above painted to match. Only the one owned by Demetria and her husband dared to stand out, with lime green doors and tangerine balcony and shutters.

Standing on the furthest point of the jetty, Penny stood back to take photographs. They looked amazing.

‘Now all we need is to furnish them,’ Penny said, trying not to feel too daunted. ‘And where on earth are we going to find the furniture?’

‘Have a word with Takis,’ Nikos counselled. ‘He’s the best fixer on the island.’

‘I must go,’ Penny announced, seeming suddenly to lose her new-found nerve.

‘Yes,’ Nikos sighed, as if he entirely understood the depth of her dilemma. It was so amazing, Penny thought wonderingly, how this man could be so different from the one she’d spent the last thirty years with.

‘You must be exhausted,’ Nell remarked as the last ladder was stowed and they headed back to their hotel.

‘Yes,’ replied Penny.

‘You’ve done a really good job.’

‘Have I?’ she answered quietly, and Nell knew she wasn’t just talking about the painting. They were due to fly home from Athens in a few days. Would Penny be coming or not?

And Nell realized something quite mysterious, magical even, about Kyri.

The place was beginning to seem more real and vivid than home.

When they got back to the hotel, Dora was sitting on a bright turquoise sofa in the reception area deep in conversation with a rather elegant-looking woman whose back was towards Penny and Nell.

‘How did it go, girls? Are your boathouses ready to photograph?’ Dora asked.