‘I agree,’ seconded Dora. ‘You’ve taken a featureless space the size of a garage and turned it into something that wouldn’t be out of place in a loft in Shoreditch.’

‘As long as the loft was by the seaside,’ giggled Nell.

‘The seaside!’ Penny exclaimed. ‘We need something nautical.’ She looked round, hoping to spy something of a seafaring nature, but couldn’t see anything appropriate. ‘I know,’ she concluded. ‘I’ll go and borrow a couple of Nikos’s boats.’

‘I thought he was in town with Takis?’ Nell pointed out, trying to hide a smile.

‘He told me he never locks the place anyway.’ Penny could see the trap she’d fallen into as her friends exchanged frankly knowing glances at her familiarity with Nikos’s boathouse.

‘Go and get these boats, then,’ Dora instructed, grinning.

Ten minutes later Penny came back with two boats and arranged them on the bookcase.

‘These are beautiful,’ admired Dora. ‘Just don’t tell me he carves them himself.’

‘They’re made from driftwood. He likes to take things that nobody’s using and bring them back to life.’

‘What was that I was saying about appropriate metaphors, Dora?’ Moira winked.

‘Moira, stop it!’ Dora protested, convinced that Penny must see the parallel with herself, but Penny was avoiding her glance. Dora decided she’d better change the subject.

‘Penny, you really must put this on Instagram. I’m sure some hipster would kill to stay here.’

‘We need Willow to help us,’ Nell offered. ‘She’s brilliant at that sort of thing.’

‘Send her the photos then,’ said Dora.

‘Do you really think so?’ Penny asked anxiously.

‘Yes!’ they all insisted. Dora added, ‘We do. You are genuinely talented at this, Penny. Now for once, believe in yourself!’

‘All right then. I’ll send them to your daughter and we’ll see what she thinks. I have to get the owner’s approval, though.’

‘Penny, why do you think all these people have spent the last two days covering themselves in sawdust and paint,’ Dora demanded, ‘if they don’t want us to help them rent out their empty properties?’

An hour later, Ariadne leapt onto Dora as she back came into the hotel reception area.

‘Efharisto, efharisto, kyria Dora! My father has persuaded my grandmother to let me go back to school! I can learn about botany and biology and may be clever and go to university – and it is all thanks to you!’

Dora, possibly the least touchy-feely being on the planet, experienced an unexpected welling of the eyes which she attributed to a passing speck of dust. ‘Excellent!’ she replied crisply, untangling herself from Ariadne’s embrace. ‘Juno the goat will miss you.’

‘Now you will be the voice of the goddess!’ insisted the young girl passionately. ‘She will be pleased that you spoke out in my defence.’

‘OK,’ Dora replied, suppressing a smile. ‘So are you starting school straight away?’