Nell sang along with the bit about your sons and your daughters being beyond your command, and felt a lump come to her throat. Willow was certainly beyond her command. She was only in Weybridge, but still Nell hardly ever saw her – or her baby granddaughter. Willow: the only known example of a daughter who preferred her mother-in-law to her own mother!

Maybe she had no one but herself to blame. She had been the one who’d had the affair that ended the marriage all those years ago. And Robert, her ex-husband, had wasted no time in reminding their daughter of it at every opportunity. Grudgingly Willow had stayed with her, but she’d spent half her time with Robert and his new wife. And now, since she had married and had a baby of her own, Willow seemed to spend every free moment with Marigold, her husband Ollie’s ghastly mother.

Nell had to stop herself reaching for her phone and checking the latest Happy Family photographs on Instagram.

Opposite them, a young woman in the tiniest shorts Nell had ever seen began to furiously scratch a mosquito bite. Without really meaning to stare, Nell noticed that her legs were covered in them. ‘Our campsite turned out to be in a swamp,’ she explained.

Her boyfriend leaned across to examine them more closely. Hopefully he would reassure her a bit.

‘Christ, you look awful,’ was his only comment.

Nell shook her head and shrugged at Penny. Bloody men.

Next to her, Penny felt the carefree moment drift away. That was just the kind of remark her husband Colin would have made. She really ought to ring him.

Deep down in the recesses of her mind the connection between Colin and the nasty comment reverberated, but Penny stowed it safely away in the hidden place where she kept anything that might threaten her marriage.

‘Shall we go to bed?’ She pulled Nell to her feet, realizing how late it was getting. ‘I wonder what’s happened to Moira.’

‘Probably tucked up in her bunk by now, dreaming of nymphs and satyrs.’

‘I hope she doesn’t miss Ios. Or get stuck there with all the party people.’

‘Dora would probably be delighted if she did.’ They exchanged a telling look. ‘I hope Dora’s going to be OK in Greece. She seems to have such different standards to the rest of us.’

‘I’ll look after her, don’t you worry,’ Nell promised.

‘Nell, you are a star.’

As if prompted by her comment, they both looked up at the amazing velvet blue above them, studded with stars that seemed so much nearer than they were at home, and couldn’t help smiling. For the first time, it really was beginning to feel like an adventure with no responsibilities. They could forget supermarkets, and parking, and whether the washing machine was working.

‘When we wake up we’ll be in Zanthos!’