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‘Absolutely, I could do with the exercise.’

‘I want to play with Grace!’ Alex jumped up and down.

‘Come on, you can try and catch me.’ With that, Grace grabbed Alex’s ball and ran off to the shoreline, Alex laughing and chasing after her.

For the next half-hour Alex had the perfect companion in Grace. While Roxy looked on, they splashed at the water’s edge, Grace pointing out the tiny fish that would nibble at his feet, making him jump, and they played endless rounds of catch. Eventually Grace realized she had lost track of time and delivered Alex back to Roxy.

‘I’m sorry, Alex, I have to go now. A friend is taking me out on his boat and I don’t want to be late,’ she apologized. ‘I’m sure we will see each other again,’ she reassured him when she saw his face fall. ‘Are you staying on Ithos long?’ she asked the woman.

‘I’m not sure yet. It depends. I’m here with a friend and, well, let’s say she has some life stuff to do. It might take a while, it might not.’

‘Excuse me for asking,’ Grace said, ‘but do I recognize you? I feel like I know you from somewhere?’

‘My name is Roxy, I design clothes.’

Grace tilted her head to one side, thinking, then her eyes widened, and she said, ‘Roxy Lennon? I love ROX! That dress that Kate Moss wore to the British Fashion Awards last year was incredible.’

Roxy inclined her head in a modest thank-you. ‘I try to make clothes that I like. Kate Moss could make a paper bag look glamorous.’

‘I love fashion, you’re an icon!’

‘You’d better stop now, my head was big enough already!’

‘Sorry – fan girl. Not cool,’ Grace said.

‘I’ll take the compliment. Hadn’t you better run? You don’t want to miss your boat?’

‘Lord!’ Grace grabbed her things. ‘I’d better dash, lovely to meet you – bye Alex!’

She ran off and Roxy shouted after her, ‘I hope he’s a dish!’

Shauna felt like she’d been staring at her MacBook for hours, but in reality it hadn’t been very long at all. She’d been trying to conjure up memories of her childhood in Ireland, but as she gazed out at the horizon, the azure blue of the Mediterranean called to her and all she could remember was her father telling her, No one should be working when the sun is high and the sea is calm.

Abandoning hope of getting anything written today, she decided to head down to the beach to meet Alex and Roxy. The long white boho sun dress and brown leather Birkenstocks she was wearing were perfect for the beach, so she stuffed a towel into her satchel, popped her favourite fedora on her head and set off for the old rusty gate that she’d seen Roxy come through earlier. The path led downhill to a junction where the path split in two. The beach appeared to be directly below her, but it wasn’t clear whether she should turn right or left. She shrugged and took the right-hand path, figuring that the worst that could happen was that she would end up in the town.

There were a few twists and turns and, after a while, the path became very overgrown and nettles kept catching at her feet. Shauna thought she must have come the wrong way and decided to retrace her steps, but the path didn’t look the same heading in the opposite direction and soon she had lost her bearings.

The sun beat down and Shauna regretted not bringing a bottle of water with her. The path was so overgrown now, with large bushes and branches obscuring the way ahead, that Shauna was starting to panic. What if she had come completely off the path? She had lost all track of time, the only sound she could hear was the cry of buzzards as they spied prey below and swooped down to seize it.

She pushed on through the undergrowth and was starting to feel faint when she came to a clearing. She was higher up than when she had started; down to the left was the sea, ahead of her were olive groves, and above the tops of the trees she could see the upper tower of the Theodosis villa.

Before she could process this, the heat seemed to close in on her. Feeling faint, she lowered herself onto a boulder underneath the canopy of an olive tree, took her hat off and fanned herself furiously.

She sat there for a few moments, wondering how she could get back up to the path without fainting, when she saw a figure coming towards her through the trees from the direction of the villa.

As the figure approached, Shauna could see it was a woman wearing a long kaftan. She looked to be in her seventies and her grey hair was tied up in a bun. Even after twenty years, there was no mistaking that face: it was Elana Theodosis, and the last time they had met, she had been ordering Shauna off the island and out of her son’s life.

Chapter 27

The only sensible shoes Grace possessed were a pair of Nike trainers, but that didn’t worry her. An uncle of hers had owned a sailboat and she and her parents had spent a few holidays sailing off Cowes, which she’d loved. Grace prided herself on having excellent sea legs and knew a bit more about boats than Christian gave her credit for.

His boat was a cat-rigged yacht with a single mast. When she had clambered aboard late that afternoon, he told her to take a seat while he unfurled the sail and readied it for casting off. Grace surprised him by securing the bowline.

‘You steer and I’ll cast off,’ she told him.

He scratched his head. ‘You didn’t tell me you could sail.’

‘You didn’t ask me!’ The dumbfounded expression on his face made her laugh. ‘You look so comical! Come on, let’s get going.’