'There's plenty of breakfast,' he said and Alice sat at the table and began to eat.

'Don't you have to go to work?' she asked.

He shrugged. 'The boss is still away and Old Costas is taking some leave so he can't tell on me and I can catch up with things another time. Lander's covering for me,' Milo said.

'I'm sorry I'm causing you so much bother,' she said.

Milo shook his head. 'You're not,' he said. 'I told you I'd help you and I will.'

'So, we're going back to the sculptor's house?'

'As soon as you're ready.'

Alice nodded and then she suddenly felt nervous which was silly, really, because this was the day she'd been so longing for the day when everything would be back to normal. No more ridiculous male attention, no more bizarre declarations of love from complete strangers. She was going to return to her true self. The real Alice Archer.

'You okay?' Milo asked her.

Alice nodded. 'I just want to get this all over and done with.'

'And get home again?'

She looked up at him. 'I I guess,' she said.

'You've got a lot to sort out, haven't you?'

'Yes,' she said.

He nodded again. His face was solemn and she couldn't help wondering what he was thinking. He'd probably be glad to see the back of the strange English girl who kept yo-yoing in and out of his life. She'd done nothing but cause trouble and she wouldn't blame him if he never wanted to see her again.

'Okay,' he said, his voice flat and devoid of emotion and his face a perfect blank. 'Let me know when you're ready to go.' He left the room and Alice blinked in surprise. What had just happened there? Had she said something to upset him? She finished her cup of coffee and walked down the hallway to his bedroom and knocked lightly on the door. He appeared a moment later. 'Ready?' he asked.

'I'm ready,' she said and, like two strangers, they left the house in an uncomfortable silence.

How she longed to talk to him on the journey back to the sculptor's house. There was so much she wanted to know about him but she felt as if he'd somehow closed down on her. Maybe it was because she'd said she was going home but what else could she do?

She looked out of the window at the barren, rock-strewn landscape. The road climbed higher and, for a few moments, the sea was lost to them. She opened her window and breathed in the sweet thyme-scented air. She wanted to say something to share the moment but Milo seemed so distanced from her that she remained silent.

When they reached the home of the sculptor at last, they saw that, once again, the gates were closed and padlocked. Nevertheless, they got out of the car.

'Hello!' Alice shouted and immediately set off the dog. She noticed that it was on a long lead today and she was thankful that it didn't get any closer to her than it did. 'Sound the horn,' she told Milo.

He returned to the car and gave three blasts. It sounded so horribly loud in the silence of the countryside and it started the dog off again.

'How are we going to get in?' Alice asked.

'I don't think we are.'

'There must be a weak spot somewhere,' Alice said.

'What do you mean?'

'I mean let's get in there. It's obvious we're not going to be invited in so let's find our own way in.'

'What with that enormous dog?'

'He's tied up.'

'But he might break free!' Milo pointed out.

Alice shook her head and started walking around the perimeter of the wall. The ground was dusty and stony and Alice twisted her ankle at one point. Milo rushed forward but she waved him away.

'I'm okay,' she said. 'Let's keep going.'

The wall stretched interminably and it soon became obvious that there was no entrance other than the one that was padlocked and guarded.

'I'm sorry, Alice,' Milo said, 'but it looks like this isn't going to work out as we'd hoped.'

Chapter 40.

Alice looked down the long length of wall. She'd come all this way and she wasn't ready to give up yet. There must be a way inside. There must. It was then that she saw the tree.

'Milo look!'

'What?'

'The tree.'

The olive tree looked centuries old and was good and sturdy. Alice ran over to it and Milo gave her a leg-up and she was hoisted into its silvery-green depths. Its bark was ridged and gnarled and felt rough against Alice's legs and she wished she hadn't worn a dress but had chosen something more practical to wear.

'You okay?' Milo said, climbing up the tree after her.

Alice shimmied her way along a thick branch towards the top of the wall. 'Nearly there,' she said, releasing the hem of her dress from where it had caught on a rough bit of bark.

Finally, she made it to the wall and positioned herself on its top, gazing down at the ground beneath her. She took a few steadying breaths before launching herself into the air and landing with a great thud that she felt sure would start another earthquake. It was much more of a drop than she'd thought and she wondered how on earth they were going to climb back up and get out but she wasn't going to worry about that just yet.

A second later, Milo thudded to the ground next to her. 'Well, we're in,' he said, dusting himself down. Alice looked at him and he gave her a little smile and then they began walking towards the villa, careful to go round the side that was furthest away from the dog.

'Gosh, there's acres,' Alice said a few minutes later as they surveyed the grounds.

'Don't worry. We'll find her,' Milo said as if reading her mind.

'What if we don't?'

He looked at her. 'You'll just have to get used to being irresistible to men for the rest of your life.'

'That's not funny, Milo,' she said.

'I can think of worse fates.'

She took a deep breath. 'I've got to do this.'

'I know,' he said. 'Look, the sculptor's bound to have kept the statue close to the house if he was going to try to repair it. There must be a workshop somewhere. She's probably in one of those.'

Alice nodded. 'Yes,' she said hopefully.

Skirting the villa, they soon found themselves in what was obviously a stonemason's yard. It was full of pieces of rubble from tiny fragments to great boulders but there weren't any statues around.

Milo nodded towards a strange sort of outbuilding that looked like a cross between a garage and a church. It soared up from the ground and its great arched wooden doors stood open. They approached it slowly, almost reverentially, their footsteps hushed as they entered. They allowed their eyes to adjust slowly and, when they did, they saw the most amazing sight. They were completely surrounded by statues. They were everywhere, making a semicircle of stone around them.

'Why do you think they're lined up like this?' Alice asked.

'I don't know,' Milo said. 'Maybe Mr Karalis likes to stand in the middle and look at them for inspiration. It's a bit like a museum, isn't it?'

'It's more like a strange sort of charnel house,' Alice said with a shudder. 'You know where they keep skeletons that have been dug up from graves?'

Milo nodded.

'Look not one is complete,' Alice said.

They gazed with a mixture of wonder and horror at the statues. There were the usual missing arms and noses but some didn't even have heads and some were just bare torsos on plinths.

'Poor things,' Alice said, as if the statues were alive and might actually be missing their various misplaced body parts.

'Hey!' Milo said, nodding towards the far side of the room. Alice followed his gaze and that's when she saw her Aphrodite, her beautiful broken body lying on the floor of the workshop.

'She looks so sad,' Alice said, walking over to her and placing a reverential hand upon her.

'What are you going to do?' Milo asked.

'I don't know. How do you undo a wish?'

Milo shrugged. 'I have no idea,' he said.

Alice knelt down on the floor beside the statue and took a deep breath. 'I'm not quite sure what to say,' she said.

'I'll give you some space,' Milo said, walking out of the building. Alice watched him go, his figure silhouetted in the arched doorway by the bright sunshine, and then she turned back to Aphrodite.

'Hello,' she said, and then smiled to herself. It felt funny talking to an inanimate object, especially a broken one, but wasn't that exactly what she'd come so far to do? A part of her couldn't help thinking that the whole thing was ridiculous. What if this didn't work? What if Milo was right and Alice was completely mad? But she hadn't imagined it all, had she? How else was she to explain all of the male attention she'd received? No, this statue had a lot to answer for and Alice was jolly well going to put a stop to it now.

She placed her hand on Aphrodite's right shoulder and closed her eyes.

'I don't know what to say to you but I'm hoping you can help me,' she began. 'I made this wish to be noticed by men and I realise now that I didn't want that at all. It was a silly thing to do and it was nothing but a nightmare so can you undo the wish? I wish to be just me again just the Alice Archer who arrived here on Kethos before making the wish. Is that all right? Can you do that for me, please?'

She took a deep breath and opened her eyes. Had it worked? Had things returned to normal? She wasn't sure and guessed she wouldn't be until she ran into a few men but, kneeling there on the floor next to Aphrodite, Alice felt the urge to keep talking.

'Do you grant other wishes, Aphrodite?' she asked in a voice little above a whisper. 'I think it would be greedy of me to make another wish and I know I really shouldn't but I can't help wishing that I could stay here on Kethos. I'm not going to wish that Milo falls madly in love with me that would be wrong but I wish I knew how he felt about me. As soon as I saw the island again, I felt so happy. I love it so much the colours and the smells and the light and the air. I don't think I want to be anywhere else and I've been thinking really thinking that I could make a go of things here. I mean, I'm not sure what I'd do yet but I've got some money now and I've got some time to work things out, haven't I? I've never done anything adventurous in my life and I can't help wanting to change that. I keep thinking of my father and how happy he was to spend all his life in the same place but I no longer think that's right for me and no, I'm not going to keep wishing. I-' she paused. 'I'm going to go now.'

She lifted her hand from Aphrodite and stood up. For a moment, she looked down at the beautiful face and couldn't help wondering if her words had been heard. 'I do hope so,' she said to herself before leaving the workshop.

Blinking in the bright sunshine as she stepped outside, she looked around for Milo and saw him standing next to a low wall that looked out across an orchard. He turned round at her approach.

'Hey!' he said. 'How did it go?'

Alice shrugged. 'I really don't know.'

'Do you think it's worked?' he asked.

'I hope so,' she said and part of her was desperate to ask him if he still found her attractive but it would be too awful to ask him such a question. Besides, she seemed to have her answer when his gaze moved from her to the orchard.

'Look at the size of this place,' he said. 'Just imagine the garden you could make here.'

Alice looked around her. Beyond the orchard, the land rolled away into a boulder-strewn hillside which tumbled towards an azure sea. It was stunningly beautiful and she tried to picture it through Milo's eyes with borders filled with flowers and herbs and pretty pathways leading to secret fountains.

'Well,' he said a moment later, 'I suppose we'd better get out of here before we're caught trespassing.'

Alice nodded. She'd forgotten that they were on private property and that they'd climbed over a wall to get in.

Sneaking back around the villa, they retraced their footsteps and Milo gave Alice a leg up the wall before managing to clamber up it himself, hooking his fingers into the crumbling brickwork. They eased themselves down the olive tree and ran back towards the car, instantly waking the dog who gave a volley of vicious barks.

'I can't thank you enough,' Alice said once they were safely inside the car. 'I'm sorry I put you through all that.'

'I wouldn't have missed it for the world,' he said with a little smile and then a strange silence fell between them. Finally, Milo cleared his throat. 'I guess you want me to take you to the ferry now?'

There was a pause before Alice answered. 'I guess,' she said in a voice that was barely audible.

'Okay,' he said and he started the engine.

Chapter 41.

Milo was at war with himself. Alice wanted to go home. She was leaving Kethos for the second time and he didn't know how to stop her. He thought about the week they'd shared together a few months ago back in the spring and then he thought about how just last night they'd talked and talked like old friends. There'd been such an ease in their togetherness a closeness that usually comes over time. It had been so natural and he didn't want to give that up because he truly believed that he'd never find it again.

So, what if he told her all these things now? What if he asked her to stay?