Bel looked at the delicate blueish-white stone, set in a circle of tiny diamonds. ‘I love it,’ she said with genuine enthusiasm. ‘Thank you, Gustavo.’

‘I chose it especially for you,’ he said, looking pleased at her reaction. ‘It’s not of much value, but I’m glad you like it.’

‘I do,’ she said, touched by his thoughtfulness. ‘Can you fasten it for me?’

Gustavo did so, then reached his lips to her neck and kissed it. ‘Minha linda Izabela,’ he said admiringly. ‘It suits you well.’

‘I promise I’ll wear it every day.’

‘And write often?’

‘Yes.’

‘Izabela, I . . .’ Suddenly his fingers tipped her chin to his and he kissed her on the lips for the very first time. Having never been kissed by any man before, Bel had long been curious as to what it would feel like. In the books she’d read, women normally went weak at the knees during the experience. Well, she thought as Gustavo’s tongue made its way inside her mouth and she struggled to fathom what to do with her own, her knees certainly didn’t feel weak. In fact, when he drew away from her, she decided it had not been unpleasant. It had simply been . . . nothing. Nothing at all.

‘Goodbye, darling Loen. Keep safe, won’t you?’ said Bel as she prepared to leave her bedroom and join her parents on the journey to the port.

‘And you, Senhorita Bel. I worry about you going across the sea without me. Please write to me often, won’t you?’

‘Of course,’ Bel agreed. ‘I’ll tell you all the things I can’t speak of to my parents,’ she added with a conspiratorial smile. ‘So make sure you keep my letters hidden. I must leave now, but please write to me and tell me everything that happens here. Take care, Loen.’ She kissed her and left the room.

As Bel climbed into the car, she pondered on how even her maid seemed to be experiencing the one feeling she now knew for certain she’d be deprived of for the rest of her life: passion.

Both her parents accompanied her on board the ship in Rio’s main port, Pier Mauá. Carla glanced round the comfortable suite in awe.

‘Why, it’s just like a room on land,’ she said, walking to the bed and sitting down on it to test the mattress. ‘There are electric lights and even pretty curtains,’ she enthused.

‘Don’t tell me you expected Bel to travel by candlelight lying in a hammock on the deck?’ joked Antonio. ‘I can tell you that what this passage has cost warrants every modern convenience imaginable.’

For the thousandth time, Bel wished her father would desist from weighing everything by the amount of cash it had cost him. The ship’s bell rang out to alert all remaining non-passengers to its imminent departure and Bel hugged her mother to her. ‘Please take care, Mãe, until I’m back. You haven’t seemed yourself lately.’