Sweetly, Margarida came up to the da Silva Costas’ apartment with Bel and explained to a stony-faced Maria Georgiana how Landowski himself had kept both of them behind while his assistant cast their hands in a mould.

‘Well, as you can imagine, my mind was full of all sorts of terrible occurrences that might have befallen you. Just make sure it doesn’t happen again.’

‘I will, I promise,’ Bel agreed, then left the drawing room to show Margarida to the door. The two women hugged affectionately.

‘Goodnight, Izabela, and I’ll see you tomorrow.’

In bed, rather than contemplating Margarida’s descriptions of the dreadful fate she might suffer if she succumbed to Laurent’s infinite charms, all Bel could feel was exhilaration.

She thinks Laurent loves me . . . He loves me . . .

And that night she drifted off to sleep easily, a beatific smile on her slumbering face.

24

‘I’ve spoken to the professor,’ said Laurent when Bel and Margarida arrived at the atelier the next morning, ‘And I simply explained that I could not complete the sculpture within one day. We agreed that from now on you can come here in the early evenings, when we have finished working on the Christ. I can speak to Senhor da Silva Costa and explain the circumstances if it helps.’

Bel, having arrived at the atelier in a state of agonised tension, was so relieved by his words that she nodded eagerly.

‘But, Monsieur Brouilly,’ interjected Margarida with a concerned frown. ‘I will not be able to accompany Mademoiselle Izabela here at that hour of the day. I must return home every night at six for dinner with my mother.’.

‘Surely, mademoiselle, there is nothing inappropriate about the situation?’ said Laurent. ‘The professor himself will be present, and his wife and children are a stone’s throw away in the house.’

In that moment, as she threw a pleading glance at Margarida, Bel saw the surrender in her friend’s eyes. ‘No, of course not,’ she said abruptly. ‘Excuse me, but I must go and change.’

‘So, now we set to work,’ said Laurent, smiling at Bel in triumph.

That evening, Heitor announced at dinner that Laurent Brouilly had called him at his office and had explained the circumstances that required Bel’s presence at the atelier in the evenings.

‘Given that it is the urgency of my project that has forced yours to be sidelined, I feel I must agree,’ Heitor concluded. ‘Izabela, my driver will take you to the atelier for five o’clock each day and return you home here for nine.’

‘But surely there must be a bus that can take me? I don’t want to put you to any trouble, Senhor da Silva Costa,’ Bel suggested.

‘Bus?’ Maria Georgiana looked horrified. ‘I hardly think that your parents would wish for you to be using public transport alone in Paris in the evening. You must of course be driven there and back.’