As I lay there on the warm sand, I wondered whether my reluctance was something to do with the fact that every step would take me closer to discovering the truth about my real parents. I had no idea if they were alive or dead, or, in fact, why Pa Salt had given me a clue that had led me much further back into the past than logically I needed to go.

And why was Senhora Carvalho so intent on refusing to admit that her daughter had even had a child? A young woman who had definitely been the right age to be my mother . . .

Yet again, I remembered Pa Salt’s words engraved on the armillary sphere.

I couldn’t and shouldn’t run away.

‘Are you happy to take a trip back up to the Casa with me to see if Yara will tell us more?’ I asked Floriano as I arrived back in the hotel suite.

‘Sure,’ he said, not looking up from the letter he was reading. ‘I’ve only a couple more letters to go.’

‘I’ll take a shower while you finish.’

‘Okay.’

After I’d closed the bathroom door behind me and removed my clothes, I stepped into the shower, feeling acutely aware of Floriano’s presence in the next room. Given that he’d been a total stranger to me only two days ago, his easygoing attitude and relaxed manner made me feel as if I’d known him for far longer.

And yet, his book I’d translated was philosophical, moving and full of human angst. So I supposed I’d expected someone who took himself far more seriously than the man currently sitting only a few feet away from me next door. Emerging from the bathroom, I saw that Floriano had placed the letters neatly in a pile and was staring out of the window towards the beach.

‘Do you want to put these in the safe?’ he asked me.

‘Yes.’

He handed them to me and I moved to open it.

‘Thank you, Maia,’ he said suddenly.

‘What for?’ I asked, as I tapped in my security code.

‘For allowing me to be privy to those letters. I’m sure there are many of my colleagues who would love to have had the privilege of reading them. The fact that your great-grandmother was actually there at the time our Cristo was being constructed, staying under the same roof as Heitor da Silva Costa and his family and actually sitting in Landowski’s atelier while he was making the moulds, is really astonishing. I’m honoured, truly,’ he said, offering me a small mock bow.

‘It’s you who deserves thanks. You’ve already helped me so much in putting some of the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle together.’

‘Well, let’s drive up to the Casa and see if we can add a few more.’

‘You would have to wait outside, Floriano. I promised Yara I wouldn’t tell anyone about the letters. I don’t want to break her trust.’