‘I’m happy for you, Pai,’ Bel replied flatly as they drove through the familiar streets.

‘And I’ve no doubt that yours will be the greatest wedding Rio has ever seen. I have been talking to Gustavo and Maurício about the need to restore their family home, as it will be where you live too once you are married. As you know, it is a gracious old building, but the fabric and interior are ageing. We have agreed, as part of your dowry, that I will finance its restoration, and the renovations have already begun. My princesa, by the time it is finished, you will live in a palace!’

‘Thank you, Pai,’ answered Bel with a smile, wanting to convince him, and, more importantly, herself, that she was grateful.

‘We are planning the wedding for after the New Year, just before the Carnival. You and your new home will have three months to prepare yourselves. So you will be kept busy, querida.’

Bel had been half expecting to be marched up the aisle as soon as she’d returned to Rio. So at least a small delay was something, she thought, as they drove past the Copacabana Palace Hotel and she stared out at the roaring grey sea, crashing its white foam onto the sand.

‘When you have recovered from your journey, we will hold a dinner so that you can share all the wonderful new sights and culture you have gleaned from the Old World and impress our friends with your knowledge.’

‘I loved Paris,’ she ventured. ‘It’s such a beautiful city, and Professor Landowski, who is making the outer shell of the Cristo figure for Senhor da Silva Costa, had an assistant who made a sculpture of me also.’

‘Well, if it is good, we must contact him. I will buy it and bring it to Brazil,’ commented Antonio.

‘I doubt that it would be for sale,’ she said wistfully.

‘Querida, anything is for sale at the right price,’ Antonio stated flatly. ‘Now, we’re almost home and I’m sure your mother will have risen from her bed to greet you.’

If Antonio had expressed concern at the pale, waif-like appearance of his daughter, it was nothing compared to Bel’s shock when her mother appeared to greet her. Carla, always voluptuous, seemed to have shed half her bodyweight in the eight and a half months since Bel had last seen her.

‘Mãe!’ Bel exclaimed as she ran into her arms and hugged her. ‘What have you done to yourself? You must have been on a diet!’

Carla did her best to smile and Bel saw how huge her brown eyes looked in her gaunt face. ‘I wish to look modish for my daughter’s wedding,’ she joked. ‘Do you not think the weight loss suits me?’

Used to her comfortingly large breasts, which had cushioned Bel on many occasions as a child, Bel looked at Carla and thought her new figure had aged her by years.

‘Yes, Mãe, I think it does,’ she lied.