‘For understanding.’

Bel made to walk around the corner of the house and back inside.

‘By the way, how was your fitting at the dressmaker’s?’ he asked her, watching as she paused at his words, her back to him.

‘It was most successful. Thank you for asking.’ She turned and smiled at him before disappearing out of sight.

43

After a further restless night, Bel awoke groggy and exhausted, having finally fallen asleep as dawn broke. She saw the space where Gustavo lay was empty next to her. As she made her way to the bathroom, she thought how this was unusual in itself; Gustavo was never normally up before her. Perhaps he really did mean to turn over a new leaf. When she went downstairs for breakfast, she found only Luiza at the table.

‘My husband and yours are together in the study looking at the morning papers. You will have heard from Gustavo yesterday, I’m sure, that Wall Street crashed again. They will both be heading back to the senate soon to discuss what can be done to save the coffee industry in the wake of this disaster. Will you be going to the Igreja da Glória today?’ Luiza queried blandly, as if nothing had changed since yesterday and half the world hadn’t woken to find themselves bankrupted this morning.

‘No. I must go and see my father. As you can imagine, he is currently . . . out of sorts,’ Bel replied in a similarly neutral tone.

‘Of course. Well, everyone reaps what they sow, as I’ve said before.’ Luiza stood up. ‘Then I shall continue in your absence to do our family duty and take your place at the church.’

Bel watched the woman as she swept from the room, and felt breathless with astonishment at Luiza’s insensitivity. Made even more unbearable by the fact that her mother-in-law’s continuing financial stability – including this recently renovated house – had been aided and paid for by Antonio and his hard work.

Bel took an orange from the bowl and threw it against the wall in frustration, just as Gustavo entered the room.

He raised an eyebrow as the orange rolled back towards her under the table. ‘Good morning, Izabela,’ he said as he knelt to retrieve the fruit and put it back in the bowl on the table. ‘Practising your tennis?’

‘Forgive me, Gustavo. I’m afraid your mother made a particularly insensitive comment.’

‘Ah yes, well, that will probably be due to the fact that my father informed her before breakfast this morning that you will be taking over the household accounts from now on. As you can imagine, she hasn’t taken it well. I’m afraid you will simply have to ignore any tantrums the news has solicited.’

‘I’ll do my best,’ she agreed. ‘I hear you’re going to the senate again this morning?’

‘Yes. News is gradually trickling through from New York. Apparently, yesterday was a bloodbath,’ Gustavo sighed. ‘There were men throwing themselves out of windows all along Wall Street. Thirty billion dollars has been wiped off the value of stocks. Within a few hours, the price of coffee per pound plummeted.’