Since their move to the city, Antonio had kept his precious daughter a virtual prisoner, never allowing her even to take a walk outside the house without an older female escort. He didn’t seem to realise that the few girls of her own age she’d been introduced to at formal tea parties, and who had been deemed suitable as friends by Senhora Santos, were from families who were embracing the modern age, not fighting against it.

For example, her friend Maria Elisa da Silva Costa did indeed come from an aristocratic Portuguese heritage. But her family didn’t, as Pai so misguidedly believed, just float from one social event to the next. The old Portuguese court Pai dreamed of his family being a part of had mostly faded into history, the last vestiges of it only championed by a few clinging on to a disappearing world.

Maria Elisa was one of the few young women Bel had met that she felt she had anything in common with. Her father, Heitor, worked for a living as a renowned architect and had recently won the honour of building the planned Cristo Redentor monument on top of Corcovado, the mountain that rose dramatically skywards behind their house. The da Silva Costas lived nearby in Botafogo and if her father was visiting the mountaintop to take measurements for his structure, Maria Elisa would often accompany him as far as Cosme Velho and visit Bel while Heitor took the train up the mountain. Bel was expecting a visit from her later today.

‘Senhorita, can I get you anything else?’ Gabriela asked, hovering by the door with the heavy tray.

‘No thank you, Gabriela, you may go.’

A few minutes later, Bel stood up and left the room after her.

‘You must be so excited about your party,’ said Maria Elisa as they sat in the shade of the dense, tropical forest that overhung the garden of the house. The foliage was kept in check by a small army of gardeners to prevent it invading the immaculate grounds, but beyond the perimeter, it surged untamed up the mountain.

‘I think I’ll be glad when it’s over,’ Bel replied honestly.

‘Well, I’m looking forward to it, that’s for sure,’ Maria Elisa said, smiling. ‘Alexandre Medeiros will be there and I have such a crush on him. I’ll go to heaven if he asks me to dance,’ she added as she sipped her freshly squeezed orange juice. ‘Is there any young man who’s caught your eye?’ She looked at Bel expectantly.

‘No, and besides, I know my father will want to choose a husband for me.’

‘Oh, he’s so old-fashioned! When I talk to you I feel lucky to have Pai, even though his head is in the clouds with his Cristo all the time. Do you know,’ Maria Elisa said, lowering her voice to a whisper, ‘my father is actually an atheist, and yet here he is, building the largest monument to Our Lord in the world!’