‘Look who it is,’ Antonio crowed to his wife. ‘The newly crowned princesa of Rio!’

‘Good morning, Pai. Good morning, Mãe,’ she said as she sat down and Gabriela moved to serve her. ‘Just coffee, thank you,’ she said, as she waved the offer of food away.

‘How are you this morning, my dear?’

‘A little weary,’ she admitted.

‘Perhaps you drank a little too much champagne last night?’ said Antonio. ‘I know I certainly did.’

‘No, I only drank one glass all night. I’m simply tired, that’s all. Are you not at the office today, Pai?’

‘No. I thought that for once, I might just arrive late. And see here,’ Antonio said, indicating a silver tray on the table, piled high with envelopes. ‘Already a number of guests have sent their maids to deliver thank-you notes for last night and to invite you to lunch and supper. There’s also a letter addressed to you personally. Of course, I haven’t read its contents, but you can see who it’s from by the seal on the back. Take it, Izabela, and tell your parents what it says.’

Antonio passed the envelope to her, and Bel saw the Aires Cabral insignia stamped in wax on the back of the envelope. She opened it and read the few lines on the thickly embossed notepaper.

‘Well?’ Antonio prompted.

‘It’s from Gustavo Aires Cabral, thanking me for last night and hoping he will meet me again soon.’

Antonio clapped his hands in glee. ‘Izabela, what a clever girl you are! Gustavo is descended from the last emperor of Portugal himself and has one of the best pedigrees in Rio.’

‘And to think, he has written to our daughter!’ Carla clasped her hands to her bosom, she too carried away with the thought.

Bel surveyed her parents’ animated faces and sighed. ‘Pai, Gustavo has simply sent me a thank-you card for the evening. This is not a proposal.’

‘No, querida, but one day it might be.’ Her father winked. ‘I saw how taken he was with you. He told me as much himself. And why shouldn’t he be?’ Antonio held up the Jornal do Brasil with a photograph of a radiant Bel arriving at the party on the front of it. ‘You are the talk of the town, my princesa. Your life and ours will be very different from now on.’

And indeed, in the next few weeks, as Christmas approached and the Rio social season got into full swing, Bel’s feet hardly touched the ground. Madame Duchaine was called back to the house and instructed to make many further gowns for Bel to wear to dances, the opera and a number of dinners at private addresses. Perfectly trained by Senhora Santos, Bel acquitted herself on each occasion with aplomb.

Gustavo Aires Cabral, whom Maria Elisa and she had secretly nicknamed ‘the ferret’, because of his physical likeness to the animal and his habit of constantly nosing around Bel, was present at many of the events.