Page 83 of The Seven Sisters

He looked at her and nodded. ‘I’ll be there. Goodnight, my Bel.’

Bel left theatelier, for there was simply no more she could say now. Walking through the gardens, she spied the young boy standing alone, looking up at the stars. She walked over to him, and when he saw her, he smiled.

‘Hello,’ she said. ‘You look much better. How are you feeling?’

He nodded at her, and she knew he understood.

‘I’m leaving France the day after tomorrow, to return to my home in Brazil.’ Bel pulled a small notebook and a pencil from the purse she carried with her, and scribbled in it. ‘If you ever need anything, please contact me. Here is my name and my parents’ address.’ She ripped the sheet of paper from the notebook and handed it to the boy, watching as he read it, mouthing the words carefully. Digging once more into her purse, she brought out a twenty-franc note. Pressing it into his small hands, she leaned forward and kissed him on the top of his head.

‘Goodbye,querido, and good luck.’

*

Later, when Bel looked back on her time in Paris, one of the things she would remember vividly was the long, sleepless nights. As Maria Elisa slumbered contentedly in her bed, Bel would tweak the curtains open a fraction and sit on the window seat watching the Paris streets below her, dreaming of the delights outside.

This particular night, as she sat with her hot forehead pressed against the cool glass, was the longest of them all. And the questions she asked herself were ones that would determine her future.

When the dark night ended and her decision was made, she crept desolately back to bed as a grey dawn seeped through the gap in the curtains, echoing her mood.

*

‘I have come to say goodbye,’ she said as Laurent’s look of hope disintegrated and fell like dust into the stony ground below him. ‘I cannot betray my parents. You must understand why.’

He looked down at his feet. With effort, he said, ‘I understand.’

‘And now, it’s best that I go. Thank you for coming to meet me, and I wish you all the joy and happiness that life can offer. I’m sure that one day I will hear of you and your sculptures again. And I am sure they will be talked about with reverence.’

Bel stood up, every single muscle in her body taut with the tension of holding her emotions in check, and reached up to kiss him on the cheek. ‘Goodbye, Laurent, and God bless you.’

Then she began to walk away from him.

A few seconds later, she felt a hand on her shoulder. ‘Bel, please, if you ever change your mind, know that I am waiting for you.Au revoir, my love.’ And then he turned and ran swiftly across the grass in the opposite direction.

26

Somehow Bel got through the following twenty-four hours and the special dinner that had been prepared for her by the da Silva Costas.

‘Sadly, we won’t be there to celebrate with you on your wedding day,’ Heitor said as the family toasted her with champagne. ‘But we want to wish you and your fiancé all the happiness in the world.’

After dinner, they presented her with a beautiful Limoges china coffee pot and a set of cups, to remind her of the time she had spent in France. And as the family dispersed from the table, Heitor smiled at Bel.

‘Are you happy to be going home, Izabela?’

‘I am looking forward to seeing my family. And my fiancé, of course,’ she added quickly. ‘But I will miss Paris very much.’

‘Perhaps one day, when you see theCristomonument on the top of Corcovado Mountain, you will tell your children how you came to be present as it was created.’

‘Yes, I feel honoured that I have been,’ Bel agreed. ‘How are you progressing with it?’

‘As you know, Landowski has almost finished the four-metre model, and now I must find somewhere to go which has room for me and my draftsmen to enlarge the scale to thirty metres. Landowski will begin work next week on the full-sized head and the hands. He told me when I last saw him that he had had Senhor Brouilly take casts of both your and Senhorita Lopes de Almeida’s hands as possible prototypes. Who knows,’ Heitor said, ‘one day, those elegant fingers of yours may end up casting benediction on Rio from the top of Corcovado Mountain.’

*

Maria Georgiana insisted on coming with Maria Elisa to see Bel safely aboard her ship home. Thankfully, as soon as Bel had been installed in her cabin, she left the two girls alone for a few minutes as she bustled off to check arrangements with the purser. ‘Be happy, dearest Izabela,’ Maria Elisa said, kissing Bel goodbye.

‘I will try,’ she agreed, as her friend watched her face carefully.

‘Is something wrong?’