Page 90 of The Seven Sisters

My eyes then turned to the open door where a young, willowy female was standing. Her eyes fell on me briefly and she smiled a ‘hello’, then turned back to the child. ‘Come now, Valentina, your father is busy and you need a shower. We went to the beach after school as the weather was so warm,’ the woman added to neither of us in particular.

‘Can’t I stay up here with you for a while, Papai?’ Valentina pouted as her father set her back down on the floor.

‘You go and take a shower and when you’re ready for bed, bring up your book and I’ll read the next chapter to you.’ He kissed her tenderly on the top of her dark head before nudging her gently towards the young woman. ‘See you later,querida.’

‘I must go too,’ I said, standing up as the door closed behind them. ‘I’ve taken up enough of your time already.’

‘Not until we’ve contacted the convent hospice I’m thinking of,’ said Floriano, sitting down at his laptop.

‘Your daughter is beautiful. She looks like you,’ I commented. ‘How old is she?’

‘Six,’ he replied as he tapped away on the keyboard. ‘Right, here we are. There’s a telephone number, although I doubt they’d have a manned reception at this time of night. However, I’ll try it.’

I watched him as he dialled the number from the screen into his mobile and put it to his ear. A few seconds later, he tapped it off. ‘As I thought, there’s an emergency out-of-hours number, but I think it would alert too much suspicion for us to use it. A worried relative calling a hospital when they can’t locate their nearest and dearest is one thing, but it’s pretty unlikely that close family members wouldn’t be aware that their relative had entered a hospice. So, I suggest we simply present ourselves in person there tomorrow.’

‘It may well be another blind alley.’

‘Yes, it might be, but my instinct tells me it’s the only thing that makes sense. Well done, Maia,’ he said, giving me a warm smile of approval. ‘I’ll turn you into an historical detective yet.’

‘We will see tomorrow. And for now, I’ll leave you in peace,’ I said, standing up.

‘I’ll give you a lift back to the hotel.’ Floriano rose too.

‘Really, I can walk,’ I said firmly.

‘Okay. Can we say twelve o’clock tomorrow? I have a parent–teacher meeting at nine thirty. They think Valentina might be dyslexic,’ he said with a sigh.

‘Of course. And I’m sorry to hear that. Although Electra, one of my sisters, is dyslexic. And she’s one of the smartest people I know,’ I said to comfort him. ‘Goodnight, Floriano.’

28

When I woke up the next morning, I took Yara’s letters out of the safe and reread the ones that Bel had sent to Loen from Paris. This time, instead of desperately searching for clues to my own heritage, I revisited them as Floriano – the historian – had. And I understood why he was so excited about them. I put the letters down and lay back on my pillows, thinking about him and his pretty daughter, and the mother, who, to my eyes, had seemed at the very most to be in her early twenties.

For some reason, I was surprised that Floriano had chosen such a young woman as his partner. And if I was honest, I’d felt the tiniest prick of jealousy when mother and daughter had appeared in the apartment last night. Sometimes it seemed the whole world was in love except for me.

I showered, dressed and went downstairs to the lobby to meet Floriano. For the first time, he wasn’t there, so I sat down to wait for him. He arrived fifteen minutes later, looking uncharacteristically harassed.

‘My apologies, Maia. My meeting at the school went on longer than I’d anticipated.’

‘No problem at all,’ I assured him as we climbed into the Fiat. ‘Did it go well?’

‘If being told your precious child has a problem can ever go “well”,’ he sighed. ‘At least the dyslexia’s been identified at an early stage, so I hope that Valentina will be able to get the help and support she needs. But obviously, as I’m a writer, it’s sad and ironic that my child will have a lifelong struggle with words.’

‘I can see that must hurt. I’m sorry,’ I offered, not sure what else to say.

‘She’s such a good girl and she hasn’t had an easy life.’

‘Well, from what I saw last night, she certainly has two loving parents at least.’

‘Oneloving parent,’ Floriano contradicted me. ‘Sadly, my wife died when Valentina was a baby. She went into hospital for a simple operation, returned from it two days later and the wound became infected. Of course we sought immediate medical help and were told it would heal in time. Two weeks later, Andrea was dead of septicaemia. So you can understand why I have so little regard for the Brazilian health service.’

‘I’m so sorry, Floriano. I thought last night that . . .’

‘That Petra was her mother?’ Floriano shot me a grin as his features relaxed a little. ‘Maia, she’s not even twenty, but I’m flattered that you think an old man like me could attract such a young and beautiful woman.’

‘Oh,’ I said, blushing. ‘Sorry.’

‘Petra is a university student and she has a bedroom in my apartment in return for some childcare, especially during the school holidays. Thankfully, Valentina’s grandparents live not far away and have her to stay often, especially when I’m writing. They offered to have her live with them permanently when my wife died, but I refused. It can get complicated sometimes, but we seem to get through somehow. And it helps that she’s such an easy child.’