Page 76 of The Seven Sisters
The two girls looked at each other, their lips twitching to giggle at how ridiculous they both must look, but desperately refraining, knowing that any physical movement might reverberate through their hands.
‘Perhaps one day, we’ll look up at Corcovado and remember this moment,’ mused Margarida with a smile.
‘I certainly will do so,’ replied Bel wistfully.
It took only a few minutes of delicate and, as Bel thought afterwards, dangerous work for Laurent to make tiny slits along her hands with a sharp knife, then gently ease the cast away from her pre-greased fingers. When he had finished, he looked at the casts laid on the table in satisfaction. ‘Perfect,’ he said. ‘The professor will be pleased. How do you think your hands look in plaster?’ he asked her as he began the same process of removal on Margarida.
‘Not at all like mine,’ said Bel as she studied the white shapes. ‘May I now go and wash them?’
‘Yes. The soap and the scrubbing brush are beside the sink,’ he advised her.
When Bel returned, feeling better now she’d cleared the grease and plaster dust from her hands, Laurent was frowning at a finger which had broken off as he’d removed Margarida’s cast.
‘I’m sure it’s salvageable,’ he said. ‘There will be a slight hairline crack on the joint, but it should be good enough.’
Margarida then disappeared to wash her hands and Laurent began to clear up theatelierfor the night. ‘It is a pity the professor needs my help urgently. I still have a lot to do on your sculpture, but at least I have your fingers now,’ he added wryly.
‘We must leave,’ said Margarida as she reappeared. ‘My driver has been waiting for hours and Mademoiselle Bel’s guardian will wonder where she’s got to.’
‘Tell her that I’ve kidnapped their ward and I don’t wish to return her until my sculpture is finished,’ Laurent joked as the girls collected their hats and made towards the door. ‘Izabela, are you not forgetting something?’ Laurent called to her just as she’d stepped outside. He dangled her engagement ring on the end of his little finger. ‘Perhaps we should replace this where it belongs, lest others suspect you removed it on purpose,’ he said as she walked back into theateliertowards him. ‘Here, I shall put it on for you.’ Laurent took her hand in his and slid the ring back into place, staring intently into her eyes. ‘There, you are reunited.À bientôt,mademoiselle. And do not worry, I will find a way for us to continue with your sculpture.’
The girls left theatelier, climbed into the car and set off on their journey back to central Paris. Bel gazed out of the window, feeling miserable.
‘Izabela?’
She turned and saw that Margarida was watching her thoughtfully.
‘May I ask you a personal question?’
‘I think so,’ she said cautiously.
‘Well, it’s in two parts really. You remember I overheard you talking with Laurent when he was sketching you, and you voiced your fears about returning to Rio and marrying your fiancé?’
‘Yes. But please, Margarida, that is for no other ears but Laurent’s and yours,’ she added hastily, terrified that word might get back via the Brazilian grapevine.
‘I understand what you meant. But of course, I couldn’t help wondering whether your reluctance to marry your fiancé has increased over the past few weeks?’
Bel stretched out her finger and absent-mindedly surveyed the engagement ring upon it as she thought about Margarida’s question. ‘When I left Rio, I felt grateful to Gustavo for allowing me come to Europe with the da Silva Costas before I married him. I never expected that he’d let me go and I felt he’d given me a gift. But now that the gift is nearly spent, and I must return home in less than three weeks, the truth is . . . that I find myself feeling differently about him. Yes, Paris has changed my perspective on many things,’ she sighed.
‘I understand that you love the freedom that Paris offers you,’ replied Margarida. ‘As do I.’
‘Yes,’ Bel said fervently, a catch in her voice. ‘And the worst thing is, now that I’ve tasted a different way of life, it’s made thoughts of the future even more difficult. Part of me wishes I’d never come here and experienced what I could have had and now never can.’
‘And so, I come to the second part of my question,’ Margarida continued softly. ‘I’ve been observing you and Laurent together as he’s sculpted you. I will be honest and say that at first I thought his flattery and innuendo were no more than he’d give to any pretty woman he chose as his model. But in the past few days, I’ve noticed the way he gazes at you sometimes, the tender way he touches the stone as he works, as if he is dreaming that it’s really you he’s caressing. Forgive me, Izabela,’ Margarida said, shaking her head. ‘I’m usually pragmatic when it comes to the subject of love. I understand well what men are, especially here in Paris, but I feel I must warn you. I fear he may, in his undoubted passion for you, and the fact that your time together is running out, forget that you are spoken for.’
‘A fact that I would of course immediately remind him of,’ replied Bel, giving Margarida the only appropriate reply.
‘Would you? I wonder,’ she said thoughtfully. ‘For as I see the way Laurent feels about you, I also see the way you are with him. In fact, I knew it from the minute he walked over to our table at La Closerie des Lilas on our very first lunch together in Montparnasse. And I will be honest, it worried me from the start. I thought back then that perhaps he was playing a game with you, sensing your naivety. There are many unscrupulous men amongst the creative fraternity in Paris. They see love as an amusement, the woman’s heart no more than a toy to be played with. And when they have seduced their prey with their golden tongues, and she is ripe for the plucking, they take what they desire. And then of course, having achieved their aim, the game no longer holds any novelty and they move on, looking for a fresh challenge.’
Bel watched Margarida’s features tighten with pain as she delivered her speech, and noticed her eyes were moist.
‘Yes, Izabela.’ Margarida shot her a glance. ‘What you’re thinking is right. When I was in Italy, I fell in love with just the kind of man I’ve described. And of course, having come straight from the protective cloak of Rio, I was as innocent as you. And yes, he seduced me. Inallsenses of the word. But when I left for Paris, I heard from him no longer.’
Bel computed in silent shock exactly what Margarida was telling her.
‘There. I have shared my biggest secret with you,’ Margarida breathed. ‘And I do it simply because I hope something positive can emerge from the terrible blackness and despair I suffered afterwards. I’m a little older than you, and sadly, after what happened to me, wiser. And I can’t help seeing in you what I was then: a young woman in love for the first time.’
Bel was fit to burst with her feelings for Laurent. Up to now, she’d only been able to pen them in heartfelt outpourings to Loen. She decided to trust Margarida, given the secret she herself had shared.
