Under the Brazilian Sun

‘Pascoa,’ she announced, smiling shyly as she pointed to herself. ‘Senhor Roberto waits, Doutora.’

‘Obrigada, Pascoa,’ said Katherine, smiling, and followed the girl downstairs to the hall, where Jorge was waiting. ‘Good evening,’ she greeted him.

‘Boa tarde, Doutora. Lidia is cooking the carne de porco,’ he explained as they crossed the hall to the veranda. He opened the doors and ushered her outside. Roberto was leaning in his usual place at a pillar, his eyes on the garden. He turned quickly as she joined him, his eyes wide in involuntary shock which acted like balm on her bruised ego.

‘You look…most charming, Doctor,’ he said when he’d regained the power of speech. ‘It is hard to believe you have been working all day.’

‘Not all day. I’ve been lazing on the bed in the guest room for the past hour.’ She smiled. ‘Something I never do at home.’

Roberto pulled out a chair for her and gestured to the wine resting in its silver bucket. ‘You would like this again?’

‘I would. Thank you.’

‘So how do you spend your evenings in England?’ he asked as he filled their glasses.

‘At home alone, I make supper, do some ironing, watch television or read.’ Katherine pulled a face. ‘Nothing very exciting.’

‘And other times someone takes you out to dinner?’ he asked, easing himself down in the chair across the table.

‘Yes. Or I go out with friends—female gender,’ she added.

‘But one of your friends is a man, nao e?’

‘More than one.’ She grinned. ‘I share a house with two of them; an arrangement much disapproved of by the man who currently takes me out to dinner.’

Roberto’s lips twitched as he offered her morsels of toast spread with patе. ‘He is jealous?’

Katherine thought about it. ‘Andrew wants me to move into his house instead.’

His eyes gleamed between enviable lashes. ‘Do you wish to do that?’

She shook her head. ‘Absolutely not. My house really is mine. My father left it to me. And my tenants pay me good rent to share it, and the three of us get together with other friends occasionally for a drink or a meal, which I enjoy very much. Great patе, by the way,’ she added.

‘Pate de sardinha. Lidia made it, so eat more.’ Roberto leaned to top up her glass. ‘You say your father left the house to you? He is dead?’

Katherine nodded soberly. ‘Yes. My mother died when I was little. Dad brought me up single-handed and did a fantastic job of it.’ She cleared her throat. ‘Then, just after my eighteenth birthday, he had a major heart attack, which killed him.’

‘Que tragedia,’ he said softly. ‘You have other relatives?’

‘Dad’s younger sister came to live with me at the time, but eventually Charlotte met Sam Napier, the architect she’s married to now.’ Katherine smiled warmly. ‘They wanted me to make my home with them, but though I was deeply grateful to them I preferred to stay on at the house. Two of my fellow students were looking for somewhere to live so, with fantastic help from Sam, modifications were made to create three separate flats. The arrangement works so well Hugh and Alastair are still with me.’

‘And you do not wish to leave to join your lover,’ he remarked.

‘He’s just a friend,’ she said irritably, then caught her lip in her teeth.

Roberto eyed her in wry amusement. ‘You do not offend me, Doctor. It is I who do so with my talk of a lover. But that is how this man regards himself, nao e?’

‘I met him only a short time ago,’ she protested.

‘It takes only a moment to fall in love!’

She frowned, taken aback by the sudden descent into the personal. ‘From impartial observation I’ve noticed that it takes only a moment to fall back out again, too!’

All talk of love was abandoned as Jorge arrived to set down a platter of succulent pork slices flanked by an array of vegetables and a side dish of sautеed potato slices.

‘This smells heavenly!’ Katherine said reverently.

‘We shall serve ourselves, Jorge,’ said Roberto, and smiled at him. ‘Thank Lidia for the batatinhas.’

‘What are they?’ asked Katherine as she helped herself.

‘The potatoes.’ He smiled. ‘They are my weakness prepared this way, but at one time I could not eat as many as I wished.’

‘You had to diet?’ she said, astonished. ‘That’s hard to believe.’

‘I had to take care with what I ate,’ he assured her. ‘Now, I do not.’

Katherine longed to know more as she went on with her dinner. ‘I always have to watch my weight,’ she said sadly.

‘E verdade?’ he said, surprised. ‘Why?’

‘Otherwise, my clothes don’t fit. So, as a basic matter of economy, I try not to eat chocolate, and puddings, and so on.’

Roberto leaned to refill her glass. ‘The wine will do no harm, I promise. Not,’ he added, ‘that I think the doces would harm you either, Katherine.’ He shot a look at her. ‘You allow me use of your name?’

‘Of course,’ she said quickly, annoyed because she felt flustered. ‘I was a bit overweight as a teenager, right up until my father died, when I found that grief was far more effective than any diet.’

His eyes softened. ‘You were close to him.’

‘Yes. I even followed his career choice. He lectured in art history. He met James Massey when they were at university.’

‘And now you work for your father’s friend.’

She stiffened. ‘Which is absolutely nothing to do with nepotism—’

‘I am sure it is not,’ Roberto assured her hastily. ‘But it would please your father to know that his daughter works in safe keeping with his old friend, I think.’

‘True. But I earn my salary, Senhor Sousa.’

He sighed. ‘Now I have offended you. Perdao! It was not my intention. Agora, please eat more or Lidia will also be offended.’

Katherine went on with her meal for a moment or two, then decided to take the plunge. ‘May I ask about your accident?’

Roberto tensed as though about to refuse, then shrugged, his eyes bitter. ‘I was in a car crash, and fortunate to survive. But for a while it was hard to convince myself of that.’

‘Because you were in such pain?’

His smile was sardonic as he refilled their glasses. ‘Also because of vanity.’