The House that Florence Left (Portuguese Paradise #4)

Chapter 2

Tiny pinpricks of light dotted the room, scattering along the floor and up the walls. Bella gazed at them absent-mindedly for a few moments, reluctant to get out of bed, partly because it had taken her a long time to get to sleep. Her flat at home was next to the corner of the A3214 and the lack of traffic noise here in the middle of the night made her uneasy. Getting out of bed and walking downstairs would also remind her that she needed to get out her pen and paper and go around the house noting what needed to be done. And then she had to get all of it done. Or some of it at least.

Something clattered noisily to the floor in the kitchen, which was all the motivation Bella needed to jump out of bed and rush onto the landing.

‘Is anyone there?’ she shouted, her heart beating uncomfortably fast. As soon as the words were out of her mouth she wondered what she would do if someone answered. Or if no one answered. She crept down to the living room and padded quietly along to the kitchen door, which she had left open overnight.

A fluffy black-and-white cat was standing on the worktop with its face in the tub of hummus, which Bella was sure had had the lid on when she’d gone to bed.

‘What? Who are you?’ she asked the cat, trying not to laugh.

The cat briefly looked up at her, then turned back to the food. She picked the animal up from the worktop gently and put it on the floor. ‘Not terribly hygienic, is it?’ she muttered. The cat glanced at her again, then wiped its hummus-encrusted nose with its paw.

‘How did you get in?’ she asked it sternly, just as another fluffy black-and-white cat climbed through the cat flap, which she hadn’t noticed the previous day. ‘Hello. And you are?’ She laughed, watching the cat walk to the utility room and sit down expectantly.

Bella followed it. ‘You don’t want me to feed you, do you? I haven’t got any cat food, and anyway, you really should go home for your breakfast.’ Opening the back door, Bella peered outside, partly to check there weren’t any more cats on their way. There weren’t, but a large Labrador was bounding along the lane, barking, followed by a man’s voice getting progressively louder and yelling repeatedly, ‘Deidre, come back! Come back!’

Realising she was still in the T-shirt she had worn to bed, Bella hurried back inside and pulled the knitted dress she had worn to the airport in her backpack, assuming the dog and the man may be paying her a surprise visit, then she went back outside.

A stocky man with grey hair tied back in a ponytail was trying to put on a lead.

‘Hello. Can I help you?’ Bella stood assertively on the terrace.

He looked up. ‘Good morning! You must be Flo’s long-lost relative. Sorry about Deidre. She clearly sensed you were here and wanted to say hello.’

‘Hello, Deidre.’ Bella waved at the dog, then spoke to her owner. ‘I’m Bella. Are you Hugo?’

He walked over to her and shook her hand. ‘No. I’m Will Phoenix. Good to meet you. I live around the corner. I’m glad someone’s finally in Flo’s place. I was getting worried it would fall down.’

‘Oh, goodness. I hope it doesn’t need that much work.’ Bella glanced back at the house.

‘Ha, no — I mean it probably needs some TLC. Someone to live in it. It was always so full of life when Flo was around. She was always hosting gatherings.’ He glanced over the top of her head for a moment. ‘I haven’t been here since just after she died.’

Deidre began to bark, her tail wagging excitedly.

‘I see the cats have moved back in.’ Will smiled and pointed at the front door, where the animals were now sitting.

‘Moved back in?’ Bella stared at them.

‘Flo’s cats. I took them in when she died, but they’d come back here every day. Now there’s a human here, I expect they’ve decided to stay.’

‘But I can’t have pets. I don’t know how long I’ll be here. I can’t have any ties to the place. No responsibilities apart from the house...’ Her voice trailed off.

‘I’ll try to keep them, but they are cats after all. And if you go, I expect they’ll move back in with me.’ Will checked his watch. ‘I have to go. I do the occasional airport pick-up job, and today’s an early start.’

‘But...’ Bella was looking for the right words. ‘Cats will complicate things. What if they don’t want to go back to you?’

She tried to work out where she would put them on her list of things to do to the house. What if she sold it and people who didn’t like cats moved in? Or who had allergies to cats? ‘I wasn’t expecting to look after animals. I hadn’t even considered it as a possibility.’

‘They’ll be fine. They’ve managed for the past year.’ Will tickled Deidre’s ear. ‘If she turns up again, just don’t feed her and she’ll head back to me when she’s bored. What she is, is very nosy.’

‘Right, well...’ Bella looked at the dog and tried to sound enthusiastic. ‘It will be lovely to see her. I’m just not used to pets.’

‘They’ve obviously decided you could do with some company.’ Will took a card out of his pocket and handed it to her. ‘If you need anything, my number is there. I know Hugo has promised to help, but it’s good to have more than one person to call on.’

‘Thank you.’ Bella took it. ‘I really don’t think I can keep them. I’m not here for long.’

‘You’re not keeping them, Bella.’ He laughed. ‘They’re keeping you. Got to be going.’ He began to walk away, then turned back. ‘They’re called Yin and Yang, by the way.’

‘Which one’s which? Although I don’t know why I’m asking as they can’t stay.’ Her voice began to rise. ‘Sorry. It’s just a bit unusual, that’s all.’ She tried to sound calmer than she felt.

‘No idea. They’re always together, so I just say, “Yin and Yang” and they both arrive. See you.’ He waved and began to walk away, dragging a reluctant Deidre with him. ‘I’ve fed them already, so don’t let them emotionally blackmail you into giving them more food,’ he shouted. Then he turned back again. ‘I know a good gardener if you need some help getting the land back up to scratch.’

‘Do you know when Hugo will be around at all?’ she called after him. ‘I need to go out but I don’t want to miss him.’

‘Just get on with your day. He’ll be around when he can.’ He checked his watch and began to almost trot down the lane.

Bella looked at her own watch. ‘I’m very grateful to Hugo for his help, when he arrives. But I’m on a tight schedule over the next few months, so I can’t start my time here hanging around for—’ She realised she was talking to the cats again, so stopped and went back into the house, followed by her new pets. ‘Did he say land?’ she asked Yin or Yang. ‘I forgot there was land.’

She stared at them for a moment, then laughed. ‘Suppose it’s better talking to you than to myself, which is what I do at home.’

The cats meowed, then lay down at the bottom of the stairs. Bella stepped over them. ‘Before I add “land” and “you” to my list of things to think about, I’m going to have a shower and unpack. That’s what I’m going to do.’ She waved her finger at them. ‘But as you weren’t on my list of things to do, Yin and Yang, don’t get too settled. I mean it.’

* * *

After a cold shower, Bella decided to prioritise going through the notes she’d been left to find out how to heat the water. She opened the wardrobe door, sneezed for what felt like half an hour and added ‘duster’ and ‘air freshener’ to her shopping list. Then she took out a notebook and on one page wrote: Cats x2 — what do I do with them when I go?

Then she walked outside to find the land that Will had mentioned.

At the back of the house was a field with orange trees clustered together at the far end and what looked like some old vegetable beds and tangles of weeds and wildflowers scattered across the rest. She looked at an overgrown pond next to some fencing and sighed. It was covered in green algae.

A donkey brayed in the distance. Bella tried to locate where it was but couldn’t find it.

She lingered for a moment in front of a grubby white outbuilding with a blue wooden door, but decided against opening it and went back inside, adding ‘ Land — do a proper inventory’ to her list. Deciding to investigate the narrow stairs curling up from the landing, she opened the door at the top, wondering why it hadn’t been locked and mentally adding ‘ Find key ’ to her list, then stepped onto a terrace that stretched the length of the roof.

‘ Oh ’ was the only word her mind could come up with as she stood in the sunlight. In the distance, over the trees and sand dunes she could see a long, curved stretch of golden beach. ‘Meia Praia,’ she murmured. ‘I remember it.’ She spun around slowly taking in the view, from the red rooftops of Lagos to the mountains to the north, to a crisp blue lagoon to the east. She glanced down. Dead leaves had gathered in the corners of the terrace and a thin layer of dust and cobwebs covered the floor.

Deciding to add ‘Clean roof terrace’ to her list when she got downstairs, Bella looked up again. Someone was flying a blue-and-red kite over the beach. She smiled as it danced in the breeze.

* * *

Driving slowly down the narrow lane towards Meia Praia, Bella passed a small café at the junction onto the road. Her eyes widened as she turned right towards Lagos, the water glistening like a sea of diamonds rippling out towards the horizon, the sand a sunlit gold, the distant outlines of the city buildings glowing silver. She smiled, realising that Ignacio had been right — there was much more of Lagos than last time she’d visited. Switching the air conditioning off, she opened the windows so the salt-scented breeze would billow through the car.

Pulling up at a zebra crossing, she watched a couple walk towards the beach and was briefly consumed by an urge to take off her sandals and walk along the warm sand too. But she needed to buy food and, anyway, it was only April so the beach was probably not very warm.

You can do that after you’ve felt the sand between your toes and paddled in the waves . It was as if Flo was talking to her, and Bella’s internal voice began to sound just like hers, lilting and Welsh, with a laugh waiting somewhere to burst out. You’ve got a few weeks off before you have to start working again. You haven’t got an urgent deadline. The sun is shining, the birds are singing, and it will take half an hour to buy your food. Go on. You know you want to.

Bella laughed, and a sliver of the stress of the past few weeks drifted off, swept by the breeze into the distance. A flock of birds fluttered through the sky, and she imagined them carrying away the shock she’d felt when the letter arrived from the solicitor telling her she’d inherited Flo’s house, the confusion about why, and the worry about how to deal with it without damaging her career. And the sadness about the loss of someone she had met so briefly, but whose vibrancy and love of life she had never forgotten.

She blinked, watching the flock soar towards the cliff, then inland, and visualised them dropping all her worries into a forest, where they would disperse into the trees and somehow change into positive thoughts; and then she stopped, realising that the idea of letting things go is to let them go, not give them an onward story — and that her imagination had provided quite a lot of stuff for those poor birds to carry away.

Rain began to patter on the windscreen, a huge rogue cloud in the shape of a balloon settling above the beach. The couple hurried back across the zebra crossing. Sensible shopping it would be.

* * *

Following a speedy visit to the supermarket, Bella drove home and unpacked the shopping. She then fed the cats, who had been studying her with interest as she moved around the kitchen. ‘I think you’re part of the estate then,’ she said, stroking them both in turn. ‘Yin, or is it Yang? This is a temporary friendship, though. So don’t get too attached.’

Turning on the tap, she put her hand under the water. It was still cold, so she grabbed her phone and attempted to connect to the internet. She couldn’t.

Frustrated, Bella peered outside. The sky was now a bright, almost incandescent blue, with no clouds in sight. She grabbed her bag, strode onto the terrace and began to walk down the track that led to the beach lane, in search of a café with an accessible internet connection.

She followed the sound of music drifting softly over the dunes, trying to work out what the song was, then took off her sandals and smiled as the sand warmed her feet a little. Turning a corner, the end of ‘Try a Little Tenderness’ merged into Etta James singing ‘At Last’ and she paused for a moment. A man was brushing the wooden deck of a café, humming loudly to whatever tune he was listening to on his headphones, which didn’t sound like what was being played out of the speakers.

On a chalkboard leaning against the railings at the top of the steps was written:

Casa de Lopes

Produtos locais frescos

Fresh local produce

Aberto — Open

Free Wi-Fi

Paredechecarseutelefone

(esse é o código)

Translation: stop checking your phone! (that’s the code)

Bella smiled just as the man took his headphones off and turned towards her. Um... l , she thought, as he scratched his very attractively unshaven face absent-mindedly, and said the first thing that came into her head. ‘Do you have any tables free?’

The man looked at her, his face serious. ‘Let me think—’ he looked around at the empty café ‘—We may be able to fit you in.’ His face softened. ‘Sit anywhere you want. What would you like?’

‘A latte, please.’

‘A gal?o it is. Coming up.’

‘A what?’ Bella couldn’t quite understand what he said. ‘I meant a latte.’

‘Yes. Gal?o .’ He looked at her, his face expressionless.

Bella stared at him for a moment ‘But I meant a—’

‘It’s the same thing.’ He interrupted, smiling. ‘Milky coffee in a glass, on its way. You’ll like it. It’s better.’

Bella half-smiled as he carried the broom inside. Ah... a comedian , she decided, then looked around for the best place to sit, choosing a low sofa with a view of the sea.

She heard him shout, ‘Julian — gal?o for outside. Delivery has just arrived.’ She tried to connect to the internet and stared at the screen, watching the line across the Google site edge very, very, very slowly from one side to the other and wincing slightly every time it seemed to move backwards, as if it had gently collided with railway buffers.

A young man placed a glass in front of her. ‘ Gal?o ,’ he mumbled quietly.

‘Thank you.’ Bella looked up, but all she could see was his back as he hurried inside.

Taking a sip of the coffee she leaned back and gazed into the distance, watching seagulls surf the breeze over the beach as fluffy white clouds drifted across the horizon.

Turning her attention back to the phone, she saw the internet signal still locked halfway across the screen, so stood up, held it in the air and waved it around as if it was a flag. It still didn’t connect, so she stepped back and held it in front of her, then descended the steps, edging slowly backwards, staring at the screen as she went, ready to stop moving as soon as she got a signal.

‘Oh, come on . . .’ she mumbled irritably. ‘Oh—’

The line had moved very slightly further forward, and so she took another step backwards, and another, and then another. ‘Nearly...’ she muttered, trying to hold the phone even higher above her head — which was irrational, she knew, as that’s not how you connect to the internet — then stepped back again, but this time put her foot in what felt like a box, lost her balance, fell over and landed flat on her back.

‘Oh!’ Bella heard a man’s voice moving closer. ‘What happened? Are you all right?’

She looked up as he knelt down next to her. It was the man who had shown her to her seat. His face was backlit by sunlight, which looked a little like a halo.

‘I was trying to connect to the internet.’ Her voice sounded high and thin and a bit pathetic.

‘Is your head all right?’

‘I think so.’ Bella managed to sit up and found herself staring into his chocolate-brown eyes. She was temporarily unable to speak.

‘I’m worried you have concussion,’ he said after a long pause.

‘No. No.’ She dragged her gaze away and tried to focus on standing up. ‘I’m OK. Just embarrassed.’ Longing to be able to pull herself to her feet from a seated position like the rest of her class in yoga, she quietly rolled over onto her knees.

He held out his hand. ‘Let me help.’

But she was already clambering clumsily to her feet, embarrassed.

The man stood up too. ‘I see you still have your mobile phone in your hands.’

‘Ah.’ Bella looked at it. ‘Still no signal.’

‘Can I ask you something?’ His voice was serious. ‘If you had managed to get a mobile phone signal when you were holding your phone above your head, how were you going to use it to communicate?’

Bella managed a smile. ‘That is an excellent point. The pursuit of the signal temporarily got hold of me and I seem not to have thought it through.’ She sighed. ‘In fact, I sound a bit irrational, don’t I?’

She glanced down at her feet, which were covered in a bright red substance. ‘Is that blood?’ she said slowly, trying not to panic.

‘Tomatoes,’ the man replied flatly. ‘I was carrying my delivery into the kitchen, and I’d put that box there to take home.’

‘Ah.’ She stared at her feet. ‘Thank goodness it’s not blood. I’m sorry. I’ve ruined your tomatoes. Unless you’re using them for passata or a sauce?’

His expression didn’t change.

‘I’ll pay for the tomatoes,’ she said, her embarrassment ramping up a notch.

He shook his head. ‘I shouldn’t have left them there. Well, you are around the back of the kitchens and there’s no one here normally except employees. But I shouldn’t have left them there.’

‘I need some hot water and can’t get the system to work so I thought if I could look it up on the internet, I’d get it to work and actually have a warm shower rather than a freezing one, and I saw you had Wi-Fi so thought I’d have a coffee at the same time and kill two birds with one stone.’ Bella realised she hadn’t taken a breath so stopped talking.

‘Why don’t you call the owner of the place you are staying?’ The man spoke calmly as if he was talking to a child. ‘They’ll get it to work for you.’ He picked up the box.

‘I am the owner. Very new.’

He turned to look at her curiously. ‘You are living here now?’

‘Oh... No... I don’t really — just temporarily.’ She closed her eyes briefly to try to organise her thoughts. ‘Do you have a hose or something? I need to wash my feet. I feel I may attract a horde of flies on my way home.’

A phone rang from inside the café. ‘I have to go.’ He pointed at a bucket and some watering cans propped next to the wall. A hose was hanging up behind them. ‘This will help?’

‘Boss!’ Julian the waiter waved at him from the kitchen. ‘It’s that call you’ve been waiting for.’

The man sighed apologetically. ‘No rest for the wicked. The chef and my bar manager will be arriving soon too, so I have to get on. Are you sure you are all right?’

‘Yes, yes. Just—’

‘Boss... They are in a hurry!’ shouted Julian again.

The man shook his head, nodded at Bella and hurried inside, closing the door behind him.

‘—a bit embarrassed,’ she said to the door, then turned on the tap and pointed the hose at her tomato-caked feet.

* * *

Back at the house, Bella decided to get to work and put some saucepans on the stove to heat some water. The cats weaved around her legs, purring and chirping, so she got some newly purchased cat treats out of the cupboard and put them on the floor, stroking their fluffy tails as they ate. ‘My mother would say you must have been sent to me by the universe to provide pet therapy, Yin and Yang.’ Yin or Yang meowed at her. ‘But I personally don’t believe in all that. I really don’t. It’s nice to have you here though.’

She poured the water into a large bucket with some cleaning liquid, went outside and began to wash down the garden furniture, planning on moving inside to work on the living room when the midday heat got too much or it started to rain — the weather was confusing her today.

After a couple of hours she stepped back and admired her work, the chairs, benches and tables now a gleaming silver. She decided some little plants would look nice there and made a note to do some internet research and see what would grow well — once she’d sorted the internet out, reasoning that a bit of bougie dressing-up would do no harm when potential buyers visited. The cats climbed up onto a seat each, yawned and stretched out. The early-afternoon heat was acting like a sedative for all of them, as if they were in a well-lit sauna. The cicadas began to screech loudly, just as a bead of sweat trickled down Bella’s back.

There was still a hammock to be cleaned hanging invitingly above the patio. It looked grubby and forgotten, but also comfortable. The cats’ eyes were already closed, and she decided a nap would suit her too, so she climbed in and leaned back to recharge her batteries before starting on the living room. Closing her eyes, she began to rock gently, accompanied by the comforting sound of cicadas and birdsong.

* * *

The clatter of a saucepan woke her, and she sat up suddenly, forgetting she was in a hammock, which rocked dramatically then dropped her onto the floor.

‘Oh, God,’ she mumbled. ‘Where the hell am I?’

At the same time a familiar male voice shouted, ‘Are you OK?’

She looked up. A tall, dark and handsome man was hurrying towards her. ‘I think I startled the cats and one of them knocked something off the table. I’m so sorry.’ His voice was deep and warm and he sounded slightly worried.

Bella’s brain slowly cranked into gear. Ah, oh, right. I’m in Portugal, and is that the man from the café? Oh no... the man from the café. The last time I met him I was flat on my back covered in squashed tomatoes. She felt her face turn red.

He held his hand out to help her up, and she took it, dragging herself to her feet. ‘I’m OK. Thank you. I dozed off.’

‘We’ve met before haven’t we?’ He smiled at her sheepishly.

‘Yes... Have you come to ask me to pay for the tomatoes? I’m happy to pay, really. I did ruin them and you are running a business.’

He put his hands up in front of him. ‘No, no... My name is Hugo. I’m your neighbour. I’ve come to say hello and see if you need any help to get settled.’

Bella stared at him for a moment. ‘You’re Hugo? I thought you were older. I’m sorry, that sounded bad.’

‘Older?’

‘I assumed you’d be older. It’s just I was told you were an old friend of my aunt’s and as she was older, I assumed—’ She stopped talking and took a breath. ‘I’ve just woken up and I sound strange, don’t I?’

‘I’ve known her — knew her — for ever. I live next door. I was born there.’

‘Was your father called Hugo?’ Bella wanted to make sure she’d got the right information.

‘Yes he was. And his father too. My family had very little imagination regarding names.’

‘Ahh... I obviously took the word “old” literally.’ She blinked slowly. ‘I’m still sounding strange, aren’t I?’

She was waiting for him to say ‘No, not at all’ , but he didn’t.

‘It’s my night off so I was walking home and thought I’d see if you needed help. I assume the hot water isn’t working. The buzzer on your gate isn’t working either. I hope you don’t mind me just walking in. I may have been a bit rude earlier. I apologise.’

‘Rude? Were you?’ Bella didn’t know him at all, so didn’t know whether he had been rude or not, but the idea of hot water and a warm shower was worth more than making him feel bad about it.

‘Your aunt was a great neighbour. She looked after us. We looked after her. And you are family, so I promised I’d keep an eye on the place if anything happened.’ He stopped talking suddenly and knelt down to stroke both of the cats. ‘Hey, you two. Moved in already?’ He looked up at her. ‘You have to stay and not sell it, or what will these two do?’

His face was expressionless. Bella couldn’t work out whether he was serious or not, so ignored the question. ‘Would you like something to drink? I’ve only got water, orange juice or wine, though.’

‘Thank you, but I’m fine. I run a café. I have access to food and drink all day long.’

‘Oh yes, of course.’ She smiled at him. ‘Thank you for popping over. I really appreciate it. I honestly have no idea what I’m doing.’

‘Shall we?’ Hugo’s expression changed as he followed her into the house, and he stood in the doorway for a moment. ‘Every time I come in here I feel her absence.’ He looked at the floor and cleared his throat. ‘I know where everything is.’

He opened the door to the anteroom behind the kitchen. ‘I’m not surprised it’s not working,’ he shouted. ‘It’s been switched off outside. Probably Flo did it just before she got in the ambulance. She was very thorough.’

‘Ah, OK, thank you,’ she shouted back, then filled the kettle. ‘Can I use electricity in here?’

‘Yes.’ He walked back into the kitchen. ‘So, you are now fully functioning as far as electricity and water is concerned.’

‘Thank you.’ Bella tried to make eye contact with him, but he pulled his sunglasses down from the top of his head.

‘I’d better be going. I have to feed the chickens.’ He opened the kitchen door and stepped outside.

‘Well, thank you again.’ Bella followed him.

Hugo glanced back and nodded, then hurried down the path to the road.

At least I’ve met my neighbours — unless there are more , she thought. Next she would make a schedule of what needed to be cleaned, mended, replaced or thrown away, which would give the water enough time to heat so she could have a warm shower. She sighed, realising that her excitement about the hot water said a lot about her life at the moment.

Hugo suddenly stopped and turned back. ‘Are you going to sell it? I know I was joking earlier, but—’

‘Yes. Or at the very least long-term rent if that’s the best way temporarily.’

‘Money, money, money.’ A frown flitted across his face. ‘It’s not the most important thing. That’s what I tell them when they come knocking.’ He walked towards the gate again.

‘It is if you haven’t got any,’ she said to his back, wondering who was going to come knocking. And why Hugo had turned from friendly to not quite so friendly in the space of less than a second.