The House that Florence Left (Portuguese Paradise #4)

Chapter 12

Bella was sitting outside on the patio drinking a cup of tea, cocooned in the heat of the morning sun when she realised something was different.

One of the storks seemed busier than usual, flying back and forth to the nest over and over again. Bella watched for a while then decided to go up to the roof terrace to check everything was all right.

Standing on the sun-baked roof, she looked over at the nest guarded by Harry or Sally, and she could make out four tiny grey, furry heads peeping out over the top, their beaks open wide.

Bella stared, wanting to jump up and down and clap. Harry and Sally had babies now. She didn’t just have two storks on her roof, she had six. For a few moments her mind raced off, wondering what she could call the newborns, names almost falling from the sky — Fleur, Keanu, Meg, Colin, Juan, Lola, Grace. Then she tried to find names more fitting for southern Europe — Cristina, Pedro, Tomás, Gino.

Gino. Bella tried to stop thinking. She didn’t want the name to be there, but once it was, she couldn’t stop the thoughts. They wrapped themselves around her, repeatedly pushing the top of her head like a button. On, off, on, off.

‘ I think we should try for a baby, Bella.’ Gino looked up from his computer. ‘We are the right age, we have the right income. It’s the correct next step.’

Bella put a plate of nibbles on the table in front of them. ‘Is it the right time? Just because all of our friends are having children? Shouldn’t we wait until it’s the right time for us?’

‘When is the right time for us? This focus on work we both have? What’s it for, really?’

Bella looked at him. ‘You’re right. You’re right.’ She put her arms around him. ‘Let’s be parents. It’s in our plan, I suppose. We can just bring it forward.’

Bella couldn’t breathe properly. She sat on a chair and closed her eyes. But the thoughts wouldn’t stop.

She put her head in her hands, trying to drag her mind back from the past, pulling it away from the darkness, back to the light on the roof of Aunt Flo’s house. But the thoughts wouldn’t stop.

‘We’ve been trying for six months, Bella. Why aren’t we pregnant?’ Gino had a pregnancy website open. ‘Are you eating properly? Resting? You’re working too hard. That’s what it is.’

‘It doesn’t happen overnight, Gino. Just because we want it to. I’ll make an appointment to see the doctor. Give me some dates you’re free.’

‘Why do I need to come?’ He closed the page. She noticed the one open behind it was a recruitment page for a company in America. ‘We need to move forward. You don’t want to be too old to have a baby. You need to reprioritise your work/life balance.’

Bella remembered struggling to formulate the words. ‘Are you blaming me?’

He turned round and touched her arm, softly. ‘No, no. It’s me. I’m getting frustrated. You know how it is. I have a plan and I work towards it and it always comes to fruition.’

‘Well, let’s both go and see the doctor and we can see if we can both do something to help.’

‘You book the appointment and I’ll try to get there. But it’s your body. You need to be less stressed and work less hard.’

He closed the laptop and walked out of the room. He didn’t hear Bella say, ‘But it could be you? It may not be me.’

The storks flapped their wings, chattering loudly at their chicks, and Bella opened her eyes, tears streaming down her face. Her breathing started to ease and the pressure on her head lifted. She looked up, imagining the memories dissipating into the air.

‘Bella?’ Hugo’s voice shouted from the garden. ‘Bella?’

Wiping her cheeks with her sleeve she stood and fixed a smile on her face.

‘I’m on the roof!’ she called, leaning on the wall.

Hugo looked up at her and for a second no words would come out of her mouth.

‘I’ve just been tidying up. I’ll be with you in a moment.’ She went slowly down the stairs, pausing to check her reflection in the bathroom mirror, pulled a brush through her hair and walked out of the door, feeling somehow lighter than when she’d walked in.

Hugo was standing next to the tree, the shade dappling his arms with leaf-shape spots.

Bella smiled, relieved that he was there.

‘Right.’ He looked at her. ‘Are you ready? Who knows what opening these doors may release?’

Bella stepped back onto the grass. ‘You may think it’s funny, but I’m urban. A city-dweller. All this nature and lizards and insects business is not really my bag. So I’m getting out of the way.’

‘It will be fine.’ He shook his head, smiling. ‘There is nothing to be afraid of.’ He opened the doors dramatically. ‘You see.’ He pointed at the floor. ‘Nothing is running out from under anything.’

Bella took a deep breath as Hugo moved further inside. ‘You’re right. I’m being a bit of a lightweight.’

As she approached the door, Hugo shrieked.

‘Get off me!’

‘Hugo?’ She ran into the outhouse to see what had happened.

Hugo was standing next to the wall with a large cobweb draped over his shoulder, grinning.

‘What?’ For a moment Bella couldn’t work out what was happening.

And then he started laughing. ‘I’m sorry, I couldn’t resist it.’

‘You are a very bad person,’ she managed to say, before she laughed too. ‘You frightened the life out of me.’

He caught her eye. ‘I wouldn’t let any harm come to you,’ he said seriously.

They stood for a moment, staring at each other until the sound of a stork chattering broke the silence.

‘I think you have baby storks now?’

‘It appears I do. I noticed them earlier in the nest and it’s very lovely. Anyway, as you are giving me your time, shall we start?’ She forced herself to sound businesslike, even as Hugo took his T-shirt off and draped it over a chest of drawers. ‘Yes, right.’ She addressed a light switch on the wall behind him. ‘Where shall we start?’

‘I will take this corner for now as it has what looks like the most rubbish in it. Why don’t you start at the section near the door?’ He picked up a bin bag from a roll that was on the floor. ‘We have rubbish in the skip, a pile of things to keep and a pile of things to either recycle or give away.’

‘It’s hot already isn’t it?’ murmured Bella.

‘This is why we need to start now and drink lots of water.’ He smiled. ‘Shall we begin?’

‘Yes, let’s begin.’ Bella opened a wardrobe to see what was inside, and they spent the rest of the afternoon working quietly together, Bella reminding herself periodically that they were definitely doing something to ‘make it better’.

* * *

‘I have some food and drink in the house if you’d like to come over.’ Hugo put his T-shirt back on.

Bella stopped looking at his left foot and was able to meet his gaze once he’d done that. ‘I should really be feeding you after helping me clear this out.’ She looked at the separate piles of rubbish, furniture and knick-knacks that had been sorted into piles to throw out, to donate and to sell. There was also a small pile of things to keep that Bella had been unable to part with, which she’d sort out in a week or so. She wasn’t ready to let them go yet.

‘The restaurant manager offered to drop a selection of food off for us at my house. So, it would be rude not to come.’

Bella wanted to go and lie down in a darkened room but was also very hungry. And she wanted to be with Hugo. Somewhere at the back of her mind she was frightened that if he went, she’d be alone with her thoughts again. ‘It would be rude not to,’ she said, turning towards the track.

‘No, we won’t go the formal way. We’ll climb over the fence behind the orange trees.’ Hugo walked along the path that took them through the orange grove.

Bella followed him wearily as they moved through the field, the cicadas screaming at them as they went. She sighed. ‘Got to get this sorted too. I suppose it comes under the remit of making it better. And as I’ve said, in the unlikely event that I rented the place out for a while before I sold it, I’d need to get someone to look after it.’

‘I could look after it — I could pay you for the fruit and vegetables,’ replied Hugo.

‘I suppose you could.’ She climbed over the fence into his garden. The donkey brayed in welcome. ‘Afternoon!’ she said, stroking its head, as Hugo went into the house.

‘Just sit wherever you want to,’ he shouted. ‘I’ll get the food.’

‘What’s the donkey’s name?’ Bella tickled its ears.

‘Mateus.’ Hugo had brought out some glasses and put them on the table on the terrace.

‘Oh, what a day.’ Bella stretched and sat down. ‘I honestly am so grateful for your help.’

Hugo smiled at her. ‘I won’t say it was my pleasure because it was very hard work. But I’m glad I could help in a small way.’

‘There weren’t as many — things — crawling around as I expected.’ She winced. ‘I’m rather embarrassed about the screaming.’

He laughed. ‘I think that perhaps that is what drove some of them away.’

‘Maybe I should market myself as a kind of holistic pest control service.’

Yin and Yang jumped over the fence next to the olive tree and padded over to her. ‘I’ve never had pets, but aren’t these cats sort of behaving like dogs?’ Bella stroked them as they climbed up next to her.

‘Everything connected to Flo is very much whatever it wants to be.’ Hugo picked up his guitar. ‘I should have taken this in earlier. All this heat won’t do it any good at all. I’ll get us a drink. What would you like with your food? Wine, beer, water, tea?’

Bella tried to get up, but the swinging seat moved backwards and forwards, so she couldn’t quite get her feet on the floor. ‘I’m trying to help. I’m sorry. First you spend the afternoon clearing the outbuilding, and now you are feeding me because I haven’t got any food worth mentioning in my own house.’

‘Well, I didn’t cook it. I think I’ll bring you wine.’

Bella glanced at the guitar. ‘Can I have a go? I tried learning when I was a teenager but never had the time to practise.’

He handed it to her. ‘Of course. It’s a great stress release.’

She looked at it for a moment, then ran her hands along the neck and strummed the strings tunelessly. ‘In my head I’m Audrey Hepburn sitting at a window in Breakfast at Tiffany’s singing “Moon River”,’ she shouted. ‘In reality...’ She laughed. ‘Anything but.’

A small plane buzzed over the beach in the late-afternoon sun, trailing a banner advertising something. The noise was strangely comforting. Bella stretched again and lay down next to the cats, still holding the guitar and closed her eyes. ‘Just for a moment,’ she murmured.

‘Bella... Bella...’ A hand gently brushed her arm. ‘The feast is here.’ Hugo’s voice was gentle, but it sounded like he was trying not to laugh.

She opened her eyes. ‘Oh. How long have I been asleep? How embarrassing.’

Hugo was crouching down next to her. ‘I’ve been inside for just over five minutes, so really not long. I’m impressed how well you’ve looked after the guitar.’

Her arms were clutching it to her as if it was a very large teddy bear. ‘Oh.’ She giggled and tried to sit up.

Hugo took her hand. ‘Here.’

She looked up at him. His dark-chocolate eyes held her gaze for a moment and they moved closer, and closer, until their lips were so close she could feel his breath. Then Yin or Yang jumped off the seat, making it rock slightly and at the same time Hugo’s phone buzzed on the table.

They both looked away, the moment gone.

‘Just a group message from the café. The manager’s onto it.’ He put it down and pointed at a table on the patio. ‘Your feast awaits.’

The table was set with a red-and-white-checked tablecloth, a basket of bread, cold meats, cheese and a salad, with a large bottle of water in the middle, a bottle of wine and a tiny vase with a yellow carnation in it.

Bella looked up at him, pretending that what had just nearly happened hadn’t nearly happened. ‘I’ve been asleep for longer than five minutes, haven’t I?’

He pulled a chair out for her. ‘In this part of the world time is an abstract construct. Your table awaits, madam.’

Bella lay the guitar on the swing seat and sat at the table. It was the most romantic thing anyone had ever done for her. Something unfamiliar fluttered in her chest. Her rational voice was trying to be rational . It’s the sun. It’s the sky. It’s a hot country. He can cook. He can play the guitar. He grows vegetables. But... but... He’s gorgeous. I mean, those eyes.

‘Wine?’ Hugo held the bottle over her glass.

She nodded then picked up a piece of bread.

That face. Those legs , continued the rational part of her brain. That chest. His hair curls at the nape of his neck. That tattoo of the yacht. Of course you want to fall into bed with him. I mean, of course. But . . .

‘Thank you.’ Bella picked up the glass and took a very long gulp.

She waited for something from her rational voice after the ‘but’.

You don’t live here , said the voice eventually. And if it’s just a fling and it goes wrong, that’s another bad memory of Aunt Flo’s house to carry around.

She sighed. It was a bit lame, but rationally, absolutely correct.

And then he picked up the guitar.

Oh bugger , the rational voice said.

The fluttering sensation returned.

‘So, you want to sing “Moon River”?’ he asked, playing the first few chords.

‘Yes. I’d love to.’

‘Right, as you can see, the chords are very simple. And you just sing the words slowly, using the guitar as a kind of accent.’

He sang the first few lines then beamed. ‘I haven’t sung in front of anyone for so long. The band split up years ago. As you have provided an audience of one, I couldn’t help myself.’

‘Well, no one has given me an exclusive concert before. I mean—’ she struggled to find the words ‘—it’s very intense, isn’t it?’ She took another gulp of wine. ‘Rubbish way of describing it,’ she muttered.

‘Do you want to try?’ He walked over to her. ‘It’ll be easier if we sit next to each other so I can show you the chords.’

‘Right.’ Bella took the guitar.

‘Did you manage to learn anything when you tried it when you were young?’

Bella held her left hand over the neck, then wiggled her fingers over the strings but didn’t put them anywhere. ‘As it happens, no.’

‘OK. So...’ Hugo moved slightly closer. Bella kept looking at the guitar. ‘If you put this finger here—’ he pointed at a string ‘—then this finger here...’

Bella followed his instructions.

‘This one here, and finally this one over here.’

Bella stretched her hand to reach the right string but couldn’t quite manage so Hugo gently took her hand and helped her.

‘Thank you.’ She looked up into his eyes. He was so close she could feel his breath on her neck.

She looked away and played the note.

‘Good,’ he said quietly. ‘Now, move to this one.’ He took her hand and moved it gently over the right strings.

Bella forced herself not to look up and played again. ‘It’s not easy to get the right pressure, the tips of my fingers are hurting already.’ She played the two chords one after the other.

‘You get used to it.’

One of the cats jumped up between them and sat on her lap.

‘Looks like Yin or Yang wants to learn too.’ She heard the smile in his voice and looked up again. He was gazing towards the rocks of Ponte de Piedade glowing gold in the distance, the setting sun throwing a silver triangle onto the sea. ‘Sunsets,’ he said softly. ‘When I’m not working I just sit here and watch them.’

Bella gazed at him, trying to think of something to say. ‘I would too,’ was all she could manage.

His phone buzzed again, and again. He picked it up. ‘Even on my day off.’ He shook his head. ‘I’m sorry. There’s an issue with one of the staff. They’ve had to leave because of a family emergency and they can’t get anyone to replace her at such notice. So...’

Their eyes locked again. Bella felt like she was going to fall into them.

No , shouted her rational inner voice. Remember Gino. Throwing caution to the wind. The instant attraction, that soulmate rubbish... and look what happened there.

‘Oh well.’ She looked away, then stood up.

‘Please, let’s eat the food before I go. I won’t get a chance to have anything myself once I’m working.’

They sat down and ate quickly and in silence, until Hugo said, ‘So, what are your hobbies when you are at home, Bella? Apart from not playing the guitar?’

‘Hobbies?’ Bella thought for a moment. ‘I... go to the gym... yoga... I — I don’t really have time to be honest.’

‘It must be nice to have friends around, and to go out for meals.’ He shook his head. ‘My social life revolves around the café these days. That’s where my friends come to see me.’

Bella didn’t say anything. There was Lil, but Lil was her work friend. They didn’t really socialise. Her friendships these days were done mostly by messaging apps, arranging and rearranging and eventually cancelling meet-ups.

Hugo stood. ‘I’d best head off, then.’

‘Can I help tidy up?’ Bella stood too.

‘No.’ He shook his head. ‘It will only take me a few minutes. I think you need to go home and relax.’

* * *

Bella spent the next few days in a frenzy of tidying up, sifting through Flo’s old things and putting them into piles in the same way she’d dealt with everything in the outhouse. Unfortunately, all of it was then ‘filed’ in the outhouse, and not much was getting thrown away. She had ordered a skip, but the company kept changing the delivery date, so on the day before her first day back at work, when she looked in the fourth bedroom, cluttered with furniture and boxes, she paused. It felt like a portal to another dimension. ‘A furniture dimension,’ she told the cats as they sat behind her on the landing.

She decided to call a ceasefire with Auntie Flo’s ‘stuff’. Although, she reasoned, she was not stopping, simply reorganising her priorities. ‘Because,’ she closed the door and announced to the house, ‘in my world, dealing with a lot of old furniture and moving it on is “making it better”. And since I don’t know what you meant by that phrase—’ she was now talking to Great-Aunt Flo as she walked down the stairs ‘—in this instance, I’m deciding.’

In the living room, something darted behind the chest of drawers out of the corner of her eye, and she wearily wondered what else could be in the fourth bedroom apart from furniture.

She made a cup of tea, took her laptop outside and sat in the shade, trying to find things on her list to write ‘ DONE ’ in bold, dark letters next to. When she ran out of things to do that to, she made another section entitled ‘ Outhouse temporary storing station ’, and subheadings with ‘ Furniture ’, ‘ Ornaments ’, ‘ Clothes ’, ‘ Definitely Rubbish ’, ‘ Bags to put out for the binmen ’. She added the last one as it was an easy fix, and she contemplated adding ‘ Binmen have taken ’ to it as another way of feeling she was making progress.

Her phone rang, but she didn’t recognise the number so waited to see if anyone left a voicemail, which they did. It was Ignacio.

‘ Olá , Bella. Bom dia. This is Ignacio. Duarte and I are at the end of your track but don’t want to drive up without letting you know we are here. And the buzzer is not working, so we can’t ring it.’

Bella rolled her eyes, irritated she kept forgetting to fix the buzzer. She was supposed to be organised and she couldn’t work out why that kept falling off her list of things to make better.

She rang him back. ‘Hi, Ignacio. Of course you can come in. But just one thing. Where is the buzzer? People keep mentioning it, but I haven’t located it yet.’

‘ Excelente! We have a small favour to ask. And the buzzer is behind the bushes.’

‘Right, thanks. See you in a moment.’

She took her laptop inside and waited for them on the patio. They drove up in Duarte’s electric Porsche.

‘ Olá , Bella!’ Duarte got out. ‘It is so very nice to see you again. Isn’t it, Ignacio?’

‘It certainly is.’ Ignacio got out and shook her hand warmly.

‘What a lovely surprise.’ She tried not to stare but there was something strange in the way they were dressed.

‘Ha!’ Duarte beamed. ‘We are dressed as Laurel and Hardy. We have been practising our living statue performance and are going to a local nursery school where there is a little festival of dance.’

‘Although—’ Ignacio moved his bow-tie slightly ‘—we are living statues so won’t actually be dancing.’

‘I must say, I am enjoying semi-retirement a great deal.’ Duarte fussed over the cats.

Ignacio laughed. ‘Do you remember the last time we were here dressed like this?’

Duarte thought for a moment. ‘Three years ago? Was it for Hugo’s birthday? That fancy dress party.’ He shook his head and smiled. ‘She loved having people here, you know.’

‘It left a big gap in our lives when she left us.’ Ignacio looked at the floor and cleared his throat. ‘We are promoting movement and mindfulness and are going to hand out flyers for the House on the Hill at the event. Hopefully some parents might be interested.’

Duarte picked up Yin or Yang. ‘And Layla is thinking of putting on a fundraising event for the charity Hugo is planning on setting up. Your aunt first suggested it but we just couldn’t even think about doing it after she passed. But now we all feel reenergised.’

‘What a brilliant idea.’ Bella wondered what her aunt would think of Laurel and Hardy reappearing in the garden and suppressed a giggle. ‘Would you like something to drink?’

‘Well, this is presumptuous.’ Duarte put down the cat. ‘But we were at Hugo’s café yesterday and he mentioned you were going through Flo’s belongings and there were quite a few old clothes.’

‘So, we wondered if we could look through them before you get rid of them.’ Ignacio sounded excited.

‘I am, as part of my film producer role, beginning acting classes for free at a local college as part of my community engagement, and think there may be some clothes we could put in what I like to call—’ Duarte put his fingers in the air to indicate inverted commas ‘—our “dressing-up box”.’

‘Of course you can. Would you like to do it now?’

‘Actually, no time, but we will arrange it soon. We will check with you first.’

‘Yes, no problem.’

Ignacio took out his wallet and handed her a card. ‘Here is the name of the electrician we use at The House. He can fix the buzzer for you.’

‘Ah, one less thing to worry about.’ Bella read it and looked up as they got back in the car.

‘ Adeus, até a próxima ,’ shouted Duarte.

They headed off down the track, and Bella wondered in what world she ever thought she’d see Laurel and Hardy driving an open-topped electric Porsche.