Page 81 of Minha Dona

“I’d never flinch.”

“I know. That’s what I’m saying.” Caitlin took Helena’s hand. “I’m saying that I can see a future with you. A real one. Not a work fling, not a holiday romance. A life. I don’t know what shape it takes yet, I don’t know how we solve for the distance, but I know that what I want is to solve for it. With you. I suppose… I know we kind of said this last night, but I wanted to make sure that you know. I don’t want this week to be the end of a fling. I want it to be the start of something truly special, and I want to commit to that. If you want that too?”

Helena looked at this woman and felt something inside her crystallise that she wasn’t sure she’d ever quite felt before. This was fast, but their discussion at dinner the night before had set them on this path, and it was a path she absolutely wanted to go down, whatever it took.

“I can see that future too,” Helena said. “I’ve been seeing it all week. The start of something special sounds good, doesn’t it? You fit, Caitlin. Everywhere I put you, you fit.”

“That’s either very romantic or you’re describing me like a piece of furniture.”

“Very romantic. Definitely very romantic.”

Caitlin laughed, and Helena pulled her close.

“We should tidy before we do anything else.”

“You mean the… play things?”

“I mean exactly the play things,” Helena replied.

“I suppose Mariana or one of her friends coming into the pool house and finding a spreader bar under the couch might open a few eyes…”

Helena looked at her. “I didn’t bring the spreader bar.”

“Shame.”

“I packed light. Just the scarves, the harness, and a few essential toys.”

“Your version of essentials and everyone else’s version of essentials are very different things, Minha Dona. Very different things indeed.”

Chapter 30

Helena heard the music from the car before she saw it, followed by the crunch of tyres on the gravel drive and a blast of the horn that was unmistakably Mariana’s own little joke for Helena… better get out of bed ladies, because we’re here.

“They’re here,” Helena said, standing up from the terrace chair. Luckily, they were both dressed and had been for the last hour. Before that, less so. Helena reckoned she could get used to a life where she saw Caitlin wearing nothing in private and a string bikini in public. Retire to a tropical island, just the two of us, and spend our days doing precisely nothing. A fantasy of course, not reality, but a good one.

Caitlin stood too, straightening her dress. Her hand went unconsciously to touch the necklace in the gesture that was Caitlin’s one tell, her way of centring herself. She looked composed but Helena could see the effort she was putting into it and had to remind herself that while she knew Mariana’s friends as well as she knew her own, for Caitlin this was a big deal.

The car engine switched off, leaving just the music and the sound of chatter that was the usual noise from Mariana and her friends coming from round the side of the main house.

“You look great,” Helena told Caitlin. “Be yourself. That’s all you need to do.”

“Be myself. The woman who nearly broke public decency law on your family’s local beach yesterday.”

“Who did break those decency laws, just nobody was there to see it. Maybe not that version of yourself.”

They walked through the garden to the drive. Mariana was already out of the car, directing the extraction of bags from the trunk. She was wearing a sundress and enormous sunglasses, and her energy, even at a distance, was immediately, overwhelmingly present.

“HELENA!” Mariana spotted her and was across the drive in seconds, wrapping her in a hug that was more like a tackle. She was shorter than Helena by several inches but what she lacked in height she compensated for with force of personality. “I can’t believe you came down here two days early,” she said in Portuguese. “Have you had fun? How’s the pool house? Have you broken anything? Mamãe will kill you if you’ve broken the…”

“I haven’t broken anything. And hello to you too.” Helena extracted herself from the hug and turned, switching to English. “Mariana, this is Caitlin.”

Mariana pushed her sunglasses up onto her head and looked at Caitlin.

“Caitlin,” she said.

Helena watched as Mariana sized Caitlin up. She was quick about it, but she had always been fast. Her eyes moved over Caitlin with a frank curiosity that would have been unsettling in anyone else, but in Mariana it was somehow just her… a direct stare, a slight tilt of the head, a slight narrowing of the eyes. It wasn’t aggressive, but Caitlin wouldn’t be left in any doubt that Mariana was assessing her suitability to be spending all this time with her sister. Weirdly protective in her own way, Helena thought, not that I’ll let her opinion sway anything. But it’ll be easier if she does approve.

“So, you’re the mystery woman,” Mariana said.