The Pleasure Quartet: Summer by Vina Jackson

Author:Vina Jackson [Jackson, Vina]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster

6

Mistress and Lover

Joao had been away on his lands for a week and asked me if I could spend time at their villa with Astrid in his absence. He felt she was in need of company. He declared he had been wrong to have me followed and that I was free to conduct my life in any way I felt best. Begged me for forgiveness. It coincided with Raoul being busy with his tours, so I wasn’t torn between alternatives. It was an uneasy status quo and left me with a deep sense of foreboding, but it suited me for now.

I tried to mend bridges with the young girl and was partly successful. When we were together, we bathed in playfulness and easy complicity, whether frolicking on the beach, messily cooking together or my pretending to be something of a martinet when instructing her in the ways of the violin, not that she ever took me too seriously when my patience snapped confronted by her frequent clumsiness.

It was also pleasant to have their lavish environment at my disposal, alongside all the domestic help. I had to admit my original awkwardness with being waited on had mostly passed, and now I just enjoyed never having to do laundry or vacuum. Alongside the glorious weather, there was something about Brazil that induced a guilt-free form of laziness and personal indolence that I was insidiously getting rather accustomed to. Morning lie-ins with no men around to distract me, fresh squeezed fruit juices and cool stone floors beneath my bare feet to greet the day. And, for now, I had no real need to dip into my shrinking funds.

I insisted that Astrid relentlessly practise her scales and whatever piece of music she was in the process of learning for at least ninety minutes every single day before she was allowed to go to the beach. She protested that the violin was just a hobby and she had no wish to become a professional musician – I had, in a rare moment of indiscretion, revealed that I had once been, and she took me more seriously following my confession, although I had insisted that she not mention the fact to either Joao or any of her friends. So long, my anonymity had held and I did not wish to endanger it further.

When Joao finally returned, he was delighted by the way his daughter’s mood had improved.

‘You’re such a good influence on her, Summer,’ he said, taking me by the waist, pulling me towards him and kissing me affectionately.

‘She’s a good kid.’

‘She is. It’s a long time since I’ve seen her so relaxed,’ he declared.

We effortlessly fell back into our odd routine consisting of my staying a few nights a week in his bed and compensating by spending regular afternoons with Raoul, when I pretexted that I was working on some unknown project and unable to join Astrid at the beach which she invariably made a beeline for, cycling the five-kilometre distance around the lagoon to

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