Despite this, however, Pepper stalled. She was supposed to be searching for a square with an orange tree. But then again, what harm could a quick half-hour browse do? She might find something truly remarkable amongst all these knick-knacks – something she could give Josephine as a gift or keep as a memento of the time she had spent here.
Most of the stalls consisted simply of sheets laid across the ground, the seller’s goods spread out across them like sugar sprinkles atop a cake. Pepper crouched down to inspect a collection of trinkets, picking up each item to examine it in more detail. There was a pocket-sized china swan with a chipped beak, some blue metal jewellery pliers, a neat leather sack fastened with a velvet ribbon, a whole range of copper taps and pieces of piping and at least seven ornaments of the Virgin Mary, all in various states of disrepair.
‘All one euro,’ a woman with Brillo-pad hair who was manning a tin of coins informed her. ‘Very good price.’
‘Obrigada,’ Pepper said shyly, putting her hands on her knees and hoisting herself up. At a rough guess, she estimated that there must be close to a hundred more sheets on the ground, and perhaps fifty or so proper wooden stalls, each one piled high with items for sale. Determined to stick within her self-imposed thirty-minute window, Pepper decided not to bother looking at the paintings, large antiques and furniture – if she fell in love with something, she wouldn’t be able to get it home anyway – and focused instead on a stretch that seemed to be mostly jewellery, glassware and other small oddities. After ten minutes of picking through boxes, untangling nests of necklaces and turning teacups over to check the bottom for date and place stamps, she had amounted quite a haul for under ten euros.
Stopping at the end of one row to replenish herself with some water, Pepper’s eye was drawn to a narrow table covered with a cheerful red cloth. The girl standing behind it could not be more than fourteen and was pleating the front of her dress with ner-vous fingers. As she edged closer, Pepper noticed the paint stains on the girl’s hands, and smiled in recognition of a kindred spirit.
‘Olá,’ she said, and the girl glanced up timidly, quickly returning Pepper’s greeting in English.
‘Did you make these?’ Pepper asked, gesturing down at the colourful array of ceramic key holders, vases, plant pots, pet food bowls, soap dishes and a range of model dogs. Everything had been painted beautifully, and with the kind of unselfconscious finesse that Pepper wished she was able to teach her clients.
‘Yes.’ The girl glanced down at her hands, her face flushed.
Pepper extracted a key holder with two cats painted on it.
‘How much?’
The girl smiled.
‘Five euros.’
‘In that case . . .’ Pepper opened her purse. ‘I’ll get this and one of your dogs, too, please.’
She had just stowed her new treasures – each one cocooned carefully in bubble wrap – in her rucksack, when the air turned abruptly cold with the threat of rain. There was a unified kerfuffle as customers and stall owners took evasive action to avoid a soaking, and Pepper almost tumbled over onto the cobbles as an elderly couple barrelled into her sideways.
Just as it had when she and Josephine arrived the previous day, the deluge fell like a waterfall – heavy and powerful and with a total disregard for anyone who might be yet to find cover.
By the time Pepper had dodged, slipped and slid her way along a narrow street and found a tree under which to shelter, she was drenched, her hair plastered against her cheeks and her pink bra clearly visible through the thin material of her top. One of her laces had come undone and was trailing along the ground, so she propped up her foot on the arm of an adjacent bench and bent to tie them. Her back was turned to the road, so she was only vaguely aware of someone running towards her, seeing only a flash of blond and a wide grin before she had time to register who it was.
Finn skidded to a stop beside her. He was wet through, just like her, his navy shorts sodden and his white T-shirt even more translucent than her zebra-print vest. Clocking Pepper as he pushed his dripping fringe out of his eyes, Finn started to laugh.
‘It is you,’ he said, beaming at her. ‘Hello, again.’
‘Hi.’
Pepper’s heart was trying to smash its way out through the front of her chest.
‘You’re soaked.’
Finn appraised her. ‘You are the same,’ he said, and after twisting the bottom of his T-shirt with both hands in order to wring it out, he added, ‘Shit, man – this rain is crazy.’
‘I like it!’ Pepper had to raise her voice to be heard over the deluge, laughing at the look he gave her. ‘Summer rain. I always have. I think it’s the smell.’
‘The smell?’ Finn wrinkled his nose.
They would need to build an ark from the branches of this tree soon, she thought, glancing up and noticing the oranges for the first time. Water was hurtling down the tram tracks and washing away scattered petals. From somewhere high above them, Pepper heard the sound of window shutters being slammed and shivered.
‘You are cold,’ Finn stated. ‘I don’t have anything to give you.’ He lifted both his arms, and for a thrilling moment, Pepper thought he was going to offer her a hug.
‘I’m fine,’ she told him, inwardly cursing the polite British reflex that always made her default to immediate reassurance. ‘I mean, obviously I’d be happier if I didn’t look like one of those sea birds that’s been caught up in an oil spill, but, you know . . .’
Finn frowned at this, but only with the top half of his face – the lower portion was still smiling at her, and Pepper found that she had no choice but to grin back. It was as if someone had tied a helium balloon to each corner of her mouth.
Finn took his phone out from the back pocket of his shorts, wiped the screen dry with the flat of his hand, then lifted it up to show her.
‘No message.’
‘I was just about to send one,’ she spluttered, registering heat in her cheeks and wondering if she had gone full plum, or merely radish. ‘I was busy,’ she added, turning so he could see her bulging rucksack. ‘Shopping.’
‘At the market?’ he guessed, and she nodded, swallowing as she took in the muscular shape of him beneath the wet material of his T-shirt. Thank God for the rain – the longer it fell, the longer she and Finn would be trapped here together.
‘Will you show me?’ he asked, nodding at her bag. ‘I want to see what I missed.’
Pepper extracted her spoils one by one, explaining that no, she wasn’t a weird collector of old mismatched cutlery and broken jewellery, but that she was planning to put everything to good use. Finn smiled politely as she handed him one item after another, only becoming more animated when she unwrapped the ceramic key holder.
‘Nice,’ he said, holding it up so he could examine it in more detail. ‘I like this very much.’
Pepper told him about the girl and Finn listened, his fingers testing the join of the hooks and the quality of the edging. Josephine was right – he really did have impeccable nails.
‘Can I buy it from you?’ he asked, and Pepper was so surprised that she laughed.
‘Um, OK, I suppose so – but wouldn’t it make more sense to buy a different one? That way the girl would get the money, rather than me.’