This sum would be enough to pay Joaquim’s debt, restore the quinta and allow him to hold on for years.
But Joaquim didn’t know how to fight. He was old, weakened, with no real luck.
He then told Benedita what he had seen in her: not a useless woman, but a fighter. A force that no one had been able to understand, because no one had ever given her the opportunity to use it for herself.
His offer was clear: he would train her in secret for the tournament. If she won, he would share the prize with her. Half would go to him, or 50 contos, enough to buy his postage and start again elsewhere.
Benedita asked what would happen if she lost.
Joaquim replied that they would lose together. He would lose the quinta. It could be resold. But at least they would have tried.
She didn’t trust him. Still, she didn’t have many other choices. Something in Joaquim’s voice, an honest fatigue and recognizable pain, made him think that maybe he was telling the truth.
She agreed, with a simple threat:
“I fight. But if you betray me, I’ll kill you. “
Everyone laughed when a farmer paid just seven cents for a woman nearly two meters tall, considered useless by other buyers. It was said that no job suited him, that his strength was misdirected and that it would only cause losses.
But Joaquim Lacerda didn’t look at her like the others. Where buyers saw a problem, he seemed to see something else: brute force, still directionless, but capable of becoming a weapon.
