The Duty | Marie, Lesbologie

Chapter Four : Discovering A New Reality

It was six in the morning, everyone was still asleep, except Garance, because today was the day of her mission. She told everyone yesterday night that she was "so delighted to go to England", she did not like lying, but sometimes, it was definitely needed. Her mother gave her a lot of money for the trip, she already used some to pay the coach to take her to the suburbs and to tell her mother that she was well arrived in England. Her plan had no flaws, she was so confident in herself, and that made her so hopeful. But she had to get ready first, with her current clothes, no one in the suburbs would ever mistake her for one of them, and she did not want to appear as an aristocrat, she would even less want to be recognized as Garance, she knew how to get a dress that would be perfect for her idea. 

She got out of her house, wearing fancy clothing, because, as she told her mom ; "I need to make a good impression in front of the British gentlemen", her mom was happier than ever, with as usual, a very proud smile on her face. She said goodbye to her family, and got into the coach, she was for once, proud of herself too. It was the first time she ever did something that was not approved by her mom, something about this was a little terrifying, but still a little exciting. She was smiling but trying not to, she was bitting her lips to avoid herself from smiling, out of pure excitment. She was already thinking of the life she could have with her family, thinking about the relieved look on their face when she'll come home with a husband, thinking about the fact that her little sister will never have to live what she is going through, she really did feel like a savior again but she wasn't as scared and stressed as she was for the ball, there's something about the suburbs that has always triggered her curiosity. She was thinking about it while the coach was driving away. These people seemed to live so differently than she does ; she thought that they may be more happy in some way. She has never heard about forced marriages between two poor young people, so she thought that it didn't exist, which made her jealous of them, because for her, marriage was the leading sources of all of her problems. She saw the suburbs as not so different than the Paris she knew, except she thought there was no gossips, no weddings -- except loving ones, she only knew there was misery here, but she didn't know really what is was like to be poor, she never thought that people might be so poor that they couldn't eat for days ; for her, being poor was simply living with cheap clothing, in a smaller mansion than the one she currently lives in and having to be nurses or maids, and even, she did not realize that some maids and nurses were treated badly by their employers. 

She looked at outside the window, everything that she could see was people wearing rags, children playing with rocks, women with crying babies in their arms, their faces looked like they haven't slept in ages, everything looked so grey. Garance called the driver and asked him ; 

- Excuse me, Sir. Where are we right now?

- We are almost in the suburbs, Miss Garance.

Garance left out a shocked noise of her mouth ; it couldn't be real. She expected the suburbs to be a little poor, but not like this, these people looked so miserable she even wondered how they were surviving here. And the fact that they were not even completely into the suburbs too.. she was really scared to know what it really looked like. 

- Stop the coach !

Said Garance as her driver obeyed to her order. She got out of it and ran toward one of the woman, she had two crying babies in her arms and looked more sad and sleep-deprived than the others, she gained Garance's pity, and she offered to exchange their clothes, the woman at first refused, and Garance continued insisting which led her to say yes. The woman was so happy she fell down her knees and started crying heavily, praying God to thank Him to have led her to her, Garance was so touched and felt like she did something very good ; having such expensive dresses as she has was so normal for her but she never thought that not everyone had the luck to be offered such luxuries. A tear rolled down her cheek, she wiped it as she went back to the coach, where she changed into the rags the woman had just gave her. It was smelling horrendous, she had never felt such a strong bad smell in her life. She was thinking about this poor woman who had to smell this every days and felt bad for her.