Courtship

Part 15

Two weeks later Cara, Isabelle and Marina were sitting down to breakfast when Marina brought her idea to the table. It was something that she had thought about for a while. But until recently she hadn't thought it possible. "Belle, I wanted to talk to you about an idea I've got. Might seem a bit off the wall, but hear me out, ok?"

"Ok. Go."

"We are nearly back on top of things, aren't we?" Marina took the slow route to her destination. "You've said that we have been in credit for weeks now!"

Isabelle nodded. "True." Cara placed a mug of coffee in front of Marina and a herbal tea in front of Isabelle.

"And I was thinking, we were lucky. In many ways, despite everything, we had some luck." The two other women looked at Marina, wondering what this long winded intro had to do with the point Marina wanted to make. "I mean we really have been lucky..."

"Not lucky. We had Isabelle's skills, Georgiana's constant drip feed of cash, your hard work and..."

"Yeah, I know. I'm not saying it wasn't tough and we all chipped in to get us back into the black. I know that. But we had heirlooms. Without them we might have sunk. With them we had things we could pawn to get us going."
"Yeah. So?" Isabelle wondered whether Marina regretted the loss of family heirlooms.

"What about the women who don't?" Marina asked quietly

"What do you mean?"

"How do the women who are locked into the poverty cycle cope? How do they get out?" Marina looked from her sister to their housekeeper who was someone they saw as family. "How does someone who finds themselves in our situation get out of it if they don't have anything to pawn? We could have ended up on the streets. Many women do." Isabelle frowned. Sometimes she thought they were close to that scenario. Marina sighed. "Last week we admitted a young kid, must have been six or seven." Marina's voice became sad, "His mother is a working girl, if you know what I mean. I think she works near the docks area. Not sure to be honest. But she wasn't doing a nine to five job, let me tell you."

"Oh."

"And that is exactly the reaction that woman got when she came to see her kid on the ward. She had toned it all down, but I don't know someone must have made a catty comment when she came in the first time, and she turned around and announced to all and sundry that yes she was in the oldest profession!"

"Poor kid."

"And poor her." Marina said, "I spoke to her every time she came in. She is actually rather amazing. She's very capable. Left school early. Her mistake. But why is she still paying for that now? Why is her son paying for her lack of formal education? I really think she just needs someone to give her a fair go. But who is going to employ a streetwalker without any school qualifications, or office skills or ...what ever."

Isabelle frowned. Marina had a soft heart, but was not the most practical one in the family, "Maybe she's happy doing what she's doing. She might not want to get off the game. May have a habit to support. There could be...."

"Yes, but what if she does want to change, what options does she have?" Marina interrupted quietly. It was something she had considered as she watched that mother's reaction to the way people treated her. Yes, of course she could have toned down her appearance, but what Marina had discovered was that the woman used that make up partly as a form of defence. What she wore served as a mask. "How does one get out of that cycle? Get out of that trap?"

Isabelle cupped her mug, as she thought about her sister's questions, then she looked up at Marina and shrugged, knowing from what Marina had said so far that her sister had thought this through a lot further, "Ok, so what's your plan?"

Marina was right. The Soujour D' Sa family had hit a huge snag, but they had each other and they had heirlooms. So between the three sisters, they had managed to dig themselves out of a hole. But what happened if you were on your own? Or without any back up?