Courtship

Part 16

Cara went to refill the kettle. This was going to be a long meeting between the three of them. It reminded her of all those years ago, when the three young, recently bereaved sisters were hit with rather unexpected news. Finding out the family was skint had come as quite a shock. Working out how to maintain the façade had taken a lot of hard work, and a great deal of luck. Marina was correct. They had used those heirlooms. And various credit cards, and each of the three girls had shouldered their part. It had been close to the wire at times. But they had made it.

Time for a fresh pot of tea.

"It's not simple." Marina's eyes showed concern. She didn't have a plan exactly. Just an idea. She wasn't even sure it was feasible, given they were only just about back in the black. What she wanted to do would take cash. Lots of it.

"We don't do simple, remember?" Isabelle said encouragingly and grinned at Marina. "In any case, now that we have our own finances on the right side of the accounts, I'll need a new challenge! Otherwise I might just get bored!"

"Bored?" Cara chuckled. "Chance would be a fine thing." The last few years had been difficult and no one in their right mind would describe them as boring. What she had also discovered was that the three sisters were strong women. They had worked as a team and kept the family afloat. The extended family which included Cara, who was in reality what most people would have described as the hired help.

Marina walked her mug over to the sink. She propped her hip against the worktop edge and said, "I thought we could use some of our investment to set up a charity medical centre down near the docks."

"A medical centre." Isabelle blinked, for the scale of Marina's idea was more than she had anticipated. "Oh, well, er..."

"That way we can offer free treatment." Marina said and winced when she saw the alarm register in Isabelle's eyes. So when Isabelle did speak, Marina expected the concern she heard in her sister's voice.

"Free? How would we cover costs?"

"Ah, well that's where you come in." Marina looked over at Isabelle before she headed over to Cara and placed her mug alongside the now boiling kettle.

"Me?" Isabelle looked confused. "I'm not a doctor. Nor a nurse. Or..."

"Not talking about the medical side. That's me!" Marina chuckled, "I've done my society bit. Now it's your turn."

Bemusement took over from apprehension. "Ok, now I'm really confused. You want to open a medical centre. But you want me to go to parties? How do those two things tie in?" Isabelle looked at Cara, "Does it make sense to you?" She asked Cara, who shook her head in response.

"You two are being too literal! You, Belle could organise fund raisers. Get patrons for a charity, and that charity could donate funds to the centre. You are financially astute, good with people, great at organising things. That's what I'm saying."

Cara filled the teapot and walked back to the table. The two sisters were studying each other in silence. The silence dragged on, until Isabelle sighed and admitted, "That's a huge challenge."

"Yes, and there's more." Marina joined them at the table. She could see that both Isabelle and Cara thought she was making life way too complicated.
"More? You think the centre idea isn't enough of a challenge? What are you, a masochist?" Isabelle teased. "You want a free medical centre, and you want more?"

Marina nodded. "Might as well go the whole hog! I want to start as a medical centre, because that's how we will get them in. Free condoms, health checks, that kind of thing. But I want it to develop into a retraining establishment. We pay them to retrain. They bring their kids in..."

"Rina! That's mega, we can't manage that." Isabelle shook her head. "Good idea and all that, but not really feasible."

"Yes it is."

"No. Look we've managed because I know how to juggle credit cards, Georgiana sent us practically all of her wages to cover stuff, you have kept the outside world believing we are still the Sojour- D'Sa family of old, and gran and Cara have kept us sane and fed!"

"We can do this. We have taken ourselves from no money to back to almost having a steady income. All without a whisper of it getting out. We can do this. I know we can. Between us we can help other people who did not have the lucky break we had."

"Rina, hon, it took more than luck." Cara said softly. "There were times when your grandmother and I thought things were impossible..."

"Exactly. We thought things were impossible. But we did it. Made it possible."

"We just paid off old bills!" Isabelle pointed out. "Not generated new ones!"

"I know. But, we found a way to make it work." Rina pleaded, "All I'm saying is think about it. With a bit of careful planning, we can do this!"