Leonie sat down on one of the benches in the station, more than a little dazed. She had expected that many people would want to leave the train here in Brussels but she hadn’t counted on the haste with which they did so. It was like when the door to the pig shed was opened and they all came rushing out, but with her standing in the middle of it.

It didn’t take long for the feeling to pass however. Instead excitement took its place as Leonie looked around the station. Everything was just so grand. The station itself was taller and much wider than even the church back home, which had been one of the biggest buildings there, second only to the baron’s castle. And it was filled to the brim with activity. Travellers rushing to and fro, queues in front of food or newspaper stands, baggage being carted from here to there. Even the colourful advertisement posters on the walls gave the station a feeling of busy activity. It was unlike anything the redhead had seen before.

As if in response to her thoughts a voice sounded next to her.

“A world away from Rooigem, isn’t it?”

She looked over to see Blanche looking at her with a bemused smile, though the twinkle in the blonde’s eyes showed that she was just as enchanted by it all as Leonie was. She nodded, looking around some more.

“I guess it’s only just now hitting me how different this is going to be, you know? I’d heard stories about the city, but it feels so different to actually be here now.”

“I know what you mean. It only now feels real, in a way.”

Blanche looked over at the grand station clock, quickly standing up from the bench herself.

“But if we want it to be real we’d better get a move on. I want to get to the VKAJ-address as soon as possible.”

Leonie nodded, quickly gathered up her cardboard trunk and followed after Blanche.

 

Going into service hadn’t been a dream of Leonie’s, not by a long shot. But after her mother died and with the stock crash that put her father out of work, he’d started to drink and Leonie had had to keep their small tenant farm running almost entirely by herself. But trying to scrape enough money together to keep everything going without her father drinking it away, while also dealing with the bad reputation her father had given her, hadn’t been something she wanted to get stuck with for the rest of her life.

So when her friend Blanche told her she was leaving for the capital to go into service, she hadn’t thought twice about joining her. It wasn’t likely to be more work than keeping the farm running along with the various extra errands she did to make ends meet. And Rooigem wasn’t going to be very pleasant without her best friend there, anyway. At least this way she’d be able to see a bit of the world while earning money. A few years in the big city had never hurt anyone.

Blanche’s cousin was already a maid in the city. She’d told them both to try to get in touch with the local VKAJ office. The organisation, a catholic institution dedicated to helping young female labourers, had a branch in Brussels specifically dedicated to female domestic servants. According to her they could find you a good job, a place to stay while you were still looking for one and some protection against bad employers.

She’d been so kind to give Blanche the address but, as neither of them had a map, that proved to be harder to find than expected. Brussels was an easy city to get lost in. The streets turned into more streets, sometimes small alleys you could barely see the sky in and other times grand boulevards full of people. They had to ask for directions more than three times before they finally reached the address, already late in the day.

Thankfully it was still open, though the lady who talked to them had already put on her coat to head out. The interaction was brief, though the woman was very polite. Names, addresses, ages, previous experience: all recorded on neat little cards and put into a file cabinet. They’d come too late to be given an address that evening but the lady reassured them that she’d probably have a place of employment for them the next day. She gave them the address for a respectable but cheap boarding house to stay for the night and that was that.

The cheapness showed, the bed’s not being particularly comfortable. However, Leonie doubted she’d have been able to sleep even in a large featherbed that night. The nerves about the next day and the start of her employment keeping her up all night. At least Blanche was in the same situation. They spent most of the night talking about how tomorrow would go and what they hoped for in their employment, until eventually the late hour caught up with them.

----

As the lady had promised, work had been ready for them the next day.

Leonie had ended up as maid for all work for a young, childless couple. It was… an alright position. Her room upstairs was decent and so was the salary. The work was heavy, there was no denying that. But the house she worked in, while certainly big, was not so large as to make it impossible for one person to clean. The cooking had been a bit of a hurdle since the dishes they expected her to make were ones she was mostly unfamiliar with. But even that Leonie had learnt to do with enough practice.

Her employers were nice enough, although they mostly ignored her. That was partially due to the linguistic difficulties: Madame spoke only French, Monsieur only French and broken Flemish and Leonie only Flemish and very basic French the nuns at school had taught her. Eventually she learnt enough to be able to talk with madame when needed, but even then the conversation stayed mostly limited to matters relating to her job.

The only part Leonie hated was dealing with Madame’s dog. She had to walk and then clean the little devil every time when they got back, before he was allowed in the salon with madame. And by clean Madame meant *every* part.

The things she did for money.

The really nice part of it all was the new environment she found herself in. Leonie wasn’t sure what Monsieur did but their standard of living was much higher than what she was used to. Nice parties, pretty dishes, gorgeous rooms. It made her feel proud to be able to work and live in such a place. Like it showed that she’d gotten much farther in the world than the girls back home, in spite of it all.

Of course it was nothing compared to where Blanche worked. She’d somehow managed to land herself a job as chambermaid in the staff of a minister. Every time they met Blanche had some new story about something or other that had happened at the big mansion, often relating to some lavish party. Leonie had to admit she was rather jealous, even if Blanche earned less than her due to her low position in the staff.

Those talks usually happened on Sunday afternoon, when they both had their weekly time off. How they spent it varied. Sometimes they would go to the movie theatre or to a café for a cup of coffee. But usually they went to the VKAJ office. Every Sunday there was a meeting for the servants who had the afternoon off and wanted to amuse themselves in company. There were songs, plays, dancing, sometimes even an excursion somewhere. It was a fun way to spend her time off, and completely free.

It wasn’t all fun and games though. The VKAJ had a moral mission not at all dissimilar from the nuns that had taken care of their education back home. The organization hoped to keep them all on the path of respectability and to make sure they became good catholic housewives. Sometimes that meant a study session regarding, for example, how to have a good marriage. Usually it took the form of father Merchtens, the priest who lead the branch, telling a bible story. It was a rather transparent attempt to keep them from going to the movies in the evenings and meeting men there, but Leonie had to admit he wasn’t a bad narrator. He always managed to make it relevant to their circumstances, so she didn’t mind all that much listening to him, even if the moralising got a bit tiring sometimes.

Overall, Leonie felt rather content with her new life.

----

Leonie was lost.

Even worse, she’d gotten lost in the capital city of a foreign country.

And the day had started out so nice!

Madame and Monsieur had decided to have a short vacation in Paris that autumn and Leonie had had to go with them. Since they were staying in hotels a lot of her regular work fell away of course, but they still wanted her around for some minor services they did not want to leave to the hotel staff.

Not that Leonie was complaining. Brussels was already exciting, but this was Paris, one of the great cities of Europe, famed for its beauty. She would be stupid to not want to be here, even if it was for work.

Her employers had still allowed her the free Sunday afternoon. As such, she’d decided to go explore the city. It had been a nice afternoon of strolling along the boulevards and admiring all the elegant houses. But Leonie had rather lost track of where she was. Or well, going off the buildings around her and the people walking along, she seemed to be in an area with a lot of brothels and nightclubs… So she was now in a bad neighbourhood, it was getting dark and she had no idea where the hotel was. It didn’t help that she should *not* have put on her shoes with heels for this….

Leonie sighed, leaning against a wall to catch her bearings. It wouldn’t do any good to just keep running around like a chicken without a head. Luckily there was a café up ahead that looked to be open.
Sitting down with a cup of coffee to calm down a bit before asking for directions sounded like a good idea.

It was a nice, if slightly dingy café. There weren’t a lot of patrons but that was likely because it was still early in the evening. She had no doubt more would come in later.

Leonie had just received her coffee when a handsome man leant on the chair in front of her.

“Well, you seem new here.”

She blinked owlishly at the man, taken aback. After a while she nodded.

“Uhm, yes, I am.”

The man flashed her a charming smile.

“In that case, could I buy you a drink? You know, as a welcoming gift?”

Leonie knew she should’ve said no. Good girls didn’t accept drinks from handsome men in dingy bars in foreign countries. But maybe she could ask him for directions back to the hotel while they talked?
And well. He was definitely handsome.

“Well, if you’d like to, sure.”

“Marvellous.”

The handsome stranger grinned and sat down opposite of her. He quickly yelled out towards the bar:

“Marie? Two glasses of wine please.”

Leonie had intended to stop at one glass of wine, she really had! But it was very good wine, and the man was incredibly good company. He had so many stories of Paris, and he paid her so many compliments. She knew she shouldn’t be doing this but it wasn’t like anyone ever gave her that sort of attention. Back home she’d always been seen as plain, and that in combination with how her father acted… it hadn’t exactly made a lot of people interested in her. In Brussels she barely ever had time to meet men. It wasn’t like she was going to go to bed with the man anyway. Was it really that bad to bask in his attention a little bit?

And when it turned into some heavy petting, well, that also wasn’t that bad right? They kept everything above the waist.

By now the café had begun to fill up, though Leonie didn’t pay it a lot of mind. There were more distracting things to focus on.

At least, Leonie didn’t pay any attention until she pulled away to take a sip from her wine glass and she noticed two women sharing a rather… intimate embrace at a nearby table.

The man clearly noticed her sudden flustered state.

“What is it, chérie?”

Leonie did her best to incline her head towards the two women while still being subtle about it. She wasn’t exactly clear on what the etiquette for a situation like this.

“I’m- uhm- does that happen a lot here? Women kissing?”

He looked at her with a look of amused confusion.

“Well, of course. I’m not going to kiss a pretty girl in a place where it’s not allowed, no?”

It took a moment for the implication to hit Leonie. Was the man- were they-??

Now that she looked at the man, she almost wondered how she hadn’t noticed it. If you knew about it, it looked obvious. Had she just- Jesus, Mary, Joseph she had.

Her stunned and embarrassed silence seemed to communicate the situation to the ma- woman. She smiled apologetically as she stood up, a tinge of regret in her eyes.

“I apologize mademoiselle. There’s clearly been a misunderstanding. I’ll just go pay for the wine.”

Leonie sat in dumb silence for a while, before a few dirty looks made her realise that staring at this sort of thing was not exactly polite. She’d never left a building faster.

----

The next day Leonie hid her small hangover as best as she could from Monsieur and Madame and focused on doing her job. When they arrived back in Brussels, she went to confession as soon as she could. The priest had thankfully understood that it had been a weak moment compounded by deception on the woman’s part  With a few ave maria’s her soul was again as spotless as freshly washed linen. Leonie had thought that would be the end of it.

But the memory of that night didn’t leave her.

In stray moments between the polishing of the silver and the darning of Monsieur’s socks she couldn’t stop her mind from wandering to the handsome woman in the bar. And of course then she felt guilty about the fact that she still thought of the woman as handsome, and about the fact that she found kissing her had felt better than any tentative kiss she’d shared with a boy. Sometimes at night the image of those two women came back to her, in a way that did not at all feel unpleasant. Which of course caused her to say her morning prayers with a greater fervour than before.

Leonie started wondering too. If such a place, where women loved each other like men, could exist hidden in Paris, were there any in Brussels? But how would sh- err, an interested party, even find those if they were so well hidden? It was clear they weren’t common knowledge or the rumour mill would have featured them by now.

One Sunday she didn’t go to the KVAJ meeting. Instead she headed over to the skeevier parts of Brussels and watched. She didn’t find anything on that first Sunday, but she came back the next, and the one after that. It was her duty as a good christian, right? That sort of immorality had to be searched for and exposed. If she found the place and gathered some more information, she could talk to the father and he could do something. But of course there was no reason to tell him about it for now, not until she knew more.

Eventually, she did find a place. A small café in a side-alley. It was nice and cozy, not filled to the brim with people but with enough women visiting to provide a nice ambience.

Leonie went in a few times, though she initially only ordered a drink and sat quietly. She had no idea how to act here, after all. At least that was the situation until the owner, a rather stout older woman named Clementine, offered to introduce her to a few people. If she’d been serious about the plan to report it to the priest, she should’ve said no. Or at least Leonie should’ve informed him at the next opportunity.

But she said yes, and that was that.

Her attendance at KVAJ meetings decreased, and when she did go Leonie didn’t stick around as long as she used to. Stay long enough to chat with Blanche and some other friends and to keep up with what was happening, that was all. She especially tried to avoid the bible lecture nowadays…

Leonie increasingly preferred the café to the KVAJ. The meetings were fun, of course! Company there was nice and lively, and she always liked talking to Blanche. But it wasn’t the same . At the café, there was a different kind atmosphere. First there was the element of excitement. The general air of scandal both in simply going and later in the dalliances she gradually started to participate in. But there was also a homey feeling of community. It was an area where everyone seemed to know each other, or at least would soon know each other. There was a certain sense of belonging there that Leonie had never really felt in other places.

But there was also the guilt. It had been there from the start, under the surface. But one sunday afternoon it really hit her. Leonie had been putting on some makeup before leaving and it hit her while looking in the mirror. Makeup, hair styled as best as she could, a nice and somewhat daring dress. All to have casual romantic encounters. Encounters with other women on top of that. She’d become the stereotype of the promiscuous maid and added an extra layer of sin, hadn’t she?

She hadn’t gone out that Sunday after all, going to a church where the priest didn’t know her for confession. The Sunday after that she also managed to stay inside and focus on some minor work around the house. But the one after that she returned to her previous routine. Despite the worries about the morality of it all she just couldn’t stay away.

She wasn’t at peace with the situation, not by a long shot. But the happiness she got from the contacts was enough to counterbalance the guilt of sin. It was easy to fall into the routine and ignore the
issues under the surface.

----

Leonie giggled as she was pushed against the wall of the alley behind the movie theatre. The woman with her leaned in to press a soft but insistent kiss against her lips, which she happily returned. After a while they parted again, and Leonie just looked into her blue eyes for a moment.

That was one of the things she’d been discovering. Blue eyes had never seemed anything special on men but as it turned out, she really, really liked them on women. Particularly on Chloé, though.

She and Chloé had been having a…thing for about two months now. It wasn’t exactly a serious relationship but it had lasted longer than any of her previous dalliances. And it felt different. Leonie felt much, much more drawn to Chloé than to any other women. And going off how affectionate Chloé had been, she wasn’t alone in that feeling.

Soon they moved from kissing to heavier business. It was somewhat risky, but they were in an alley in the dark. Who would even see them? Leonie had done it plenty of times without issue.

Unfortunately, one of the few ‘bad’ qualities Chloé had was that she loved teasing just a bit too much. While her lover was busy paying attention to her breasts, Leonie tangled her hand in Chloés hair.

“Hnn, Chloé, hurry up~”

Before Chloé could respond, a shocked gasp sounded through the alley. Leonie’s face paled when she looked over.

That was Blanche.

They stared at each other in silence for a moment. It dimly registered that the man next to Blanche with his arm wrapped around her waist must have been the boyfriend she had been talking about recently.

Just Leonie’s luck that they’d had the same idea at the same time…

Leonie quickly ducked behind Chloé to adjust her clothes. Her lover tried to appear protective but it was pretty clear that the discovery had shaken her too. The figure she cut wasn’t very impressive.

When Leonie looked back Blanche had already left.

----

The next week was absolutely nerve-wracking. Chloé had been very gallant after the incident, taking Leonie back to her apartment and making her tea. She’d definitely helped the girl recover from the immediate shock, but over the next week a quiet dread remained. At first she’d hoped that Blanche wouldn’t have found out the specific nature of the encounter. But her friend had arrived right after Leonie had called Chloé by her name. Not to mention that some obvious equipment had been on display on Chloé’s part too. God she felt mortified. They’d been friends since they were in diapers, but Blanche had always been very proper. Leonie didn’t want to lose her friendship but she had a hard time seeing how it could survive this. And of course that brought all the guilt bubbling back to the surface…

And then there were all the other concerns. What if Blanche told someone? They’d almost certainly tell her madame and she’d be out of a job. Leonie would certainly not be allowed into the VKAJ anymore. Plenty of maids found jobs without them of course, but employers vastly preferred maids who were part of the organization. Not to mention that losing her membership would mean losing a lot of protections against bad employers.

That Sunday Leonie had determined to just stay in her room and feel miserable about it all. However a knock interrupted her sulking. Surprisingly she found her Madame standing behind the door, looking rather unsure at this sudden role reversal.

“Well, I do hate to bother you on your day off but a girl at the door came to ask for you.”

Leonie’s eyes widened slightly. A girl… Chloé hadn’t come to visit, right?

“Oh, uhm. Thank you Madame. I’ll go to her as soon as I can.”

Her madame nodded, still looking rather unsure.

“Yes, you do that. And… please make sure to wear more than your nightgown.”

Right, in fairness she had been rather surprised…

 

To Leonie’s surprise, it was Blanche standing outside. Her arms were crossed but she didn’t seem angry. More… unsure. She didn’t even bother with a greeting.

“Right, we uh. We need to talk. I know a café nearby.”

Leonie could only nod mutely and follow her.

 

Leonie gave the waitress a small smile as their coffee was brought. They sat together in the farthest corner of a small café, far away from the other patrons. The atmosphere was… tense to say the least.
She did not want to start the conversation, unsure of what Blanche was even thinking. But Blanche herself seemed just as reluctant. They sat like that for what must have been five minutes, before Blanche sighed, took a gulp of her coffee and looked her in the eye.

“Okay, let’s get to the point. That was a woman right?”

A small instinct told Leonie that she could still deny it. That was the safest option, clearly. But Leonie couldn’t do that. After all, she and Blanche had been friends since diapers. Her friend deserved some honesty.

“Yes. Her name is Chloé.”

Blanche nodded. A small blush coated her face as she asked the next question.

“And you and her are… you know? Like a man and a woman?”

Leonie nodded again, shrinking back in her chair. Well, it had been obvious that that was what they were, hadn’t it?

“Yes. It’s not a very serious relationship yet but. Yes.”

“And she treats you well?”

Leonie was somewhat surprised by the question, though the answer was easy to give.

“She does, yes. Chloé’s… very sweet.”

It was silent again for some time, as they both focused on their coffee. Eventually, Blanche spoke up again.

“So how’s the dog?”

Leonie raised an eyebrow, confused.

“The dog?”

“You know, your Madame’s. The one you have to clean so much. I haven’t heard you talk about that in a while.”

Leonie didn’t quite understand the new direction, but she was grateful for the change to a less embarrassing topic. She held up her bandaged index finger, grimacing.

“Well he bit me again three days ago. So nothing different there.”

Blanche sighed, though she smiled slightly more comfortably.

“One day it’s going to be put down if this continues. I just know it.”

Leonie chuckled slightly, feeling some of the stress slide of her shoulders.

“Oh, that’d never happen. Madame would sooner die than let anything hurt that dog."

The conversation flowed freely from there and when they left they parted like nothing had happened. The night was not brought up again. And that was that.

----

And indeed nothing was said for a while. The status quo was maintained: she and Blanche talked like they used to whenever Leonie was at the VKAJ meetings. At the same time Leonie kept going to the café and increasingly to Chloés little apartment. The conversation had certainly not solved the conflict within Leonie, but it had brought some relief. Blanche still considered her a friend, regardless of her sinful behaviour. That meant a lot.

One Sunday Leonie and Blanche had decided to skip the crowded meeting for once. Instead they walked along some of the boulevards, looking at the windows of the shops. Conversation had been easy as they commented on the various wares.

Leonie had just been inspecting a particular handbag in the window, when Blanche spoke up.

“So are you and Chloé still… y’know?”

Leonie looked up, confused.

“Oh. Well, yes. Why?”

Blanche shrugged.

“I’ve just been wondering about when I get to meet her.”

Leonie blinked.

“Meet her?”

“Well I introduced you to Jean-Luc, it’s only fair.”

“O-oh.”

Well, she hadn’t expected that.

“But… why? I hadn’t expected you to want anything to do with, well, all that.”

Blanche sighed, leaning against the wall.

“I’m not going to say I approve of it, really, the whole being with women thing.”

Leonie frowned, unsure of where this was going.

“But you’re your own person. If you want to stop doing it, I’ll help you. But if you don’t intend to I’d rather get used to the situation than have it be this awkward unspoken thing between us. So I would like
to get to know her, if she’s part of your life.”

Well that was… It wasn’t good but it wasn’t bad either. It was hopeful. So Leonie nodded.

“I’d have to ask her but if she agrees I’d definitely like you two to meet.”

“Good, good.” Blanche said quietely, clearly still rather uncomfortable.

There was little point in letting the awkward moment drag out. There would be enough of that when the actual meeting took place. So Leonie smiled and started moving further down the street.

“Now come on, I hear the store at the corner got some really nice new dresses.”

Blanche was quiet for a moment as her mind processed the new topic, but soon followed after.

“Yes, let’s go.