Compared to a dear friend who had followed him since his impoverished days, fought beside him through life and death, and crossed the Alps with him, who was more trustworthy: that friend, or a woman who had appeared late in his life and seemed to be an agent of unknown origin?
Georgiana took a sip of gin in her office at the women's shelter. It was strong, with a high alcohol content, and had anti-inflammatory effects on respiratory infections and inflammation. Georgiana had bought quite a lot of it. It could be drunk, but it could also be used on the women there.
In theory, she required the shelter to give priority to the families of soldiers. In reality, the women who came seeking help also included victims of domestic violence. They had received death threats from their husbands. Some husbands wanted to remarry after divorcing their original wives but did not meet the conditions for divorce, so they chose to murder their wives instead. Others had emotional problems and vented them by beating women. In short, these women would die if no one took them in, so Madame Ségur made an exception and sheltered them.
Men had once come to make trouble, demanding that their wives return home with them. Madame Ségur had called the police to deal with them, but mounted police could not patrol the women's shelter all the time. So Georgiana had several sturdy village women brought over from the hospital estate to maintain order at the shelter.
The prelude to the French Revolution had begun when women, aprons in hand, first marched on Versailles. What could they not do?
Those country women got off the carriage with rakes and hoes, looking fierce. The carriage also carried plenty of coarse cloth, useful for making replacement clothes