Sisters

There are three sisters in Meeting Coty. The eldest, Maraquita, thinks she is the only one that cares for everyone else in the household. She is a great organiser. She is a 'doer.' She holds the structure of everyone's day together, so that meals appear, beds are changed, clothes mended, windows cleaned, all daily tasks occur and everyone knows about it.
Only when the others don't help in small tasks when asked does the anger that is smouldering in her, erupt. And it does so for what seems like unexpected reasons. So when Maraquita and Tessa physically fight in the dining room,it is about more than Tessa wanting to leave the house for the afternoon rather than sort out the linen.
Tessa is the middle sister. She rises early once a week to snap heads off her mother's flower displays, carries them upstairs, where she drowns them in a sink filled with water in early attempts to make perfume. She dreams of escaping her large family to work for another family, that of Francois Coty, the famous perfume maker. She follows his rise as, unknown to her, her family's fortunes are falling. She wants a career, whilst her sisters want love. Maraquita yearns for their mother's love, Carmen, for life and finally a man.
Carmen, the youngest, elopes from their convent school in Belgium, with the gardener's son. For her, all that matters is her love for him. Life is simple. If she wants something, she doesn't ask anyone's permission, she merely pursues her desire.
Three women with three viewpoints. At this stage, they are not aware of there being any other way but their own to tackle life. In Leaving Coty, the sequel to Meeting Coty, they begin to look outside themselves and at each other. Sisters. It's complicated. Are love and hate more closely related within the family unit than elsewhere?