'But Martine needs to carry on because there is not much money around.' 'We kept each other company,' says Louise. But both have encountered violence, abuse and exploitation, and their early years in prostitution were hard. It could be that one tells the story for both, or they tell each other.
It is difficult to get the exact story because Martine, who has four children, interjects with tales of losing her own offspring and the heartache that ensued. Louise has three children, and some or all have been in and out of foster care. 'He told me unless I earned money for him he would leave me, and I had children and loved him, so I had to do it.' 'I was beaten on to the streets by my husband in my early 20s,' Louise tells me when we meet in a tapas bar on Warmoesstraat, in the heart of the red-light area. But they are warm and eager to talk to me. The sisters dress and speak identically, and, to complicate matters, often talk over each other, in a way that is almost impossible to understand. I travel to meet the twins and to be given a guided tour around the legalised sex industry that attracts thousands of British sex tourists every year.
