They started walking again, following the path by the irrigation ditch, the barn and farmhouse looming shapes against the starlit sky. Lena washed up and put on her nightgown in the dark. But before climbing into bed, she slipped into her children’s rooms, tucking the covers around them. Each day that she managed to keep her family warm and safe and fed felt like a victory.

CHAPTER 26

JULY 1942

The July sun pressed down on Ans like a hot iron as she walked to Leiden University’s observatory. The water in the canal, motionless in the still air, reflected the sun’s fire like a mirror. She slowed her steps as she neared the building with the rounded domes, glancing around for her contact from the newspaper.

Today’s messenger was a new woman, recognizable by the flower she wore and the bag she carried. They greeted each other like friends who’d met by chance and chatted about the warm weather while Ans surveyed their surroundings. She felt safer meeting her contacts in a crowd where they could blend in, but few people were out and about at this time of day, probably due to the heat. The two women quickly exchanged bags.

Ans’s bag hid the news reports that she and Eloise had written, while her contact’s hid the latest edition of the newspaper. Ans didn’t dare read it until she was safely home, but she pulled it out and began scanning it as soon as she was inside. She made her way upstairs to the workroom they’d created in one of the bedrooms on the third floor, her feet moving faster and faster as she climbed, horrified by what she was reading.

“They’re doing it, Eloise!” she said as she arrived upstairs, perspiring and breathless. “The Nazis are actually doing it!”

Eloise stopped typing. “Doing what?”

Ans saw the weariness in Eloise’s eyes and was sorry for springing the news on her. Eloise hadn’t been sleeping well, pacing the town house at night and worrying everyone. Ans should have waited until Professor Huizenga was home, but it was too late.

Eloise huffed with impatience. “Tell me what they’re doing, Ans.”

“The Gestapo in Amsterdam is rounding up Jews during the night, registering them at a theater they’re using as an assembly point, then transporting them out of the country. They’re forcing the Dutch police to help.”

She had an unwelcome image of Erik doing the same thing to innocent people here in Leiden, and her heart squeezed. She’d hoped he would change his mind about helping their enemies after the Dutch East Indies fell to the Japanese in March, but nothing had changed. “I’m not in Java,” he’d said. “Anything I try to do here isn’t going to help my homeland.”

Ans had wanted to shake him. “Don’t you see?” she’d asked. “The world is slowly being swallowed up by evil!”