Lena was reading Maaike a bedtime story when she heard a car coming up the road. She stopped reading, suddenly alert. It was after curfew. The car halted outside. The engine turned off. Two car doors slammed. “Who’s here, Mama?” Maaike asked.

Not the Nazis. Please, not them. “I don’t know. Your papa will see to them.” She continued to read, hoping to finish the chapter quickly as voices drifted up from the kitchen. She recognized her father’s voice and felt only slightly relieved. It would take something important to bring him out here this late. And then she heard another familiar voice.

Ans!

She closed the book and hurried downstairs, knowing that Maaike would surely follow her. Lena reached the bottom of the stairs, and there was her beautiful daughter, standing in the kitchen, holding a bundled baby in her arms.

“Ans! My goodness! What are you doing here?” Lena rushed to embrace her. Ans handed the baby to her grandfather and hurled herself into Lena’s arms as if she might never let go. “Let me look at you!” Lena said when they finally parted. Footsteps thundered down the steps as Maaike and Wim joined them.

“You’re home!” Maaike cried. “You’re finally home!”

“Hi, Ans,” Wim said shyly.

“Wim! My favorite brother!” Ans replied. They all laughed and cried and embraced each other, then Lena remembered the baby. She was just waking up, stretching and yawning and rubbing her eyes as if she’d been asleep for a hundred years.

Lena reached out for her. “And who is this little one?”

“Her name is Elisabeth. Her mother died and she needs someone to take care of her.”

“Well, hello, Elisabeth. Welcome to our farm.” She had lovely dark eyes the color of chocolate and ebony hair that fell in soft curls around her face. She blinked as if wondering where she was, then smiled at Lena, revealing teeth like tiny pearls. Lena smiled in return. She had a thousand questions she wanted to ask, but they could wait until after the children were in bed.

“Let me see; let me see!” Maaike begged. Lena sat down on a kitchen chair, loosening the blanket and allowing Elisabeth to sit up and look around. “Hi, Elisabeth!” Maaike said. “We’ll call you Bep, shall we? My friend is named Elisabeth and that’s what she likes to be called.” Maaike and the baby seemed intrigued with each other, holding hands and grinning.

“Are you hungry, Ans?” Lena asked.

“Ja. I didn’t eat much before leaving. I was too worried about how the baby would manage the trip.” Lena handed the baby back to Ans and let them visit with Maaike and Wim while she fixed something to eat. She made tea for Pieter and her father and warmed a pan of milk to put into one of the bottles Ans had brought.