The doctor didn’t say much as they drove, as if his mind was preoccupied with countless things. Outside of town, the Dutch countryside was so flat Miriam could see for miles. The roads became narrower and rougher as they drove, the aroma of cows more pungent in the evening air, until at last they pulled to a stop beside a small farmhouse. It needed a new roof, its mismatched tiles composed of several styles and colors. A large barn with a wide, open door was attached to the house. “I’m sorry you had to move,” the doctor said. “I know how nice it was for you there.”

“You warned me that I might have to move often. At least I was able to stay there for almost a year. They were wonderful people, but I could see how fearful they were.”

“Yes . . . well, here we are.”

A cow lowed from somewhere inside the barn as Miriam stepped from the car. A wiry, white-haired woman came out to greet them, her skin wrinkled and wind-burned, her hands gnarled as if she’d plowed the rich earth barehanded.

“This is Christina,” Dr. Elzinga said. “And this is Mrs. Mulder. She and her husband own this farm where you’ll be staying for now.”

“Did you have your dinner?” Mrs. Mulder asked.

“Yes, thank you.”

“And you?” she asked the doctor.

“I have as well.” He tugged on the vest of his three-piece suit as if to emphasize his full stomach. “If you don’t need me, I should leave right away.”

Mrs. Mulder nodded curtly. The doctor removed Miriam’s suitcase from the trunk and handed it to her.

“Come meet the others, then,” Mrs. Mulder said as the car drove away. The farmhouse was little more than a cottage, even smaller than the Ver Beeks’ modest house. Miriam wondered how many others there were and how they could possibly fit inside such a small home. But Mrs. Mulder led the way through the open barn door, across the pungent, hay-strewn space to a door in the rear that led into the barnyard. Miriam heard grunting sounds that she guessed came from pigs, and then the clucks and squawks of chickens as she neared a low-roofed coop. Mrs. Mulder opened the gate to the fenced-in enclosure, beckoning for Miriam to hurry as a rooster rushed forward, flapping its wings and crowing in displeasure.

Miriam resisted the urge to cover her nose and mouth as they ducked inside the weathered gray coop. Roosting nests lined both sides of the narrow, windowless space. The smell was overpowering. She feared that the “others” Mrs. Mulder had mentioned were the hens and that she would have to bed down with the chickens, but then the woman removed a section of the rear wall of the coop, revealing a hidden room. Four dark-haired women sat on mattresses inside. They looked up anxiously as the door opened and Miriam ducked inside.