She kissed Bep’s cheek and set her down, glad that she could keep one of the children near, and went inside to finish her morning chores. Later, Pieter showed Lena what he had in mind for a hiding place. “We can clean everything out of this storage area,” he said, opening the little door to the space beneath the stairs that had become a collection spot for miscellaneous items.

“Sorting through this junk is going to take all day,” Lena said. “You’ll have to help me find places for everything.”

“When it’s empty, I’ll board up the door and seal it from this side. Then I’ll make a secret entrance on the other side of the wall, in the front parlor.”

“Isn’t the piano on the other side?”

“Ja. Come here, I’ll show you.” Lena picked up Bep, who wanted to explore inside the cluttered, dust-filled space, and carried her as she followed Pieter. “I’ll cut a hole in the wall and remove this lower panel on the piano to make a trapdoor.”

“Brilliant. But we’d better not do it while little eyes are watching or it won’t remain a secret for long.”

Lena worked all day to empty the storage area. Her hands and the front of her apron were black with filth by the time she finished. Bep needed a bath after toddling around in the space, touching everything and asking, “What’s this?” as she helped Lena. She and Pieter raced against the clock to erase any trace of their work before Wim and Maaike returned home from school. They finished later that night after the children were in bed, cutting a hole in the parlor wall, opening a trapdoor in the bottom panel of the piano, and covering the entire wall with wood where the old door had been.

“I hope all this hammering doesn’t wake the children,” Lena said.

“If they can sleep through bombers flying overhead every night, they can sleep through anything.”

The lower keys on the piano no longer worked when Pieter finished, but the hidden space had enough room for a makeshift mattress stuffed with straw, and some shelves. It was high enough to sit up in but not to stand. Lena furnished it with bedding and candles and some containers and dishes she thought the shadow people might need. She and Pieter had just headed upstairs to catch an hour or two of sleep before dawn when they heard the door from the barn open and close downstairs. They hurried down to find Wolf and a gray-haired couple who appeared exhausted standing in their kitchen.

“You’re just in time,” Pieter said. “I’ll show you the hiding place.”