“I understand.” He laid down his spoon, then paused for such a long time that Lena wanted to scream. At last he sighed and looked up at her. “Ans is one of our best couriers. But she was late for curfew after her bicycle was stolen, and she was arrested. Nothing incriminating was found on her, and she didn’t give away any of her contacts. But she was sent to the Nazi prison in Vught.”

Lena leaned against Wolf’s chair as she tried to absorb this information. Her beautiful, vibrant daughter —a prisoner.

“Your family has paid a huge price for your country’s sake.”

“We’re not doing it out of patriotism,” Lena said sharply. “It’s because of our faith in Christ. Are you a Christian, Wolf?”

He gave a humorless laugh. “I may be before the war is over. So many people I work with have told me the same thing —that they’re risking their lives because of their faith.” He slowly rose to his feet. He was so thin his clothes might have belonged to someone else. “I need to go. I’m sorry I haven’t been much help to you. If it’s any consolation, the Allies are winning the war.” He took the food Lena had prepared for the shadow people and left.

Lena said good night to Max and Ina and went upstairs to bed. She already knew she wouldn’t sleep. The news that Ans was in a Nazi prison had shattered her. Two of her children were in the enemy’s hands, and she worried that her husband might be too. It was hard not to imagine the worst for all of them. In the past, she would have gone to the manse in the morning and asked her father to pray for Ans and Wim and Pieter, but he was gone. Lena remembered his words quite clearly: “I may not always be here.” It was as if he’d known what was coming. Before the war, Lena’s life had been full and rich and complete. Now she was being slowly emptied out.

CHAPTER 55

Guards stood outside Ans’s long wooden barracks. The only windows were up near the rafters where no one could see out. Rows and rows of metal bunks, stacked three high, filled most of the building. A few wooden tables and benches for meals stood along one side, although there weren’t nearly enough for all 175 women who lived in Ans’s barracks. The bathroom had only ten toilets, with no doors or partitions between them for privacy. With so many women sick with diarrhea, including Ans at times, the latrine was not only humiliating but revolting.