“Maybe you’re right. Maybe it will happen again. But until it does, let’s be happy, Eloise. Let’s take the train to Amsterdam tomorrow and see the artwork. Miriam can come with us and —”

“It’s too dreary to travel in the rain.”

“Then let’s enjoy the rain! We’ll walk Miriam home with our umbrellas up and our boots on, and we’ll slosh through all the puddles like children. We can stop at the flower market and buy flowers for every room in the house. And when we get home, we’ll drink pots and pots of tea and listen to beautiful music on the gramophone.”

Eloise looked up at Ans with a weak smile. Her tears continued to fall. “You’re right, dear, dear Ans. We do have today, don’t we? But our lives could change in an instant, just as they have for those poor Norwegians. And then nothing will ever be the same.”

Ans was scrambling to think of what to say next when she heard a key turn in the front door. Professor Huizenga hurried in. Thank God. He sat down beside Eloise, still wearing his wet overcoat, and gently pulled her into his arms. “I was afraid you might have heard the news, my love, so I came home right away.”

“You won’t leave me, Herman?”

“Never.” He looked up at Ans over his wife’s head and nodded. She could go.

“I’ll walk you home,” Ans whispered to Miriam. They put their wet coats back on and headed out in the rain again with their dripping umbrellas. It wasn’t far to Miriam’s apartment, but neither of them said a word, as if exhausted by the afternoon’s events.

Miriam turned to Ans when they reached her door. “I fear Eloise is right,” she said softly. “What happened to her in Belgium and what happened to us in Germany —it could happen all over again.”

“But maybe —”

She held up her hand to stop Ans. “But you are right, too, Ans. We still have today. We must live in hope today and not in despair.” She hugged Ans and said goodbye.

By the time Ans returned to the town house, the radio was off and the professor had coaxed Eloise upstairs to her bedroom. Ans made a pot of tea and was sitting in the kitchen, drying off and warming up by the range, when Professor Huizenga found her there. He looked cold and pale and even thinner than the day Ans first met him. “I fear this war will be the end of her,” he said with a sigh.

“Is she okay?”

“For now. Eloise has taken her medicine. It will make her sleepy.”

“Would you like a cup of tea?” she asked, lifting the pot. “There’s plenty.”