Eloise poured her high-spirited energy into hosting a reception at the town house afterwards. “With herring, of course. It’s a Dutch tradition!” She turned the top floor into a bridal suite, insisting that Miriam and Avi spend their first married days there. “You will have the third floor all to yourselves,” she had whispered to them. “My cook will bring room service just like a fancy hotel.”

“This is the happiest day of my life,” Avi said as he closed the bedroom door and pulled Miriam into his arms.

He smelled wonderful, the scent of Professor Huizenga’s expensive cologne lingering on his newly tailored clothes. Miriam breathed deeply, the pressure in her chest gone. She could have soared to the treetops if she’d had wings. “It’s my happiest day as well. When I fled from Cologne, I thought I’d never feel joy again.”

He took her face in his hands, their foreheads touching. “I want to fill your life with love until it overflows, Miriam.” He kissed her, tenderly at first, then with slowly growing passion. She tasted the wine they’d used to toast their marriage on his lips. “I wish I could take you on a proper wedding trip and give you the home you deserve. Living under enemy occupation isn’t the way I’d hoped to begin our new life.”

Miriam stroked his freshly trimmed beard. “I’m not afraid of anything now that you’re here, my love. We’ll face whatever the future holds, together.”

CHAPTER 19

“Let me help you get dressed, Eloise,” Ans begged. “We should go for a walk today.”

Eloise shook her head as if the effort to speak was too much for her. For the past week, she’d remained in her nightgown and robe all day, floating listlessly around the town house like a ghost of herself. The only reason she would agree to rise at all was to go downstairs and listen to the radio.

Planning Miriam and Avi’s wedding reception had buoyed Eloise’s spirits. But Ans knew from experience that the higher Eloise’s moods soared, the steeper her fall might be when the euphoria burst. Her despair had deepened throughout the last week of May as the news became increasingly grim, with reports of Nazi victories and crushing Allied defeats. She seemed to shrivel inside herself as they listened and no longer talked of fighting back.

Professor Huizenga gave up trying to plead with his wife to turn off the news. There was no way to shield her from it. Europe’s fate —their future —hung in the balance.

The Nazis had stranded the British and French armies on the beaches at Dunkirk, and for a few dread-filled days, it appeared that France and Britain would be forced to surrender too. Then a miracle had lifted their spirits when the Royal Navy and hundreds of civilian vessels had evacuated the British army to safety across the channel.