‘We’ll go together,’ he said. ‘I promise, I will take you diving. But you’re not to go out on your own. It’s insanely dangerous.’

Anneke looked across at me. ‘I want Jo to come,’ she said.

Nico looked surprised. ‘That’s up to Jo.’

Anneke held my gaze. I felt the warmth of connection flow between us. I, too, had been misunderstood – or so I thought. If I’d had an older friend – a female role model to emulate and look up to – it was perhaps possible I might never have misinterpreted things as badly as I had.

‘I’d love to come,’ I said and was rewarded with Anneke’s grateful smile.

15

Anna

Anna is helping Lotte rearrange the studio for the next client when she hears Catharina scream. The young girl’s eyes widen in alarm.

‘Stay here,’ Anna says.

She reaches the entrance hall at the same time as Mrs Hartog, her footsteps flying along the marble. Catharina is bent, broken, weeping, a crumpled letter clutched in her hand. Doubled over on the floor, she can’t or won’t get up. Mrs Hartog tries to comfort her, but Catharina turns, a savage look on her face, and the housekeeper falls back.

Anna is afraid to go near, but she thinks of Crispijn – how he would want her to care for his sister – and this gives her courage.

‘What has happened?’ she says, forgetting to address Catharina as she should, as the mistress who wields her fortunes.

Catharina’s face is haggard, her mouth a dark hole. Wordlessly, she holds out the letter and Anna takes it, smoothing out the folds. There are blotches where Catharina’s tears have caused the ink to run, but she can just make out the words, written in a cramped hand. She makes it to the second paragraph before a wave of dizziness overcomes her.

The words blur, their meaning lost among the dark stick shapes of the letters.

She hears Mrs Hartog demanding to know. She forces herself to straighten, imagines a mask dropping over her features.

‘It’s from Master Wijck,’ Anna says. ‘He writes to say that Crispijn fell ill a week ago. His headaches returned and he was suffering a fever, seeing things that weren’t there. He died yesterday.’

The words are ashes on her tongue. She coughs, swallows, continues.

‘Master Wicjk’s maid died, too. He says the plague has returned to Amsterdam and that we should stay away. He will ensure Crispijn is buried in a proper cemetery where his grave can be visited in some future time.’

Anna stops reading, unable to see through the shaking. Catharina’s weeping echoes around the hall, a skirl of misery and pain, the loss of a sibling still a wound in Anna’s heart too.