Page 70 of Winter’s End

Then she felt him pull away.

Evi blinked, aching in a way she had never felt before to feel his lips on hers.

Jacob shook his head. “You are sixteen years old, Evi. Sixteen. Jailbait, we call that in America.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means…never mind what it means. Just thanks, Itty Bitty. That’s all. l don’t know what possessed you to follow me. But my Jewish mother would thank you, that’s for sure.”

Evi’s eyes widened. “You are Jewish…?”

Even in the darkness, she saw his lopsided grin. “A Jewandan American pilot. No wonder the Huns are after me, eh?”

ZOE

Two Gestapo officials had, as Lukas warned, paid a visit to the Dans Hal, Leela told Zoe. Unlike their ransacking of the petkliniek, however, their manner had appeared to be less threatening than information-seeking.

“I offered them the grand tour,” Leela reported coolly. “I showed off the posters we have been making to promote our Carnival Week dance. Even though festivities must be curtailed, I told them, we aredoing everything we can to maintain Dutch tradition. It is helpful in keeping up morale during these uncertain times.”

Zoe raised her brows, listening.

“I invited the gentlemen to sit in and watch a toddler ballet class – I even told them we would be glad to accommodate if they or their comrades had youngsters here who might like join our dance class…”

Zoe gaped. “Leela, you are amazing.”

As if on cue, a teen-aged girl Zoe did not know led five little girls in frilly skirts onto a makeshift stage. The cheerful strains of Tchaikowsky’sNutcrackerwafted in from somewhere.

Leela stopped to applaud the little girls, then turned back to Zoe.

“Then I showed those Nazi bastards all around the hall,” she said. “Including the office space, which had been thoroughly cleared. It all looked innocent enough.”

“But what if they come back?” Zoe asked. “What aboutHet Parool?”

“We must be quick to get copies out of here as they are printed – to keep the shelves and counters clear at all times,” Leela paused. “And everything else we carried out is stored in our cellar at home.”

“But what if –”

Leela sighed and shrugged. “If they come for us, they come,” she murmured. “For nearly four years, we have lived or died at their whim. It is a chance we must take until we are free.Lieve godit will not be much longer before the Allies prevail.”

Zoe stared, amazed and thankful for the moment of sober level-headedness.

“Leela, you are the calm in the eye of a storm.”

“No more than the rest of us, Zoe. We do what we must.”

She moved closer. “Is there any word of Daan?”

Zoe shook her head.

“Nor of our missing farmer…:” Leela sighed. “But,” she lifted her head in the air. “There is some good news.”

She led Zoe into the office space, cleared of everything but some dance posters on the wall and the two ancient mimeograph machines.

Leela reached into her bag and held up a handful of what looked like ration books. “My sister, Miep, has worked for more than two years in the government office here in Haarlem. She now has charge of the distribution of ration books. And she is very well trusted.”

Zoe nodded.

“Two days ago, she reported a break-in.” Leela’s dark-eyed gaze was hard to read. “It seems a thief broke into the office and stole more than a hundred ration books.”