That afternoon Margreet called the police. She made an appointment for Monday. Then she walked upstairs to briefly tell Lisa, who was tiding up her stuff. "Monday at half past one we have to be at the police station, and if you feel like, we could go to the thrift store afterwards."

Lisa nodded gratefully, "Sounds good to me, let's do that!"

"I'm going outside now, into the garden to cut off some pretty Hydrangea branches here and there. If you want flowers in your windowsill yourself, you can just cut them or pick them. Speak about it with Sjaak, he will show you the way. In the closet on the guest floor I have put the box with vases, you can feel free to use a few of them. Oh yes, I now suddenly realize that you have already been here as a guest. You can use the bathroom and toilet on that floor. And next door, on the landing, is a sink. I used to hang a towel and a washcloth there, and a dishcloth. At the thrift store, I had bought a glass bottle with one of those cute little stop caps on it, and a spray bottle. I had filled both with cleaning solution from the work closet. Then, if I would get in a diligent cleaning mood… I never got around to it, I've only lived here for such a short time. I took those bottles with me to our house, but if you want, you can also buy something like that at the thrift store. But of course you can also take what you need from the work closet at the moment you want to clean. See for yourself, what’s handy for you."

"I'll think about it," Lisa said. "I do like that idea of some flowers in the windowsill. Do you mind if I go with you to the garden? Then I'll go on here later."

"Sure, just cozy, then we'll stroll around there together," Margreet laughed.

They walked down the stairs. Margreet pulled open the work closet and pointed out the vases, the dishcloths and the cleaning products.

"Are you sure Annerieke is okay with me using those?" asked Lisa.

"Yes, I think so. But you can still ask her, of course. But I know she wants you to feel at home here, and for her that includes taking what you need. Just ask her, and you'll know for sure!"

"Do you guys clean here often?"

"We clean the guest rooms by default when the guests go back home. And of the guests who stay longer than a week, we clean them in between, usually on Saturday. It's not a lot of work. I got used to the routine after a few times. And your room, don't bother with that, keep it up a little bit. Annerieke said this morning, when you were picking up your things: Dusting should only be done when really necessary. Of course it is different in the guest rooms, but in your own room you can take it easy. You don't live to clean, but you keep it up a bit to be able to live comfortably in it, something like that..."

"I see what you mean, but just like you I always hounded myself too. Everything had to be impeccable. I was afraid of what Henk might say, would spank me, so I always made sure everything was spick and span."

"That’s nasty, but that will go away Lisa, really, I'm doing much better already. Sometimes I keep telling myself what life is really about, which is what I like to do, what suits me. And any beliefs or emotional wounds that are messing underneath that are in the process of healing. And I'm already noticing that a little in my behavior."

Lisa nodded, feeling hope. She grabbed two vases from the box and set them on the attic stairs. "I'll take those upstairs later. Shall we go out into the garden now?"

"We will! Oh wait, I need something to put my harvest in there."

Margreet took the vases out of the box, put them in a free spot in the work closet, and took the box downstairs. "I'm ready to go!" Margreet laughed.

Lisa grabbed her coat from the guest coat rack downstairs. As Margreet saw it she said: "I have my coat hanging on the coat rack in the laundry room, because I usually use that exit, it's easier when I go to the garden or home. I suddenly realize that you no longer have the keys of the guesthouse. Ask Annerieke for them later."

"Yes, I will do that. The key to the attic room you had hung on the hook next to the room door, just like in the guest rooms. I hadn't expect that room to be able to be locked as well. I'm glad it can!"

"I can imagine, I thought so too."

They walked to the laundry room, where Margreet put on her coat. When they went outside, they came in the drying room, where Lisa had never been before.

"Oh how wonderful! Drying everything outside, even when it rains!" Lisa exclaimed in surprise.

"Yes, really, I enjoy it every day, I love hanging it up here!"

"Every day? Oh yes, the towels and stuff...you'll have a pile of them together in no time!"

Margreet also told her that she could use the washing machine for her own clothes, and that she could hang her laundry in the drying room.

"I bought myself some of those nice sturdy wicker baskets at the thrift store, for my laundry and for my knitting. My laundry baskets I had put in the attic, just on the landing"

Lisa nodded, "Than that will be my first wish to look at in that store."

In the distance they could already see Sjaak working in the garden. Margreet told that he worked here full time and had a house a little further on the land, a house that Erik and Sjaak had built together with some men from the village.

"I have never been there myself, but I’ve understood it is a small house, only one floor. Sjaak told me once, that it could easily be built out if he, as he called it himself, ever ran into the right woman."

Lisa chuckled at that expression, "Running into the right woman... So he's not hunting for the right woman?"

"No, he didn't even have anything to do with people in general until recently. With our team, our family, he does feel connected now. He actually accepted me pretty quickly, too. But being among guests, he always found difficult."

"He must have had some nasty experiences in the past too," Lisa thought.

"Yes, he seems to have been bullied a lot, and also just never felt comfortable in groups. He's pretty sensitive and mostly on his own, so I'm glad he's started coming into the kitchen for coffee and meals. He belongs even more now!"

"Good for him," Lisa thought, "I still find it inconceivable that you think I belong now, but I will get used to it after a while."

"Definitely!"

Margreet laid her arm around Lisa's shoulders and Lisa did the same to Margreet. They smiled at each other.

"Just this, this is new to me, surprising! I feel that life is coming, something like that..."

"That makes me glad!" Margreet replied.

.

"Ha, there they are, the young ladies of Bloemenhof!" Sjaak welcomed them kindly at the spot where he was working. "Have you come to keep me from my work or have you come to help me?"

Margreet responded with a grin, "To be honest Sjaak, neither of that! We came to pick or cut flowers, I in any case branches of the Hydrangea. And I wanted to cut lavender to hang bunches in the closet with towels and bedding, but now I realize that the lavender has long since stopped flowering... That will have to wait until next summer, too bad!"

"That Hydrangea, if you want to cut more of it than the other day for your own vases, would you do it spread out? I mean, not all from one bush, but a branch here and there? And the lavender... too bad, but... I cut a lot of lavender sprigs in August and hung them in the guesthouse shed to dry. Take what you need from it, there's more than enough hanging there!"

"Really? Great!" Margreet put her box down, walked over to Sjaak and spontaneously gave him a kiss on the cheek. "You're awesome!"

Feeling quite overwhelmed, Sjaak shyly rubbed his hand over his cheek as if to feel if that kiss was still there. Lisa laughed when she saw the gesture, "You can't wipe it off Sjaak, Margreet burned it in."

The women laughed when they saw the deep frown on Sjaaks face. Then he burst into laughter himself too. "Women? Strangers!"

"Just wait and see, Sjaak," Margreet responded teasingly, "when you run into the right woman... Then you won't find us such strangers anymore!"

Sjaak hummed a little, too shy to argue.

"And I would also like to pick or cut some flowers for the attic, is that okay?" asked Lisa to him.

Sjaak nodded and went back to work.

"I'll pick those branches here and there too, like you just said to Margreet about the Hydrangea. Then you won't get bare spots in the garden." Added Lisa a little apologetically.

"Yes, yes, it’s okay," Sjaak hummed without looking up.

Lisa looked at Margreet with a questioning expression on her face. Margreet gave her a wink. They walked a little further, until they were sure Sjaak wouldn't hear them.

"I obviously embarrassed him with that comment about the right woman," Margreet whispered, "that's why he reacted so strange, I think."

"That must be it, yes..."

Grinning, the women went to work. Margreet put the Hydrangeas she cut off in her box, while Lisa formed her flowers into a pretty bunch in her hand. When they were done, they walked to the barn, where they looked up in surprise at the ropes stretched from one side to the other, from which bunches of lavender hung to dry. Using the pruning scissors she had brought from the laundry room, Margreet cut off the number of bunches she thought she would need and placed the bunches on the Hydrangea branches. With their treasures, they went back into the guest house through the laundry room.

"I'm going to hang the lavender right away and distribute the Hortensia branches among the vases. Then I'm going to see if I can get Huib to come over for tea or coffee. He is probably busy in his big barn, making a beautiful desk for me. He tends to go on and on. Would you like to come and have a drink with us?"

"Sweet of you to invite me, but I think I'd better come another time. I'm going to continue giving my stuff their place. I saw that there was a kettle in the attic room, and a tray of tea bags. Were those still yours?"

"Yes, Huib said I could leave those because he had them at home too. To be honest, I forgot to return the tea bags to the kitchen, but it’s convenient now. If you feel like coffee, you can make that in the kitchen. And, something else, I don't know if you like to read?" When Lisa nodded, she continued, "Annerieke has lots of books at home, and she likes to lend them, just ask her about it. You can also call her, her phone number is on the card I left there. I've already put all the numbers in my mobile. Do you need anything else?"

"No, I wouldn't know about that. Oh yeah, what time do you guys always eat?"

Margreet listed the times, which Lisa conveniently put into her cell phone. She also added Margreet's phone number to her contact list.

"Well, I'll be off then, see you later at dinner!" Margreet said, looking at Lisa smiling.

"Yes, see you later, and um... thanks, you've really helped me feel more comfortable already."

They hugged each other briefly. "Glad to hear Lisa!"

Lisa went up to the attic with her flowers and vases, while Margreet went into the shed first to find small nails and a hammer, then went to work on the second floor. On the landing, she hammered a few nails into the inside of the door of the linen closet and hung the lavender bunches there. They seemed to have dried sufficiently, so she decided the closet door could be closed again. There would still be plenty of fresh air coming through the cracks.

Humming, she picked up the vases she had bought for the guest rooms and placed two Hydrangea branches in each. She wondered if a third branch could be added. She tried it out, but noticed when she placed the first vase in a room on the windowsill that the flowers would collide with the curtains. She therefore decided to stick with two branches. She took the box with the remaining branches downstairs to distribute them among the vases she had already placed there in the window sills. She looked at the result from a distance and was more than satisfied. Gladly she left in the direction of the barn to look for Huib.

.

She walked past the flower bed where Sjaak had been working. She did not see him anymore, he was certainly working somewhere else or taking a break.

At the big barn she knocked and went inside. Huib was working on the decorations, a precise job, and went on with it without looking back. He knew that Margreet stood behind him, and was glad that she waited until he had finished this piece. Then he got up and walked over to her.

"How are you doing?" he asked as he gently grabbed her by her shoulders.

"Good! Yes, surprisingly well actually. Maybe there will be a response later, I have no idea. I just gave Lisa a little update on what she still needed to know about living in the attic and being part of our family. And then we teased and confused Sjaak and picked flowers."

Huib relaxed and looked at her questioningly: "Teased and confused Sjaak?"

Margreet told him about the lavender, that she had given Sjaak a kiss on the cheek and that Lisa had teased him about it. "Then he called us, women, strangers, and I said something like 'just wait until you meet the right woman.' Poor Sjaak, he was all shy about it..."

"Great," Huib gloated, "let him wake up a little!"

"Huh, wake him up?"

"Just keep an eye on him, I'm pretty sure he's going to discover soon that he's already bumped into the right woman."

"The right woman?" Margreet's thoughts were flying in all directions. "Lisa? You mean Lisa? Another woman I can't think of..."

"I saw him looking at her at lunch, it was like I saw a spark. I think he didn’t realize it himself yet. That I saw it, I think, was like how Erik sometimes saw and knew things, like it came out of the middle of nowhere."

"That's kind of special...I'm curious how that will continue! Shall we take a break and have a drink?"

"Yep, let's do that!"

With their arms wrapped around each other, they walked home.

To chapter 57. Sjaak makes a confusing discovery

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