Free Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier

mistake. “Off the Rietveld Canal, not far from the Koe Gate. Why do you ask?”
    His eyes fully met mine at last. “There have been reports of the plague in that quarter.”
    I took a step back, my eyes widening. “Has a quarantine been set?”
    “Not yet. They expect to today.”
    Afterwards I realized he must have been asking others about me. If he hadn’t already known where my family lived, he would never have known to tell me about the plague.
    I do not remember getting back from there. Pieter the son must have placed the meat in my pail but all I knew was that I arrived at the house, dropped the pail at Tanneke’s feet and said, “I must see the mistress.”
    Tanneke rummaged through the pail. “No sausages, and nothing to take their place! What’s the matter with you? Go straight back to the Meat Hall.”
    “I must see the mistress,” I repeated.
    “What is it?” Tanneke grew suspicious. “Have you done something wrong?”
    “My family may be quarantined. I must go to them.”
    “Oh.” Tanneke shifted uncertainly. “I wouldn’t know about that. You’ll have to ask. She’s in with my mistress.”
    Catharina and Maria Thins were in the Crucifixion room. Maria Thins was smoking her pipe. They stopped talking when I entered.
    “What is it, girl?” Maria Thins grunted.
    “Please, madam,” I addressed Catharina, “I have heard that my family’s street may be quarantined. I would like to go and see them.”
    “What, and bring the plague back with you?” she snapped. “Certainly not. Are you mad?”
    I looked at Maria Thins, which made Catharina angrier. “I have said no,” she announced. “It is
I
who decide what you can and cannot do. Have you forgotten that?”
    “No, madam.” I lowered my eyes.
    “You won’t be going home Sundays until it’s safe. Now go, we have things to discuss without you hanging about.”
    I took the washing to the courtyard and sat outside with my back to the door so that I would not have to see anyone. I wept as I scrubbed one of Maertge’s dresses. When I smelled Maria Thins’ pipe I wiped my eyes but did not turn round.
    “Don’t be silly, girl,” Maria Thins said quietly to my back. “You can’t do anything for them and you have to save yourself. You’re a clever girl, you can work that out.”
    I did not answer. After a while I could no longer smell her pipe.
    The next morning he came in while I was sweeping the studio.
    “Griet, I am sorry to hear of your family’s misfortune,” he said.
    I looked up from my broom. There was kindness in his eyes, and I felt I could ask him. “Will you tell me, sir, if the quarantine has been set?”
    “It was, yesterday morning.”
    “Thank you for telling me, sir.”
    He nodded, and was about to leave when I said, “May I ask you something else, sir? About the painting.”
    He stopped in the doorway. “What is it?”
    “When you looked in the box, did it tell you to remove the map from the painting?”
    “Yes, it did.” His face became intent like a stork’s when it sees a fish it can catch. “Does it please you that the map is gone?”
    “It is a better painting now.” I did not think I would have dared to say such a thing at another time, but the danger to my family had made me reckless.
    His smile made me grip my broom tightly.

    I was not able to work well then. I was worried about my family, not about how clean I could get the floors or how white the sheets. No one may have remarked on my good housekeeping before, but everyone noticed how careless I was now. Lisbeth complained of a spotted apron. Tanneke grumbled that my sweeping caused dust to settle on the dishes. Catharina shouted at me several times—for forgetting to iron the sleeves of her chemise, for buying cod when I was meant to get herring, for letting the fire go out.
    Maria Thins muttered, “Steady yourself, girl,” as she passed me in the hallway.
    Only in the studio was I able to clean as I had before, maintaining the precision