In her second letter, Margriet wrote about school and how much she loved it and about her friends Imogen and Julia who had Dutch blood the same as she had. Then she told Gerda about her friend Anneliese Lindegroen who lived in the next street. She’s a proper little Dutch girl, she wrote, because she was born in Amsterdam. I don’t know why they live here in Hull, but it is something to do with ginger. I think her father grows it in his garden and then sells it. When Frederik returned to his mother’s house after his second visit to Cornelia Margriet’s letter had arrived, and Gerda said she was pleased that her granddaughter had made a Dutch friend. ‘Do they speak Dutch together?’ she asked. ‘Imogen and Julia?’ Frederik said. ‘I think they only know a few words, the same as Margriet. Their father’s mother is Dutch but as she lives in The Hague they don’t see her very often.’ ‘Nee, nee,’ Gerda protested. ‘This little girl lives with her parents near to you. She’s called Anneliese.
