Chapter 5
GRADUALLY, THE STREETS changed. First they came across sections of paving that had been dug up. Loesie had some trouble pushing the wheelbarrow across and Johanna and Nellie had to help her. Roald took care to guide the horse, and Johan Delacoeur wanted to guide his wife by the arm, but she retorted that she had just spent months navigating a slippery riverbank to get water and do washing, and she was capable of walking herself. At which he muttered something about not having married a fishwife.
Johanna laughed secretly at hearing this exchange. Yes, she liked Martine Delacoeur.
Fences had been removed along both sides of the road. Some houses looked abandoned, and people had removed doors and windows, presumably because they were needed elsewhere.
A bit later, they came past
