Chapter Twenty-Nine
AMSTERDAM, 1629
Three days later, on a bright summer’s afternoon, Clara walked beside Gerrit van den Vries along Herengracht towards Burgomeister Fabritius’s house. He was one of Henri’s closest friends with a set of skills he thought might prove useful. He was also of such massive stature, Clara thought they must make a comical pair. He was dressed very differently from the previous day when she had first met him. Scarlet velvet and gold ribbon-work had been replaced by sombre black and grey. With his neat dark beard, he looked the clerk they were claiming him to be.
Clara chewed at her lip as they walked, disgusted by the fear fluttering in her chest, yet unable to master it. Fabritius’s presence had been a dark shadow at the back of her mind for longer than she ca
