The three abducted girls are very different from each other. Gertruyd, whose body has been found in a shallow grave, lived with her parents who were poor and hard working. Magdalena helped her single mother, selling shellfish. And Anna van Setten come from a rich family.
Mercurius talks to the family to discover more. Gertruyd's mother says that the day she went missing, her daughter went to collect water from the well, and that is the last she was seen.
Magdalena's mother tells her that the girl went to get water from the pump, and the earthenware jug was found intact, so it means that the girl didn't fight her abductor. The mother, Liesel, says that her daughter was strong from carrying pails full of fish. She also says that she was despised because she didn't have a father, and she was preventing from attending school and church. None of the neighbours helped as they won't talk to her.
Mercurius goes to the neighbours, telling them that they have to tell them if they saw something as he represents the mayor. When a woman says that she saw a man and the girl later followed, Mercurius grows angry, and he takes the woman to the town hall, threatening to keep her in a dungeon. The woman explains that she saw a stranger, but as his hat and collar protected his face against the cold, he didn't see him properly. What she saw was Magdalena talking to him, and then she followed him and held his hand. The woman is let free but she receives a good telling-off.
And Anna, the rich man's daughter, was abducted when she was allowed to play with a friend outside. Then when it was time to go home, the other girl's maid left Anna on the path towards her own home and continue his way, and that is the last time she was seen. Anna is said to have overprotective parents, who let her outside very rarely. This is their only child, and there are rumours that the girl may not be Van Setten's as Mrs Van Setten was without a child for years and then she got pregnant. Mercurius learns from the painter who paint her portrait that at the age of six the girl looked afraid of her parents.
Mercurius has befriended two other characters in the novel. One is Claes Claesz, the mayor's clerk, who accompanies when he goes around the town making enquiries. The other one is Lucie, the sixteen-year-old servant in the inn he is staying. Lucie is sharp and intelligent, and one night he finds her sleeping on the floor of his room, and the girl tells him that after all the girls being abducted, she is scared, and she thinks that she will protected by being close to a man of God.
I am very curious to know what has happened to these girls and why they have been abducted.
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