The Safekeep

The morning after her first kiss with Eva, Isabel wakes up to the sound of Hendrik’s car honking outside the house. He and Sebastian have come to visit for the weekend. Isabel had forgotten about their imminent arrival and is flustered by their jovial presence. 

Eva is also caught off guard by their arrival. She hesitates when introducing herself to Sebastian as Louis’s girlfriend and avoids speaking with Isabel. Isabel goes to the bakery with Hendrik, and he tries to gossip with her about Eva, calling Eva silly. Isabel insists that Eva is not silly, against her better judgment. Changing topics, Hendrik announces that he and Sebastian will be leaving for France soon because Sebastian’s mother’s condition is declining. He then pesters her about Johan, jokingly asking when they will get married, which bothers Isabel.

Hendrik begins treating Eva more kindly after noticing that Isabel is no longer interested in mocking her. The four take a pleasant walk together, during which Sebastian starts a conversation with Isabel about his dying mother. He attempts to ask her about the moment when it became clear that her mother was not going to get better, but Isabel refuses to engage. After dinner, and several drinks, Hendrik puts some music on and insists that they all dance together. Isabel refuses and watches the other three from the comfort of an armchair. 

When a slow song comes on, Hendrik grabs Sebastian, and the two begin to slow dance, making the nature of their relationship clear to Eva. After both men tire of dancing, Eva asks Isabel to dance. The two begin to slow dance, and Isabel is nervous that Hendrik and Sebastian will notice, eventually pulling herself away to the kitchen to wash the dishes. Eva follows her to the kitchen, and they begin kissing again. Isabel is sure that she has a fever.

Hendrik decides that the group should go swimming. While packing up the car, Isabel scolds Hendrik for being too obvious with Sebastian in front of Eva the previous night. Hendrik scoffs, asserting that Eva knew the nature of his relationship. He asks her why she has allowed Eva to stay in their mother’s room, which makes Isabel angry, but he thinks it is a good thing that Eva has “loosened” Isabel. 

At the beach, Isabel watches the others swimming while trying (and failing) to read a book. She is too preoccupied with thoughts about her romantic encounter with Eva in the kitchen. Her thoughts also wander to her masturbation habits, which are infrequent and shameful for her. She starts swimming in the cold water to distract herself from her thoughts. It begins to rain, and the group has to run to the car.

They continue driving and find an upscale restaurant to eat at. The staff refuses to serve Sebastian unless he pays ahead of time—a racial microaggression. Over the meal, Eva asks Sebastian about his childhood, and he reluctantly recounts the story of how his family moved to Paris from Algiers when he was a toddler. Isabel considers her own prejudices against both Sebastian and Eva. Eva mentions that she once had an aunt in Algiers, but upon further questioning, she reveals that all her family is now gone. She asks about Isabel’s mother and how she must have loved rabbits, and Hendrik corrects her, saying that their mother loved hares. 

This leads Eva to tell a story about how her cousin was given a hare for her birthday once, and it smashed the family’s china as the children chased it around the house; eventually, the animal had to be released. Hendrik suggests that they spend the night at the inn attached to the restaurant, despite protests from both women, and books two rooms. Inside their room, Eva tries to convince Isabel that they should end their affair because Louis will return soon. Isabel thinks that Eva must be mocking her. They struggle to resist one another.

Isabel is woken in the middle of the night by Eva having a night terror. She tries to calm Eva by joining her in bed. In the morning, she finds the other three having breakfast downstairs in the restaurant, and she eats at a table separate from them. They have a tense drive back home, with Eva rushing to get in the passenger seat. 

Once back at the house, they discover Johan waiting in the driveway for them. Panicked, Isabel asks Hendrik to speak to him for her. Hendrik returns to the car, announcing that Isabel and Johan will have a dinner date that night at the house. Eva offers to help Isabel cook for Johan and suggests that the relationship with Johan could be good for Isabel. Isabel is hurt that Eva is also pressuring her to like Johan. She leaves the house to go on a walk by herself.

When she returns to the house, Hendrik and Sebastian have left, and Eva has cooked a meal for the soon-to-begin date and set a table for the couple in the garden. She does not intend to stay and eat dinner with them, but when Johan arrives, Isabel coerces Eva into staying, not wanting to be alone with Johan. Johan is annoyed by Eva’s presence, and dinner is awkward. When Johan compliments the food, Eva passes it off as Isabel’s cooking. 

Johan asks Isabel to take a walk, and Eva ushers them out. He forcefully presses himself against her and says that he enjoys the “games” that Isabel has been playing with him before kissing her. Isabel pushes him away and goes back to the house. Upstairs, she sees that the door to her mother’s room is open. Eva sits inside.

The first part of Chapter 10 is comprised of one long sexual encounter between Eva and Isabel. The morning afterward, while Eva sleeps, Isabel brings breakfast up and wanders around the bedroom. She remembers that on the underside of the secretary desk, the initials E.D.H had been carved into the wood. Isabel assumes that her mother must have been the one to etch the letters as a young child since her first initial was “E.” Isabel touches Eva’s diary, which sits on top of the desk, but Eva (having awoken) tells Isabel not to because its contents are private. They continue having sex, despite Neelke’s presence downstairs.

The days begin to pass quickly, with Eva and Isabel enjoying an extended period of domestic bliss. Isabel barely thinks about her inventory and the missing things. She does, however, begin to dread Louis’s imminent return, which Eva refuses to acknowledge. 

They spend one night in Isabel’s room, and Eva looks over all the objects, paying close attention to a stuffed hare from Isabel’s childhood. She asks what the stuffed animal is called, and Isabel tells her that it’s “Haas,” the Dutch word for “hare.” This causes Eva to pause, and Isabel does not understand why. 

On July 1, a letter arrives from Louis announcing that his return has been delayed, offering them a brief sense of relief. Johan calls, and Isabel tells him not to come back while Eva is still visiting.

Louis’s arrival draws closer. Isabel makes a reservation at a restaurant so that she and Eva can go on a date. Eva is very clearly uncomfortable with the plan, and Isabel takes offense at her fears about being seen together in public. 

During the dinner, Eva looks very afraid and behaves cautiously. Isabel excuses herself to go to the restroom, and Eva follows her; the two embrace. The drive home is quiet, and they sit in the car together for a while before going inside. Isabel kisses Eva’s hand. Eva tells her that when Louis returns, things will have to return to what they were before the affair started. Isabel doesn’t understand and bites Eva’s hand. They return inside.

The phone rings. Isabel picks it up and is startled that it is Louis calling. Louis asks Isabel to break up with Eva for him, saying that he has met another woman while away on the business trip. Eva walks into the room and demands that Isabel hand her the phone. They briefly wrestle over hold of the phone before Eva grabs hold of it. Louis does not break up with Eva, continuing the pretense that they will be together again soon. Eva says that Louis will be back tomorrow to pick her up. 

Isabel is hurt that Eva wants to leave and that Eva seemingly loves Louis. This sparks an argument in which Isabel reveals that Louis has been unfaithful, which, to Isabel’s surprise, does not bother Eva. Eva says that stability is the most important thing to her, and Isabel says that she could provide stability for Eva in the house. Eva knows that Isabel does not have the ability to offer that since the house is promised to Louis.

Later, Isabel finds Eva hurriedly packing her suitcase in her room. They have one final romantic encounter. In the early morning, Isabel stumbles on Eva’s diary on the ground and opens it. The first page is an inventory of all the objects in the house, with all the items that have gone missing crossed out. Isabel realizes that she hasn’t been counting the objects recently and realizes that more teaspoons are missing. 

She confronts Eva, calling her a thief, having realized that Eva was stealing objects all along. Eva tells Isabel that she won’t get the objects back and calls her “blind.” Isabel kicks Eva out of the house and confiscates the diary, threatening to use it as evidence with the police. As Eva leaves, stolen objects spill out of her suitcase, including the plate shard that Isabel once dug up in the garden.

After Eva leaves, Isabel falls ill. When Louis arrives, he is relieved that Eva is gone. The illness persists. Louis brings his new girlfriend, Mary, to visit the house, but Isabel is too sick to engage fully with them. Eventually, she opens Eva’s diary and begins to read it. She notices that Eva’s full name is written in it: Eva de Haas.