Secrets in the Shoe Shop

By: Violet Millhouse

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

"There was an old woman, who lived in a shoe . . ." ~Mother Goose. Or in this case, in a shoe shop. So what happens when a favorite nursery rhyme gets dropped into Europe during World War 2? The Netherlands, May 1940: German bombs devastated her neighborhood on the outskirts of Rotterdam. Many people had already left, but Letty Seghur left her leaving too late. After a near escape and further difficulty, she finds shelter on the high street in an old stone tower that used to be a medieval fortress near the river—strangely, both the tower and shop within remained mostly intact after the German Blitzkrieg. But the business has been abandoned, it seems, as the owner was Jewish. Letty hoped he escaped, as there were all sorts of stories . . . She decides to open the shop and sell what is left or barter, and so make a living. All things considered, she's better off than many. But is she now hearing things in the attic, the very walls, or is that just the echoes of the bombing and those souls who lived here before? Surely those can't really be . . . whispers? ~~~Once Upon a Time of War Series Bent & Broken: Gretel & Her Thieving Brother Secrets of de Schoenwinkel (the Shoe Shop) Spies Amongst All the Splinters Coming soon: Felka & the Forest Trove Make Do & Mend: Mary McDonald’s Farm Fair Towers of Former Days The Apothecary & The Magician And more . . .