Greet van Steenbergen is unmarried but definitely not lonely. Almost all the rooms in her guesthouse for respectable ladies are let and it is always a companionable place to be. Greet is a resolute lady with remarkable light blond hair and is therefore called "blonde Greet" by everyone. She likes atmospheric lights in her guesthouse. Because it is dark so early in December the light from the lanterns at her window dances and shines on the snowy waterside giving it copper edges. Landlady Greet rules her lodgers like a queen. Because the ladies come from near and far, in the winter months she cooks them solid Molendam hotchpotches of curly kale and endive that she grows in her own little garden behind the house and at Christmas she bombards them with traditional regional delicacies. The  “speculaaspoppen” made by baker Brakenhof are particularly cherished. In the afternoon they dine at restaurant “graaf Floris” belonging to Tonnie and Willem Broos.

But to be honest she can’t do this too often. A guesthouse for ladies doesn’t pay that well. That’s why Greet has to earn a little extra. Over day she works as maid to Mayor Wolkers van Avezaath. She cleans the town hall, helps Madelief with her ceremonial duties as wife to the mayor and collects the children, Freek and Rita from school. At work she keeps her eyes and ears open because she is interested in any information she may stumble across, she spreads this information as quickly as she learns it. In this way she fills the position as town crier in Molendam, even though she does so in a whisper.
Of course she could earn a lot more. For example if she let her rooms to sea farers who reach the harbour by barge and sometimes need days to get their sacks and casks to Jacobus van Cromvoirt’s weighhouse and who would like to sleep in a soft bed for once instead of the cramped berth. But she’s not going to start that.

She doesn’t rent rooms to men. That only gives rise to trouble. Sometimes she makes an exception for the weights and measures inspectors at the weighhouse. If the snow is so thick that they are unable to leave Molendam in the evening and the ice to thin to allow them to skate home over the canals and brooks, she has an attic room vacant for them.