‘But I’ll warn you, languages are not my forte. The only French I can remember from school is “Où est la gare?”’ His face clouded. ‘There wasn’t much opportunity to speak the language when I was out in France, last time. And the few phrases of Latin still in here—’ he tapped his head ‘—are about preparing for battles. Which would be useful, I suppose, if we were waging war with ancient Rome!’ He spread his hands. ‘I am, Miss Corbett, someone who likes to be prepared. So, will you do it? Do we have a deal?’

How could anyone refuse him? Charity would be proud of her. She’d agreed to try riding the tandem and now this. She was turning into someone who said yes.

‘I’ll have a stab at it, Sir,’ she said.

‘Excellent!’ He smiled and rubbed his hands together. ‘Shall we make a start?’ He glanced at his watch. ‘Do you have a few minutes? No time like the present, eh? Where do you suggest we begin? How about “Hello” and “How do you do?” That kind of thing?’

Maggie’s head was spinning.

‘With respect, Sir, if the Nazis commandeered the Hall, would you really want to pass the time of day?’

He held up his finger and smiled. ‘Good point, Miss Corbett. But I would need to build rapport. I definitely need to know the niceties. Just a moment …’ He opened a drawer in his desk, took out a notebook and opened it at the first blank page.

And so, they began.

Maggie had never taught anyone anything in her life. Being thrown in at the deep end was probably for the best. She’d have lost sleep over it, if she’d had time to think.

She taught him Guten Tag and Gute Nacht. Those words weren’t unfamiliar to him. But he struggled with ‘How are you?’ – Wie geht es Ihnen? – and the response – Es geht mir gut, danke und Ihnen?

He asked her to spell the words out and he wrote them down, phonetically, too, so he had half a chance of being able to say them.

‘Is that right?’ he asked her once, frowning. ‘It didn’t sound anything like how you said it. Way off the mark. Why, it didn’t sound like German at all!’

She tried to be encouraging but once, he looked up from his notebook and caught her biting her lip.

‘What’s the matter?’

‘Nothing, Sir.’

‘No, do come on. You’re smiling. There must be something.’

‘It’s only … you sound very English, Sir, that’s all.’

‘That’s probably because I am English!’

He was only pretending to be upset, she could tell. He threw his head back and laughed.