‘The upper class tend to be from well-established families: they live in houses – especially in the country – that have been owned by their family for generations, and they would expect to pass them on to their children. They go to the same schools as each other and they benefit enormously from a network of acquaintances and friends from their school days. There’s something called the old boy network that tends to help them in their careers – as do family connections.’

‘It sounds corrupt.’

‘I suppose that’s just how it is. When Gilbey told me he’d been at school with the bishop, it didn’t surprise me in the least. The upper class marry people from similar families, and their lives are intertwined. They go to very select clubs that are in many ways an extension of their schools, right down to the food they eat in them. And more importantly, they live their lives through a sense of obligation: an obligation to maintain the status quo and to ensure good order in society, not least because they benefit so much from it. It’s as if society has been designed with them in mind, therefore they have a stake in defending and promoting it.’

‘But this is wrong, isn’t it, Richard? Surely people’s position in society should be based on their ability – that’s what happens in Denmark. You seem to just accept the situation.’

‘Perhaps one just gets used to it, darling. In any case, now that we have a Labour government, things may change, who knows?’

‘The new prime minister…’

‘Clement Attlee.’

‘…what class is he?’

‘I imagine he’s middle class. We’re not too far from London now, Hanne; you’ll see the city building up around us.’

‘What is that building?’

‘That’s Alexandra Palace. As I was saying, this sense of obligation extends to other people, the people the upper class would regard as being of an inferior class, although they’d never express it in those terms. They would consider it wrong, for instance, to be rude to people: they regard themselves as having obligations towards us and us as having obligations towards them. Have you heard the French phrase noblesse oblige?’

She shook her head.

‘Essentially it means that the nobility, the gentry and the upper class have an obligation to behave decently and properly. It recognises that their position in society comes with certain responsibilities.’

‘Just two words mean all that?’

Prince nodded. The noisy brakes indicated that the train was slowing down.

‘It wasn’t a phrase the French prisoners used at Ravensbrück.’

‘I wouldn’t imagine they had much cause to – I don’t think noblesse oblige applies to Germans, in any case. But it does go some way to explaining how Gilbey, for example, treats me: perfectly properly, probably somewhat patronisingly, but he has an expectation of how I should behave. He sees it as my – our – obligation or duty to serve this country, just as he does. He doesn’t need to order me to come and see him, but it is bred into him to ask in such a way that there’s an expectation I will.’