‘There is Native American Indian blood, which is enough. It changes the situation with the House of Remer, making it impossible for the government to be seen to be doing business with it. However, taking into account your loyalty to the Nazi Party and that you were, presumably, ignorant of your wife’s bloodline at the time of your marriage, I am going to offer you a deal.’

‘A deal?’ Josef felt as if the world were shelving away from his feet. The sweat on his upper lip was salty on his mouth. ‘But surely no kind of a deal is necessary? My wife is not even half American Indian. She comes from one of the most respected families in New York. Her father, Charles Wallace, is a merchant banker of international reputation.’

‘And the House of Remer has an international reputation. And there is the problem. The House of Remer is representative of the new Germany and, as such, must be unsullied by rumours of miscegenation. Your wife’s dramatic looks have ensured there have been many rumours—hence the investigation that was made.’

‘Then issue a report saying only that the investigation has proved my wife has no Jewish blood!’ Agitatedly, Josef clenched and unclenched his hands. ‘She isn’t a Jewess and surely that is all that matters? And she never represents the House of Remer in public. Only my son does that and no one could believe Claus to be anything other than one hundred per cent Aryan. He’s as blond-haired and blue-eyed as a Nordic god!’

He was on the verge of hysteria and making himself ridiculous, but he couldn’t help it. He couldn’t lose the contracts for armaments. He couldn’t. He had kept the House of Remer flourishing through nightmare years of inflation and depression. There was hardly another industrialist, apart from the giants, who had prospered as he had prospered. And his early, passionate espousal of National Socialism had been a prime example of his long-sightedness. When others had slightingly referred to Hitler as the ‘Bavarian corporal’, he had had faith that Hitler would one day come to power and had given him unstinting support.

It was support that had had its reward in the mammoth contracts for armaments—and now he was on the verge of losing those contracts. It was unspeakable. Unbelievable.

‘I quite agree that your son is a fine physical specimen of new German manhood,’ Göring said equably. ‘And I have had the pleasure of meeting your younger daughter, who is, in every respect, the prototype of German beauty. Your elder daughter is, I understand, out of the country.’

Josef blinked and then, realizing that Göring’s informants had no idea that Lotti Remer was Lotti Lennartz, said rapidly, ‘Yes, Herr Reichsminister. You have been informed correctly.’

‘Your children’s lack of any appearance of mixed blood, coupled with the great respect that the Chancellor has for you, is what is enabling me to offer a deal,’ Göring continued urbanely.

This time Josef didn’t suggest a deal was unnecessary. This time he knew it was his only hope. ‘Then let me hear what it is,’ he said, well aware that no matter what the huge amount of money demanded of him, he would find it.