‘Though I shan’t be seeking out business contacts with any of Harald’s friends,’ her father had warned her when they had had supper together on the evening of his arrival. ‘Truth to tell, Vicky dear, my business arrangement with Harald is proving a little embarrassing.’

‘Because he’s my father-in-law?’ she’d said, bewildered.

‘Because the wool I ship to him is wool used exclusively for government contracts—and those contracts are for military clothing, not civilian clothing.’

‘And does that matter?’

‘It would if Germany were to go to war. And you have to bear in mind that the Kaiser is a bully. France and Russia don’t like it, and they especially don’t like the way Germany is building up her navy. It’s a disturbing situation, Vicky, and not one I want to profit from.’

‘But there isn’t going to be a war between Germany and Britain, is there?’

Her alarm had been so naked he’d reached across the table and grasped hold of her hand.

‘No, of course not,’ he’d said reassuringly. ‘Germany’s relations with Britain are different to those she has with other countries. We have a shared history—our monarchs are closely related. Goodness, if I’d thought you were going to come to such a conclusion I would never have mentioned my doubts about the Kaiser’s military intentions.’

He’d turned the conversation to family matters and they’d talked of his pleasure in the reunion he and his brother-in-law were enjoying and her pleasure that Zelda would soon be her sister-in-law as well as her cousin.

Now, lying on her bed and listening to the growing noise of the wedding reception, she wondered what Harald Remer’s reaction would be if her father declined to send him any more wool. Even though the Remer clothing factory was of small importance compared to the industrial giant that was the Remer steelworks, she was sure he would be furious.

A contraction totally different in nature to the ones she had been having banished all thoughts of her father-in-law. As Josephine entered the room, a tea tray in her hands, she said with urgency, ‘I do need the doctor, Josephine. I need him as soon as possible.’

Seated at the centre of the splendidly ornate top table, the Kaiser on one side of her, her husband on the other, Zelda was brimming with radiant self-satisfaction. Though she hadn’t married the elder son as she had intended when she had first arrived in the Remer mansion as a guest, she had certainly achieved a great deal. She was, for instance, now on social terms with an emperor, and how many Fifth Avenue grand hostesses could claim the same? The answer, as she well knew, was that none of them could.

As the Kaiser leaned towards her slightly, complimenting her on the speed with which she was learning German, she wished with all her heart the Vanderbilt, Whitney and Astor matriarchs, who had never let her forget she had Iroquois blood in her veins, could see her now.