She looked away from the road, her eyes meeting Lotti’s. ‘And so is Max in love with Ilse? You are the person who has always been the closest to him. If anyone knows, you must do.’

‘Yes.’ Lotti broke eye contact with her. ‘Yes,’ she said again, her face inscrutable, ‘Max is in love with Ilse.’

‘And is Ilse in love with Max?’

‘Oh, I imagine so. I imagine she’s been in love with him for a long time.’

There was an odd note in Lotti’s voice. A note Vicky couldn’t place.

They could see Shuttleworth Hall in the distance now and Lotti said, sounding more like her usual self, ‘There is another man in Ilse’s life. Whenever Max isn’t in Berlin, she spends a lot of time with Count Nicholas Schulenburg, and Nicky Schulenburg is deeply in love with her.’

‘Is he?’ Vicky’s eyebrows flew high. She returned her attention to the road. She knew all about Nicholas Schulenburg and liked him. ‘It would be a wonderful match,’ she said musingly.

‘Because he’s wealthy and titled?’

‘Because he’s a fine young man and because of the long friendship Josef enjoyed with his father.’

‘But wealth and title are an issue with Ilse, aren’t they?’ Lotti said with stunning bluntness. ‘She doesn’t think they are, of course. If you asked her, she would say she didn’t care about being rich or being a countess—and she would say that her being in love with Max proves that.’

Vicky slowed the car to a snail’s pace, not wanting the journey to end before their conversation should do so. ‘And you don’t think that’s the case?’

‘I think Ilse has no idea at all of what it would be like to live on a restricted income. And Max’s income is restricted, isn’t it? He’s never likely to be super-rich, the way that Claus is super-rich, or the way that Nicholas is super-rich, is he? Ilse is used to being pampered and spoiled. It’s not a role Max could easily fulfil, is it? And even if he could fulfil it, I don’t think it’s a role that would make him happy.’

‘No,’ Vicky said quietly. ‘It isn’t.’ She turned the car off the road and into the narrow lane leading towards the river and Shuttleworth Hall. ‘And so let’s hope Nicholas Schulenburg is a persistent suitor,’ she said wryly, ‘because it seems to me that he, not Max, is the right person for Ilse.’

There was no response from Lotti, but there didn’t need to be one. On this subject Vicky knew that Lotti was in full agreement with her.

‘Jack Wilkinson says the turkey will be delivered by mid-morning—which is any time now,’ she said to Josephine as she walked into the kitchen, setting her heavy basket of greengroceries down. ‘I’m just going to have a cup of tea and a five-minute rest and then I’m going to take the Christmasdinner tablecloth and napkins out of the linen cupboard and polish the epergne.’