Hester slipped off her jacket and slid it over the back of her chair. ‘Which of us is going to go first with our news? You or me?’

‘You. I want an update on Nancy. I’ve tried several times to meet up with Vicky and get news from her, but have failed each time. When she’s in Berlin, she’s as busy as a bee. Let’s order and then we’ll talk.’

When they both had a glass of white wine in hand, Hester said, ‘Nancy’s stationed in a small hospital at Huete, almost on the Barcelona front. As there is just as much work to do outside the hospital as in, she works mostly on one of the hospital trains. It must be pretty gruelling. She writes of operations being carried out while bombs are falling.’

Ilse flinched, as aware as Hester that at General Franco’s request much of the bombing was being carried out by German pilots in German planes. It had been Heinkels that had reduced Guernica to rubble and no doubt it was Heinkels bombing the area around Huete.

‘Thank God,’ Hester said quietly, ‘that the House of Remer isn’t involved in aircraft production. If it were and if anything should happen to Nancy, Claus would never forgive himself.’

She took another drink of her wine and, to her relief, Ilse changed the subject.

‘How is Emily Elise?’ she asked wistfully. ‘I wish Vicky was able to bring her with her to Berlin—or that I could get to Yorkshire as often as Lotti does. I can’t, though. Ever since Intrigue and Love I’ve been in one play after another.’

There was no boastfulness in her voice. Hester knew quite well that Ilse didn’t know how to boast. It was just a simple statement of fact.

‘She’s going to be a bridesmaid when you marry Nicholas, isn’t she?’ she said, sprinkling pepper on the omelette she had ordered.

Ilse, whose lunch consisted of a green salad and nothing else, laid down her fork. ‘She is if the international situation is safe enough for her to do so. Nicholas thinks it may well not be.’ An unhappy frown appeared on her forehead. ‘He thinks war with Britain is only a matter of time. Hugo is in the Foreign Office. What does he think?’

‘He also thinks war is only a matter of time.’

They stared at each other, each thinking the same thing: if there were war between Britain and Germany, when would they see each other again? When would Hester see her parents again? When would Ilse again be at Shuttleworth Hall?

‘It couldn’t happen twice, could it?’ Hester said, thinking of how Hugo’s family had been riven apart in 1914, thinking how much more dreadful it would be this time, when Hugo and Max would both be conscripted into the services—assuming they didn’t volunteer first—and when the same thing, in Germany, would happen to Claus and Nicholas.

‘I hope not,’ Ilse’s voice was devout, her face pale, ‘but Nicholas thinks the bombing of Guernica was a test run to see how effective the Luftwaffe now is.’