His still handsome face was haggard with anxiety and she squeezed his hand. ‘I promise. I promise I won’t take any risks at all while I have Emily Elise with me. I won’t get in touch with any of my Jewish contacts. I won’t visit any of my Jewish friends, not even Hester’s parents. This is going to be a purely family visit.’

‘And you’re going to stay there only forty-eight hours? It’s going to be an in-and-out trip for all of you? Hugo and Hester included?’

She leaned her head against his shoulder and he slid his arm around her, hugging her close.

‘We’ll be there for only forty-eight hours and will be guests of the Schulenburg family all the time we are there. There’s to be a large pre-wedding party at the Schulenburgs’ mansion the evening we arrive. I’ll have to unearth something full-length and grand to wear to it. Nicholas’s family are vintage upper-crust. Lotti says the invitation list is a sea of minor ex-royals. The next day will be the wedding. And the day afterwards we return home.’

He sighed heavily, still not liking the thought of any of his family journeying to Germany at a time of such international tension.

‘Would you feel happier if you came with us?’ she asked gently. ‘You were invited. Ilse wants you to be there.’

He shook his head. ‘I can’t go, darling. It’s just not possible. I have to be in London to see the bankers about raising money for the new Huddersfield mill and the day of the wedding is the only time they can all meet together with me.’

She didn’t argue with him. The new Huddersfield mill was important to him and, even if it were not, she knew how hard it would be for Adam to step on German soil when his memories of 1914 to 1918 were still so deep and searing. It was much better that he stayed at home. Trying to imagine him surrounded by a glittering array of bemedalled and bejewelled Hohenzollerns and Wittelsbachs was impossible, even for her.

‘And so I’m still not going to meet Adam,’ Zelda said as she and Vicky, minus Emily Elise who, as a bridesmaid, was with Ilse and Nicholas at the wedding rehearsal, walked arm in arm into the Schulenburgs’ Charlottenburg mansion. There was both petulance and disappointment in her voice.

‘You’ve been able to meet Adam any time you wanted to, for years now.’ As always where Zelda was concerned, Vicky was both amused at her and cross with her. ‘All you’ve ever had to do is come and stay at Shuttleworth Hall. Paul would love to be able to show off his rose nursery to you. He’s one of the foremost rose-breeders in England now.’

‘And he’s still unmarried and fast disposing of his fortune,’ Zelda retorted, genuine concern in her voice. ‘He can’t subsidize every Jewish family friend of the Dresners that wants to emigrate. It just isn’t possible. He’s going to be penniless.’