Vicky couldn’t imagine it either, but was certain she would be able to cope. Coping was something she was good at.

‘When this war that is hanging over us is finally declared, will Nancy come back to England?’ Violet asked, changing the subject abruptly.

‘She says not.’ Vicky looked down over the vast rolling lawn to the river, wishing Nancy were striding along its banks, the warm August breeze tugging at her turbulently curly hair. ‘She says she intends staying in Paris.’

‘Not a very sensible intention,’ Violet said flatly. ‘I didn’t understand why she went there when the International Brigades were repatriated. Has she developed some kind of a phobia for England?’

‘No.’ Vicky was not affronted, accustomed to Violet’s blunt manner, a manner that had become even blunter now she was in her seventies. ‘She simply likes to be in the thick of things and when she took up journalism again it was as a foreign correspondent based in France.’

‘And there’s no boyfriend on the scene?’

‘No. Not that I know of.’

‘A pity. It’s been a long time.’

Vicky, knowing very well what Violet was referring to, said simply, ‘Yes. It has.’

As Violet helped herself to a biscuit Vicky reflected on how hard it was to believe that in the four years since their affair had come to an end, neither Nancy nor Claus had embarked on another long-term relationship.

‘You’re never going to be a grandmother at this rate.’ Violet brushed biscuit crumbs from her massive chest. ‘I have fourteen grandchildren now. I’d have a word with Hugo, if I were you. Impending war or no impending war, it’s time he and Hester thought of beginning a family.’

‘Do you think Hugo and Hester haven’t started a family yet by choice?’ she asked Adam that night, as they lay in bed together, reading.

Adam put down Edgar Wallace’s The Thief in the Night. ‘I’ve no idea, sweetheart. It isn’t something I’d be comfortable asking. Would you?’

‘Probably not.’ She slid a bookmark into Georgette Heyer’s Devil’s Cub. ‘It’s just that Violet mentioned it this afternoon and it started me wondering. I’d hate to think they wanted children and couldn’t have them.’

He slid his arm around her shoulders and she nestled close to him, loving the sense of security he always gave her. ‘I think if that was the case, Hester would have told you,’ he said gently. ‘They may have been married for seven years, but she’s still only twenty-four and Hugo is only twenty-seven. They’ve got plenty of time. And Hester hasn’t exactly been leading a stress-free lifestyle, has she? If war is declared, one thing I’ll be thankful for is that it will mean a complete end to her illegal activities whenever she’s in Berlin—and to your illegal activities too.’

Vicky bit her lip, well aware of the terrible strain she put him under every time she smuggled jewellery out of Germany. ‘You’re doing it too often, Ma,’ Max had said to her at the time of the Munich crisis. ‘Such a long run of luck can’t hold. For all our sakes, especially Emily Elise’s, call a halt to it.’