The knowledge was a grain of solace in an otherwise grim scenario. Clinging to it, she eventually slept, but not until the sun had begun to rise, red-rimmed, above the trees beyond the river.

*

Hester set a boiled egg and a plate of toast in front of Hugo.

‘What’s the latest news?’ she asked as he pushed the newspaper he had been reading to one side and smartly sliced off the top of his egg with a knife.

‘Hitler has closed the border with Poland in Upper Silesia. The King is inspecting a hundred and thirty-three ships of the Auxiliary Fleet at Weymouth and France is calling up its reservists.’

‘And there’s nothing any more definite?’

He shook his head.

‘Not even from the horse’s mouth?’

His eyes held hers. It was a treasonable offence to reveal anything of what went on in his department at the Foreign Office and Hester had never before asked him to do so.

He said, ‘Ambassadors and Dominion High Commissioners are flying in for talks with the Prime Minister. There’s almost certainly going to be a war, Hester. Hitler didn’t back down over the Rhineland. Didn’t back down over union with Austria. Didn’t back down over the Sudetenland. And he isn’t going to back down over Danzig. He’ll invade Poland and, when he does, Chamberlain will honour the military alliance Britain has with Poland and we’ll be at war. And it won’t be before time.’

There were thin white lines around his finely sculpted mouth. ‘If we’d stood up to him when he first breached the Versailles Treaty—when he sent troops into the Rhineland—he’d have crumbled like dust. Instead of which,’ he added, glancing down at his watch and rising to his feet, ‘he’s been able to consolidate his military power and embark on a reign of terror unequalled since the Middle Ages.’

‘But that reign of terror doesn’t often get into the newspapers, does it?’ Hester said quietly, as he picked up his briefcase and bowler hat. ‘The Night of Broken Glass got into the papers, but only because it was coordinated violence against Jews throughout the whole country. Hitler passes law after law stripping Jews of every basic human right and newspaper headlines are about someone in Peckham being killed because a branch of a tree fell on top of a bus, or that Pan American Airways’ flying boat arrived at Southampton Water four hours late due to storms over the Atlantic.’

He put his briefcase down and pulled her towards him. ‘There’s going to be a war,’ he said with quiet certainty, ‘and when it’s over, Hitler and his despicable racial policies will be no more. Cling to that thought, Hester. I do.’

She slid her arms up and around his neck. Hugo was an academic-looking man who looked his best when dressed formally and in his pinstriped three-piece suit, stiffly starched shirt and old school tie he looked incredibly sexy. ‘I love you,’ she said, hating the unbelievably long hours he was now working, knowing she wouldn’t see him again until midnight or even later.