She wondered if she dared risk that and knew that if neither Lotti nor Ilse knew of Max’s whereabouts, she would have no choice. She would have to.

The landscape gave way to familiar suburbs. It was half-seven in the evening and the air was beginning to smoke with the first hint of dusk. In less than an hour she would be with her parents and would know the worst, whether they were too ill to be moved or whether she could go ahead with her plans to get them out of the country.

Before leaving the mainline station for the U-Bahn she darted into a telephone kiosk. The sooner she was in touch with Lotti or Ilse, the better.

Lotti’s number rang and rang and then, when it was finally answered, it was by a voice she didn’t know. ‘Lotti isn’t here,’ a bored female voice said indifferently. ‘She’s already left for the club. Sorry.’

She rang Ilse’s number, fervently hoping Ilse wouldn’t be in a theatre performance. After only two rings the receiver at the other end of the line was picked up and Ilse’s distinctively lovely voice said, ‘Ilse Schulenburg speaking.’

‘Oh, Ilse! Thank God.’ Hester’s relief was absolute. ‘I was terrified you’d be out. I need to be put in contact with Max urgently.’

‘Are you in London or Little Ridding, Hester?’ Ilse was all immediate concern. ‘Has there been an accident? What’s the matter?’

‘I’m in Berlin. At the railway station.’ She cut across Ilse’s exclamation of disbelief and horror. ‘My parents are ill. One of their neighbours phoned me this morning. She thinks my father has had a heart attack and so I left immediately. I need to speak with Max, Hester. I’ve got to get my parents out of Germany before war is declared. It doesn’t matter now whether they want to leave or not.’

‘But you shouldn’t be here!’ The alarm in Ilse’s voice was naked. ‘What on earth was Hugo thinking of?’ She made a valiant effort to remain calm. ‘Put me on to Hugo, Hester. Let me speak with him.’

‘Hugo isn’t with me. He doesn’t know I’m here. He won’t know till he gets home much later this evening. I can’t talk any longer, Ilse. I have to get straight to Mitte. Tell Max to meet me there as fast as he can.’

‘Dear God, Hester!’ Ilse’s effort to be calm deserted her. ‘Why didn’t you phone me from London so that I could have checked on your parents? This is the last place on earth you should be at the present moment. Don’t you know that there are—‘

Ilse’s protests were protests she didn’t have time to listen to. ‘Get Max to me, Ilse,’ she said one last time and then, not even taking the time to replace the receiver back on its rest, she ran from the phone booth.

When she scrambled into a taxi she didn’t speak German to the driver. The Mitte part of Berlin, where her parents now lived, had become predominantly Jewish and she didn’t want him to suspect she was Jewish and to refuse to take her. As it was, even believing her to be a hare-brained Englishwoman, he refused take her any further than one of the main thoroughfares.