Vicky was asleep when the ringing of the phone shattered the night-time peace and quiet of Shuttleworth Hall.

‘What on earth…?’ She heard Adam say groggily as he disentangled himself from his sleeping position curled around her and struggled up against the pillows, fumbling for the bedside-light switch. ‘Little Ridding 454—’

He never finished giving their number. Instead he broke off, totally awake in an instant, leaping out of bed and saying as he did so: ‘But Hester isn’t in Berlin! She’s in London. Is Ilse delirious? How badly has she been hurt?’

Vicky, aware that the call was from Berlin and couldn’t possibly be about anything good, scrambled from the bed, reaching for her dressing gown.

‘She’s what?’

As Vicky saw the blood drain from Adam’s face, icy fingers clutched at her heart.

He looked across at her and with the phone still held close to his ear, said to her, ‘It’s Nicholas. Hester has been arrested and Ilse is in hospital. He hasn’t been able to contact Hugo yet.’ Speaking again to Nicholas he said, ‘Don’t say any more. Not over the phone. It isn’t safe. We’ll contact Hugo.’

He put the receiver down and immediately began ringing Hugo’s London number, looking across to their bedside clock as he did so. It was 11.45 p.m.

‘But what was Hester doing in Berlin?’ Vicky asked, her voice frantic. ‘Does Hugo know she’s in Berlin? And who has she been arrested by? The state criminal police or the Gestapo?’

He didn’t ask what the difference was. He merely said, as the phone in Hugo and Hester’s Knightsbridge flat continued to ring unanswered, ‘I don’t have answers for any of your questions, Vicky. I think we should get dressed, telephone Josephine to ask her to get over here so that your father isn’t left on his own. She can babysit Emily Elise and Heini and that will enable us to set off immediately for London. I’ll try and contact Hugo again from a phone box on the way. One thing is for certain: when he’s told what has happened he’s going to need family support. If we set off now, we’ll be with him by breakfast time.’

Even while he was talking she was getting dressed, hurling her clothes on with feverish hands. At the back of her mind was the fear that, whatever Hester’s reason for being in Berlin, her arrest had been in connection with the passport ring. And if Adam were to come to the same conclusion, there was no way he would let her go to Berlin to help find Hester. Though never having had any connection with the forgery of passports and visas, she had had connections with those who had received them. It would be enough to guarantee her own arrest.

As she thought of what could possibly be happening to her dearly loved daughter-in-law and of Hugo’s distress, there was no doubt in her mind as to what she was going to do. Hugo’s reaction would be to leave immediately for Berlin—and she was going to leave with him.