The air in the apartment she was led into was stale and sour and the blinds were drawn so that it was difficult to see clearly.

‘She says she is Hester Remer’s mother-in-law,’ the girl said to a still figure seated on a sagging sofa. ‘I thought there might be trouble if I didn’t let her in.’

Vicky’s eyes adjusted to the dim light. Frau Debuss was sitting in her coat, clasping a small cardboard box.

‘I need to know if you know the reason for Hester’s arrest,’ she said, trying not to remember that if Frau Debuss hadn’t given in to Gestapo pressure, Hester would still be safely in England. ‘I need to know everything the Gestapo said to you.’

The eyes that met hers were blank with grief. She didn’t even attempt to answer the question. ‘They told me if I told Hester her mother was ill and her father had had a heart attack, that they would free my husband,’ she said in the flat tones of someone who has suffered too deeply to be able to betray any more emotion. ‘He was in Sachsenhausen. They told me if I did as they asked and if Hester came back to Berlin, I could go to Sachsenhausen and bring my husband home.’

Vicky nodded, understanding all too well the kind of hideous blackmail Frau Debuss had been under.

‘They told me Hester was a traitor to the state and so, for my husband’s sake, I did as they asked.’

Vicky felt her stomach muscles tighten into crippling knots. The answer was the one she had feared all along, and if Hester had been charged with treason the likelihood was she was already dead.

‘And your husband?’ she asked, aware that the apartment seemed empty but for themselves and the young girl. ‘Is he here?’

‘Oh, yes.’ Tears began rolling down her face and splashing onto her coat. ‘He’s here. They gave him to me at Sachsenhausen’s gates.’

And she lifted up the cardboard box containing his ashes.

‘There can be no arguments,’ Nicholas said. ‘Not even from Hugo. You must all leave Germany at once. Tonight. Before England declares war on Germany and the borders are closed.’

This time the family conclave was being held in his and Ilse’s home and neither Josef nor Berthold were present. Josef because he was at the hospital, sitting at his daughter’s bedside, and Berthold because no one had thought it necessary to tell him of it.

‘I can’t leave,’ Hugo said tautly. ‘Not without knowing what has happened to Hester.’

‘You have to.’ Nicholas spoke with grave certainty and quiet authority. ‘Secret coded dispatches have been humming over the wires all day at the Foreign Office. Because of my position there I can tell you that the British Ambassador has had yet another stormy meeting with Hitler this afternoon. The British government isn’t going to give way over Poland. When German troops cross the Polish border Britain will declare itself to be at war with Germany. And I’m privy to the hideous information that German troops are going to invade Poland not within days, but within hours. So you have to leave, Hugo. Remaining here will mean internment, and if you are interned you will be able to do nothing towards finding out what has happened to Hester. You are simply going to have to leave searching for her up to myself and Claus.’