It was all so much more than she had dared to hope for that she was beyond speech. Only when he finally released his hold of her did she manage to say clumsily, ‘Thank you. Thank you, Claus.’

‘Don’t thank me. Forgive me for being so blind, for so long, but don’t thank me.’

There was a long, emotion-filled silence and then she said hesitantly, ‘I’ve not heard anything but rumours about the war for years, Claus. What is happening? Who will be the victor?’

‘The Allies,’ he said simply. ‘The tide has already turned. Germany has just suffered a massive defeat in Russia. The war in North Africa is going badly. Though every armaments factory in the country is in production day and night we can’t compete with American armaments production. The Allies will win the war, and when they do, Germany will claw itself back to sanity again.’

He didn’t add that when the war was over, he would most likely be shot for his part in German armament production—and that if he wasn’t shot on that charge, he would be shot because of his use of slave labour, even though that use was obligatory.

‘You must go back to the packing department,’ he said heavily, ‘before the guards wonder where you are, and why. And don’t breathe a word of our family relationship. If it comes to light, the inspectorate will ensure that all the changes so far in place will end instantly.’

She nodded, understanding all too well that she couldn’t confide in anyone, not even Detta.

‘Give me a few days, Hester,’ he said in the moments before he opened the door for her to return to the packing department in Gustav’s care. ‘Then everything we have spoken about will be in place, I promise you.’

She knew he was speaking the truth. Once, in what now seemed to be another lifetime, Hugo had told her she could trust his brother Max with her life. Now she knew that the same applied to Claus—and that she would be trusting him with her life as far into the future as she could see.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Berlin, October 1943

Lotti lay in the bath, hoping her precious few minutes of soothing relaxation wouldn’t be abruptly halted by the sound of sirens. There were air raids nearly every night now and though Lützowstrasse had so far remained unscathed, her former flatmates had all left the city for the comparative safety of doing war work elsewhere.

With the war going so badly, war work was now obligatory for everyone. The choice she had been given had been between working in an armaments factory or working as a street-car conductress. Without a second’s hesitation she had opted for work as a street-car conductress. The hours were long and she was on her feet all day, but then the hours had been long and she had been on her feet all day when she had worked as a waitress, and being a conductress did at least mean that her days were full of incident, for she got to traverse the city on a regular basis and always knew where the latest bombs had fallen and what the damage was.