And the city now under almost constant attack was Berlin.

Still staring at Hester’s photograph, he cracked his knuckles. When they had first married, Berlin had been their home. It was a city he had once loved just as passionately as he loved Shuttleworth Hall. It was his father’s city—and his father still lived there. In all probability, Ilse, Lotti and Claus still lived there. So far none of the targets he had marked had been in Berlin, but that he soon would be acting as a pathfinder on a raid over Berlin was inevitable.

As he left the room and headed for the stairs, intent on spending time with his grandfather, he wondered bleakly how he would bring himself to fulfil such a mission. It was a question he had asked himself many times—and was one he was still unable to answer.

At lunchtime, with very little input from him, the conversation flew thick and fast.

‘We did have evacuees,’ Vicky said, passing a dish of roasted vegetables to Tony, ‘but that was in the early days of the war. Once the heavy raids on the East End and the docks came to an end, they all went back home.’ Her voice thickened with amusement. ‘Some of the children liked the novelty of country life, but their mothers didn’t. They couldn’t get back to London quickly enough.’

‘And Hugo said you had Jewish refugees living here as well?’

‘We did have. We had two families who were allowed into the country as domestic workers and agricultural trainees but only on the understanding that they agreed to ultimate settlement elsewhere. At the moment, they are in Somerset and have been told that their final destination will be Canada. I miss them. Both of the husbands were Hester’s cousins.’

‘Hester?’

Vicky flashed a look towards Hugo, appalled that his friend knew so little about his private life.

‘Hugo’s late wife,’ she said as Hugo’s shoulders tensed and he kept his eyes fixed firmly on his plate.

Adam smoothed the moment over by saying, ‘I’m glad you were impressed by the amount of vegetables and fruit Shuttleworth Hall produces, Tony. We keep the whole of Little Ridding supplied and most of the neighbouring villages as well.’ He speared a Brussels sprout. ‘Before the war, Shuttleworth Hall was famous for its roses, thanks to Paul, Vicky’s nephew, who is a rose-breeder—or who was a rose-breeder before this bally war started.’

‘He’s a major now, in the American army,’ Emily Elise said, ‘and if you’re wondering where Heini fits in, Heini is the one Jewish refugee we still have with us, though we don’t think of him as being a refugee because he’s been here since even before the war and so he’s simply family.’

Tony grinned across at her, grateful that one mystery had been clarified, even if two more had been thrown into the ring. Why hadn’t Hugo ever told any of the chaps at the base that he was a widower and that his wife was Jewish? It would certainly have helped their often difficult relationships with him if he had done. And just where did the American connection fit in? Adam had made it sound as if Vicky’s American nephew had run his rose-breeding business from Shuttleworth Hall, which seemed a little strange unless Shuttleworth Hall was also Paul’s home.