There weren’t any curd tarts, but there were Yorkshire teacakes. Vicky toasted them and served them with some of the damson jam she’d made the previous autumn.

‘And just how did you wangle the sugar for the jam?’ Nancy asked, unused to such home comforts.

‘I didn’t have to wangle. I haggled. And as I had bucketfuls of fruit to haggle with, it wasn’t too difficult.’ She looked across to where Tony, Heini, Adam and Emily Elise were playing Monopoly and said: ‘Let’s go for a short walk before it gets dark. I want to know some more about this fiancé of yours.’

Nancy gave a heavy sigh and brushed teacake crumbs from her chest. ‘I knew you would. All right, then. Down to the river and back, but no farther.’

A few minutes later, as they made their way over the daffodil-crowded grass, she said, ‘I’m sorry Leo isn’t with me. Though I could get away this weekend, he couldn’t. But I promise we will be here together at the very first opportunity.’

She was looking straight ahead, her jaw jutting pugnaciously, her hands dug deep in the pockets of her military-style coat.

‘Has Leo been married before?’ Vicky asked, assuming that a man of forty probably had been and not knowing how best to ask her prickly child the question she really wanted to ask.

‘Yes, but not for long. There were no children.’

She stopped walking. ‘We’re living together, Mum. We’ve been living together for two years now. I know I should have told you about him before, but somehow…after all that happened with Claus…I just wanted to keep things secret this time.’

Suddenly, it was very easy for Vicky to ask the only question that was of importance to her. ‘And you’re in love with him, Nancy? Truly in love?’

Nancy’s blue-grey eyes held hers. ‘What you’re really asking is, am I love with him the way I was in love with Claus?’

Vicky’s silence was her answer and Nancy turned her head away, looking towards the river. She wasn’t wearing her beret and her thick hair blew around her head in a mass of untidy curls. ‘No,’ she said starkly. ‘I’m not in love with him the way I was in love with Claus, because that was an obsession. It was something I built up in my head from being a small child and when I became an adult—when I thought I was an adult—I simply carried it on. We never really had a single thing in common, apart from our family. Our passion for each other never extended to a shared passion for other things. With Leo it’s different. We both know that this war is a defining, iconic moment in British political history. We’re both passionate about working towards a new social order. In absolutely everything, we’re a team.’

She turned back, her eyes meeting her mother’s. ‘I wouldn’t want a repeat of the kind of love I had for Claus. What I want now is what I’ve got, because it’s so much more. There’s mutual respect. Total compatibility. Shared ideals. Shared goals. He isn’t Greek-god handsome, like Claus. He’s good-looking in a rugged, rugby-player-looking way. He’s fiercely intelligent. Wildly funny. Immensely kind and, last but by no means least, he makes me happy in bed.’ Her mouth tugged into a smile. ‘So does that give you the answer to your question? And are you happy with it?’