Vicky stared at him, her bewilderment total.

Josef smiled.

‘In your absence, Victoria, a great deal of legal paperwork was undertaken. The House of Remer became a limited liability company, though a private one. All shares are held principally by myself, the others being divided between Berthold and Zelda. Berthold has renounced all claim to the House of Remer steelworks and factories and I am now the sole legal owner, and Claus Heinrich will be the owner after me. Berthold is entitled to twenty per cent of House of Remer profits. As well as being a Board Director he also has a seat on the Committee of Management, though without any particular responsibility. Does that answer all your questions?’

As she looked at her husband’s face and Zelda’s face, Vicky knew there wasn’t the faintest possibility that Josef was bluffing. The enormity of the inheritance Berthold had given up—an inheritance that would, in turn, have been their son’s—stupefied her. She couldn’t begin to make any sense of it, because there wasn’t any sense to it.

‘Why?’ she asked, turning towards Berthold, her face bloodless. ‘For the love of God, Berthold. Why?’

‘Because it was easiest, Liebchen.’ He took off his spectacles and rubbed his forehead. ‘The provisos with which the steelworks and factories were left to me meant that I would never have had complete control over them. My father had always intended Josef would have control. The only reason the House of Remer was even nominally left to me was to prevent rumours flying. In families like ours it is traditional for the family business to be left to the eldest son. Any other arrangement would have caused too much speculation.’

‘Speculation?’ Vicky felt as if she were drowning in treacle. ‘What kind of speculation?’ She looked around the table, aware that something was known by all of them which was totally unknown to her.

‘Tell her,’ Zelda said, wiping away the perspiration on her upper lip.

‘I don’t think it’s my position to tell her.’ Josef eased his hands from the table and stood upright. ‘It is Berthold who should tell her.’

The blood was pounding in Vicky’s ears like the waves of the sea.

Slowly, clumsily, Berthold rose to his feet.

‘I’m sorry, Liebchen, I never wanted you to know this.’ The napkin was still in his hands and he was still screwing it into knots.

He licked his lips. ‘My father believed my mother was unfaithful to him shortly after they married,’ he said unsteadily. ‘And he believed me to be the result. He never truly accepted I was his son.’

‘Oh, God.’ Vicky began to tremble. ‘Oh, dear God.’ Things that had always puzzled her about Harald Remer’s attitude towards Berthold now became crystal clear. And what was also crystal clear was that because of Berthold’s unpardonable weakness in not fighting for what was rightfully his, the House of Remer, under Josef’s control, would continue to produce armaments and would begin building battleships. There was nothing she, or Berthold, could do that would prevent it.