‘I’ll give you twenty minutes, no longer,’ Charles said, as if Paul was a banking client. ‘And we’ll walk over to the summer house to talk.’ He nodded in the direction of Max and Hugo, saying drily, ‘Little pitchers have big ears.’

As they walked across the grass together Lotti could be heard squealing, ‘Nein! You can’t tag me here, Nancy. I’m on a cluster of daisies and everyone knows that clusters of daisies are home!’

‘Thank goodness the Berlin contingent now speak excellent English,’ Charles said, pausing to watch as Lotti and Nancy prepared to battle the issue out. ‘It’s a circumstance that owes nothing whatsoever to your mother and everything to your aunt. Without her efforts, I would still be conversing with them only with the help of an interpreter.’

He resumed walking towards the summer house and Paul fell into step beside him, refraining from pointing out that the language ability worked both ways and that Max, Hugo and Nancy now spoke pretty good German.

‘Now, what are all these things you need to know?’ his grandfather said, getting to the point. ‘It’s nothing to do with the financial side of things, is it? The executor I have appointed will take you through that particular minefield, as—at the appropriate time—will the financial advisors you will find yourself surrounded by.’

‘It isn’t the money—or not as it applies to me.’

‘Then why,’ his grandfather demanded testily, ‘have we trekked out here to speak in privacy?’

‘Because I don’t feel comfortable inheriting an amount different to that Claus, Lotti and Ilse are to receive. And then there’s my mother’s situation,’ he added as they stepped into the summer house. ‘She’s your only child. She should be the major beneficiary, not me, especially considering how precarious Germany’s finances are.’

His grandfather seated himself in a wicker chair. ‘The inflation that brought the country to its knees has now, thanks to the issue of the new Reichsmark, been brought under control.’ He spoke with all the certainty of his profession. ‘And even when the nightmare was at its height, the House of Remer wasn’t in danger. Your stepfather took advantage of it to buy large quantities of machinery with borrowed money—money that had lost its value by the time he came to pay it back. My information is that between the beginning of 1921 and the end of 1923 he almost doubled his fortune. So no more worries about your mother’s financial situation.’ He continued, his voice suddenly hard, ‘I made my decision in May 1917 on the day a Remer-built battleship sank an American merchant ship with the loss of a hundred and fifty lives. Is that clear enough for you?’

Paul nodded, not wanting to speak. In the six years since the war had ended, Vicky had worked so successfully at binding the English and German halves of their family together again that the more hideous aspects of the loyalties that had divided them had been almost forgotten—at least by him. Now, however, his grandfather was forcing him to confront them yet again and it wasn’t a pleasant experience.