From behind the door he heard a heated argument in German – too fast and muffled for him to understand – then footsteps, another few sharp words and the sound of the front door slamming shut.

Sunny Somerfeld came through into the reception room and glared at Wilde.

‘You let the bitch see you.’

‘Who was she?’

‘That was Hedwig Drexler. Collecting for the Winterhilfswerk. Winter aid for the German people. We all have to pay or have our windows smashed. German people! Most of the money goes straight to the Brown House in Munich to fill the Party’s coffers. But that’s not the point, Monsieur Sable – you let Frau Drexler see you.’

‘I’m sorry – I didn’t know what was happening.’

‘Well, we are done for – or I am.’

‘What did you say?’

‘I told her you were an old family friend and of course she wanted to be introduced to you. I just told her she couldn’t. What else was I to say? Then I just told her I was tired and didn’t have time for any of this and pushed her out. Gott in bloody Himmel, she won’t let it rest. Her husband Friedrich is SA – and he will know about you within the hour.’

‘Maybe we should leave straight away?’

‘No, I have to carry on living here. When Friedrich Drexler comes around – as most certainly he will, and probably with a band of his bully-boy friends – I shall tell him you have left to catch the train for Berlin. It still won’t wash with him, but twenty Reichsmarks might help. And to think I already gave the bitch ten Reichsmarks as I was getting rid of her!’

‘I’m sorry.’

‘The problem is, you see, I was already a marked woman because I don’t wear the Winter Aid badge or the Party badge, but this will go even further to convince them I am not one of them. It is a bad thing to be an outsider in today’s Germany. There will be an inquiry. And now they’ve got me where they want me.’

‘What will you do?’

‘I suppose I’ll have to retreat to the country for a few months. The thing is, I can’t explain you away now. They’ll want full details of who you are, your address and why you were here. And they will follow it through. You can never argue with these people. They are right and I am wrong. No trial, straight off to Ravensbrück.’

‘But you must have friends in high places?’

‘In the Wehrmacht, yes. Not in the Party. The Nazis revere my dead husband’s name under sufferance, for fear of upsetting his Luftwaffe allies. Ach, come, let’s get you fed and hidden. Bread, cheese and pickles is your lot.’

‘Fine by me. And then we have to talk details.’

‘It is very simple, but very dangerous too. We pick up the girl, then we will drive to the Baltic coast, where you will be taken in by a friend, the owner of a trawler. When the time is right – when mist covers the sea – he will convey you to Sweden. That is all there is to it.’