‘I think this is it,’ he said, pointing to the woods across a narrow clearing that edged the lake. One oak tree stood out. ‘Can you see the cross cut in the oak?’

She nodded.

‘Come on, then. Let’s find the poor girl.’

‘First, Monsieur Sable – Tom – I must apologise to you. I fell apart back there. I was no use to you or Herr Rieger.’

He understood. Having himself been in the heat of the action before, he knew how the stoutest of hearts could falter. He put an arm around her shoulder, comforting her like a comrade, not as a man comforts a woman.

‘It was like a battleground. You saw terrible things.’

‘So what are we going to do? We have no car, and we’re halfway between Berlin and the Baltic coast. I think we need to know what we are going to do before we introduce ourselves to her. We must look confident if she is to trust us – and I tell you, I no longer feel sure about anything.’

Wilde was thinking much the same. Until now they had been preoccupied with evading the enemy. But with the guns gone silent, he allowed himself to hope that the men were no longer on their trail. And so he was racking his brain for the next move. One thing seemed obvious: they needed another car or some other form of transport. They couldn’t simply walk to the coast, could they? Not with a ten-year-old girl in tow. But to steal a car would be a huge risk.

From what Sunny had said about the need for travel papers, a train was impossible too.

First though, there was the question of whether the girl would even accept her rescuers. She might very well refuse to go with them and there would be nothing they could do to force her. Had he been in her position when he was a child, he could not imagine agreeing to go away with a pair of strangers. But there was no other option for her now; there was no going home for Klara Rieger, née Wolf – real name Raubal. Death waited for her there. So, one way or another, she had to be persuaded that it was in her best interests to accompany them.

‘We need a car,’ he said. ‘But if we steal one we’ll unleash every police officer in northern Germany. Maybe the army, too. Can cars be hired?’

‘No.’

‘Perhaps we could buy one. Surely a town would have cars for sale?’

‘Very few people even have permission to drive. Anyway there would be great suspicion and the Gestapo would be on to us soon enough.’

‘This is getting us nowhere. How well do you know this area, Frau Somerfeld?’

‘Well enough. I have friends with country houses around here. One place in particular where my husband and I used to spend weekends.’

‘Would they help you?’

‘Gott in bloody Himmel, Tom – we can’t just call on my friends!’