‘Of course.’

‘Very well, then. I believe that the actions of the past two counts have left you all with a cursed inheritance. You will not be free to pursue happy, fulfilling lives as long as you are weighed down by this damn company – and this damn castle, for that matter.’

Gerhard thumped the table with the flat of his palm, to signal his hearty agreement.

‘I’ve always hated it.’

‘I couldn’t agree more,’ said Alatha. ‘So soul destroying!’ She glanced at her son. ‘Do you remember, darling, when your father threw us out and we went to live in my pretty villa in Grünwald? Such an improvement!’

‘Then you will not, perhaps, object to my advice,’ Isidore resumed. ‘I have been approached by a number of parties interested in purchasing various family properties, including the Motor Works, the land surrounding the factory, the castle and the estate. I am confident that we can achieve good prices. You might wish to receive some of the payment for the Motor Works in the form of shares in the purchasing company. In this way you could benefit from future growth. I would also counsel you to keep a small portion of the land in the castle estate – a few hundred metres of lake shore and a little woodland, perhaps – for your private use.’

‘How much do you think the sales would bring in?’ Gerhard asked.

‘I cannot give you an exact figure, but if we can get buyers bidding against one another, I would hope to achieve a total in excess of ten million marks.’

‘Otto used to boast that he was worth more than a hundred million,’ Alatha said, dryly. ‘And that was forty years ago.’

‘Ha!’ Gerhard exclaimed. ‘I can remember you and I, Mother, sitting at a board meeting in, I suppose, ’34 or ’35 while a company accountant said we were as wealthy as the Rothschilds and the Rockefellers.’

‘But one wouldn’t wish for that now, though, darling. It would be too much . . . grotesque.’

‘I agree,’ Gerhard said. ‘I am tempted to say we should give all the proceeds to charity. But I leave that decision to each individual.’

‘There is one problem . . .’ Isidore said. ‘Until Konrad von Meerbach is formally declared dead, he retains his majority shareholding in the company, which means that the bulk of proceeds from any sale go to him.’

‘That’s outrageous!’ Trudi exclaimed, and Saffron agreed.

‘There must be some way you could get around that, Izzy,’ Gerhard said.

‘We cannot pay him, of course, since we do not know where he is and his known bank accounts have been frozen by order of the US Treasury. And you all have a claim against Konrad for embezzling assets in which you had an interest, so you could demand his money as compensation for your loss. But I think that the fairest solution is for Konrad’s money to be put in trust for his children until such time as there is proof that he is dead, or still alive.’