The men all laughed. ‘Stop cursing and tell him what we’ve done,’ another of them said.

‘Yes, well, when we heard you were coming back home, after all these years, we made something for you. As a token of our appreciation, like.’

Schinkel held out the box.

‘Thank you,’ said Gerhard, opening it.

The inside of the box was lined with rich, black velvet that set off a gleaming metal flask within. Gerhard lifted the flask out of the box. It was made of two parts: the main body was matt, and as Gerhard looked at it more closely he saw it was brushed steel, but worked to a finish as perfect as any precious metal in a jeweller’s store. A second, gleaming piece of metal, which Gerhard thought must be chrome-plated, fitted like a lid across the top, with a screw-cap in the middle to let drink in and out.

Though it was small and slender enough to fit inside a jacket pocket, the flask was surprisingly heavy in his hand. He said as much to Schinkel, who nodded.

‘That’s because it’s milled from solid steel, just like one of our engine blocks. We thought it would be fitting.’ He paused and added, with a nod towards the flask, ‘We wrote something for you too.’

He turned the flask over and there were three words: Immer in Einsatz.

Gerhard smiled and showed it to Saffron.

‘“Always in action”,’ he said, in English. ‘It’s the motto of the Luftwaffe.’

‘Well, you can forget about going into any more action, darling husband of mine,’ she replied, speaking in German so the men would understand. ‘I worked far too hard to keep you alive to let you get into trouble now.’

As Gerhard gave a rueful shrug, the men all laughed. Then he said thank you once again and then, as any good officer should, took the trouble to speak for a moment to each of the men, inquiring about their families, asking them if there was anything he could do in return and making a careful mental note of their replies. Saffron, too, joined in the conversation, making sure that they knew that even though she was British, she was touched by their loyalty to her man.

Athala escorted the men from the room, assuring them that the cook had prepared a hearty lunch and that they were not to stint on the beer.

‘I have it on good authority that if you skip work this afternoon, the boss will not mind.’

Gerhard, meanwhile, had gone to speak to Isidore.

‘I hope it wasn’t too hard for you, hearing all that Luftwaffe talk.’

‘My dear boy, if it had been hard for me, I would not have let them in the room. No, I was just musing on the irony that you and I, who are by far the most decorated warriors that this household has ever seen, also share the distinction that the Nazis wanted to kill us.’