Anna watched her sister nestling in his arms, fighting down a feeling of annoyance. She didn’t know why Liesel had insisted on bringing Davy with her, he wasn’t even family. This should have been a day for just the two of them, and Papa.

But Liesel never seemed to go anywhere without him these days. His stocky, swaggering figure was always at her side, giving his opinion, sticking his nose in where it wasn’t wanted.

And he’d made her late. The train he’d been driving to get here had ended up stuck in a siding, and instead of going on without him, Liesel had insisted on waiting. So Anna had been kept waiting too, a precious half an hour that she could have been spending with Papa.

They reached the gates and waited in line with the other families for the guard to search their belongings and issue them with a ticket to go inside.

‘Are you family?’ he asked Davy.

‘No,’ Anna said.

‘Yes,’ Liesel replied at the same moment. ‘Nearly,’ she added, shooting a sideways look at Anna. ‘We’re practically engaged.’

‘Practically engaged ain’t good enough. He’ll have to wait outside,’ the guard said.

‘But I want him with me!’ Liesel protested, her pretty face screwing up as it always did when she was on the verge of a tantrum. She would be stamping her foot any minute, Anna thought.

‘For heaven’s sake, let’s go in,’ she sighed.

‘But I want—’

‘Don’t make a fuss, Liesel! We’re late enough as it is. Do you want to waste even more time?’

She half dragged her sister through the gates, ignoring the longing looks she sent back over her shoulder at Davy.

‘Practically engaged, indeed!’ Anna snorted.

‘Well, we are!’

‘You’re barely twenty!’

‘I’m exactly the same age Mother was when she married Papa, so there.’

Anna thought her heart would break when she saw her father standing waiting for them. Friedrich Beck was smiling as usual, but she could sense the deep sadness in him.

‘Look at you both. What beautiful young ladies you are!’ he greeted them in his usual way, kissing them on both cheeks and holding them at arms’ length to look at them.

‘I’m not beautiful, Papa. Look at my hands. They’re so rough and red, like an old woman’s.’ Liesel held them out for him to inspect.

‘Nonsense, the outdoor life suits you. You have quite a bloom in your cheeks.’ He stroked Liesel’s face, then turned to Anna, his features softening. ‘And you, Liebling … Your mother has told me how you have been helping her in the bakery as well as doing your own work. It is very kind of you.’

‘I did it for you, Papa.’

‘My sweet girl …’ Friedrich turned away, but not before Anna saw the tears glistening in his dark eyes.

They spent the next hour or so as they usually did, walking in the grounds, then drinking tea in the recreation room. They played cards, and chatted, talking about anything but what was to come. They all talked too fast and laughed too loud to try to keep it at bay. But it was there all the same, casting its dark, heavy shadow over all of them.