‘I remember my English grandparents a little,’ Ben said, ‘and I was sorry to hear that my grandfather had gone to Heaven, even though my mother told me he will now have no pain.’

A moving moment for Howard and about to be the more so.

‘He and my English grandmother were very kind,’ Ben went on. ‘I once picked most of the flowers from a border in their garden to give to my mother. After I’d done it, I wished I could put them back and expected to be scolded.’

‘They would certainly have scolded me,’ said Howard.

‘But they weren’t even angry and I still got the sweets they’d promised I could take home. When will you draw me the family tree?’

‘You’ll have it before Karin and I leave on our honeymoon.’

‘You must now explain to us in German what is a honeymoon,’ Magda said to Karin.

When the adult laughter had again subsided Karin replied, ‘I shall leave the three of you to learn what it means in due time.’

The butler then appeared with a second tray of canapés and Laura slapped Jake’s hand when he helped himself to four.

‘I don’t get caviar and pâté de fois at home!’ he said, giving Marianne a wink. ‘Do Sainsbury’s stock such delicacies?’

‘If I thought Bessie would eat them, I’d find out.’

Laura’s expression had shadowed. Jake’s too. Your kids can cast a blight on your pleasure in their absence no less than they were liable to when you were with them, thought Marianne. Lucky for me in some ways that I only have one!

The private exchange between Laura and Jake had taken place while the sherry glasses were being refilled and a light-heartedness in keeping with this being the eve of a wedding replaced the sober conversation that had predominated, engendered by Frau Schulmann recounting an amusing incident when she last visited her Israeli grandchildren.

‘It would be nice for me to have my brother and his family here,’ Karin said when her mother had finished speaking, ‘but he was unable to get leave. His unit it is being kept increasingly busy on the West Bank.’

Karin was standing beside the fire and gazed unhappily at the leaping flames, her small figure in a flimsy cream dress seeming suddenly pathetic.

‘My sister-in-law, she will not come to Germany,’ she went on, ‘nor allow her children to do so. And Howard, he now has a problem with his sister—’

He went to put his arms around her. ‘We mustn’t let any of this spoil our wedding day, Karin.’