‘Don’t worry about what happened downstairs with the Germans.’ He leaned back and inhaled deeply, blowing the smoke out through his nose. ‘I supply them with luxuries that make their lives here a little bit easier. So they trust me, they think we’re friends. I pick up information from them and that information is useful to us!’ He laughed loudly, causing the elderly ladies to turn and glance disapprovingly in his direction. ‘Denmark is probably the easiest assignment anywhere for a German officer at the moment: even easier than Germany itself. You know…’ a pause while he finished one cigarette and lit another, then one for Prince, ‘this is barely an occupation. The Germans treat us almost as a neutral country rather than one they’ve invaded. We pretty much run our own affairs; you’re probably aware of that, eh? We have our own parliament, we have elections, the King is still the King, even our Jews are still at liberty and we hear such dreadful things about what is happening to them elsewhere in Europe. We have our police, our army… we’re even allowed to keep some of our own food. To be honest, I’m not sure how long this will last. Too many Danes are complacent about it all. You’ve heard about the King upsetting Hitler last month?’

Prince shook his head, and they fell silent as the waiter placed plates of herring and potato salad in front of each of them. He couldn’t recall they’d even been shown a menu.

‘Hitler sent King Christian a lengthy telegram to congratulate him on his birthday. The King replied with just a few words – “My best thanks, King Christian”, something like that. Hitler was furious, and now he’s brought in a real Nazi called Werner Best to keep us in check and ordered all of our troops out of Jutland. Mark my words,’ Marius put his cigarette down briefly as he forked up some herring and continued talking as he chewed it, ‘next year, we’ll know what an occupation feels like.’

Prince hardly slept that night. Marius was so friendly that in the early hours he decided – for no logical reason – that he’d actually been too friendly and this was suspicious. As a consequence, he lay awake most of the night, listening for every sound, convincing himself the Gestapo was about to hammer on the door.