Beneath the chuppah canopy, the bride walked around the groom seven times, then the rabbi read the marriage words and the groom placed the ring on his new wife’s index finger, before stamping on a wine glass to signify the destruction of the temple.

Everyone applauded and the dancing and drinking began.

Not everyone was interested. A group of young men huddled around a tight chess game without giving the newly-weds so much as a glance. There had been weddings here at Apfelwald every day this month. What was one more?

Wilde stood a few moments and watched the wedding. He still had ringing in his ears, but he had regained most of his hearing after a night asleep on a couch in Paula Jaeger’s spare room. They had arrived back at Almrosen long after dark, and they were both exhausted. Paula’s main concern was that the animals needed feeding, but then she found a note from a neighbour, telling her that everything had been taken care of.

And so, after glasses of schnapps but no conversation, she and Wilde both fell into deep sleep in their separate rooms. Not once did she ask who he had met inside the house on the hidden meadow, or what had happened. And nor did he tell her.

Now he was back at Apfelwald. When Angie Gray and Jerzy spotted him, he smiled and waved to them and they left the ceremony to join him near the medical centre.

Dr Gray smiled back. ‘Well, you’re alive, Professor, but what’s happened? You smell like a battlefield and you look like you’ve just crawled down a chimney.’

‘You’ll have to speak up.’ He realised he was probably shouting, so he pointed at his ears. ‘Explosion.’

‘What happened?’ She raised her voice and enunciated the words with exaggerated clarity.

It was a good question. He was still trying to process the events of the previous day. It all seemed like a dream sequence. He had found Hitler and watched him die. No, that couldn’t be right; it sounded insane. But then again, it had happened.

So why, he wondered, did he have this unpleasant sensation that his business here wasn’t finished?

Taking his leave of Paula Jaeger at Almrosen after a quick breakfast, he had felt a surge of hope. She was a remarkable woman. To look at, a sturdy farmer’s wife but beneath the surface, a heart of gold and steel. There were good Germans and Austrians. The future would be fine.

But something was still not right.

‘I really can’t talk right now, Angie.’

‘Let’s get you inside and have a proper look at you.’

‘I’m OK – even managed to ride a motorbike here from Austria.’