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made it too dangerous. But Zweig had Papa sign contracts to underwrite the voyage and …’ she faltered at this point as tears overtook her again, ‘…the ship has foundered. Everything is lost. We are due for the money now and we can’t possibly find the full amount, even if we sell everything we have. Your father has ruined us, Sophie, ruined.’
    Sophie stood in silence, absorbing the impact of what she’d just been told. There was little she could say and the two of them stayed quietly entwined for a few more minutes as her mother regained some composure and with it a measure of her lost strength. Sophie let go of her and gently wiped her face.
    â€˜We’ll be all right, Mama. We shall see.’
    Shortly afterwards the door opened and her father emerged, followed by Zweig. Again the captain bowed deeply to the two women but if he’d noticed any change in them he gave no sign of it. He picked up his hat from the table and walked in his strange, deliberate manner towards the door. As he did so, Sophie glanced towards her father and was shocked to see how he quickly looked away from her.
    The door closed and silence returned to the house. Johann Kant stood still, waiting for the maid to go about her business.Once she’d left, he lifted his eyes from the high polish of the floor and quietly muttered to his wife in a laboured, broken voice.
    â€˜Mother, we must speak. Sophie, will you find Immanuel please and join us in my study in five minutes.’
    Sophie was about to object when she saw her mother give a quick nod of agreement. She turned and hurried up the stairs, heading towards where she knew her brother would be, as he always was, with his nose in a book. As she reached his room and rushed into the cramped library he’d made for himself in a far corner he barely raised his eyes. But one glance at her tense, shocked face was enough for him to urgently put his reading down.
    â€˜Why Sophie, you look terrible. Whatever’s the matter?’
    Sophie suddenly realised that she hadn’t given any thought to how she would break the news of her father’s downfall and now, as she looked down on her brother’s anxious face, her heart began to fail her.
    Immanuel was twenty-one, only two years less than herself, but he had always seemed so childlike and so very much younger than she was that the difference in their ages seemed far greater. His bookishness was already legendary and from an early age he’d been removed from the demands of normal life. He had enrolled at the university when only sixteen and, to nobody’s surprise, he’d already decided that he would make his life there. He was quite different to his sister and in place of her spirited personality and fierce, quick intelligence he was already settling into a life of withdrawn eccentricity into which a strict routine and an unbreakable timetable ruled his days.
    She braced herself to tell him the news but even as she did so her mind raced forward with a sinking depression. Who, she now began to panic, would look after this introverted and unworldly soul when their fortunes fell?
    There was nothing to be done but repeat what she’d just heard. Immanuel listened hard and then turned to look at thewall.
    â€˜Poor Papa,’ he muttered more to himself than to Sophie, ‘he will take this very hard. How cruel the world is. Perhaps we shall all go hungry now?’
    Sophie gave a brave smile. She leant over towards him and they embraced.
    â€˜We must go down,’ she said softly, and Immanuel closed his book and together they descended the staircase. Sophie looked at him as he went ahead of her – so young and so naïve, she thought to herself, really, he’s just a child. What would become of him?
    They came to the hall and Sophie knocked on the door of the study. There was no answer and she gently pushed it open and peered around its edge to see if they could enter. As she