Spring of 1944. Rosie Ewing, a 'pianist' (radio operator) in Special Operations Executive, is returning to German-occupied France. By air, this time.
The black-painted Lysander loomed over her, blacker still against the moon. High-winged, with massive-looking struts, big spats on its wheels, and painted bat-black to reduce its visibility on missions such as tonight's.
Marylin put an arm round her; Have you back with us in two shakes, Rosie?
'You bet!'
It wouldn't be a safe bet. She's carrying a radio, half a million francs, a pistol and two cyanide capsules. Her destination this time is Finistère in north-west Brittany. D-Day is not far ahead, and the Maquis is still dangerously under-armed; part of her brief is to organise immediate para-drops of weaponry. Also there's a château that's used as a rest-home for U-boat crews and where naval top brass periodically foregather;
Bomber Command needs only a date and a few days' notice.
Rosie knows, though - as the Lysander slews round into the wind and its engine opens up - that the man who'll be meeting her on the ground tonight may be a traitor, that a frighteningly large number of agents have been arrested recently, and that the likely end of the road for women agents is Ravensbrück
- l'enfer des femmes, the Resistance calls it.
Nothing like a safe bet. But - hold tight...