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Obviously, the plane passed by It didn’t linger over our field in particular either – must have been on some kind of routine patrol – don’t like to think ould have happened if it had done its fly-past while ere loading up a Lysander

It sobered everybody up

We drove the refugees and anyone else who fitted back to within a mile or two of their safe house, 3 bicycles tied on the running boards and roof of the Rosalie, the motor car absolutely jammed full with 3 of us in the front seat, 4 in the back, 2 in the boot andon to the roof like babythat if ere stopped, she and I would at least be able to jump down and make a run for it No one else would stand a chance It’s marvellous, in a desperate kind of way, to opt for speed over subtlety – like screa downhill to put out the fire when your aircraft’s in flaate, the two of us ju leaps back on to the rear buain

‘You’re so fortunate to be in Dah the dark – no lights, not even those useless, slitty blackout headlah ‘Paul will take great care of you And he’ll do everything he can to find your ent – that will be a matter of pride for him He’s never lost any of his circuit before’ Posh Southern English with a faint French accent ‘My own circuit has collapsed – 14 arrests aniser, couriers, the lot – soiven to Paul for safekeeping – sha as you know –’

‘I can’t stand hinore it He doesn’t land!’

We both laughed Suppose ere a bit high – keyed up with the Benzedrine, rattling through the French countryside in thearound us like burnt-out sparklers Hard to iine how dead we’d have been ourselves if we’d met anyone – felt alive and unbeatable

Don’t like to think of her being hunted Hope she makes it out of France

I a as I thought it would be – the change brings such treer’s nothing Who cares? I couldn’t becole of nerves than I already a in Etienne’s rooht’ taken to extremes I’ve also nicked some of his stuff We cleared out a drawer to s and extra skirt – illegally scrounged with Julie’s coupons At the back of the draas a super Swiss pocket knife with a tin-opener and screwdriver attachment, and this notebook – a school exercise jotter dated 15 years ago Etienne’s written out a list of local birds on the first three pages For a week in 1928 Etienne Thibaut decided he was going to be a nature enthusiast Sort of thing you do when you’re ten, about the age I took Gran’s gramophone to bits

The list of birds es a small boy froood place for s in this roo places are Two loose floorboards and a niche beneath the sill and a hole in the plaster are all crammed with his Small Boy Stuff – he hasn’t touched any of it for years, all of it dust-covered, but I’ this notebook and my Pilot’s Notes IN the mattress – which I have slit with Etienne’s own knife

I havewith A for landing fields – three girls on bicycles, you know, having a jolly afternoon out together, what could be ed to the sentry Paul shot when I landed here It has been ‘re the other way, and of course he stopped to bait his sisters and find out who I a like an idiot, hiding h I’ My French has not is which I aive when I am directly addressed – then let Mitraillette and her cadette sister do the rest of the talking for hter from Alsace Their house has been bo a holiday with us till her dad finds a new place to live – she’s a bit fragile at the moment, doesn’t like to talk about it, you know?’

In an eency they are supposed to say a code word, MAMAN, and speak directly to nal for irls will respond to with equally noisy co – all in Gerned to shock and e us so deeply that they will quickly give us back our papers, without looking at et away from us

We’ve practised this routine andsince I moved into the house, La Cadette – A out, ‘Wake up, Käthe, come and feed the chickens!’ Suppose it’s quite easy for them to remember my ‘name’ as they’ve only ever known me as Kittyhawk anyway

So – we met Etienne And of course the whole conversation was carried on in German because not only do they speak it at home with their mother, but as their cousin I’th intheir talk, which ian for all I could make out! My maidenly blushes were not phoney – felt my face would catch fire with fear and eirls do the hard work of covering forme to their brother as a cousin he’d never heard of before

But then Etienne and A whiter and whiter the more he talked – expect I did too, after a while – until I actually thought she was going to be sick, at which point Mitraillette snarled oaths at their turncoat brother and threatened to thu nasty to Mitraillette and started off on his bicycle away froave me a nod, dead polite and formal, before he cycled off

When he was nowhere near in earshot any lish, ‘My brother is a SHIT’ Don’t knohere she learned that word – not froain and switched to French, which was harder for me to understand, but easier for her to swear in

Etienne has been assisting at an interrogation It is beginning to tell on hiain poked fun at the fading bruise on his forehead So he told her in hideous detail ould be done to her if she was a prisoner who refused to give anshen the Gestapo questioned her