Mark looked terrified.
Ma hesitated for a long moment. Then she opened her arms and said, “Hello, Mark.”
“Oh, Ma,” he said, and he hugged her.
After that, they all walked out into the sunshine.
FROM THE OFFICIAL HISTORY
“Women did not normally organize sabotage; but Pearl Witherington, a trained British courier, took over and ran an active Maquis of some two thousand men in Berry with gallantry and distinction after the Gestapo arrested her organizer. She was strongly recommended for an MC [Military Cross], for which women were held ineligible; and received instead a civil MBE, which she returned, observing she had done nothing civil.”
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
For information and guidance about the Special Operations Executive, I’m grateful to M. R. D. Foot; on the Third Reich, Richard Overy; on the history of telephone systems, Bernard Green; on weapons, Candice DeLong and David Raymond. For help with research in general, I am grateful, as always, to Dan Starer of Research for Writers in New York City, Dstarer@bellatlantic.net; and to Rachel Flagg. I received much invaluable help from my editors: Phyllis Grann and Neil Nyren in New York, Imogen Tate in London, Jean Rosenthal in Paris, and Helmut Pesch in Cologne; and my agents Al Zuckerman and Amy Berkower. Several family members read the drafts and made helpful criticisms, especially John Evans, Barbara Follett, Emanuele Follett, Jann Turner, and Kim Turner.
