appraisingly at Lloyd. ‘You inherited your father’s good looks. Boy just got his selfishness.’
Lloyd and Daisy had not yet made love. One reason was that she never had a night off. Then, on the single occasion they had had a chance to be alone together, things had gone wrong.
It had been last Sunday, at Daisy’s home in Mayfair. Her servants had Sunday afternoon off, and she had taken him to her bedroom in the empty house. But she had been nervy and ill at ease. She had kissed him, then turned her head aside. When he put his hands on her breasts she had pushed them away. He had been confused: if he was not supposed to behave this way, why were they in her bedroom?
‘I’m sorry,’ she had said at last. ‘I love you, but I can’t do this. I can’t betray my husband in his own house.’
‘But he betrayed you.’
‘At least he went somewhere else.’
‘All right.’
She had looked at him. ‘Do you think I’m being silly?’
He shrugged. ‘After all we’ve been through together, this seems overly fastidious of you, yes – but, look, you feel the way you feel. What a rotter I would be if I tried to bully you into doing it when you’re not ready.’
She put her arms around him and hugged him hard. ‘I said it before,’ she said. ‘You’re a grown-up.’
‘Don’t let’s spoil the whole afternoon,’ he said. ‘We’ll go to the pictures.’
They saw Charlie Chaplin in
Pleasant thoughts of Daisy occupied Lloyd all the way to Embankment station, then he walked up Northumberland Avenue to the Metropole. The hotel had been stripped of its reproduction antiques and furnished with utilitarian tables and chairs.
After a few minutes’ wait, Lloyd was taken to see a tall colonel with a brisk manner. ‘I’ve read your account, Lieutenant,’ he said. ‘Well done.’
‘Thank you, sir.’
‘We expect more people to follow in your footsteps, and we’d like to help them. We’re especially interested in downed airmen. They’re expensive to train, and we want them back so that they can fly again.’
Lloyd thought that was harsh. If a man survived a crash landing, should he really be asked to risk going through the whole thing again? But wounded men were sent back into battle as soon as they recovered. That was war.
The colonel said: ‘We’re setting up a kind of underground railroad, all the way from Germany to Spain. You speak German, French and Spanish, I see; but, more importantly, you’ve been at the sharp end. We’d like to second you to our department.’
Lloyd had not been expecting this, and he was not sure how he felt about it. ‘Thank you, sir. I’m honoured. But is it a desk job?’
‘Not at all. We want you to go back to France.’
Lloyd’s heart raced. He had not thought he would have to face those perils again.
The colonel saw the dismay on his face. ‘You know how dangerous it is.’
‘Yes, sir.’
In an abrupt tone the colonel said: ‘You can refuse if you like.’
Lloyd thought of Daisy in the Blitz, and of the people burned to death in the Peabody tenement, and realized he did not even want to refuse. ‘If you think it’s important, sir, then I will go back most willingly, of course.’
‘Good man,’ said the colonel.
Half an hour later Lloyd was dazedly walking back to the Tube station. He was now part of a department called MI9. He would return to France with false papers and large sums in cash. Already dozens of German, Dutch, Belgian and French people in occupied territory had been recruited to the deadly dangerous task of helping British and Commonwealth airmen return home. He would be one of numerous MI9 agents expanding the network.
If he were caught, he would be tortured.
Although he was scared, he was also excited. He was going to fly to Madrid: it would be his first time up in an airplane. He would re-enter France across the Pyrenees and make contact with Teresa. He would be moving in disguise among the enemy, rescuing people under the noses of the Gestapo. He would make sure that men following in his footsteps would not be as alone and friendless as he had been.
He got back to Nutley Street at eleven o’clock. There was a note from his mother: ‘Not a peep from Miss America.’ After visiting the bomb site, Ethel would have gone to the House of Commons, Bernie to County Hall. Lloyd and Daisy had the house to themselves.
He went up to his room. Daisy was still asleep. Her leather jacket and heavy-duty wool trousers were carelessly tossed on the floor. She was in his bed wearing only her underwear. This had never happened before.
He took off his jacket and tie.
A sleepy voice from the bed said: ‘And the rest.’
