Contents
Character List
Part 1: Paris, Early June 1943
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Part 2: Lisbon, June 1943
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-one
Chapter Twenty-two
Chapter Twenty-three
Chapter Twenty-four
Chapter Twenty-five
Part 3: Late July to August 1943
Chapter Twenty-six
Chapter Twenty-seven
Chapter Twenty-eight
Chapter Twenty-nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-one
Chapter Thirty-two
Chapter Thirty-three
Chapter Thirty-four
Chapter Thirty-five
Chapter Thirty-six
Part 4: October 1943
Chapter Thirty-seven
Chapter Thirty-eight
Chapter Thirty-nine
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty-one
Chapter Forty-two
Chapter Forty-three
Chapter Forty-four
Chapter Forty-five
Part 5: Lisbon, January 1944
Chapter Forty-six
Chapter Forty-seven
Historical Note
Acknowledgements
Touring the City of Spies
Q&A with Mara Timon
About the Author
Copyright
For my parents, without whose love and support I would not be where I am now. I could not have asked for better, and miss them every day.
Character List
* = real name, verified via print or online resources
~ = fictional characters in other novels
France
Pierre Alaunt: A Resistance fighter
Jean-Roger Demarque: A Parisian neighbour of Elisabeth’s
Antoine Gamay: A French fisherman
Köhler: (“the grey-haired man”) A German secret service operative
Franc and Christiane Laronde: Relatives of Madame Renard with links to the Resistance near Rouen
Elisabeth de Mornay: (codename Cécile, aliases include Nathalie Lafontaine, Solange Verin, and Veronica Sinclair) An agent within Special Operations Executive
~Edith Renard: A friend of Elisabeth’s, with links to the Resistance in Paris
Alexander “Alex” Sinclair: A Mosquito pilot from the 105 Squadron
Michel, Armand, and Mireille: Resistance fighters
Portugal
Rupert Allen-Smythe: A diplomat within the British Embassy
* John Grosvenor Beevor: Former SOE station head in Lisbon
* Hans Bendixen: Kapitän, head of the Abwehr’s Naval Intelligence in Lisbon
Alois Bergmann: A German assassin
Martin and Rosalie Billiot: French nationals living in Estoril, Portugal
* António de Oliveira Salazar: Prime Minister of Portugal from 1932 to 1968
Adriano de Rios Vilar: A lieutenant within the Polícia de Vigilância e de Defesa do Estado (PVDE), Portugal’s Surveillance and State Defense Police.
Claudine and Christophe Deschamps: French nationals living in Estoril, Portugal
Sabela Figueiredo: Elisabeth’s housekeeper
Eduard Graf: Formerly of the 7 Panzer division, now a Major in the Abwehr (the German military intelligence service)
Matthew Harrington: A diplomat within the British Embassy and godfather to Elisabeth
Count Javier: A Spanish count living in Estoril, Portugal with his wife Laura
Hubert “Bertie” Jones: (Code name “Ulysse”, aliases include Pete Aldridge) A Special Operations Executive agent shipwrecked in Portugal
Betty Jury and Nicola Langston: Secretaries at the British Embassy
* Agostinho Lourenço: (“The Director”) Captain of the Polícia de Vigilância e de Defesa do Estado (PVDE), Portugal’s Surveillance and State Defense Police
Andreas Neumann: Leutnant, formerly of the 7 Panzer division, now a lieutenant in the Abwehr (the German military intelligence service), and adjutant to Eduard Graf
Pires: A Portuguese man selling information to the Germans
Julian Reilly: An Irish novelist living near Estoril, Portugal
Gabrielle Ribaud: A French national living in Estoril, Portugal
* Amália Rodrigues: A Portuguese fado singer
Major Haydn Schüller: An SS officer based in Lisbon
* Baron Oswald von Hoyningen-Huene: German Ambassador to Portugal from 1934–1944
Mrs Willoughby: Bertie Jones’ housekeeper
Great Britain
* Vera Atkins: Assistant to section head Colonel Maurice Buckmaster, and his de facto second in command, responsible for the recruitment and deployment of British agents in occupied France
* Colonel Maurice Buckmaster: (“Buck”) Leader of the French section of Special Operations Executive
~Kathryn “Kat” Christie: A friend of Elisabeth de Morney
~Big André, ~Jérôme, ~Dominique, and ~Robert: Code names for Special Operations Executive agents that Elisabeth trained with
Other Persons of note:
* Pietro Badoglio: Marshal, an Italian general who became Prime Minister after the Italian Council voted to depose Benito Mussolini
* Ronald Campbell: The British Ambassador in Lisbon
* Wilhelm Franz Canaris: German admiral and chief of the Abwehr, the German military intelligence service from 1935 to 1944
* Leslie Howard: An English film actor/movie star. He was actively anti-German and rumoured to be involved in British Intelligence. Returning from a trip to Lisbon, his plane was shot down by the Luftwaffe over the Bay of Biscay
* Benito Mussolini: (“Il Duce”) Prime Minister of Italy from 1922 to 1943
* Henri Philippe Pétain, Maréchal: A hero from WW1 who served as the Chief of State of Vichy France from 1940 to 1944
* Harold Adrian Russell (‘Kim’) Philby: An MI6 operative in charge of the subsection dealing with Spain and Portugal. Philby was later discovered to be one of the ‘Cambridge Five’ – double-agents working for the USSR
* Erwin Rommel: (“the Desert Fox”) A German general who served as field marshal in the Wehrmacht (Defence Force)
*Otto Skorzeny: A lieutenant-colonel in the Waffen-SS, he led the successful rescue of Benito Mussolini from where he was imprisoned in the Appenine Mountains
* John Vereker, 6th Viscount Gort: Commander-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in France
Part 1
Paris, Early June 1943
Chapter One
The café’s door chimed, allowing in the evening breeze, the hum of street noise, and a man. He shuffled past, head down, shoulders stooped. His right hand, deep into his pocket, signalled to us that he’d been compromised. Sorrow ripped through me; Pierre Alaunt was a good man, and a friend to the Resistance.
‘He’s being followed,’ Michel muttered. ‘Two goons. Ten paces behind him.’
Which meant they weren’t here for Pierre; they were here for whoever approached him.
I rotated my glass of Pernod and stretched my fingers. It was less than two months since I’d narrowly escaped a Nazi ambush, and no one had yet identified me. I was in no hurry to put myself back in the Nazis’ cross hairs, not with a set of forged papers hidden in my handbag. Michel nodded; five minutes and we would leave. It was just long enough not to look suspicious.
‘When will you speak with your Uncle Maurice?’ Michel lit a cigarette, and slipped the case into his breast pocket.
‘Uncle Maurice’ was my commanding officer, Maurice Buckmaster. As the head of Special Operations Executive’s French Section in London, he would need to know that Pierre was no longer reliable, and get word to whoever else Pierre worked with. I took a deep breath, inhaling Michel’s nicotine, and wishing the Nazis hadn’t taken such a dim view of women smoking.
‘Tomorrow.’
A glass shattered on the floor. The woman who had dropped her drink was unfamiliar, and if she worked with the Resistance,
