The Code Girls

by Daisy Styles

  ‘Which is why we have to stay vigilant, keep tabs on him as long as he remains in the country. And keep listening into his messages in case he gives anything away about his location. Have your parents said anything about him?’ he asked.

  ‘They think he’s gone back to his desk job at the War Office. God! If they knew only half the truth about their son and heir they’d die of shock.’

  ‘The less they know, the better. We don’t want them getting in our way,’ the Brig advised.

  The daily rhythm of cooking, serving, cleaning, followed by more cooking, serving and cleaning, kept Maudie going through the long, long weeks when her broken heart yearned for the man who had promised he would come back.

  ‘I’m worried she’ll kill herself,’ Ruby confessed. ‘I don’t mean top herself, but drop dead from sheer exhaustion.’

  ‘It’s upsetting watching her working herself into a state of oblivion,’ Bella said anxiously. ‘But in some weird way, it keeps her going.’

  Their only contact these days with Holkham was Raf. The RAF base, badly depleted by frequent losses, was awaiting replacement Lancasters.

  ‘Until they arrive we’re in a very vulnerable position,’ the Brig told Bella in private.

  Raf arrived one morning with good news. ‘Twenty planes due any day now,’ he announced triumphantly. ‘We don’t give up, we keep hitting Jerry for Captain Kit,’ he said, as tears filled his eyes.

  ‘Poor bloody pilots, flying to their doom,’ a bitter Maudie muttered, and walked angrily out of the room.

  At around midsummer, just after the RAF had led a successful bombing raid on Hamburg, there was a sudden flurry of radio messages from Edward Walsingham.

  ‘He’s back!’ Bella told the Brig, and gave him the thumbs-up sign. ‘Please God, let my foul brother still be using the same code book, otherwise we’re buggered all over again!’

  ‘He probably will be. It takes time to set up a new cypher,’ the Brig replied.

  With a fiery gleam in her pale blue eyes, Bella stared at the Brig. ‘He may be my brother, but I’ll do whatever it takes to stop him killing any more innocent men.’

  The Brig took her troubled face in his hands. ‘I know you will, my love,’ he said proudly.

  Luckily, it seemed Edward had stuck with same code book the girls had secretly copied in his room, so Bella was immediately back in business.

  One uneventful night, as Bella and the Brig were manning the radio transmitter in the sewing room, Maudie walked in with two mugs of cocoa.

  ‘I want to work with you again,’ she announced.

  ‘No, Maudie,’ the Brig said firmly. ‘You need to rest and get your strength back.’

  Maudie’s green eyes flashed angrily. ‘I want to bring Edward Walsingham down. He killed my Kit and forty-eight other men, and he’s walked away scot-free. He must be brought to justice.’

  Seeing the steely determination on Maudie’s face, Bella winked at the Brig. ‘She’s not going to take no for an answer,’ she said with a knowing smile.

  The Brig smiled and relented. ‘Well … if you insist.’

  Maudie laughed for the first time in months. ‘When do I start?’ she asked eagerly.

  ‘We’ll get cracking first thing in the morning!’ Bella replied.

  The Brig looked relieved. ‘Actually, an extra pair of hands right now will be a godsend,’ he confessed. ‘I’ve been feeling guilty about neglecting Miss Cox and the trainees.’

  ‘You and your fancy woman!’ Bella teased.

  ‘And you, madam, can spend more time in the kitchen,’ the Brig said.

  ‘A woman’s place is not always in the kitchen!’ Bella briskly reminded him.

  ‘My sentiments entirely,’ the Brig agreed, ‘but it’s the only way we’ll get a decent game pie in these parts!’

  The next morning, before breakfast was served, Maudie joined Bella in the sewing room.

  ‘Remember this?’ Bella asked, waving the copied notebook in the air.

  ‘How could I forget?’ Maudie replied. ‘I nearly had a heart attack copying it out!’

  Over the next few days, Maudie’s determination to bring Edward to justice spurred her on to such an extent she begged to do more hours.

  ‘Pleeeeease,’ she implored. ‘It’s not like I sleep these days. I just lie awake thinking of my Kit and cry all night long. Spying on Walsingham is much more productive!’

  Bella and the Brig, grateful for a few hours’ extra sleep, handed the night shift over to her.

  ‘Ava will be annoyed with us for luring you out of the kitchen,’ Bella said anxiously.

  ‘I discussed my decision with Ava,’ Maudie told her friend. ‘She understands why I have to do this.’ She gave a cheeky wink. ‘In fact, she’s a bit envious that I’m a part-time code girl and she’s still stuck in the kitchen.’

  ‘If you were all in here spying there wouldn’t be any food for the trainees, and then there’d be a riot!’ chuckled the Brig.

  Maudie’s excitement and drive paid off. A few days later, in the middle of the night, she intercepted a message from Edward that literally took her breath away. She ran into the bedroom she shared with Bella and shook her awake.

  ‘Bella! Bella! Listen to this!’

  Bella struggled to sit up. Rubbing her eyes, she mumbled, ‘Go on, read it.’

  ‘Meet Walsingham at the hut 2100 hours Thursday 21st.’

  ‘The twenty-first!’ Bella cried as she shot out of bed. ‘That’s tomorrow ‒ today ‒ tonight!’ she gabbled.

  Over an early breakfast in the kitchen, the Brig and the girls discussed which hut Edward might use for his clandestine rendezvous.

  ‘It would be a disaster if we messed up by going to the wrong one,’ Maudie sad anxiously.

  The Brig fondly surveyed the brave girls he’d grown to love and depend on over the last couple of years.

  ‘This could be our last chance to get Edward before he escapes to Germany –it has got to work,’ he told them tensely.

  ‘Then we must hedge our bets and cover all the huts we can think of,’ Bella said firmly.

  ‘Shouldn’t we bring in the local police?’ Maudie asked tensely. ‘This could be too big for us to handle.’

  All eyes turned to the Brig, who drummed his fingers edgily on the kitchen table. ‘I am obliged to inform the police of the orders Kit and I received from Military Intelligence,’ he answered quietly. ‘The police, in fact, agree with me; if we have dozens of bobbies running around the place, giving the game away, Walsingham will immediately do a runner, and then we lose everything. How do you break the spy ring if the spy has gone?’

  Maudie nodded and said, ‘It’s still a big risk.’

  ‘It’s a risk we’ve got to take,’ Bella said staunchly.

  Taking a deep, uneasy breath, the Brig returned to the subject in hand – the huts.

  ‘Ruby immediately suggested the beach hut in Holkham Woods. ‘It’s where the Walsinghams used to host their boozy beach parties before the war. The King and Queen were there one year,’ she recalled.

  Bella, who knew the estate better than anybody, listed some other possible venues. ‘There’s the lake hut, where we keep the rowing boats, and the gardener’s hut, which is Peter’s domain.’

  ‘Any others?’ asked the Brig.

  ‘There are loads on the airfield,’ Ruby replied. ‘It would be impossible to patrol all of them, but Raf could alert his new superior officer and he could post extra security guards around them.’

  ‘Good thinking, Ruby. Can you see to that?’ asked the Brig.

  ‘OK’ he continued. ‘We’ve got the beach hut, lake hut and gardener’s hut. ‘Any more?’

  ‘One!’ Ava cried. ‘I’ve just remembered there’s a hut in the paddock behind the stables. I’ll check that.’

  ‘Perhaps you should do the garden hut, darling. You know the area well,’ the Brig suggested to Bella.

  ‘I’ll cover the beach hut,’ said Maudie. ‘I’ve walked that way lots o
f times.’

  ‘That leaves me with the lake hut,’ said the Brig.

  ‘What should I do?’ Ruby asked.

  ‘Somebody’s got to be in the house to pick up calls or pass on messages,’ the Brig replied. Surveying the girls’ tense faces, he added, ‘He’ll be armed. Take no chances.’

  Later that day, he stayed glued to the transmitter while Maudie and Bella helped Ava and Ruby serve supper and clear away before changing into dark clothes and going their separate ways.

  ‘Wish me luck!’ Maudie said, and cycled off down the drive.

  Ruby anxiously lit up a cigarette as she watched her dear friends disappear into the darkness.

  ‘Oh, God,’ she sighed. ‘I’ve got a bad feeling about this.’

  As Maudie cycled down Lady Anne’s Drive, she could hear the wind soughing through the pine woods and, in the distance, she could hear waves breaking on the beach. Concealing her bike in some bushes, she made her way on foot through the dense forest, walking quickly along soft sandy trails which led in and out of the sand dunes. She knew the beach hut was set on a rise within a ring of stout pines that protected it from the harsh winter winds; in daylight, it was a good two-mile walk but, in the dark, tripping over rabbit holes and gnarled tree roots, she felt like she’d been stumbling around for hours. Shining the tiniest light from her torch, she checked her wristwatch. It was gone nine ‒ God! What if she’d already missed Edward? Quickening her pace, she crept on, then stopped dead in her tracks as she heard a deep voice carried on the breeze. It was unquestionably Edward, she’d know his voice anywhere. Threading her way between tree trunks, she peeped out and saw a light glimmering up ahead. Taking a deep breath to control her ragged breathing, Maudie darted towards the light, a torch set down in the beach hut. Bending almost double so as not to be seen, she crept to the back of the building, where she crouched with her ear pressed to the clapperboard wall. The urgent three-way conversation was in German and English, and Edward was doing most of the talking.

  ‘You need to arrange for me to disappear. I should have left immediately after the Holkham air raid, but Berlin screwed up,’ he complained.

  ‘Berlin are working on it,’ one of the men answered.

  ‘Working on it isn’t bloody good enough!’ Edward barked. ‘For Christ’s sake, I’ve been in hiding for a long time. I need to get out now!’

  Maudie jumped as she heard a grunting noise that sounded like an angry Edward was physically threatening one of the men. ‘I’ll give you twenty-four hours, max. Do as I bloody well say, or I’ll blow your cover.’

  Grumbling, the men dispersed in opposite directions.

  Left alone in total darkness, Maudie realized that she was trembling all over. Slumped against the back of the hut, she stayed a good half-hour, listening out for the sound of returning footsteps. When she thought the coast was clear, she hurried back through the woods. Clinging to the dark shadows of the tree trunks, she darted from one to the other till she reached the entrance to the drive, where, to her horror she found Edward waiting for her. Maudie cast about, frantic. Should she run back into the woods or jump into a nearby ditch?

  As if reading her thoughts, Edward called out ‘Don’t even think about it.’ As he walked towards her, he gave a harsh laugh. ‘Shouldn’t have left your bike in the bushes, little servant girl ‒ bit of a giveaway,’ he added, and grabbed her arm, twisting it behind her back. ‘Can’t leave me alone, eh, hot little vixen?’ he whispered thickly in her ear.

  ‘Don’t flatter yourself,’ she snapped.

  ‘We’ll leave our intimate chat till later,’ he replied. He gagged her with his scarf, then dragged her by the hair back into the woods.

  Though absolutely terrified, Maudie could have kicked herself. Her bike must have been poking out of the bushes ‒ why hadn’t she been more careful? But for the bike, she would be back at the hall, telling her friends what Edward was planning to do. Instead, she was his gagged prisoner, and being dragged deeper and deeper into the dark Holkham woods.

  ‘God help me,’ she sobbed behind the stifling gag.

  A vision of Kit floated into her mind. What had her darling suffered before his Lancaster plummeted to earth, a burning ball of flames? He would have been unquestionably brave and so would she.

  Bella was home safe and sound by eleven.

  ‘Nothing to report,’ she told Ruby, who was waiting tensely for the girls and the Brig to return.

  Ava was next back. ‘Nothing, apart from the Shetland pony nearly kicked the stable door down when I didn’t go in to feed her!’ she said.

  The Brig got back before midnight. Looking quickly around the room, he asked, ‘Where’s Maudie?’

  When it came to 3 a.m. and Maudie was still not back, everybody knew that something had gone wrong. A loud shout from Bella in the sewing room made them all jump sky-high.

  ‘Walsingham’s active – he’s transmitting.’

  Before dawn, they were joined by Tom and Raf. They split into pairs and set off at first light. Ava and Tom scoured every inch of the pine woods on horseback; Ruby and Raf drove the RAF jeep along the wide, sweeping beach from Wells to beyond Brancaster Staithe; Bella and the Brig combed the estate. The first place Tom and Ava searched was the beach hut, where they found no evidence of recent use. As they cantered back through the woods, though, Ava saw something green and shiny fluttering in a thorn bush.

  ‘It’s Maudie’s scarf!’ she cried, as she dismounted and snatched it up. Holding it to her face, she added with a catch in her voice, ‘It smells of her favourite perfume, lily of the valley.’

  Dismounting, too, Tom walked up and down the track, looking for further clues.

  ‘Where is she?’ Ava cried in anguish. ‘What’s happened to her?’

  Not twenty feet away, in an old hide used for stalking deer and wildfowl, Maudie struggled and moaned as she lay gagged and trussed hand and foot on the floor.

  ‘One word and I’ll shoot,’ Edward hissed in her ear.

  Maudie sobbed in despair as the sound of Tom and Ava’s voices receded; they’d been so close, but now they were leaving. Her only chance of escape had slipped away. As she rolled in despair on the damp earth floor, Edward leered, and ran his chubby hands up her bare thighs. Maudie gritted her teeth. He’d had all night to rape her, if he’d chosen to, would he do it now? Maudie sighed with relief as his radio transmitter bleeped into life, causing Edward to abandon his preoccupation with his hostage. She watched him with eyes as wary as a nervous hawk.

  ‘Little do you realize, you heartless brute,’ she thought to herself, ‘that back at the home of your stately ancestors, your sister, my best friend, will be decrypting your goddamn cypher.’

  Bella was indeed busy at work. That afternoon, she decoded two vital pieces of information; Maudie was Edward’s prisoner, and he was planning his escape that very night.

  ‘He’ll be picked up by a getaway boat on Holkham beach at 2200 hours,’ she told the group gathered tensely around the transmitter in the sewing room. ‘He ceased communicating about an hour ago,’ she concluded.

  ‘Well, what are we waiting for?’ Ruby cried. ‘Let’s go and rescue Maudie!’

  30. Hostage

  With icy calm, the Brig rallied everybody who could fire a gun: Peter, Tom, Raf and himself. They planned to wait until nightfall, then, wearing dark clothes, and with hands and faces blacked up, they would creep into the woods, where they hoped they’d be able to see where the rescue boat would land. They had agreed that each couple would cut through the woods at different points so that they could cover the mile-long stretch of sand dunes that gave on to the sea.

  ‘I feel so frightened,’ Bella admitted to the Brig. ‘We’re taking such a huge risk.’

  The Brig held her close to his chest. ‘Me, too, darling …’ he said with a heavy sigh. ‘Me, too.’

  Meanwhile, Maudie, still gagged, had been dragged, struggling and groaning, out of the hide. Cursing and swearing, Edward pushed and shoved her along
a track that led to one of the many block-houses that had been built to house gunners in case of a Nazi invasion from the sea. Smoking cigarettes, Edward and his collaborators, who had rejoined him, peered through the slitted holes in the block-house as they waited for the rescue boat to arrive.

  ‘What about the girl?’ one of the men asked.

  ‘Shoot her!’ the other barked.

  ‘We can’t do that,’ the first man angrily retorted. ‘She’s done nothing.’

  ‘She knows too much. She’s seen our faces,’ the second snarled. ‘I say shoot the bitch now.’

  Maudie’s blood ran cold as she listened to them discussing her fate.

  ‘Not yet,’ Edward snapped. ‘She might make a better hostage than a corpse.’

  Hidden behind the dunes that fringed the beach, Bella, Ava and Ruby, along with their partners, and Peter, who watched alone, saw the boat approaching. It bounced in towards shore, then, with a light flashing, it cruised up and down as the skipper tried to locate his passengers. In a panic, Bella turned to the Brig. ‘The light!’ she cried. ‘They’ll see us.’

  ‘They’ll only see whoever is in range of the light. The rest will be in darkness,’ the Brig replied calmly. ‘Stay behind me, darling. Don’t get in their line of fire.’

  Maudie’s rescue party left the cover of the sand dunes and sneaked, in the cloying darkness, through the high sand dunes, towards the vast expanse of beach. At the same time, Edward and his party left the block-house. Maudie was hauled, now gasping for breath behind the gag that had stifled her all day, towards the boat, which, once Edward had flashed a signal from his torch, the skipper powered up to the patch of headland they were making for. The boat’s light was focused entirely on Edward, which gave his pursuers an opportunity to run forward under cover of darkness. Grasping Bella’s hand in his, the Brig tore across the damp, squelchy sand. Peter, Ava and Tom ran, too, and they all converged close to the boat that was bobbing on the waves. Hearing splashing noises behind him, Edward whirled around to face his pursuers.