Jane didn’t reply until both girls had checked their appearance in the long mirror by the door and left the hut. ‘Become pretty humdrum?’ she repeated. ‘The trouble is, ninety per cent of our work is simply ferrying various things from the docks to other ATS sections. In the early days it was more of a challenge, because we went much further afield.’

Glenys nodded. ‘And now we know everything, the top brass is going to consult us,’ she said sarcastically. She pushed open the door to the administration block. ‘Well, we’ll know soon enough.’

She tapped briefly on the door marked Sergeant Reeves and poked her head round it. The sergeant was sitting behind a large desk, with a pile of papers in front of him. He looked up, grinned and got to his feet. ‘Better late than never,’ he rumbled. ‘Go down the corridor until you come to Lecture Room Three and go in and sit down.’ He glanced at the clock on his desk. ‘The officer will be along in five minutes, so just sit quiet and wait.’

He ushered them out of the room and Glenys nudged her friend. ‘Did you see those papers?’ she hissed. ‘Remember those tests? They didn’t tell us why we had to take them or what it was all about, but my intelligence paper was on top of the pile – I spilt some ink on it, and I recognised the blot.’

But at that moment they reached Lecture Room No. 3 and went inside. The room was almost full, and a couple of the girls already seated murmured a greeting. One of them, a pretty redhead named Maisie who had done the physical fitness test in the same group as Glenys and Jane, asked them if they knew what was going on, but before they could answer the door behind her opened and an officer strode in, removing his cap as he did so to reveal short, curly blond hair which was exactly the same colour as his tiny toothbrush moustache. Glenys jumped to her feet and saluted, as did everyone else, and then obeyed the sergeant’s instruction to sit down once more. She knew the officer’s name was Captain Dorrington, and thought she had heard someone say he was with the Intelligence Branch, but he was often to be seen coming and going to the Officers’ Mess so she supposed he must be seconded to their regiment.

The captain had acknowledged the forest of hands with a salute of his own so stiff and correct that she wanted to giggle, and now began to leaf through the pile of papers the sergeant had given him. Glenys seized the opportunity to hiss to Jane that you couldn’t help admiring his blond good looks, and then he began to speak.