The water was nearly to the five-inch line Nan had painted in the bathtub. I’d have to turn off the taps in a moment. I spoke in a rush.

“Old Cromwell thinks the Luftwaffe is using Windyedge for bombing practice,” I told Louisa. “It’s the shortest hop from Norway to Scotland. But you and I know there’s a Jerry coding machine hidden in the wardrobe down the passage. And I think some Jerry knows it, too—not the one who brought it, but someone else, someone who doesn’t want it here. And they’re trying to destroy it. They’ll keep at it until they think they’ve hit it, and as long as we keep using it they’ll know they haven’t got it.”

That angry little frown split Louisa’s forehead again.

“No, that isn’t at all sensible,” she said. “The machine could be anywhere. We could have taken it to London by now, or Wales, and still be using it to decode messages for Windyedge. Perhaps they’re trying to punish us because Felix Baer landed here.”

The bath was five inches deep.

“Or perhaps,” she added, “they’re trying to destroy the airfield so he can’t come back.”

We couldn’t talk any longer because I had to turn off the taps.

Jamie:

B-Flight flew out of Deeside along with A-Flight, on fishing-fleet and battleship escort duties for the whole December moon, getting in the way of the Spitfire fighter squadron based there. Meanwhile the holes in the runway at Windyedge were mended, and a new hangar got thrown up next to the crater where the old one used to be.

ABERDEEN SECTOR CLEAR START XII UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE

Normally I’d have had my heart in my mouth worrying that we might run into Messerschmitt 110 night fighters on these ops. That message in Louisa’s notebook reassured me. Aberdeen had been bombed pretty fiercely right through October; now the Luftwaffe seemed to be holding back.

Phyllis came to Deeside with us, but I only saw Ellen twice while we were there, taking Cromwell on some inspection errand. The second time I didn’t even get to talk to her. She just gave me a look and shook her head ever so slightly.

I shrugged in reply, and went off whistling, to let her know everything was all right.

Actually, everything was fine.

I’d wanted an edge over the Germans and now that I had one, I felt like our luck had changed. Finding that coding machine, getting unexpected tip-offs that helped us sink four U-boats, saving all our planes from being turned into scrap metal on the ground when the aerodrome was bombed—being one step ahead of the enemy for a week or two—made us lucky.