We were both a little breathless now. He guided our steps toward Jane, on the edge of the dancers, and spun me to face away so the others couldn’t see me speaking.

“Jane and I talked about it,” I told him. “I haven’t had a chance to tell Ellen. The Germans must know we’re breaking their codes. Now they’re trying to catch us.”

He nodded in understanding.

“Trying to catch you,” I corrected, because it wasn’t me flying out over the North Sea hunting for submarines.

“That last message”—he spoke close to my ear, almost in a whisper, hurrying—“the one you passed to me after the weird ‘happy wagon’ message. U BOAT OPERATIONS UTSIRA XIV II. I wondered if the date was wrong. February fourteenth gives us two whole weeks’ more lead time than the other messages. Utsira’s an island off the coast of Norway. You think that’s a setup?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “It could be. They could lure you there and send in night fighters and you’d all be dead.”

His hands tightened around mine.

“When did you see Baer?” he asked.

“I take him his meals. And the others, too.”

“Louisa, you’ll get in trouble.”

“Won’t we all?” The phony smile felt like it was going to crack my face. “Aren’t we already in trouble?”

The record was coming to an end.

“Don’t go to Utsira on the fourteenth!” I begged. “You don’t need to go hunting for U-boats.”

“We’ve got to go where they send us,” he pointed out. “Even on Valentine’s Day!” He laughed, pretending it was nothing. Dancers talking about Valentine’s Day!

“Tell Ellen,” I said.

“I will.” His smile was phony too.

We were out of time.

Mrs. Campbell cleared everybody out at ten, so it was late when I heard tapping at the door of Room Number Five, where I was already in my nightdress. I opened the door expecting Ellen.

But it was Elisabeth Lind.

She looked ready for bed, except her face still glowed with perfect paint. Her fairy-tale-gold hair was unpinned in one long plait, bound with a black silk ribbon. She wore a quilted gray silk dressing gown that made her look like she was snuggled into a cloud. I couldn’t see much of what was underneath, but black silk printed with silver peonies clung to her ankles.