As Aimee looked back at Sergeant Grimm, who had his eyes closed and seemed to be praying, a rope caught her face. The rope had a red ribbon wrapped around it and she remembered. She pulled hard on the rope. There was a pause then the balloon valve opened and they began to drop like an eagle on a mouse below.

The enemy pilot who had fired his guns was a hundred metres from them when he opened fire again. But he found himself shooting at where the falling balloon had been. He pulled the control stick and soared upwards as the ground guns poured their shattering shells towards him. He weaved across the sky to put them off and made his way back east towards his airfield.

A gunner in the ground crew looked to the west and cried, ‘British fighter planes on their way. Stop firing.’

From the west a flight of three planes roared across the River Somme. Red, white and blue roundels were painted on the stubby wings. ‘Sopwith Camels.’ A soldier nodded. ‘They’ll get him. German swine.’

The gunners cheered but the rest of the crew were hurrying across to where the basket had landed. Aimee and Sergeant Grimm had hit the ground fast and were thrown out on to the soft ploughed field. Aimee lay there, shaken, while the sergeant wailed, ‘I’ve lost my hand. The strap’s snapped. Help me find my hand. It’s solid silver, you know.’ Men began to search the field and a soldier quickly found it, shining in the dark ploughed earth.

Aimee picked herself up. She was shaking and aching. Once she was sure she had no broken bones she ran across the field to the farmhouse and crashed through the kitchen door.

‘Aimee,’ her mother cried. ‘You’re a mess. Covered in dirt – pigtails coming loose. What have you been up to?’

The girl began to tell her story and Mrs Fletcher scowled. ‘I should never have let you go up. I put your life in danger,’

‘You’re one of the White Lady spies, Maman. Your life will be in danger too when the Germans get here. They’re just on the other side of the woods. I saw them.’

‘It’s not the same,’ her mother said.

Aimee took a deep breath and blurted, ‘He tried to kill me.’

‘Of course he did. That’s the German pilot’s job.’

‘Not the pilot. Sergeant Grimm. He tried to throw me out of the balloon basket. If the German pilot hadn’t turned up and started shooting, he would have done.’

Mrs Fletcher turned pale. ‘Why would Sergeant Grimm want to do that?’

Aimee told her about the traitor’s telephone call to Benedict. ‘Why didn’t you tell me this before?’ Mrs Fletcher asked in a low voice.

‘He said he’d kill me if I told anyone,’ Aimee replied.