Kate Quinn
Prologue
November 8, 1947. Osla Kendall tries to pick out a dress she can wear to the royal wedding if Elizabeth and her former flame, Prince Phillip of Greece. She works at the Tatler to be able to pay for her own small apartment. The landlord’s daughter brings her the mail and she sees a message written in code. She knows exactly who it is from and how to decide it. She calls a woman that lives in Yorkshire who used to be friends with Osla and the letter writer. They decide the letters together. Osla wants to meet to discuss it (they learned in the war not to discuss anything important over the phone). The other woman says she doesn’t own the writer who is no in an asylum anything and hangs up. The writer sits in the Clockwell knowing she has seen things from the other side. She wonders if anyone will believe her.
1. It is December 1939 and Mab lives in Shoreditch with her mother and younger sister Lucy. Their father left and Mab’s three older siblings had to leave school at fourteen to get jobs. Mab wants better for herself. She got jobs where she could listen to the upper class ladies speak and taught herself how to emulate them. She then able to get a job selling makeup. She plans to find a good husband rather than continuing the family cycle and marrying a factory worker. She wants to find someone well off enough to help take care of Lucy (her younger sister - 4 - loves horses ) so she doesn’t have to leave school at fourteen. She thinks about how the war will change things, but she isn’t sure how. The rich woman will join the Woman’s Royal Navy Service (Wrens). She starts walking to work and a man in the Air Force grabs her trying to convince her to show him a good time. When her perfected look of denial does not work in him, she kicks him in the shin to get away and walks faster. She considers joining the Woman’s Auxillary Air Force (WAAF) thinking it would be better than being a Land Girl. She dreams of becoming a secretary in a fancy office.
2. Osla and her cousin roommate, Sally work on Hurricane Airplane parts in a factory. They very rarely get a day off, so when the time comes, they rush to the Claridge in London. Osla goes up to greet the doorman, Mr. Gibbs and asks if he has seen her date. He tells her what to look for and asks if he should inform him she will be down after getting ready. She decides he should see her in her boiler suit and goes to great Prince Phillip of Greece. He dares her to go out dancing as she is and she agrees to it. She asks to change into her dancing shoes and he helps her. They talk about their schooling and how they both grew up away from their parents. They both speak German, but they only do it very briefly as it is a sore spot with the approaching war. While Osla just wants the war over, Phillip wants to prove he is not a Nazi sympathizer just because three of his sisters married men that turned out to be Nazis. When they decide to leave. Phillip takes Osla and Sally home. Sally goes to their door and calls back there is a puddle in front of their door. Phillip Carrie’s Osla to the door and she kisses him to get it out of the way and avoid any awkwardness. He says they can do better and he kisses her. He asks ti see her again before he ships out and she tells him to come see her any night.
3. Mab is on a train heading to Buckinghamshire. She received a letter from Commander Denniston on where to report, but she has never heard of the place. She is sad she had to say goodbye to Lucy that morning and will not see her for a while. A man on the bus grabs himself through his pants and tries to hit on the ladies. Mab uses her icy glare to send him away. She sees a little brunette and is worried the man will give her trouble. When he goes up to her, the brunette lousy embarrasses him until he goes away. She introduces herself to Mab as Osla. They compare the letters they recieved and find they are going to the same place. When they arrive at Bletchley Park, the guard says they have arrived at the biggest lunatic asylum in Britain. The are escorted in and Giles Talbot comes out of the lake in his drawers. He puts his clothes back on (his pants are missing) and takes the ladies to Commander Denniston. He tells them they will be sworn to secrecy in everything they do there. They are not even allowed to tell their families. When they are asked to sign, Mab asks if they are required to take the job. He says they can leave but can’t tell anyone about them. They both sign the papers and are lead out by Giles. They ask what they are doing there. He tells them it is the Government Codes and Cypher School (GC&C), and they are there to break German codes.
4. Beth finds herself enamored with the spiral pattern of a rose. She helps her mother finish preparing their guest room for the two girls that will be staying with them and working at Bletchley park. At 24, her mother is determined to keep her with her and constantly tells Beth she is too slow minded for anything else. Beth believes the only thing she is really good at is completing the crossword in under eight minutes. When the two girls, Mab and Osla arrive, Beth can tell her mother quickly judges Mab as a tart for wearing lipstick. Beth shows them to their room and sees Mab’s copy of Vanity Fair and mentions it is a good book, but not to tell her mother she has read it. The girls agree and invite her to stay while they settle in. Beth doesn’t say much, but enjoys the company.
5. November 8, 1947. A girl registered under the name Alice Liddell is kept in a cell at the Clockwell Sanitarium. The patients are given sedatives every morning and night, but she throws them up. She tries to plan on how to get out. She is able to sneak out two letters to two girls in London. She hopes they will listen, but they betrayed each other and she is not sure. Osla suddenly doesn’t care about the dress she intended to wear to watch her ex-boyfriend marry the princess. She wants to get out of London. She reads over the translated message asking to get her out and that she owes the girl. The phone rings and she thinks it is her friend calling bacj after having changed her mind. Instead, it is a reporter looking for dirt on the Prince. She hangs up on him and decides to go to York to see her old friend.
6. June 1940. Mab and Osla arrive back at BP for their first day of work. Mab is taken off to Hut 6 while Osla is taken to Hut 4. She narrates the adventure in her head as though she is writing to Prince Phillip. The man that drops her off says “have a go” and leaves her to it. The other woman tell her the men can’t really explain the job any better than that anyway. In Hut 4, Osla asks what they do or if she is even allowed to ask. The girls tell her they can talk about their jobs within hits, but not outside. They translate German messages that are then decided and sent back to them in sensible German. They start Osla using the hole punch to file a stack of decoded messages. When a man comes in asking for a specific message, she copies it for him and he takes off quickly. She feels like she could be more useful to the war effort, but decides it is only her first day and all efforts are important. When they get back to the Finches’ house, Osla asks about Mab’s day and they realize they can’t even answer each other very much. Osla tried to steer the dinner conversation away from them and to Beth, but Mrs. Finch would barely let her daughter talk. As they get ready for bed, Mab mentions there are a lot of eligible bachelors in her hut and asks Osla if she has her eye on anyone. Osla thinks about Phillip and says she is not looking for anyone.
7. Mab is introduced to her job and deciding machine. There is a new deciphering code every day and they calibrate the machine for it. They then type the papers they have into it and either German or nonsense comes out. The German papers go to be translated and analyzed. The men that try to figure out the codes and messages are called boffins. Mab is sent to their hut to deliver a box of supplies. She is surprised when Giles opens the door to greet her. She is impressed with the number of college educated bachelors inside. She asks Giles what they do for fun at BP. When she doesn’t like his answer, she says Osla and she are starting a literary society and invites him and the other men to join. When the day comes for their first meeting, Osla says she has invited a very tall man that has potential for Mab and plans to go directly to the meeting after work rather than primping so she won’t distract any attention from Mab. Mab goes back to Mrs. Finch’s house to change into her red dress. Mrs. Finch tries to corner her to question her about what she does, but Mab doesn’t answer. Bath says she should tell her something to keep her from asking. Mab can see the paperback in Beth’s pocket and tells her she is taking her with her to their literary society meeting.
8. They arrive at the inn where Giles is being boarded to meet for the literary society. Mab tries to get Beth to drink some sherry. Beth refuses to drink or eat anything. She tries to come up with an argument to convince her mother it is alright for her to be there, but all she can think of is how Osla is a lady and she is there and having fun. As the group debates books and how to pick what book will be discussed, Beth grabs the newspaper and complete’s the crossword puzzle quickly. Osla notices and is impressed. Beth finds herself looking at a tall, dark man named Harry. He introduces himself as where his heritage is from. She compliments his English and he goes in to explain his family has been in England for three generations. She is embarrassed, but he tries to reassure her he gets those comments all the time. When they get back to the house, Mrs. finch is waiting for them. Osla tries to take the blame, but the old woman sends them to their room. She reads to Beth from the Bible about obeying her parents and makes it hold it out in her arms at eye level for 15 minutes before sending her to bed. She is glad she will never have children that will disappoint her like she does to her mom. Beth stops by the girls’ door and can hear them talking. Mab wants her to grow a spine and Osla compares her to the dishrag heroine from Mansfield Park. Beth goes to her room crying even more than before.
9. A few weeks later, Osla is having trouble staying awake on the night shift. She and Mab walk home together late one night and are almost hit by a car that takes a turn too quickly. The man gets out to apologize. Mab is covered in mud and furious that her shoe is broken. She berates the man for going too fast and tells him he won’t be going anywhere with a flat tire. He has a reply from Commander Denniston he has to deliver and decides he’ll leave the car and take the train. Mab says it will be quicker to fix the tire. When he says he doesn’t know how, she gives him her shoes and says she will change it in exchange for him having her shoes fixed. While Mab is changing the tire, Osla talks to him. He mentions the code breakers are usually people that have specific skills such as playing chess or crossword puzzles. Osla remembers something and heads back to the mansion to talk to Denniston. She isn’t able to get to him, but Giles is there. She tells him about Beth being really good at crossword puzzles and to pass on that word to Denniston.
10. Beth recieves a summons for an interview and is surprised when they say “you’ll do.” Shortly after, Dilly Knox comes in and says he needs more people in his hut. They ask what Beth is good at and she tells them crosswords. Knox takes her and brings her to his hut to learn decoding. He explains that most of the other guys only get small pieces of the puzzle, but they look at the big picture and decide German and Italian codes that are changed everyday. She is given a desk and Peggy Rock introduces herself. Beth starts to panic and says she isn’t smart enough for the job. Peggy asks who told her that.
11. Osla reads and rereads the letter she received from Phillip who has changed ships and is hoping for action in the war. When Beth comes home after her first shift, the girls can hear how angry Mrs. finch is with her. They debate going to intervene, but decide it would probably make things worse. When Beth comes up the stairs, they pull her into their room and Osla admits she put her name in. Beth scolds them and throws their she overheard words back in their faces before leaving the room.
12. Three weeks into working at BP, Beth still doesn’t understand what she is supposed to be doing. She gives her entire paycheck to her mother out of guilt. Peggy keeps trying to encourage her, but she is ready to resign. Suddenly, things start to click together. The blocks of five letters start to form words and she stays well past when her shift ends. When Dilly arrives, she hands him the mesh of Italian and gibberish. He is thrilled she has made progress on what they have been stuck in for weeks. He decides to take her out to breakfast. When they arrive at his house, they are greeted by his wife, Olive. He takes Beth to the library while his wife goes to make the omelettes. He explains how the Enigma machines work and the vast possibilities they have to riffle through to find the correct combinations. She feels like it is hopeless. He points out that the Polish have been cracking these codes for years and they apply what they learned from them. She isn’t sure if she’ll be able to do it again and explains she hasn’t had much training. He tells her he wants people who will bring in a fresh view and lateral thinking. The next day, Beth returns to work and is told they will be working on deciphering German codes to help the men in Hut 6 catch up. She pins up her hair with a pencil and hopes to figure it out again.
13. A few days later, Mab receives a package from Mr. Gray with a pair of replacement shoes saying the old pair where unable to be fixed. She wishes she had them the previous night for her date with Andrew Kempton, who she thinks could make a decent husband. When she gets back to the house, she finds everyone gathered around the radio to hear about London being bombed. Mab goes to ask for half a day off to go check on her mother and sister, but she is denied like everyone else making similar requests. When she comes out of Denniston’s office, she runs into Harry Zarb smoking a cigarette. She asks for one and when he gives it she doesn’t bother with her normal flirting. He says he was denied to enlist; all of the men there are. If they were captured, they know too much about what is going on at BP. She is able to call her mother and tells them to get out of London, but her mother refuses to leave their home or send Lucy away. Mab throws Osla’s copy of Through the Looking Glass out their door saying how much she hates how upside down it all is when the world is already messed up enough. Osla hugs Mab while she cries and Beth brings the book back to them. When Mrs. Finch turns off the breaker for lights out, Beth whispers the invasion of London has been delayed. They compare the information they have each learned to determine the invasion probably won’t happen until the spring. They all promise to keep each others’ secrets. Mab hugs Beth for easing her mind.
14. November 9, 1947. Osla calls up her fiancé to tell him she will be leaving town to help out an old friend. When Phillip had become engaged to the Princess, people started looking at her as if she were an old maid. Her mother had told her to marry for friendship rather than love, so when a friend asked her to have a go at it, she agreed to it. She thinks about the deciphered message in her pocket and wonders what happened to Beth that made her look so crazy when they put her in the asylum. Beth hates that people touch her without her permission. She is dragged outside and starts wondering along the outside wall. She overhears two nurses complaining about her, but they are grateful they don’t have to deal with any truly dangerous patients. Beth take what is left of their cigarette and hides it while they are called in. When the matron calls her Alice, Beth says that isn’t her name and burns the woman with the cigarette but. She hopes Osla and Mab got her letter explaining someone in her Hut was a traitor to Britain and had her committed before Beth could tell anyone. They need to find the traitor to protect BP.
15. March 1941. Osla goes into London to dance on her day off. She dismisses her old friend, Charlie, who always asks her to marry him when he starts getting drunk. Suddenly, bombs are dropped down the vents and the entire club becomes a nightmare. Osla can barely keep her mind straight. Someone comes in and starts looting the bodies around her. When she yells for them to stop, they come after her. A man comes in and knocks out the other man with a champaign bottle. He looks her over and determines she is going into shock. He pours champaign over her head to wash away some of the blood, but it doesn’t seem to be hers. He gives her his coat and tells her the hospitals will look at everyone else that is worse than her first. She goes to her mother’s hotel knowing she won’t be there. She cleans up and isn’t able to sleep. She takes the morning train back to BP and works her shift. Afterwards, she goes back to the house and Mrs. Finch yells at her about leaving a coat on the rack that obviously doesn’t belong to her. The name inside says JPEC Cornwell Osla takes the coat to bed with her. She is no longer content to help with the war and have some fun when she can. She wants a real home.
16. Mab is furious when the gossip publication comes out and talks about the guy she had been seeing also seeing another girl. She had asked him as much and he had lied. She goes to work and a man, Harold, comes in asking for their tallest girl to move to Hut 11. Mab goes to Hut 11 and Harold teaches her and the other women how to work the bombe machines. One girl works the wires with the other is fed the message. This is a step much earlier in the process than Mab has been working. When it is time for her lunch break, she is sweaty and wanting some air. She goes to sit on the grass by the lake and has a cigarette. She thinks about how her sister’s birthday is approaching and that she is glad her mother sent Lucy out to the country to live with their aunt. She tries to read the latest book for their literary society (not called the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party), but doesn’t particularly like the poetry about war. The man whose tire she changed comes up to her and strikes up a conversation. They discuss the book a bit, and she is honest that she isn’t a fan of the subject. She excuses the writing as the author was sixteen when he wrote it. He asks her out for curry on her next day off and she agrees to go. She admits she doesn’t remember his name and he introduces himself as Francis Gray, the author of the book she was trying to read.
17. Beth’s parents continue to heap on the guilt. She still rushes off to work and enters the Hut apologizing for being late. They are short staffed that day and she immediately gets to work. She finds a code that translates to “today minus 3.” They know something bad is coming and call all hands back in no matter their condition. She goes to Hut 8 and demands an extra person. They send Harry over to their Hut. They all work around the clock taking turns sleeping and trying to figure out what is coming. Beth is shocked when they are on Day 0 and run out of messages. While they are waiting for the new ones to come in, Harry says he is going home to help his wife with their sick son and will return to his own Hut when he comes back. When the new papers come in, the women all clamor to get started. There is a long one and Dilly says they are probably battle plans. They are split up and the girls get to work. When he tells them their time is up, they put them together and he tells them they have most of the battle plan. Beth offers to take it to Cunningham to be transmitted on the Admiralty teleprinter. She runs through the rain to the mansion and tells the fist person she sees to get the watchkeeper immediately. She doesn’t go back to the Hut for her things, but starts immediately walking home in the rain. She stops at the chemist shop because she hears a whimper and finds a dog huddled on the stoop. She picks it up and takes it home with her. Her mother is furious she was gone so long with no word. She is even more furious when Beth takes her dinner out of the icebox and feeds it to the dog. Mrs. Finch demands she put the dog outside. Beth refuses and takes the little schnauzer to her room with her. She makes a nest for it in her bed and they go to sleep.
18. November 9, 1947. Beth has learned how to play different games with the other women in the Clocktower. Some of the other women were sent here not because they were crazy, but because someone wanted them out of the way. She is still trying to figure out who the traitor of BP was. She knows it had to be someone from Dilly’s team, but not him or her. She is dragged off to the doctor and hears the matron say she is happy Beth is scheduled for a lobotomy because the girls usually calm down afterwards. She asks the woman at the game board what a lobotomy is and the woman drags her finger across her head. In York, Mab has distracted herself planning for a party for the royal wedding. She gets a call from Osla saying she has arrived in York and is staying at the Grand. Mab doesn’t want to get herself or her family (she has two children) into any trouble. She tries to convince Osla that if Beth is in an asylum, there is a reason for it. Osla reminds her doctors rarely listen to women. Mab hasn’t backed down from a fight in her life, but points out Beth betrayed her. Osla says they betrayed her too. Osla says they will meet at a tea shop to talk it over.
19. April 1941. Mab finds herself the topic in the weekly rumor post again. Osla thinks Giles is the one writing them. Mab threatens him to leave her out of it, but he acts like he doesn’t know what she is talking about. She takes the train out to London and Francis meets her at the platform. They take a cab to an Indian restaurant. Mab gets frustrated because she is the one carrying the entire conversation. When she points this out, he apologizes and says he likes silence after being in two wars and working. He likes to have company at dinner, but isn’t used to having to converse. Mab goes to the bathroom and when she comes back, they have an actual conversation.
20. Osla tries to send the jacket back to J. Cornwell in London, but it is sent back to her. She writes a note to who she suspects is a landlady that can pass on her letter. She says if he ever finds himself back in London, she would like to return the jacket in person. Being fed up with filing, Osla asks her supervisor to be moved to a position where her language skills can be put to use. It isn’t long before she is moved further down in Hut 4 and translating decoded German messages into English. The next Mad Hatter meeting is at Harry’s house. When Osla arrives, his wife, Shelia, answers the door, but quickly takes off to take care of their son. When she brings him out, he looks ill and has braces on his legs (Polio). Beth arrives apologizing for being late because she had to let the dog out. Giles makes a comment about her possibly having a crush on Harry with a mutual reciprocation. Osla scolds him but secretly agrees. She watches as Shelia hands over their son, Christopher, to Harry and takes off to go to work. She wishes she could have had a family like that. But she convinces herself she can’t have it all and having a great job making a difference during the war should be enough for her. She thinks about what she will right in the next gossip she plans to publish for BP.
21. When the traffic dies down in the Hut, Dilly sends Beth and Peggy out to get wine for them. After they start drinking and celebrating, Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham comes to thank them for the information that allowed them to win the battle in the Mediterranean. A few of the younger women maneuvered him to brush up agains a wall that had been white washed and they all (including the Admiral) have a laugh over it. Beth is still in a good mood when she gets home and her mother is trying to guilt trip her again. She offers to darn socks and takes the basket with her while she lets out the dog, Boots. Mab and Osla come home and tell here there is going to be a dance in Bedford. Osla doesn’t think she’ll be interested because she is too brainy. Beth pulls out some code work Dilly gave her to work on that is from previous wars and outdated. She shows them how to break that code and they can both do it before too long. Beth agrees to go to the dance, but regretting it as the other two girls help her get ready. They cut her hair, alter one of her dresses, and lend her some accessories before Giles picks them up in his car. Giles is shocked in the change in Beth’s appearance. When they arrive, Mab and Giles immediately go out to the dance floor. Beth urges Osla to join them and then goes to sit a bit away from the crowd. Harry comes over to Beth and sits with her when she declines his offer to dance. She admits she’d rather be at work and he says he feels the same way. He leads her out onto the dance floor so they can whisper to each other and no one else can hear them with the music so loud. Giles tries to cut in, but Beth declines.
22. November 9, 1947. Beth goes to the red haired orderly for information. He asks what she will give him in return. She pulls him into a linen closet and gets on her knees. She asks him what a lobotomy is and doesn’t let him finish until he explains it enough for her to understand what is about to happen to her. He says it is popular in America and will help fix her. Mab told Osla she wasn’t going to meet her. She goes to the nursery to check in her baby, Eddie, and then Lucy. She is happy where she is and has everything she ever wanted. She isn’t sure she’s willing to risk it all for Beth. She wonders what Beth risked to get the messages to them.
23. May 1941. After the dance, Beth brings Osla and Mab’s things back to their room. They ask about her dancing with Harry five times and Beth tries to tell them it was all shop talk and they just used the dancing to not be overheard. The other girls warn her about falling for a married man and men only wanting one thing. When neither Beth not Osla really know what she is talking about, Mab explains sex to them. She tells them that some men will promise to marry a woman and them leave her high and dry after they have sex. She admits she had sex and enjoyed it. Mab asks Osla about Philip and she admits who he really is. After Beth leaves the room to go to bed, Mab expresses her concern for Beth falling in with the wrong kind of guy. Osla thinks Beth’s crush on Harry is safe because she wouldn’t act on it. She thinks Beth would be happy alone with codes and her dog. Mab worries the end of the war could destroy that for Beth. She warns Osla that even princes can use and leave women.
24. Giles asks Mab about her upcoming third date with her poet, but she isnMt sure about him. He is still a mystery to her. He makes a comment about Francis being well off, but Mab is looking for contentment and she is not sure if she can find that with him. One night shift, she is working the wires of the bombs machine and her mind starts drifting back to when she was 17 and dating a university boy. They started having sex after three weeks. He invites her to a party, but quickly learns she is supposed to be their party. She fights them off and they kick her out of the car. She spends four hours walking home and throws away the ruined dress she had bought for the occasion. That was when she decided she would be Mab instead of Mabel and that even gentlemen are not necessarily nice or safe.
25. Beth’s group is taken off Italian codes and moved onto German ones which use a four-wheeled machine instead of three wheels. After six hours, none of the girls have anything new. Beth heads home feeling defeated and takes Boots for a walk. She finds Harry on the door step to the chemist waiting for his son’s medication. He tells her how he contracted Polio when he was only 18 months old and it has been a rough road since. When the medicine is ready, the chemist lets him know. The chemists wife gives Harry a hard time for not having enlisted to fight in the war. He is upset when he leaves and Beth rushes after him to ask him about the new from-letter codes. She doesn’t know if it will help him, but the work is like a drug to her.
26. Philip writes to Osla to tell her he is returning to London to take his lieutenant’s exam. They are excited to see each other, but it is a bit awkward since they haven’t actually seen each other in over a year. They meet at the train station and end up having to stay there because of the air raids. Philip tells her about his time at sea and she tells him about the bombing she lived through at the Cafe de Paris. They hide under his great coat and alternate between talking and kissing. She ends up falling asleep in his arms and he wakes her up to let her know her train back to BP will be leaving soon. He will be in London for the next few months to study and take his exam and she plans to visit every chance she gets.
27. Mab gets a break and goes outside the Hut for some air. The weather is nice and some of the others are playing a game that seems similar to baseball. Mab joins them, gets a hit, and starts running bases when the game suddenly stops. Winston Churchill has arrived at BP. Mab primos herself as she rushes back to her Hut. Her partner is asked to explain the bombs machine, but she is speechless. Mab jumps in and starts the explanation and her partner chimes in. They get the machines running and then stops them all to show the output to the prime minister. He leaves the Hut to continue his tour and the women follow him outside. Mab is distracted when she sees Francis outside the door. He explains they needed someone to drive the prime minister that already had the clearance to BP. She grabs her hat from the tree branch she left it on when she started playing the game earlier. She is upset it is bent because hats are important to woman. She tries to explain why, but when Francis doesn’t reply, she decides to give up on him. She starts to turn away from him and he asks her to marry him. She is shocked. She ends up saying yes. He is leaving for America and will be gone for a few months but agrees to meet her family before he goes. He asks if she wants a ring and she says yes. He says he’ll find a ruby that matches her lips. He leaves with the Prime Minister’s party and Mab watches them leave.
28. Beth is focused on trying to crack the German code for months and barely notices anything else going on around her. One day, she cracks the first piece of code. Beth wants to call in Dolly, but Peggy insists they leave him alone while he is at home. She is able to confirm Beth’s find. The shift change comes shortly after and Beth is sent home to take the next day off. When she goes outside, she finds a commotion outside of the mansion. She goes to find out what is going on and Mab tells her the Americans are joining the war because of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Beth starts crying into Mab’s shoulder in relief. Osla finds them and they walk home together. When they walk in the door, Beth calls for Boots. Her parents tell her she wasn’t home in time to let him out and he made a mess, so her mom tossed him out the door. Beth runs out the door to go look for him and Mab and Osla follow. Mab finds Boots under a bush and brings him to Beth. When they get back to the house, Beth uses her mom’s coat to dry off and warm up her dog. When her mom tries to punish her, Beth fights back. Her mom insists the dog can only stay one more night. Beth takes the dog and decides she will leave if he can’t stay. Osla and Mab run upstairs and pack their bags as well as Beth’s and they head out the door.
29. Prince Philip picks the girls up from the train station and takes them to the hotel where Osla’s mother has a room (but is out of town). Francis meets them thee and Mab rushes inside to see him. It is a bit awkward at first. He explains he will be leaving for another trip soon. Mab suggests they get married the next day and he agrees. Osla immediately starts making plans and enlisting everyone’s help. Francis will go home, Philip will pick up Mab’s parents and bring them back to the hotel, Mr. Gibbs the doorman will help arrange a borrowed dress for Lucy and a wedding breakfast. Osla takes the girls upstairs to her mother’s room. They go through the dresses in the closet until they find one that will work as a knee-length wedding dress. Mab is so overwhelmed with the friendship she has found because of BP.
30. November 10, 1947. Osla goes to the tea shop and picks a table in the corner near a window where it would be harder for someone to overhear their conversation. When Mab arrives, she instantly starts making jabs at Osla. She tries not to return them and take the high ground, but Osla gets a bit frustrated with Mab. She says she isn’t convinced Beth is crazy and they were all a bit strange during their time at BP. She says they need to go see for themselves. Beth heard the nurses gossip about the Royal wedding and thinks back to what a beautiful day Mab’s wedding was. She doubles over coughing from what is left of her pneumonia. She doesn’t think the traitor selling secrets to the Germans, but more likely Russia. While Russia was an ally, that doesn’t mean they weren’t looking for more information. She tries to think back to which of her friends had been Russian sympathizers and wishes she had listened to their conversations more.
31. February 1942. Commander Travis takes over for Commander Denniston. Osla tries to show him her concern for the lack of security in her hut. She pulls three pieces of paper off her self she took from her Hut. Commander Travis and the other men don’t see any reason for concern and send her away calling her a dizzy deb. Back at work, she translates messages. One is a causal conversation about Germans killing Jews and not having any concern for the humans’ lives. She takes the bus back to the new boarding house and calls Philip. She is sad she can’t tell him much of what is going on when he has shared so much of his life with her. He says he can’t talk about the girls he sees when he is on duty and tells her he has been writing to his cousin, Princess Elizabeth. He tells Osla he loves her and she says it back. They hang up and she thinks they might have a chance at making it work.
32. Beth and the girls are enjoying their new boarding house even though they have to all share a room. The landlady likes dogs and is willing to help out when Beth has to work late. Beth is given a special code to work on called GGG. It takes her two weeks before she cracks it and loos around for Dilly. The other girls tell her he is sick and has been replaced by Peter Twinn. Beth thought it was just a temporary change and is shocked her mentor isn’t coming back. When there are papers that need to be delivered to Dolly, she offers to take them to him. His wife lets her in and take her to his office. Beth is surprised at how sick he looks and how she couldn’t have noticed. He says he has lymphatic cancer, but seems pretty sure he will recover. Beth doesn’t believe him. He mentions Peggy has been sent home for bed rest and Beth is ashamed she hadn’t noticed her favorite coworkers absence. He asks how she broke the GGG.
33. Mab takes the train out to the Lake District to meet Francis for a delayed two day honey moon. They are excited to see each other and once alone in their room, they are ready to have sex. Mab has to stop them before they get too far to go to the bathroom to insert her contraceptive. When she comes back out, he pulls her back to his front and says she can trust him. She tenses up and he holds her until she relaxes. He gets her off before he has sex with her. When she wakes up in the middle of the night, he is at the open window having a cigarette. When she wakes up again in the morning, he has left her a note saying he went for a walk. When he comes back. She is in the bath and they pass notes back and forth. He can tell that a man has hurt her in the past. When she comes out of the bathroom, she doesn’t bother getting dressed and they have sex again. Their weekend continues in a similar pattern. When Mab is in the train back to BP, she finds a note from him in her pocket explaining the late night cigarette at the open window is one of the few things that helps him chase away the nightmares and anxiety from the last war. She writes him back telling him what Geoff Irving (but leaving his name out of it) and his friends did to her. She hopes she really can trust him.
34. Osla is working when her godfather, Lord Mountbatten, comes into the Hut saying he wants to visit his goddaughters, Osla and Sally. They are both confused and swear to each other they havenmt told him anything about their work at BP. He starts dragging the girls to the mansion with him, but Osla leaves his side to go back to the new abandoned Hit. As her eyes are adjusting to the dimness from the bright outside, she thinks she sees the flap of a hem disappearing. She goes through the sections and find a few boxes with the lids left off. She hears something and rushes to the door to see it swinging closed. When she looks outside, there are too many people to tell who just left. She thinks it might just be a secretarial girl going to have a look at the Admiral. When she goes back into the mansion figuring she should report the strange activity, Commander Travis is already scolding Sally. He sternly warns her about not giving away secrets as well. She wants to tell him about what she saw, but decides against it.
35. Beth is late to the next Mad Hatter Tea Party. When she arrives, there is a heated discussion going on about Gone with the Wind. Harry doesn’t like the depiction of the slaves in the book and Mab tries to point out how it is from Scarlet’s perspective, but most men don’t like a hard woman. Giles also doesn’t like the book, but suggests Harry doesn’t like it because he is dark skinned. Harry is about to punch him when Mab stops him. The arguing continues as Harry walks away. Beth follows him and finds him on the grass by the lake. She sits with him and asks what else is wrong. He says the submarine codes have been changed and are now different from the other ships. Their soldiers are dying and they won’t be able to protect the American ships that are coming in without figuring it out. She tells him about a time someone’s test code was just them pushing the letter L for several lines. She tells him he will find his L. He kisses her and she is shocked. She reminds him he is married, but he insists it isn’t a real marriage. He tells Beth he is hers if she wants him. She feels like her innocent crush is ruined.
36. When Mab gets to Francis’ London apartment, he has left a note and a key to his room. She is embarrassed at how dirty the letter is knowing the landlady might have read it. He says he will not be back until late. She visits her family and Lucy is now six. She is impatient for a pony, but Mab tells her she will have to wait until the war is over. He mom wonders why her other daughters didn’t marry a gentleman like she did. When Mab goes back to Francis’ room, he still isn’t there. The landlady tells her he won’t make it that night. She looks around the room and the only personal item of her husbands she can find is a picture of him with his friends before the last war e was in. She leaves him a note saying she wish she knew him as well as he knows her and they she could have met him when he was still able to smile like in the picture. They miss each other by a few minutes and he sends her a letter at BP. He tells her about after his three friends died, he was in Paris just kind of wandering around. He found himself looking in at a poor girl who had saved up her money to buy a fine hat. He watched her try on several until she found the right one. When he went back to war, he would think about how the girl was happy to have bought the hat symbolizing a bright spot in the dark war. Mab has become the bright spot for him. Mab reads the letter several times.
37. Beth has Boots with her outside the grocer’s store. A woman approaches her and asks if she is the Beth that works at BP. Beth thinks she looks familiar, but can’t place where she knows her from. The woman introduces herself as Harry’s wife. She takes her to the bar where she works when she can and they go into a private room. She tells Beth that her and Harry are only together because of their son, Christopher’s illness. They were planning to get divorced, but then Christopher became ill and they decided to stay together for him. She worked at the bar where he would study while at university. When she got pregnant, he did the right thing and married her despite his family pressuring him to make her get rid of the baby. She has a lover on the side. Harry got drunk one night and kept talking about Beth. The wife tells her if she wants Harry to go for it, but he will never leave her and Christopher. Beth is in a bit of a daze when she leaves with Boots. She runs into her mother outside. Mrs. Finch tries to get her to come back to her house by saying she will be forgiven for everything. Beth declines and keeps walking.
38. Osla is called into Commander Travis’ office. There is an MI-5 man there in a pinstripe suit. They ask her why she was recently in Hut 3 and she explains she had delivered a message and stepped in the door while she waited for a reply. They accuse her of taking a file from the Hut. She denies that she would ever do such a thing. They think her connection to Prince Philip makes her untrustworthy and question whether she has passed him any information. She points out how she returned to England specifically to fight in the war and has lied to everyone about her job, including Philip. They demand to have her letters from him and suggest she break it off with him because it gives her thirdhand connections to Nazis. When Philip calls to tell her he has been assigned to the Wallace, he asks if she can get time off to meet him before he leaves. She says she cannot and that she’ll see him on the other side. She packs up all of his letters to give to the MI-5 man. She wonders who told them she was the culprit and decides to do some digging.
39. November 10, 1947. Beth is put in a straight jacket. She tries to ask them not to drug her, but the matron she burned with the cigarette has a bad attitude towards her and injects her with a sedative. Osla and Mab continue their discussion in the tea shop. Osla points out of there is a traitor from BP, they are obligated to find out who it was. She needs Mab to go to Clockwell with her to see if Beth really is crazy or if maybe someone else betrayed them all. Osla tells Mab when train leaves the next morning, but Mab has no intention of joining her. Osla points out no one ever could count on her as she leaves.
40. June 1942. Mab’s team moves to the newly built Hut 11A, but the AC isn’t working. The girls strip down into their unmentionables to work through the hot summer day. At the end of their shift, a girl comes in crying because a Wren got pregnant from an American and tries to hide it. Six months in the baby was stillborn and she tried to hide it in a drawer. Mab is shaken by the story. She takes the train to spend the weekend with Francis. When he mentions an American, she remembers the Wren and the dead baby. He notices and asks about it. She tells him and he asks if it is triggering because of her own daughter. She is surprised he knows Lucy is her daughter. He could tell when he saw them together. She explains that her mother agrees to say Lucy was hers, but Mab wants better for Lucy than the scraping and fighting she had to do to growing up. Francis suggests after he gets back in a few months, he take Mab and Lucy out to Coventry to show them their future home and where the pony will live.
41. Giles catches Beth as she is replacing his wallet. He laughs when he realizes she took 2 condoms and left payment for them. She runs off before he can make fun of her. She meets Harry outside his hut when his shift is over. She asks what he is doing and he says he is heading to Cambridge to bring Sheila and Christopher back home after they visit with her parents. She tells him that Sheila came to talk to her about him. He asks if she wants to go with him. They are quiet on the train. He takes her to a music shop he worked at and still has a key to. It is closed and empty, but he takes her in to cluster to music. She is fascinated by the patterns he was talking about. They make out and he stops them because he isn’t prepared. She pulls out the condoms and they go into the back room that has been converted into a bomb shelter to have sex.
42. Osla keeps her word to cut communication with Philip knowing it is for his protection even more so than her own. She writes to the man that helped her at the Cafe de Paris and tells him what has been going on. She had Miss Senyard, who runs the Hut she is in, have girls go through each box in their Hut to make sure nothing was missing. The job was spread out over days and nothing seemed to be missing. When she gets back to their billet, Mab drags her out to the roof to sunbathe on what might be their last nice day. Beth joins them and brings their mail up to them. Mab is excited to get a letter from Francis saying he is coming home after four months away. Osla is a bit jealous, but stuffs it down and agrees to go with them to Coventry to see where they will live. Beth makes a comment that Mab wants someone to be able to watch Lucy while she has sex with her husband. Osla notices Beth’s changing and asks if she sneaks away to Cambridge to see a man. Beth tries to lie, but her blushing gives her away. A hurricane plane has been circling and Mab and Osla take off their tops and wave them in the air at them. Beth declines to join them.
43. Beth and Harry take whatever time they can get together. They are both working hard and sometimes need the stress relief. Beth’s group (ISK) is moved to an old brick school building next to BP. Their team is growing and they needed more room. To Dilly’s dismay, men have joined their team including Giles. Bath gets through her stack of codes and starts working on some from Hut 6. She sees one saying an air raid is planned for Coventry on November 8. She asks Giles what day it is knowing Mab and Osla are supposed to be going leaving for there within a few hours.
44. Lucy is put on the train to join Mab and Osla on their trip out to Coventry. When they arrive, Francis is there to greet them when they arrived with a box under his arm. Mab is a bit shocked at how the destruction from the air raids has left parts of the town in shambles. Francis takes them to his house and Lucy is immediately interested in the grandfather clock at the end of the hall. Mab goes upstairs with her to look at the bedrooms and Lucy likes one with a bench window seat. Mab suggests it could be her room. Lucy is a bit apprehensive about living with a man and Mab hopes she didn’t unconsciously pass that down to her daughter. When they go downstairs, Francis and Osla have set up lunch. Francis gives Lucy the box he was holding earlier. Inside are a pair of new riding boots. He tells her there is a riding school not far from there. She hugs the boots and thanks him. Mab thinks about how much she loves her husband.
45. Osla wakes in the middle of the night and tries to the sound of air raid sirens. She tries to wake up Lucy, but when she can’t, she picks her up out of bed. She goes to the door and can see the lights from the planes flying over. Francis and Mab come down the stairs and Francis tells them there is a Shelter half a mile away. Osla continues to carry Lucy. When they are near the building, Osla is knocked over by a group of men. She turns to keep from falling on Lucy and tries to keep hold of her to keep her from panicking. There is an explosion and Lucy gets free and runs off into the night.
46. Mab tears off looking for Lucy. Francis tells her and Osla to look down the street and he will go back to the house to see if she is there. Mab is furious with Osla for letting Lucy go. She is wildly knocking on doors and asking if anyone has seen her daughter. Osla has to tackle her to the ground as more bombs are dropped. Shen the raid is over, they get up and start heading towards the house thinking that is probably where Lucy went. When they get close, they see the neighbors house is split in half, but theirs is untouched. Francis comes down the front steps with Lucy, but their neighbor’s bathtub is in the yard and he goes to the fence to get around it. Just then, the neighbors house slides apart and falls on them. Mab tries to dig for them as others try to pull her away and tell her they are dead.
47. Lucy is burried in London where her family can attend the funeral. Mab has Francis buried at Keswick where they were happy. Osla can’t imagine she’ll ever want to go back to Coventry as she, Beth, and Giles attend the funeral. Beth keeps saying there is no way they could have evacuated in time even if they had known and Osla snaps at her. They try to see Mab, but she is whisked away by others. After the luncheon, they ask the landlady where she is and she says she went for a walk where there is a overlook with a view. Giles tells the girls to go after Mab to make sure she is alright.
48. Mab stands where she and Francis had stood not long before. She blames everyone for his and Lucy’s death. She wishes she had left BP and started keeping house. She wishes she had married him right away so they could have had more time together. She wishes she hadn’t used contraceptives. She is furious when Osla and Beth come up the path. She screams at Osla and tells her none of it would have happened if she hadn’t let go of Lucy. Osla is already beating herself up for it and agrees with Mab who screams that she killed her daughter. The whole situation becomes clearer.
49. The day Beth found the code saying Coventry was going to be bombed, there is a broadcast about Operation Torch on the news and everyone gathers around the radio to listen. She knows the secrets they keep are what give them a step up in the war. She decides she cannot tell Mab and Osla what she has found out before they leave. After everything has happened, she feels guilty, but compartmentalizes everything telling herself the code comes first. There is a celebration at Hut 8 when they finally end the U-boat blackout. Harry rushes over to Beth and kisses her. She knows the rumors will be flying, but she doesn’t care.
50. November 10, 1947. The three years Beth had been at Clockwell, she only had one visiter: her father. He came when Mrs. Finch was out of town visiting relatives. He says he can’t get her out with parental rights because she is there by the government. She guilts him into taking the ciphered messages with him and promises to send them to Mag and Osla. Mab has gotten everything she ever wanted, but she misses having a purpose. She thinks about the risks Beth made to get those letters out and makes a decision.
51. October 1943. Mab is in a bit of a blur for the 10 months following Francis and Lucy’s death. She is giving a demonstration of the one bombe machine left in Hut 11A to some Americans. She sets her mirror up on the back wires to reapply her lipstick and gets shocked. when her hand jerks, she gets a slash of lipstick across her neck. When she sees it she starts laughing and slips in the oil. She is taken to the infirmary where the nurse decides she needs to rest. Mab sleeps for about three days. When she starts coming to, Harry and Giles are in the room with her. She can’t remember the last time she went to a Mad Hatter Tea Party or read a book, but they were taking turns visiting her. Harry tells her Beth had just left and she can tell he is in love with her. Mab doesn’t want to be around anyone in love. When he leaves, Giles suggests Mab be transferred out of Hut 6 (her original Hut) and maybe put on Travis’ team. Mab thanks him. What she really wants is for someone to tell her how to go on living.
52. Beth would go to Dilly’s house to “visit” him. She would sit out in the lawn where they would talk and imagine he was still there and able to talk to her. Mrs. Knox thought it was odd, but it helped Beth think and cope. Mrs. Knox asks if Beth can take the last of the papers Dilly was working on back to BP with her. It is a code he compared to a Rose. She calls for an escort and is picked up. When she arrives at BP, her dad is there trying to get in. He asks her to come home. She tells him she cannot because the last time she tried to visit, her mother started instantly insulting her and Beth walked right back out. He says there are rumors of her being with a dark man and she tells him about Harry. She even offers to bring him to tea. He tries to order her home, but she points out he has never helped her in her life and has no control over her. She goes to work and takes the file with her. Peggy asks what it is and Beth tells her it was Dilly’s project. Peggy thinks it is Russian ciphers and tells Beth to put them in the dud pile for people to go through in their free time. When Beth thinks back on that moment, she yells at herself to take the file.
53. Mab coaches Beth on what to say to the doctors to be fitted for contraceptives that work better than what she had been using. Mab gives her the engagement ring from her finger so Beth can look the part of having a fiancé. Mab leaves for an interview with a journalist, Ian Graham, about her late husband. He starts asking questions, but she doesn’t have the answers. When he asks her for a personal antecdote, she drags him to a bar. She get a gin and tells him the truth. They barely got to spend any time together in their marriage and were really just getting to know one another. She tells him she doesn’t even have a picture of them together to commemorate the marriage. She tells him to print whatever he wants because she doesn’t care. He asks if he can do anything for her and she contemplates taking him somewhere to sleep with him so she can pretend he is Francis. She drives the thought away and sends him away saying she is meeting a friend to go back to Buckinghamshire. After a few more drinks, she makes her way back to the doctor’s office and Beth almost has to carry her home.
54. Osla is lonely. She goes into london and plans to stay at her mother a hotel. She asks Mr. Gibbs to find her an escort to her mother’s wedding in a few weeks. He is surprised Philip isn’t going to do it. She heads upstairs and runs into Philip in the hall. He is obviously sick and puts him in his room to take care of him. He asks why she hasn’t been writing him. She tells him about the awful year she has had. He tells her how their ship was almost sunk, but they were able to trick the Germans into firing at a raft they made ti oook like survivors of a sunken ship rather than at the actual ship they had made dark and were hiding on. They fool around for a while, but Osla doesn’t want to push him too far as he is clearly still feverish and not exactly in his right mind. She knows if they were to have sex, it would mean a promise of something more. He asks if she will start writing to him again and she doesn’t answer. About a week later at her billet, Osla gets a call from Philip’s friend David warning her that the rumors abut Philip and Princess Elizabeth are about to start up. He has been spending time with her and they seem smitten with each other. Beth calls for Osla so she doesn’t t miss the bus.
55. Beth goes to Cambridge alone because Harry is attending his son’s sixth birthday party. He gave Beth the keys to the music shop and she listens to music through headphones while thinking about Dilly’s rose-like code. Harry arrives upset because his son asked him to leave the party. Athens other boys bully him because his dad isn’t away fighting in the war. Beth tries to remind her they are fighting and that they are more useful to Britain where they are. Harry points out that she is a tenuous when it comes to code, but she misses everything that is going on around her. His son can’t know what he does and the other boys won’t understand. He tells her Mab is barely hanging on and she hasn’t really noticed. He says he loves her, but sometimes he doesn’t my like her very much. He doesn’t know if she just doesn’t care or if she is so preoccupied she doesn’t notice what is going on around her. She is confused and unsure how to react. He thinks she doesn’t know what to do with what he is saying because it isn’t in code.
56. Mab has been working in a secretarial position in the mansion. Every night she goes to the recreation hall to get drunk before going home. One night she realizes she forgot to hand in her keys before leaving the office. She plans to return them before she leaves the campus. Giles comes up to her looking to talk gossip. She thinks she sees Francis in the corner and approaches the man. When he turns and she sees it isn’t him, she goes back to Giles and continues drinking while he tries to talk her into coming to the next Mad Hatter Tea Party. She doesn’t remember much else of the night and wakes up in Giles’ bed. He assures her they didn’t do anything but sleep. She panics at the thought of not returning the keys, but Giles tells her she gave them to a guard before they left. He says he is in love with Beth and was looking to forget her with Mab. He asks if she is willing to give it a try, but she can’t risk losing another friend. He asks her to breakfast instead.
57. Philip meets Osla at the station in London and he seems cold. She tells him she heard about his hanging out with Elizabeth and asks if there is anything she should be worried about. He admits he likes hanging out with her and she clearly has her eyes set on him. He doesn’t plan on thinking about anything until the war is over, but admits marriage to the future queen of England will be expected and encouraged by his family. Osla reminds him he has constantly told her he doesn’t fell connected to his family. He says he loves her and told her things he hasn’t told anyone else. He understands if she wants to step back. She asked if he could love Elizabeth. He tells her the princess comes with a family and Osla knows she can’t compete with that. She gives him back his pin and turns to get a ticket home. He approaches her asking to take her home, but she gets angry at him calling her Princess as it seems he already has a real one.
58. Beth arrives at the Zara house to find boys throwing mud at Christopher. She chases them off and takes Christopher inside. She takes over preparing things for the Mad Hatter Tea Party while Sheila goes to help get Christopher cleaned up. When Harry comes into the kitchen, she tells him what happened. He says the bullying should stop because he has enlisted in the Fleet Air Arm with Travis’ permission. Beth is furious and yells at him. Shelia was hoping his mistress would be able to talk him out of it, but she can’t. She starts hitting him and Sheila pulls her off. Mab, Giles, and a few others arrive and are shocked at the scene. Beth tells Harry she hates him and tells him not to write to her. She leaves.
59. November 11, 1947. Beth wonders if Harry is the traitor and goes back and forth from one extreme to another. Osla gets a call from her boss in London telling her she should make her leave indefinite until after the wedding and maybe permanent pending her upcoming nuptials. Osla tells her boss she has no intention of not working after she is married and her fiancé supports her. She doesn’t really know how her fiancé will feel about it though. She calls him, but there is no answer. She is a bit relieved she doesn’t my have to explain where she is and figures he is probably off with some other girl for the weekend. She goes outside and sees Mab there waiting for her.
60. May 1944. Osla’s plan to ignore her heartbreak isn’t working. Beth asks her to get her the information about planes going down overseas. It takes a bit of convincing, but Osla agrees she can bend the rules for her friend. She gets back to work and they tell her the invasion is set for June 6th and all leave is currently cancelled so they can focus on finding German mine locations. Osla throws herself into her work.
61. Beth uses her free time to work on the code se calls the Rose. On June 5, everyone is sent home to get some sleep and told to report back at midnight for all hands on deck. Beth decides to stay and work on the Rose. She ends up getting C-Z-R and wonders if it is an abbreviation of Czar. She takes it next door to a Typex machine. Peggy comes up behind her to ask her what she is doing and Beth tells her to go away. It isn’t long before Beth has English coming out of the machine. She realizes anyone could have read the contents. She takes the message to the mansion and asks to see Commander Travis. The secretary says he isn’t there and won’t be available until midnight. Beth puts the files under her cardigan and takes them out of BP’s gates. She hitched a ride up to Knox’s place, Courns Wood.
62. Mab is at the bus stop with Giles and Peggy. She is still a bit embarrassed about waking up in Giles’ room and has cut back on the gin. Giles asks about Beth and Peggy says she saw her at ISK, but she bit her head off. She doesn’t my understand how she has any friends left or how Mab and Osla could forgive her for Coventry. Mab asks her what she is talking about and Peggy tells her she saw the advance report Beth had decoded from the next desk over. Peggy thought she had apologized after the funeral.
63. Beth barges into the Knox residence and asks to go to Dilly’s office. Mrs. Knox lets her in and leaves her to it without any questions. Beth hide the folder in the safe until she can tell Commander Travis they have a traitor in ISK. The part of the message she was able to decide says there is a source in ISK that is selling secrets. She hugs Mrs. Knox as she leaves. She wants to go directly back to BP, but she feels the oncoming of her period and knows she has to go home first. Osla is in the room when they get there and Beth heads for the sanitary supplies. Mab comes in and strikes Beth.
64. Mab is furious with Beth and fills Osla in on what happened. Osla is also furious. Beth could have found a way to keep them from going to Coventry, but decided to hide behind her oath. Beth makes excuses that it could have compromised BP, but the other two know it isn’t so black and white as Beth makes it seem. The landlady comes to tell Osla and Mab a car has come to take them to BP. They ask Beth if she is coming, but she starts laughing and crying taking about how Dilly. The other girls leave her behind.
65. Osla and Mab are taken directly to Commander Travis’ office and questioned by him and the MI-5 guy about Beth. They ask when they last saw her. When they tell them they just left her, they ask about her emotional state. Mab says she was hysterical and Osla cannot deny it. They ask if she ranted about someone in her ISK group., which they have already talked to the others. They ask about the ending of her relationship with Harry and how the death of Dilly impacted her. They ask if Beth had ever disclosed secrets and Mab admits she did once. With everyone staring her down, Osla cannot lie. She tries to add that Beth never did it again, but the men aren’t listening. They send the girls away. They hear the RAF bombers overhead and know the invasion is starting. Osla runs for her block.
66. When Beth gets to BP, she is met at the gate by the MI-5 guy and another man. They grab her and she tries to fight her way free. She tries to quietly tell them there is a traitor at BP, but they already knew she was going to say that. They get her into the car and inject her with a sedative. When Beth wakes up, she is alone with the driver. He tells her they ran out of gas and the other two went to get some before they continue on their way to Clockwell Sanitarium. He has a secret message for her. She reads that the traitor will get her out of the sanitarium if she tells where the files are she took. The driver pesters her for a yes or no answer. Beth threatens to tell the other man what he is doing, but he burns the letter and points out he has been building credibility with them for the past fiver years as a driver. Beth uses her period blood to distract the driver. When he isn’t paying attention, she swallows the key to Knox’s safe she still had in her pocket. She tells him no. She is quiet the rest of the trip.
67. Osla spends the invasion translating without even a thought of what she is writing out. She is too tired to register that she spoke to the Prime Minister on the telephone. When she gets back to her billet, all of Beth’s things are gone. Mab shows up and tells her Beth is in a sanitarium. She says she is leaving BP to go to the Admiralty in London. Osla tries to wish her well, but Mab rejects it. Osla calls her a bitch and Mab responds by calling her a stupid deb. Osla storms out. She remembers that was the day her job at BP really ended. She has a few memories after (the end of the war, the Japanese surrender), but it was already over.
68. November 11, 1947. The end of the war as celebrated everywhere, including in Clockwell. Beth wondered what would happen to BP once the codebreakers were no longer needed. She thinks on who could have framed her. She is pretty sure it is the person that told Mab about Coventry. The timing was too perfect for it not to be. The traitor was Peggy Rock.
69. At the end of the war, one of the girls working with Mab brought in her son for the day. Mab held him and knew she wanted a baby. She met Mike and thought he would do. As she is getting ready to leave to meet Osla, he is upset that she is lying about where she is going. He feels like she won’t open up and tell him anything let alone get to know her. She always changes the conversation to the twins (Eddie and Lucy) or comes at him with sex. She tries to tell him she will talk to him when he returns, but he doesn’t believe her. She gets in the Bentley and drives to pick up Osla saying she will drive them to Clockwell.
70. Beth sits across from her Go game partner, but the other woman looks like there is nothing going on in her head. Someone calls out that she has a visitor and Beth is taken out to the courtyard. She is surprised to see Giles there and realizes he is the traitor. He has been on the edge the past few years wondering if Beth had figured it out and if she could have told anyone. He says he was feeding information to their allies to prevent them form having unnecessary deaths. He didn’t ask for payment, but they did pay him. He says he is MI-5 now and could become her case worker and have her out if she tells him where the missing files are. She quickly realizes he is still selling information to the Russians even though they are no longer allies, but enemies. He says he had nothing to do with her getting a lobotomy, but he will let it happen if she doesn’t give him what he wants. He tells her the surgery is scheduled for the afternoon after the royal wedding. He will call that day for her answer. She attacks him.
71. Osla is surprised Mab can drive as they make the two hour trek to Clockwell. Mab wonders how they will get in. Osla called up earlier and got one of the matrons to talk to her by spreading some royal wedding gossip. She figures if that doesn’t work, she will start crying to overwhelm the doctor. The try to think of who the informant could be. Mab suspects it is a woman because people usually don’t think them capable of espionage. Osla asks why Mab moved to York. Mab’s husband got a job there and it was a place with no memories. She tells Osla it is best for her not to feel anything for anyone, except for her children, who she can’t help loving.
72. Beth tries to get her gaming partner to remember how they used to play the games, but there is no response. A matron calls out to Beth that she has a special treat. Beth tries to run.
73. Osla and Mab tell the matron they are there to see their sister, Alice Liddell. They are welcomed in and the matron smugly mentions they have come before her surgery. They ask about the procedure and the matron tells them about the planned lobotomy that will calm Beth down. Beth is struggling when she is taken out to the courtyard to meet Osla and Beth. She calms down as soon as she sees them. They sit down and Osla asks who the traitor is. Beth tells them it is Giles and his methods of getting women to trust him by saying he was in love with another woman. They all know Beth is telling the truth. Osla tells them he is her fiancé. Giles had taken Osla to see Glenn Miller and he told her he could help her forget Philip (similar to what he told Mab about Francis). She decided to give it a go and see what all the fuss was about. When he suggested they get married, she again decided to give it a go. When Beth tells them Giles had been there the day before and said he would have a family soon, Osla cringes a bit. Beth asks if Osla believes him, but she believes Beth. Mab tells them about the night she got too drunk and he said she returned her keys. He had taken them and rummaged through files before returning them. Osla says they will go to London to get her out. Beth tells them there isn’t enough time and they need to get her out right away. She has a plan.
74. Mab starts talking to the doctors about what might help improve Beth’s behavior while Osla gets everyone’s attention making up details about he royal wedding. Mab has them open up the gardening shed to show her their tools and then Osla pretends to have a seizure in the grass. The doctors run over to there and Mab is able to grab the side gate keys off the wall. Not knowing which one it is, she takes the three smallest of the hook and replaces the rest. When the orderly goes to lock up the shed again, he doesn’t bother checking inside. As Osla is rushed inside, Mab and Beth follow. Mab is able to get Beth the keys as she insists on taking Osla home to rest. Beth waits patiently for the nurse at the front entrance to sneak away for a cigarette break. When the lobby is empty, Beth sneaks out and makes her way around to the side gate. She tries the first two keys before the red-haired orderly she blew in the closet sees her. She attacks him and bites his check until they both go down. She slams his head against the ground until he passes out. She checks his pulse and feels he is still alive. She tries the third key and the gate opens. She closes it behind her and runs for the road where she told the other girls to meet her. Osla is waiting for her outside the car and Mab is behind the wheel. They get her in the backseat and cover her up. She asks what happened to Boots and Osla tells her the landlady at Aspley Guise (their billet) kept him. Mab asks where they are going. She doesn’t answer, all she knows is that she is coming for Giles.
75. Mab wonders why Giles would associate with the Russians. Beth tells them he thought he was helping the allies. Osla agrees a bit that the Prime Minister was a bit stingy with their information. The girls want to clear Beth’s name as quickly as possible, but they don’t have enough evidence yet. Beth points out she went to the sanitarium for three years because the two of them were mad at her. Mab points out they are there now and ready to help. Beth pulls out the key to Dilly’s safe and says she has to break the Rose Code.
76. They left Clockwell around noon and didn’t end up at BP until well into the night. Beth knocks on the door and Mrs. Knox answers a bit flustered. She lets Beth in and takes her to the library and leaves the girls to it. Beth takes out the key and opens the safe. She shows them the files and what she has been able to crack so far. They don’t have enough to take to MI-5 to prove it was Giles. Osla doesn’t think Giles will be told that Beth has escaped. When she asked him to look into what happened to her, he told her they couldn’t tell him because they had been friends at BP. Osla doesn’t think Giles would tell a lie that didn’t make him look good. They decide they have until the morning of the wedding (one week) to break the rest of the code).
77. November 14, 1947. Mab and Osla watch Beth as she tries to decode the Rose. Osla decides to call Lord Mountbatten to see if he knows anything about where the decoding machines ended up. Beth asks Mab for more coffee and Mab goes to get it knowing there isn’t much else she can do to help. She helps Mrs. Knox with the dishes and Mrs. Knox tells her she is glad Mab found a second love. She says Dilly was her second; her first fiancé died in France during the first war. When Mab leaves the room, she finds Osla on the floor. She knows she should call Giles, but she doesn’t want to hear his voice. Mab takes the coffee to Beth and suggests she calls Harry for another brain to help. Osla says she has to go to London because she and Giles have been summoned by the palace.
78. November 15, 1947. Osla and Giles are invited to luncheon with the royal family. Osla congratulates the queen on her upcoming nuptials and wishes them a lifetime of happiness. After lunch, Princess Margaret asks about her experience with Philip. Osla says she thinks Philip will make a fine husband for the future queen. Osla is dreading what Giles might ask of her as they are leaving the palace. A guard stops them and tells Osla she needs to come back for her gloves. She is taken to a room where Philip is waiting for her. He thank her for what she said to Princess Margaret. Osla tells him he can be the Albert to Elizabeth’s Victoria. He tells her he has come to realize she wasn’t just a secretary during the war. She had a look about her that said she had seen things like some of the men he served with. She tells him MI-5 might tell him when he is the Queen’s consort. He asks her what she is going to do. She tells him she is going to write a satire column for the Tatler before she turns 30. He asks if he can make some calls and help with her goal, but she says she wants to earn it on her own. He gives her his personal number at the palace. When she is escorted back to Giles, she asks if he is the one who has been feeding information to the magazines about her and Philip. He admits it and she decides this is how she is going to get away from him and back to the people that really mattered to her. She starts crying and storms away.
79. Harry arrives and apologizes for not finding Beth. Her mother told him she was dead and he didn’t know any better than to believe her. He tells her he did love her and Beth notices he used the past tense. She tells him she can’t discuss it until they complete the task at hand. He agrees and gets back to work. Osla comes back and tells them her connections weren’t any help in finding a decoding machine. Harry happily greets her. Beth points out the machine will be useless if they don’t get any further in the code. Harry suggests they call in more people. Osla tells them they can’t trust anyone else, but he points out they are running out of time and they need to trust them. Mrs. Knox offers to start making up beds and Osla gives the word to start summoning one last tea party.
80. People they worked at BP come to Courns Wood to help break the code. Peggy is still in the code breaking business working for the Government Communications Headquartrers. She starts calling around about finding a working Enigma machine. Man pulls Beth away from the code for a bit to trim her hair and take care of her. They all start wondering what happened to the bombe machines. Peggy has already asked around and there is one in a repair lab. The lab is shit down until the wedding, so they could use it in privacy until the wedding is over. Someone knows a technician that might be able to get it working. Mab says she can run it. They all say goodbye to Mrs. Knox and make their way to London. They set up in the lab which is in a warehouse in the outskirts of London. They agree they cannot leave the machines alone. Mab and a few of the other women start working on cleaning the old oil out of the drums while they wait for the technician to arrive. When he does, Mab is surprised to find it is her husband, Mike. As he works in the machine, he tells her he was assigned to BP after his plane was shut down. He is surprised they didn’t my meet there. He asks if Francis knew and Mab tells him a little bit about him. She admits she tries not to think about him and has shut down to avoid the pain. They talk a bit about their experiences at BP as they work. She. The machine is ready, they are the only ones left there besides Beth.
81. Mab and Mike leave to get a bit of sleep before they will try to run the machine. Beth agrees to stay with the machine especially since she can’t risk being seen. She makes herself a nest of blankets in the closet. There is a knock at the door and Harry calls out to her. She lets him in and he has Boots with him. She is very grateful to have her dog back. She asks if he’d like to stay. He tells her he feels guilty for believing her mother and not looking for her. She tells Harry that if he wants her or loves her, he should do something about it. They go to the closet and have sex. It is like no time has passed. At three in the morning, they go back to work. Others start to arrive. Harry gives a stack of papers to a man named Ada that makes a bombe menu. Man runs the machines until she has something. A woman named Val puts it into the Enigma machine. When it spits out blocks of five letters in English, Osla grabs it and spits it into proper sentences. Beth looks over her shoulder and sees they have got Giles.
82. Osla makes a call to Giles. She says she forgives him because she cannot go to the wedding without an escort. She offers to pick him up, but he insists on picking her up. They all go to Osla’s apartment and wait for him. When he doesn’t show up, they go to his place. The door is unlocked and the place has been ransacked. They look around and find a newspaper that has Beth’s picture asking for any information for the escaped girl who was last seen in Buckinghamshire. The number provided is an MI-5 number. The realize he must have left, but couldn’t have gotten car with all the wedding traffic. Victoria station is the closest and their best shot.
83. When they get to the station, they decide to check the two trains leaving soonest. Mab and Mike take one, Harry, Beth, and Osla take the other. They look through the crowd frantically trying to find his red hair in the crowd. Mab and Mike head their way after not finding him at the other train. Beth finally sees it for a brief second and starts running towards him. Giles seems to sense she is coming for him and he takes off running. Beth, Osla, and Mab take off after him. Mike and Harry get held up by the crowd. As the girls are losing steam, Osla takes a book from a man’s hand and throws it at Giles. It hits him in the shoulder and slows him down long enough for Mab to grab him. Beth and Osla make sure he can’t get up. Osla takes the ring off her finger and tells him the engagement is off. Someone tries to get Mab away from Giles and Mike punches him. A police man comes along to arrest then all.
84. The entire group was arrested and ends up in cells in a jail. A man is brought in because they told him his wife was in jail. He looks at Osla and says she isn’t his wife. The officer said they assumed she was because she was wearing his jacket. Osla realizes he is JPEC Cornwell. She grabs his collar and pulls him to the bars so she can kiss him. She says she has owes him that since the night he rescued her at the Cafe de Paris. She asks who Ozma of Oz is and he tells her she is the lost princess of Oz from Baum’s books. He recieved her letters when he finally returned to London, but when he tried to write back, the Buckinghamshire address was defunct. The officers tells Cornwell he can leave and Osla she can make her phone call. She tells Cornwell not to leave and goes to make the phone call. She dials Philip’s number and leaves him a message.
85. It is suggested that Giles be sent to a secure prison in Scotland. MI-5 suspects he wasn’t the only traitor. The three girls stand before BP and say their goodbyes. Beth is going to Cambridge to work in the music store for a while. She needs space and a break. Peggy offered her a job working codes again when she is ready. Mab is ready to return to her children for the holidays in York. Osla is dating Cornwell, who will eventually become a lord. She suggests they start back up the Mad Hatter Tea Parties and start suggesting books . They realize they don’t really have much in common (including taste in books), but BP brought them all together as a family. They go their separate ways.
EPILOGUE
In 2014, BP is restored and made into a museum. Mab goes to demonstrate the bombe machine. Kate Middleton is there (Val’s granddaughter) to see what her grandmother did during the war. Osla (Lady Cornwell) died in 1974 and had a book published about it after her death. Beth eventually went to work with Peggy at the GCHQ. When asked about her service at BP, she said it would break her oath to talk about it.