The Women Spies Series 1-3

by Sergeant, Kit

  “No.”

  Now Didi knew Jackie was hiding something—it wasn’t like her sister to give one-word answers. “Why would they hire you for a job any English girl could do?”

  Jackie cast her eyes around the empty room. “Okay, as it turns out, I’ll be working with a brand-new organization. The SOE.”

  “What does that stand for?”

  “Special Operations Executive.” The pride was obvious in Jackie’s voice. “The French section. They wanted me because I grew up in France and can speak the language fluently. The FANY driver thing is just a cover.”

  “A cover for what? What work will you be doing?” Her eyes widened as a thought occurred to her. “Are they sending you back to France to be a spy?”

  “Listen,” Jackie put a hand on Didi’s arm. “I’ve already told you too much. I promised Captain Jepson I wouldn’t say anything about this to anyone.”

  “What about me?” Didi asked. “Did you tell them you had a sister who also speaks French?”

  “Of course,” Jackie replied distractedly. “Now I have to figure out what I’m going to wear to my first training session.”

  Finally, a month after Jackie’s interview, Didi received her own meeting request from Captain Jepson. She too put on her best dress and, after placing her gas mask in her purse, set off for the address given in the letter, which turned out to be a sparse room in the Victoria Hotel.

  With his beautifully-cut gray suit and groomed salt-and-pepper hair, Captain Jepson looked nothing like a military recruiter. After asking Didi to sit in the lone chair opposite his desk, he started by telling her his task was to recruit women for the SOE.

  “Why women?” Didi asked.

  “In my opinion, women are much more suited for this type of position than men. Women have a far greater capacity for a cool and lonely courage.”

  It didn’t take Didi long to realize her suspicions about her sister working for an espionage unit had been correct. “I would like to be considered for the same sort of thing that Jackie is doing.”

  His gaze traveled from her jaunty hat to her sensible-heeled shoes. “I think you might be a bit young to be an agent.”

  “I’m nearly twenty-two, and only four years younger than Jackie.”

  He nodded before picking up a paper. “Your full name is Eileen Mary. Where did Didi come from?”

  She shrugged. “The family legend is that Jackie had a hard time saying ‘Eileen.’ Didi rolled off the tongue easier, so Didi I became.”

  “And are there other Nearne children?”

  “I have two brothers. My middle brother, Frederick, is in the Royal Air Force.”

  “You are the baby of the family.” Jepson made a mark on the paper in front of him. “Your father is a doctor, so the family is obviously well-off, and you were educated in a Catholic school.”

  The finality in his voice, as if he’d already rejected her, made Didi’s heart beat faster. “When the Nazis came, we were forced from our home. They told us we were ‘enemies of the state,’ even my mother, who was born in France, because she married an Englishman. They confiscated most of our possessions, so we are no longer considered, as you put it, ‘well-off.’ Jackie and I had to learn to chop firewood, cook, and clean.”

  “Why do you want to go back to France now so soon after leaving?”

  “Both Jackie and I want to do something to fight Germany. That’s why we came here to England in the first place.” Didi could tell she was losing the battle. She spread her arms out. “Look, I can keep my own company. Should the need arise, I can work all alone. I can do anything you ask. I just want to be able to do something for the war. Even a little thing.”

  “Some little thing.” Jepson made another mark on the paper with his pen before settling his gaze back to her. “You seem to be a bright young woman, though you’ve also led a sheltered life. I’m not sure you are ready to be a field agent, but perhaps we can start you as a wireless operator or a decoder.”

  She folded her arms across her chest. While she was disappointed that she wouldn’t be heading back to France as an SOE operative any time soon, Jepson hadn’t completely refused her. “I’d prefer to learn how to work a wireless.” She figured the training for that line of work would be the most beneficial when she finally convinced Jepson to put her in the field.

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