The good thing about the aristocracy – German or English – was that they were easily traced, Mirabelle thought.

Covert operations relied on the unguarded slip, the unconscious choosing of one word over another.

She tried to focus on the element of riddle or at least puzzle contained in the letter and ignore the sense of doom that was sweeping through her like clouds rolling to the shore over open water.


People responded to body language without even thinking. It was important to get it absolutely right.