“Let’s go,” Eduardo whispered, getting the men to their feet. He led them to the start of the bridge—a sagging sling with rope sides and a wooden-slat floor, through which the rushing white river could be seen in strips. Several of the slats were missing. The bridge blew side to side in the wind and made a whining, creaking sound.
Isabelle looked at the men, most of whom were pale as ghosts.
“One step at a time,” Eduardo said. “The slats look weak but they’ll hold your weight. You have sixty seconds to cross—that’s the amount of time between the searchlights. As soon as you get to the other side, drop to your knees and crawl beneath the window of the guardhouse.”
“You’ve done this before, right?” Teddy said, his voice breaking on “before.”
“Plenty of times, Teddy,” Isabelle lied. “And if a girl can do it, a strapping pilot like you will have no problem at all. Right?”
He nodded. “You bet your arse.”
Isabelle watched Eduardo cross. When he was on the other side, she gathered the airmen close. One by one, counting off in sixty-second intervals, she guided them onto the rope bridge and watched them cross, holding her breath and fisting her hands until each man landed on the opposite shore.
Finally it was her turn. She pushed the sodden hood off her head, waiting for the light to scrape past her and keep going. The bridge looked flimsy and unsound. But it had held the men’s weight; it would hold hers.
She clutched the rope sides and stepped onto the first plank. The bridge swung around her, dipped right and left. She glanced down and saw strips of raging white waters one hundred feet below. Gritting her teeth, she moved steadily forward, stepping from plank to plank to plank until she was on the other side, where she immediately dropped to her knees. The searchlight passed above her. She scrambled forward and up the embankment and into the bushes on the other side, where the airmen were crouched beside Eduardo.
Eduardo led them to a hidden hillock of land and finally let them sleep.
When the sun rose again, Isabelle blinked dully awake.
“It’s not s’ bad here,” Torry whispered beside her.
Isabelle looked around, bleary-eyed. They were in a gully above a dirt road, hidden by a stand of trees.
Eduardo handed them wine. His smile was as bright as the sun that shone in her eyes. “There,” he said, pointing to a young woman on a bicycle not far away. Behind her, a town glinted ivory in the sunlight; it looked like something out of a children’s picture book, full of turrets and clock towers and church spires. “Almadora will take you to the consulate in San Sebastián. Welcome to Spain.”
Isabelle instantly forgot the struggle it had taken to get here, and the fear that accompanied her every step. “Thank you, Eduardo.”
“It won’t be so easy next time,” he said.
“It wasn’t easy this time,” she said.
“They didn’t expect us. Soon, they will.”
He was right, of course. They hadn’t had to hide from German patrols or disguise their scents from dogs, and the Spanish sentinels were relaxed.
“But when you come back again, with more pilots, I’ll be here,” he promised.
She nodded her gratitude and turned to the men around her, who looked as exhausted as she felt. “Come on, men, off we go.”
Isabelle and the men staggered down the road toward a young woman who stood beside a rusted old bicycle. After the false introductions were made, Almadora led them down a maze of dirt roads and back alleys; miles passed until they stood outside an elaborate caramel-hued building in Parte Viejo—the old section of San Sebastián. Isabelle could hear the crashing of distant waves against a seawall.
“Merci,” Isabelle said to the girl.
“De nada.”
Isabelle looked up at the glossy black door. “Come on, men,” she said, striding up the stone steps. At the door, she knocked hard, three times, and then rang the bell. When a man in a crisp black suit answered, she said, “I am here to see the British consul.”
“Is he expecting you?”
“No.”
“Mademoiselle, the consul is a busy—”
“I’ve brought four RAF pilots with me from Paris.”
The man’s eyes bulged a bit.
MacLeish stepped forward. “Lieutenant Torrance MacLeish. RAF.”
The other men followed suit, standing shoulder to shoulder as they introduced themselves.
The door opened. Within a matter of moments, Isabelle found herself seated on an uncomfortable leather chair, facing a tired-looking man across a large desk. The airmen stood at attention behind her.
“I brought you four downed airmen from Paris,” Isabelle said proudly. “We took the train south and then walked across the Pyrenees—”
“You walked?”
“Well, perhaps hiked is a more accurate word.”
“You hiked over the Pyrenees from France and into Spain.” He sat back in his chair, all traces of a smile gone.
“I can do it again, too. With the increased RAF bombings, there are going to be more downed airmen. To save them, we will need financial help. Money for clothes and papers and food. And something for the people we enlist to shelter us along the way.”
“You’ll want to ring up MI9,” MacLeish said. “They’ll pay whatever Juliette’s group needs.”
The man shook his head, made a tsking sound. “A girl leading pilots across the Pyrenees. Will wonders never cease?”
MacLeish grinned at Isabelle. “A wonder indeed, sir. I told her the very same thing.”