The Whalebone Theatre

March 1944

Cristabel again parachutes into France. Her new organizer’s code name is Antoine. Antoine reveals that they are short on agents and impatient for the Allies to arrive. He explains that the circuit’s wireless operator has no time to sleep and keeps herself awake with uppers. Cristabel discovers that the wireless operator is Sophie Leray. Sophie lives in a remote cottage and is posing as a district nurse.

On one occasion, Cristabel and Antoine attend a drop as one of the French president’s men is parachuted in with supplies. Their job is to transport him to a safe house. However, once on the train, the Frenchman is apprehended by German officers. To escape capture, Cristabel opens the train window and jumps out, injuring her ankle in the process. She painfully makes her way to Sophie’s cottage, but when she approaches the house, she sees that Sophie’s door is damaged and hanging open. Cristabel crawls away.

Cristabel pays a boy with a horse and cart to take her to a safe house near Rouen. From there, she is collected by a French doctor in a car. When Germans stop the doctor, he claims that Cristabel is a patient who has tuberculosis. The doctor takes Cristabel to his remote house in the countryside and introduces himself as Édouard. His Polish wife is named Wanda, and they have a young daughter named Annick. The couple hides Cristabel in the attic while she recovers. Édouard soon discovers that a local informant exposed Sophie and Antoine, who have been taken to Fresnes—a notorious prison in Paris where agents and members of the Resistance are interrogated. Édouard and Wanda reveal that they have not seen their son since he was caught distributing Resistance leaflets at school.

Édouard and Wanda treat Cristabel like a family member, and she stays with them until May. They are shocked to learn that she has not read Madame Bovary. When Cristabel dismisses romantic novels as “frivolous,” they argue that passion is vital to life, and this observation makes Cristabel think of Leon. While she recovers, Cristabel trains local members of the Resistance to use weapons. She also teaches them new methods to frustrate the enemy, such as cutting telegraph lines and blocking roads. One day, Cristabel hears on the radio that the Allies are about to invade.

May 1944

American troops are posted at Chilcombe, and Flossie permits them to use the lawns as a recreational area. George, a Navy chaplain, asks Flossie to host a musical evening with her gramophone to boost the troops’ morale. Flossie improvises, collecting cushions and bedding for the men to sit on and turning an old theatrical costume into an evening gown. The concerts soon become a regular event. Eventually, the troops are ready to depart for France. On their last evening at Chilcombe, George asks Flossie to keep his records safe until he returns.

June 1944

In Weymouth, Madame Camille (the psychic whom Jasper once consulted years ago) watches American troops boarding their ships. Many of the men have visited her, and she arranged her deck of cards so that images suggesting victory are close to the top of the pack. However, she notes that other, more ominous cards emerge as if of their own volition.

Maudie sits on a roof and looks at her diary. She has kept a list of the men of differing nationalities she has slept with. Maudie adds another entry for Warren, a Black American soldier who told her about the discrimination he suffers in his country. Maudie falls asleep naked and wakes to see many aircraft crossing the sky at once.

July 1944

Cristabel acts as a translator for recently arrived American soldiers. She agrees to go to Paris and collect information on their behalf. Édouard drives Cristabel to Paris, insisting that she take his copy of Madame Bovary. Once there, Cristabel meets a glamorous German American named Lieselotte de Brienne, a wealthy salon hostess who also works for the American secret services. Lieselotte is delighted to learn that Cristabel directed plays before the war. She insists that they attend a new production of Antigone at the Théâtre de l’Atelier. They soon meet an influential member of the Nazi party, Herr Schulte, who promises to buy them tickets. Cristabel spends her days surveying the locations of German troops, while Lieselotte passes the information to the Americans.

July 1944

Cristabel recognizes the address where Mademoiselle Aubert said that her mother lived. She suspects that Digby may have contacted Madame Aubert while in Paris. A local woman tells her that Madame Aubert is a traitor and now lives in a more luxurious area. The woman gives Cristabel the new address, which is close to Gestapo headquarters. Cristabel finds Madame Aubert and introduces herself as Claudine Beauchamp. Pretending to be a Nazi sympathizer, she asks if Madame Aubert can help her find accommodations. The Frenchwoman gives Cristabel the key to a vacant apartment on the same street. She also reveals that an Englishman whose family employed her daughter lived in the apartment block for a while.

At the apartment, Cristabel meets an SS officer who also needs admittance. The officer asks Cristabel various questions while she pretends to look around. When Cristabel claims to be a student, he becomes suspicious, wondering how she can afford such an expensive apartment. The officer asks to check Cristabel’s papers and the contents of her bag. Cristabel knows that she will be arrested if he sees her notebook, which contains information that she has collected about the German forces. She hits the officer with a paperweight and climbs onto his back, stabbing him to death. Afterward, she strips off the dead officer’s uniform and heaves him out the apartment window, letting his body land in a pile of rubbish. She then cleans up the apartment and takes away the German officer’s clothes in a suitcase. She wears a stolen jacket to cover her bloodstained dress.

July 1944

Cristabel tells Lieselotte that she “took unnecessary risks” and now needs a new identity (468). Horrified at having taken a life, she questions whether the information she has collected for the Americans is worth such a sacrifice. Lieselotte insists that Cristabel must come to the theatre that evening as planned.

She then questions Cristabel about the Whalebone Theatre, arguing that she should take her productions more seriously. Lieselotte suggests advertising the productions and employing professional actors. Lieselotte explains how difficult it is to stage a play in Paris, as there is no lighting or money for such an endeavor, and the Germans censor the content. Nevertheless, theatre productions continue. The current production of Antigone has received mixed reviews. Some audience members believe that it is pro-Fascist, while others are certain that it celebrates the Resistance. At the end of the performance, Cristabel sees two stagehands tidying the stage. After saying goodbye to Lieselotte, she waits at the stage door and follows one of the stagehands when he emerges. The man vanishes and then appears behind Cristabel, addressing her by name.

July 1944

The stagehand is Digby. He is now going by the name of Denis and is delighted to see Cristabel. He takes her to his apartment, which he shares with a Resistance leader named Jean-Marc. Cristabel feels inhibited by the presence of Digby’s friend and wishes that she could talk with Digby alone. She notes that Digby talks as if he and Jean-Marc were a couple, and she feels excluded. Digby explains that he has not contacted the SOE because the organization has been dishonest with its undercover agents. He claims that the SOE deliberately gave agents misinformation in order to mislead the Germans. As a result, many of his friends in the French Resistance have been killed or imprisoned. Digby declares that he would rather fight the war from France than return to England. Cristabel warns Digby that it is dangerous to remain where he is and describes her killing of the SS officer in Madame Aubert’s apartment.

The next day, Digby arranges for Cristabel to meet the theatre carpenter who works in Fresnes prison. The carpenter recognizes Cristabel’s description of Sophie and confirms that she is still alive. However, he has not seen Antoine. Cristabel asks the carpenter to tell Sophie that she is nearby.

August 1944

Lieselotte gives Cristabel new identity papers and the address of a vacant apartment. Digby joins Cristabel in the apartment, which is located on an island in the middle of the Seine. Digby describes how people have tried to stop him from being himself all his life. He was discouraged from reading fiction at boarding school, and Willoughby told him to give up acting. He thanks Cristabel for being a strong role model and for helping him to express his true identity. Digby insists that he does not want to return to England or inherit Chilcombe. Cristabel tells Digby that if she reopens the theatre, she wants to tell old stories in new ways. She has an idea for reinterpreting The Tempest from Caliban’s viewpoint.

Cristabel receives news that the Fresnes prisoners are being transported out of Paris by train. At the station, cattle wagons containing the prisoners are guarded by armed German soldiers. A crowd of women plead with the officers and try to pass food to the prisoners in the wagons. As the train leaves, Cristabel spots Sophie inside a wagon. She picks up the notes that the prisoners have thrown onto the platform and returns to the apartment. Digby guesses that the prisoners are being transported to German camps for prisoners of war.

Cristabel distributes the notes from the station to any names and addresses provided. Most are words of farewell. As Allied troops approach Paris to liberate the city, many Germans leave, and there is an air of celebration. One day, Digby leaves the apartment with a pistol, telling Cristabel that the Resistance is planning to occupy the police headquarters. Jean-Marc returns with a gun for Cristabel, and they head to the police headquarters together.

As they approach the building, Jean-Marc is shot. Cristabel shields him from further gunfire and shoots at the German soldiers, but she fails to notice snipers on a nearby rooftop. Digby runs out to save her and is also shot. Both men are taken to the hospital. Jean-Marc survives, but nothing can be done for Digby. Cristabel holds Digby’s hand and tells him that he was the brother she always wished for as a girl. When Digby dies, Cristabel tells the medical staff that his name is Denis.

September 1944

Flossie is distraught upon learning of Digby’s death. She stays in bed until Maudie returns from Weymouth and reads out letters from Digby’s friends, who recall his bravery and generosity of spirit. Flossie replies to the correspondence and begins working on the vegetable garden again. Cristabel soon returns to Chilcombe. She tells Flossie that after Digby died, she continued to fight with the Resistance alongside Jean-Marc. She chooses not to reveal that she spent her nights with Leon when she returned to London. Flossie intends to return to the WLA, and Cristabel decides to return to London. Cristabel calls in to the SOE’s headquarters to ask if there is any news of Sophie, but Perry explains that it is difficult to investigate because they cannot officially admit that women were used as secret agents.

Chilcombe stands empty. The phone rings, but there is no one to answer it. Among the unread post accumulating in the hall are letters from a military chaplain.

October 1944

Cristabel, Flossie, and the Brewers return to Chilcombe to prepare the house for its first lodgers. Betty disapproves, talking nostalgically about the house’s grandeur when Rosalind was the lady of the manor. However, Flossie is unmoved, for she recalls seeing her mother drunk and undignified at one of her parties. Cristabel finds it painful to be in the house that is full of memories of Digby. She declares that she will move into the cottage and work on the theatre. Flossie reads a letter from George, which reveals that he has been injured by shrapnel. Maudie offers to travel to Ireland to break the news of Digby’s death to Willoughby. One month later, Maudie is on the ferry to Ireland. She takes her maid’s uniform from her suitcase and throws it into the sea.

Maudie telegrams Flossie and Cristabel to say that she has located Willoughby. Shortly afterward, Willoughby sends a postcard stating that Maudie has the makings of “an admirable co-pilot” (538). By May 1945, lodgers have moved into Chilcombe. A widow with four children lives in the attic. George and Flossie are now a couple and take care of the estate’s business interests together. Cristabel has built tiered seating at The Whalebone Theatre, and Pathé News is making a documentary about her work. Cristabel’s new play celebrates the war’s end, opening with “a victory pageant” (533) performed by local children. The production incorporates “creatures that eat people” (534) and is loosely based on The Tempest.

On the night of the play’s first performance, Leon calls Cristabel on his way to Germany with Perry. Cristabel has seen reports of the horrors of the Holocaust that the Allies are discovering there. George finds a wooden sword and presents it to Cristabel when he learns that she is “its rightful owner” (537). Cristabel gives the sword to the mother of one of the performing children. The audience arrives, and the performance starts.

Cristabel writes to Digby, describing how she loved him even before his birth. She plans to accommodate drama students at Chilcombe and eventually turn the house into an education center. Cristabel reveals that Flossie, George, and their sons are visiting the next day to celebrate her birthday. However, Édouard and Wanda cannot visit this year, as their son has just become a father. Leon is also unavailable but has promised to invite her to see his new boat soon. Cristabel shares a recurring dream in which she is about to parachute out of a plane. She is not afraid because she knows that Digby is waiting for her.