The Rose Code

Mab is reassigned to Hut 11 to operate a bombe machine, which is designed to speed up the codebreaking process by discovering some of the settings used by the German encoding machines, called Enigmas. The bombes are large, unwieldy, and noisy.

Mab sits at the lake during her break and Francis appears, visiting from the Foreign Office in London, where he works. Forgetting his name, Mab speaks poorly of Francis Gray’s World War I poetry, which the Mad Hatters are discussing that month. Only after setting a date with Mab does Francis reveal himself as the “mediocre poet” in question.

An increase in coded messages from the Mediterranean region leads Beth to seek help from Hut 8, whose head sends Harry. Over the next few days, Dilly’s team works tirelessly to learn all they can about an upcoming operation. Harry compliments Beth on her work before leaving to visit his wife and son. Just before the operation, Dilly gathers and translates their work, revealing Italian battle plans, which Beth runs up to the mansion for immediate transmission.

On her way home, Beth picks up a stray dog, which she takes home and feeds despite Mrs. Finch’s objections.

In November 1947, within the psychiatric hospital, Beth is troubled to learn that the doctors plan to perform a lobotomy on her, though she is unfamiliar with the term.

Arriving in York, where Mab lives, Osla calls Mab and asks her to meet at a tea shop the next day.

In April 1941, Mab and Francis dine at an Indian restaurant. Mab tries to make conversation but receives only minimal responses from Francis, who admits that he doesn’t like to talk about himself or his poetry. After Mab scolds him, he participates more actively in the conversation, expressing his cynical outlook that war is cyclical, and civilization is only an “illusion.”

Osla writes a letter to a J. Cornwell, offering to return his coat in person. Tired of secretarial work, she requests and is granted a transfer to a translation position.

Harry hosts a Mad Hatters Tea Party meeting in his home, where the members meet his wife, Sheila, and his three-year-old son, Christopher, who has polio. Osla notices that Beth has a crush on Harry.

Thanks to the intelligence decoded by Dilly’s section, Allied forces enjoy a significant victory in the Battle of Cape Matapan. Dilly celebrates by writing poetry in tribute to the women of his section, and an admiral personally thanks them.

One night, Osla and Mab invite Beth to a dance in Bedford, and she accepts. Over her objections, they give her a makeover. At the dance, she sits near the wall until Harry appears. Wanting to discuss cryptanalysis techniques, they dance together, putting their heads close to avoid being overheard.

In November 1947, Beth provides sexual favors to a staff member in exchange for information. He tells her a lobotomy is a head surgery designed to “fix” problematic patients.

In York, Mab tends to her children and wonders whether she should risk her happy family life to help Beth.

In May 1941, after returning from the dance, Mab and Osla warn Beth against pursuing a relationship with Harry. When Beth says that she doesn’t know about sex, Osla admits that she doesn’t know much either, since she was raised primarily by servants. Mab explains intercourse and contraception to them, then presses Osla for details on her relationship with Philip.

Mab continues to see Francis but struggles to understand his personality. During a shift at BP, she recalls her relationship as a 17-year-old with Geoffrey Irving, a university student who flattered Mab into thinking they were in love. Initially, Mab enjoyed the sexual relationship. When Mab went for a car ride with Geoffrey and two of his friends, she realized that they intended to take turns raping her, and she fought back. They abandoned her, forcing her to make a four-hour walk home. Afterwards, Mab decided to go by Mab instead of Mabel, after Queen Mab, the queen of dreams in William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.

Following the success in Matapan, Dilly’s section is reassigned to work on the Abwehr Enigma messages used by the German intelligence network, which are more complicated than the Italian messages. Walking home after a shift, Beth runs into Harry at the chemist’s shop where he gets medicine for Christopher. When the woman at the shop reprimands Harry for not enlisting in the military, he storms out. Going after him, Beth distracts him with questions about decoding the new cipher.

In June, Osla arranges to meet Philip, who is on leave, at Euston station in London. After momentary awkwardness, she greets him with a kiss. Before they leave the station, air-raid alarms go off. They spend the night cuddling, talking, and dozing in the station before Osla catches a train back to Bletchley. She continues to visit Philip over the next few months as he studies for rank advancement exams.

In September 1941, Prime Minister Winston Churchill tours BP. After hurrying back to her hut from a game of rounders on the lawn, Mab demonstrates how to operate the bombe machines to Churchill, who is impressed. At the conclusion of his tour, Churchill gives a short, inspiring speech comparing BP’s workers to “geese who lay precious golden eggs, but never cackle!” (235).

Mab is surprised to run into Francis, who was assigned as a driver in Churchill’s party. Retrieving her hat from a tree where she hung it during the game, she tells him that stylish hats are good for women’s morale. Suddenly, Francis asks her to marry him. Despite feeling that she doesn’t know him very well, Mab accepts, and they plan to marry as soon as Francis returns from an upcoming assignment in the United States.

Over the next few months, Dilly’s team struggles to break the German Enigma code, which would allow them to determine whether the Germans believe the intelligence the English military deliberately leaks to them. Obsessed, Beth hardly sleeps at night. In December, Dilly’s team finally breaks through on the day that the United States joins the war. Relieved and exhausted, Beth staggers home with Osla and Mab to find that her mother threw out her dog, Boots, after he urinated on the floor.

After locating Boots with Mab and Osla’s help, Beth confronts her mother, asserting her independence. When Beth’s mother refuses to let Boots stay beyond one more night, Beth, Mab, and Osla leave, taking their luggage with them.

Beth, Mab, and Osla take a train to London, where Philip gives them a ride to Osla’s mother’s vacant apartment. There, Mab meets Francis for the first time since his trip to America. On a whim, they decide to marry the next day, before Francis has to leave again. Osla takes over planning clothing, food, and transportation.