Rooney was obviously not her real name 

As Mark Anthony was not my real name 

These were our passwords 

Rooney was a Dutch woman of about thirty years

Her features were a little unusual as she was pleasant to look at but had rather large teeth 

These gave her a rather alarming look when she smiled 

She told me that all her family resembled her 

But what was important was that she spoke fluent German 

Which was as important as my fluent French 

We were both due to attend the wedding of a high ranking German officer in Utrecht 

Rooney and I were posing as the cousins Valmont who were both art historians 

That was partially why we had been invited as we were going to value looted paintings 

What to keep and put on the train and what to leave in place 

However our real mission was to meet Enobarbus who was to pass us secret papers so important that they might seriously shorten the war 

Our mission had been a disaster from the first day as the original crew of the plane that we had been scheduled to travel on had been lost on a previous mission and the replacement crew had through lack of experience flown into heavy fire which forced us to land on mud flats not far from the sea on the Dutch coast 

In a change of plan Enobarbus had met us in a small village not far from the crash site but had been unable to bring the papers with him as they had yet to be stolen which was the plan as the theft would go unnoticed during the wedding celebrations 

It was a mess but we decided to go on 

We had also lost contact with London 

The first part of the mission had been a success as I had the Domino Papers sewn into the lining of my raincoat 

Enobarbus had left us in a hotel where we were due to meet the officer in charge of the removal of the paintings

But he had been delayed by bombings elsewhere 

Rooney said that we should split up as being Dutch she would be less likely to attract attention and my knowledge of art history was superior to hers 

I disagreed noting that if I was either killed or captured then she knew where I had hidden the papers 

That is why we were in a hotel about an hour from Amsterdam

The wedding had taken place without a hitch and as planned Enobarbus had stolen the papers 

But we were living on borrowed time as the net would tighten considerably when the crime was uncovered 

We had been booked into separate rooms but often spent time in each others rooms as if our tedious behaviours changed we might arouse suspicion 

A romantic attachment pure and chaste seemed to be an option 

But this was just to kill the days before we met the German officer 

London had been contacted at last but we would have to make our own way to the coast in order to be picked up and there was talk of a paid traitor that neither of us could ignore

Rooney had been reading La Joie De Vivre by Emile Zola and we discussed this rather sunny book at length during silent afternoons 

The novel centres around a ten year old girl called Pauline Quenu who is an orphan and is found living with her late fathers relatives in a seaside village called Bonneville which is about ten kilometres from Arromanches-les-Bains in Normandy 

This interested me as I used to summer there before the war 

Pauline is a happy child full of optimism and has an open heart 

She was a million miles away from out present imprisonment 

But the household is not a happy one as there is much illness and resentment in the house and this manifests itself in the son of the house Lazare who is much taken by the writings of Schopenhauer 

He is she feels saturated in the pessimism of the philosopher 

A number of years pass without Pauline’s sunny disposition being disturbed 

Lazare’s mother after a series of failed schemes borrows with Pauline’s full acceptance amounts of money from her inheritance 

Scheme after scheme fails and the coastal village is slowly being swallowed up by the sea

Yet Pauline loves the family and this extends also to the village itself as she provides money and food for the village poor 

Even though it is obvious that they and her family are manipulating her 

For some reason Lazare’s mother begins to hate Pauline blaming her for a series of ills 

But Pauline ignores this and agrees to become engaged to Lazare 

She is aware of the ulterior motives but chooses to ignore them 

But the engagement does not run its course as Pauline releases Lazare from this arrangement so that Lazare can marry a rich bankers daughter 

She does not resent this change of plan as she plans to enjoy her cousins continuing friendship

Later in the book the bankers daughter gives birth to a stillborn child but Pauline saves its life by breathing her life into the infants lungs 

Happily the child enjoys ongoing good health from then on 

Pauline however discovers that most of her inheritance has been squandered by the greedy family and her own altruism but still retains her sunny view of life 

The village is fading into the waves as nothing is being sensibly done to prevent its erosion and the novel ends with the suicide of a  family servant and the disgust that this action brings to Lazare’s mother who sees her fight against the misery of life as a joy in the face of total misery 

I will not go into depth but our mission was a success but we lost Enobarbus as he was betrayed and subsequently executed 

The officer who we were due to meet was also killed in an air raid 

So heavily disguised we made our way to the coast posing not as art historians but as ordinary farmworkers 

This ruse did not last long and we were involved in a firefight when we were challenged by a German patrol 

We were both lightly wounded and captured but to our great surprise we were released by the officer in charge (or rather we were left in field) as he was sick of the war and he and his remaining soldiers just wanted to fade into the confusion of the conflict and hopefully survive 

This he did and I do correspond with him still as we have become good friends

It was his totally unexpected decision that enabled our mission to succeed 

He should have had us shot but he released us even though we had been responsible for the deaths of some of his command

And yes the Domino Papers did help to shorten the war 

Rooney went back to her country after the war and now is a politician who is much respected by her colleagues

I returned to my profession of an Art Historian married and had two boys who we named Mark and Anthony for obvious reasons 

My wartime experiences are well known but I speak little of them as too many people died 

Rooney and I were the lucky ones 

Incidentally my wife is also called Pauline and has a similar sunny disposition as the character in Zola’s novel 

She actually comes from Normandy and is Anglo-French 

Pauline served as a nurse in London which is where I met her as my wounds took a while to heal