Days Gone By

Operation Silver

March 1944 - War Office, London

Benedict Bridgerton was staring down at the papers in front of him, his eyes going blurry as he looked at the words that were on the paper and reading the details of Operation Mincemeat which was getting underway and his brain was struggling to understand the complex nature of what they were trying to do.

He was having to write a short report for his commanding officer Ian Fleming to present to his boss on how it fit in with Operation Barclay but honestly, over the last 3 months his mind had been elsewhere.

Over Christmas, the officers in the War and Cabinet office had hosted a big party to try and lift morale and they'd invited the secretaries and the Officers to bring their wives on the strict instruction that no work was talked about.

It had been the most magical night of Benedict's life, he'd met a woman but weirdly, he'd never gotten her name.

They'd danced, they'd gone for a walk by the river and talked until the late but his companion had an early start, she'd not told him which office she worked in but he remembered she'd said she worked in the basement with the typists pool but he knew there was several offices down there and Churchill's department was down there and a lot of important members of the War effort and he didn't want to make her late.

But they had not exchanged names and she left before he had a chance to ask her out the following day and he so he was determined to try and find her in the office, he knew he would know his mystery lady in a heartbeat, he remembered her blonde hair and her green eyes, the way his entire body tingled when he'd met her, he's spent most of the night when he got home drawing her.

He was an artist by training and it had only been the War that had caused him to give it up. Anthony had been called up to serve as had he, given their ages but his analytical brain and his attention to details were what had made the Army decide his talents were better suited in the intelligence office to that in the field. Anthony had requested to be sent abroad to serve knowing he would hate an office job, it was why he along with his best friend were sent to France to work as Scouts and other duties.

So Benedict was acting as head of the family whilst Anthony was away and his mother was writing to him regularly and he was able to pass on news of Anthony who was in France acting as a Scout and he was sending his wages home to help with his younger siblings.

Two years they had been away serving in the Army and it was only a matter of a year before Colin would be called up if the war didn't end soon.

Their father had died 4 years earlier, just a month before their youngest sister was born, he had been 16 and Anthony was 17 about to turn 18 and there was a large weight on their shoulders and a large family to support so when the notice came, they went to serve.

Benedict was the one who would go home every few months to see their family whilst Anthony was away.

But the day after the Officer's Party, Benedict had wandered around the War Office like a lost puppy looking for his mystery lady. He hadn't been able to get down into the typists pool, but he'd heard from his ex-girlfriend Tessa that there wasn't anyone with light blonde hair in there, there was a brunette with green eyes and it left Benedict baffled and determined to find her but as time went on, he was getting more and more desolate that he wasn't able to find her.

He'd had to start to wonder if perhaps he'd met an Officers wife... or sister but those he knew, no one knew who he was talking about but they had remembered a woman in a silver dress but every man he'd asked had a slightly different description to what they remembered and all it did was left him befuddled.