One day in September 1942, Virginia checked her letter box in Lyon and found an unsigned note indicating that Alex, a Resistance member, and two of his colleagues, Fabian and Justin, had been arrested. Virginia immediately went to the local prison to make inquiries, but the guard at the gate denied knowing anything about the matter.

A contact Virginia referred to as Pompey confirmed that the men were in prison and he promised to learn what the charges were against them. Virginia noted, however, that Pompey “wasn’t very active so far as help was concerned, nor did he tell me how or why they were arrested.”

Virginia was ultimately able to determine what happened to the men. A nervous Justin was left alone in a café and instantly drew the attention of a police inspector, who asked what his business was in the area. The inspector was not satisfied with the answers and searched the contents of Justin’s pockets. The money he was carrying looked suspiciously new, and the inspector assumed that Justin was an agent who had come from England or Germany. When Justin’s two companions stopped by, the inspector detained them as well and took all three men to the police station.

Adding to the police’s suspicions, Fabian and Alex had identity cards from different towns but made out in the same handwriting. Still, there were individuals sympathetic to the Resistance at the police station who allowed the men to burn a few of their notes and papers, as well as conceal some of their other incriminating possessions. As Virginia noted, “the result is that all three were held but that there was no serious charge against them.”

Alex and Fabian were ultimately sent to Castres, in southern France, and Justin was placed in a camp not far from Toulouse. Virginia supported them making an escape attempt by providing the men with instructions and money. However, Pompey got wind of the proposed escape and asked that the attempt be delayed by several weeks. Virginia complied with his request. After two weeks of captivity, the effort to release them finally went forward. She expressed concern, however, that the two men in Castres would be sent to separate camps, which would make their escape more complicated.

Two sympathetic French policemen came to see Virginia, who informed her that they would engineer an escape for Alex and his companions in early October. One would be placed in the country and the other two would enter a clinic while they awaited a small boat or some other means of escape. Virginia promised one of the security men that if he was able to successfully arrange this escape, she would help him get to England. Virginia also agreed to Pompey’s request to send the men out of France after their escape.

In addition, Pompey was insistent that Virginia help a young friend of his to leave France and escape into Spain. Pompey told Virginia that the young man was going on a mission to Spain and would return to France. Virginia, however, suspected that the young man, married to an Englishwoman and the father of two young boys, actually wanted to travel on to England. In addition, the young man only spoke English and French. Despite Virginia’s mistrust of Pompey, she stated that “I felt that I had to throw a bone to the lion.” She made the travel arrangements as a favor to Pompey. But she asked London to inform her if the man did, in fact, arrive there. “Let me know, because it is always nice to know how much people are lying to one.”

It’s unclear what became of these individuals. But that was often the case dealing with escapees. One did one’s best for them and hoped things would ultimately work out.

In the first week of October, Virginia stated that she was moving to an apartment on the sixth floor of a building. The building didn’t have an elevator, undoubtedly making it somewhat challenging for Virginia, who had to make the climb with her artificial leg. She complained that “somebody has been a dope and given my name and address away and I am getting astounding personages here who want to go to England.”

Not only did Virginia not know some of the people coming to her home, she did not know the people who referred them to her. But she was determined to do whatever she could for people in need. One of the British agents Virginia assisted observed, “If you sit in her kitchen long enough, you will see most people pass through with one sort of trouble or other, which she promptly deals with.”

While generally cautious, Virginia’s willingness to perform her mission sometimes led others to question her operational security. For example, one British agent visited her apartment at a time when it was a major rendezvous for SOE agents. He “found the entire passage-way absolutely dripping with aerial [radio antenna], well over 70 ft. of it. It was such a blatant announcement of the agent’s activities” that the agent “left immediately and never returned.”

Virginia was aware that her address in Lyon had been provided to the pro-Nazi Vichy authorities. While her name had not been provided to them, she realized that “it wouldn’t be hard to guess.” Her personal security was increasingly at risk. As the Gestapo became aware of Virginia and her activities, they issued a frightening edict: “The woman who limps is one of the most dangerous Allied agents in France. We must find and destroy her.”

Virginia knew her luck was running out, and she needed to do something about it. She wrote London: “… I think my time is about up and request that you arrange a Clipper [airplane] passage for me for the end of October—real or fake—to permit me to get in my visas and clear out if necessary.” As a security precaution, she added that she was “trying to see no one at my flat for the time being.”

Virginia informed London that a particular Resistance leader had left Lyon. He considered himself the head of Le Coq enchaîné, a French Resistance group in the Lyon area. But Virginia reported that the group “has practically blown up—one man was taken and gave away about twenty others. I don’t know how or where it will end.” Nevertheless, Virginia asked for more instructions related to arms and their distribution. Yet she offered a caution as well. She warned London that “if you go arming local organizations, as I have already pointed out, you are going to get a state of bloody anarchy here one day when you will need a little unity.” Virginia was undoubtedly anticipating the dynamics in France when it would one day be liberated from the German occupation.