On a clear Wednesday night, Churchill hosted W. Averell Harriman, Ambassador Anthony Biddle, and others for a late dinner in the basement at No. 10 while a massive German raid struck London. When the sirens began, Churchill did not interrupt the meal. Afterward he took Harriman, Biddle, John Colville, and Eric Seal up to the roof, where they watched searchlights and anti-aircraft fire while Churchill calmly received reports from across the city. Biddle came away deeply impressed by Churchill's composure and courage, even as the six-hour attack killed five hundred Londoners and devastated parts of the East End.

The chapter then shows the war's darker emotional cost. On March 28, Virginia Woolf, overwhelmed by depression worsened by wartime losses and bomb damage, left a farewell note to her husband before disappearing at the River Ouse. At Chequers, officials discovered that a tenant farmer's plowing had accidentally made the house easier to identify from the air, so the land was replowed to hide the pattern, and security officers also worried that parked cars could reveal Churchill's presence.

Churchill, expecting the air war to continue, pressed ministers Malcolm MacDonald and Herbert Morrison to improve shelters before the next winter. He wanted better drainage and flooring, radios and gramophones, and attention to waterlogged Anderson shelters. Practical guidance followed in a pamphlet that advised families how to stay warmer, safer, and calmer during raids, reflecting Churchill's belief that if safety could not be guaranteed, comfort should at least be improved.

That weekend Mary Churchill traveled with Charles Ritchie to Stansted Park for a dance at Tangmere RAF base. She liked Moyra Bessborough and was especially taken with Moyra's brother Eric Duncannon, an artillery officer and Dunkirk survivor. At the dance Mary admired the famous ace Douglas Bader, but Eric held her attention; she danced with him repeatedly, read romantic meaning into the evening, and returned under the starry blackout sky exhilarated by the encounter.

Meanwhile Harriman went to Chequers with the new American ambassador, John G. Winant. Over dinner Pamela Churchill saw Harriman and was immediately struck by him; because Pamela's marriage to Randolph was collapsing and Harriman's own marriage had gone emotionally flat, the attraction carried obvious implications. The mood at Chequers was buoyed further by British gains in East Africa, a coup in Yugoslavia hostile to Hitler, and the Royal Navy's victory at Cape Matapan. Mary, sharing in the weekend's jubilation, took a long walk with Eric before he left and heard him ask if he might call her, while Churchill reveled in a moment when victory suddenly seemed a little nearer.