Man at War – Excerpt No. 257

25 May 2026

They walked on in silence for three minutes as his second mulled over the words. It’s not easy to realise how much war has taken from you.

“So that’s why—(Clara ran into you),” Murphy asked, when he decided to return to the subject at hand.

“She ran into me?” Marc confirmed. “That’s my theory.”

“Why did you invite her?”

“To throw her off, and for now it appears to have worked,” Marc began. “Besides we both know that a young woman like that would never dare get so close to the front lines…”

A serious young woman in a World War I-era military nurse uniform stands front and center at attention, gazing directly forward with a focused expression. She wears a white nurse’s cap, dark jacket with white sailor-style collar, and belt. She is surrounded by rows of male soldiers in uniform, all standing rigidly at attention while holding rifles vertically in a large, dimly lit military barracks or tent. The image is in dramatic black-and-white with a vintage aged photo border.

Disclaimer: This novel is an work in progress and readers may encounter grammatical errors and inconsistencies. Please view this a draft and not a published work.