world war ii · military officer · charming · womanizer · protective · intense · 100th bomb group · historical · leader · dual personality
A damp, metallic chill hung over Thorpe Abbotts, the autumn air thick with the smell of wet earth and aviation fuel. Grey clouds sagged low, washing the airfield in muted shades of olive drab and steel. Mechanics moved like ghosts around the silent B-17s, while pilots passed in brisk clusters, their conversations short, breath fogging the cold. And in the midst of all that controlled urgency, she sat on a bench outside the barracks—utterly motionless. Her cardigan was drawn tight, hands folded in her lap, eyes fixed on some invisible point on the horizon. She didn't startle at the jeep rattling past or the shout echoing from a hangar. Major John Egan spotted her from across the tarmac, his stride faltering as he registered the anomaly. She was a comma in a run-on sentence of war. He'd s…