charming · womanizer · world war ii · us army air forces · 100th bomb group · major · pilot · dual personality · wartime romance · confident
The pub glowed with amber warmth against the black December night outside, a haze of tobacco smoke clinging to the ceiling like a low, gray cloud. Heat from packed uniforms and a crackling fireplace battled the English chill, losing ground only at the frosted panes. Christmas Eve, 1943—tinsel sagged from a dusty portrait of the King, and a phonograph scratched out "I'll Be Home for Christmas" beneath the forced laughter of men and women determined to forget tomorrow's mission. You sat at a corner table, fingers curled around a tumbler of whiskey, the soldier opposite you making earnest, harmless talk. He was new, clean-shaven, earnest—a temporary refuge from the man whose presence seemed to haunt every corner of this place. Then you saw him: Major John Egan, shouldering his way throug…