When Shadows Fall Read Online Free PDF Page B

proved to be his last ever action of the war.
    Two bright, violent explosions abruptly cut off the German guns. Both posts were blown to pieces, the men inside them ripped apart by the fragmenting grenades.
    But Adam was far too close.
    He was vaguely aware that he was hurtling through the air, lumps of wood and debris flying all around, before he saw a sheer wall of granite coming fast towards him.
    And after that, there was nothing.

    Germany’s Spring Offensive, begun in March, had been intended to end the war and ensure a final German triumph. Just four months later, however, after a crushing defeat on the Marne, that offensive was over and so began a series of Allied drives that would bring the German army to its knees. The kaiser abdicated on November 9, and slipped across the Dutch border into exile. On November 11, Germany surrendered, an armistice was signed, and the war was finished.
    By the time the armistice was announced across Europe, Adam Bowen was lying in a ward in the Second Eastern General Hospital at Brighton on the south coast of England. There was much cheer in the ward from those who were physically up to it. Others, less lucky, didn’t comprehend.
    Adam understood it well enough, but he felt no relief and declined a nurse’s offer of a tot of rum to join in with toasting the good news. Instead he turned on his side, spoke to no one, and recalled the day when he had left France forever.
    Captain Blevins had been in the casualty clearing station on that day, pacing about the beds, nodding at the wounded, throwing out a few hackneyed words of encouragement. When he came to Adam’s bed, his awkwardness was plain to see. Relations had been thoroughly soured after Timmy’s execution and Adam’s accompanying outburst. The colonel had pilloried Blevins over the incident, and Blevins in turn had promised Adam a court-martial before the week was out. But the subsequent German assault and Adam’s role in taking out the defences at Villers-Bretonneux meant that the court-martial was quickly discarded, and it was a humbler-looking Captain Blevins who next met him.
    “Good news, Lieutenant. You’re being invalided back to England today, I’ve had it confirmed. A chance for a wee rest and some decent grub for a change, eh? You’ll be back fighting fit before you know it.”
    Adam had received severe shrapnel wounds from the grenade burst. His eyes had been temporarily blinded, and weeks later, his vision still hadn’t returned to normal. Stitched rents and gashes covered half his upper body and most of his legs. Yet nothing stirred his anger more now than the sight of Captain Blevins’s idiotic nonchalance, his infuriating chin up, lad approach, as though nothing had ever happened.
    “I’m leaving the army, Captain.”
    “Ho, ho. You say that now, Bowen, but you’d only miss it.”
    “I’m leaving the army, Captain.”
    “Oh, did I mention? They’re going to recommend you for the Victoria Cross for what you did, taking out those German gun posts. Even Mallory was impressed. Well deserved, too. You’ll probably have to go to Buckingham Palace to receive it—imagine!”
    “I’m leaving the army, Captain.”
    “Well, that’s understandable. That you’d want to. But you can’t leave without being discharged, Lieutenant, and our battalion—”
    “Oh, get out.”
    Blevins frowned. “Excuse me?”
    “I said, get out. You’re a fool, Blevins. And a backstabber.”
    Blevins stepped back before taking a breath. “You’re out of line, Lieutenant, speaking to a superior officer like that. I’ve been nothing but kind to you. I got you off that court-martial.”
    “Kind to me, were you?” Adam glared at him. “A pity you weren’t so kind to Private Hannigan.”
    Blevins shifted his eyes. “That’s not my responsibility. Nor my fault. But that young man—”
    “He wasn’t a young man, Captain. He was a boy.” Adam gestured towards the door. “That’s our business done with each other,