war wounds – Nomad Authors Blog

Your characters: made them have disabilities?

I didn’t consciously set out to give Adrian Bryce, Perilous Love, a disability until he and Gabrielle were hiding from German soldiers in a hay loft.

Adrian’s life of wealth and beautiful women came to an abrupt end when the British Secret Service ordered him to accompany his estranged wife Gabrielle to Belgium. They wanted evidence her uncle was supporting the German Empire. What Adrian found, as the Germans crossed the Belgian border sparking World War One, had them running for their lives. It’s in this loft, that Gabrielle learns of Adrian’s infidelities, his lies and his secret life. Then, when it’s safe to climb down, he falls breaking bones in his foot. This injury is a great leveller, not only is there a price on his head, he can’t walk and must rely on the woman he’d shamefully neglected to get them to safety.

Not many people survive a war without physical or emotional injuries.

Harry Connelly, The Proposition, was one of the ‘what the hell’ soldiers. He enlisted to escape arrest and a wife who despised him. On the eve of the Battle of Amiens, he meets Andrew Conroy, a man with no family. In the thick of that huge battle a bayonet slices through Harry’s leg and he collapses beside the body of Andrew Conroy. Could he? It’s a huge risk, it’s his only hope. Harry swaps identity discs. Now Andrew Conroy, he’s one of the thousands of casualties and injuries in overcrowded hospitals, and eventually discharged as medically unfit with a leg that leaves him lame. Months later, the impact of this deception hits home when an unknown cousin of the dead man finds him. What follows pushes Andrew into a nightmare of murder and deception. His disability will be his alibi and almost his downfall when he meets Lacey, with secrets of her own. The only way to get to the truth is tell her the truth.