The bloody battles of August and September had settled into relative quiet, and in some areas in the trenches men were playing football behind the lines. Elsewhere soldiers were daring each other to go and attack the enemy machine-gun posts and return with their weapons to ease the monotony, something the colonel and Alexander had expressly forbidden for their men. It was a strange state of affairs, and the cold and rain did little to lighten spirits. Elsewhere, European colonies were being sucked into conflict and in Constantinople Turkey had declared war on Russia, the United Kingdom, France and Serbia. In the steaming malarial country of West Africa, commonly known as the ‘white man’s grave’, a combined British and French force had defeated the Germans, and on the Eastern Front Russian troops were reported to be advancing on Königsberg in east Prussia, which made it all the more frustrating for Alexander and his men to be stuck in what they all saw as no man’s land.

War was one thing but sitting on their backsides picking their noses was another, as one of the soldiers under Alexander’s command had put it only that morning. Alexander had smiled at the time but he shared the man’s sentiments.

‘So,’ the colonel said briskly, ‘what are you waiting for? I’ll see you in two weeks, Alex.’

‘Thank you, sir.’ He wasn’t about to argue. The thought of seeing Rose was like a lifeline to a drowning man. Not that he was drowning, not really, he told himself as he took his leave of the colonel and went to find his batman in the dugout to tell him the news. Although there had been moments, especially in the bitter struggle for Mons, when he’d felt like it. Blood and guts and bits of bodies had even been with him in his dreams – when he could sleep, that was. All the years he’d spent in the army had been unable to prepare him for the wholesale slaughter, and he’d felt sorry for the men, some of them mere fresh-faced boys, who had joined up in a furore of enthusiasm only to find themselves cast into a living hell.

Hopkins was waiting for him when he got back. ‘Trouble, sir?’

‘On the contrary.’ Hopkins had been with him for years and Alexander thought a lot of the man. He was the sort of fellow you’d want with you in a tight spot. ‘I’m off home for a bit.’

‘Aw, that’s good, sir. You might be in time to see the nippers arrive.’