A Lieutenant’s Love by Red Haircrow

[reviews_and_ramblings]

I think this short story will be well liked by the historical romance lovers. The setting is undefined, meaning that it’s somewhere between the XVII and XIX in a North European country, probably some Germany or Scandinavian dukedom.

Of Lieutenant Jarryd Alyt we knows that he “crossed an ocean and journeyed north from his own overpopulated land”, he is now under services of a Duke, trying to follow his father’s step, “for in his father’s homeland, the Crown eternally sought new lands and peoples to add to their vast empire”.

As many soldiers before him, he is tired of war, he is tired to see men die and above all he is heart-broken, since his fellow soldier and lover, Karl, died in front of his eyes. Karl was not only a lover; he was also his best friend, and probably the fuel that allowed Jarryd to go on. Jarryd can of course finding another lover among his companions, but he doesn’t want. He doesn’t want to fall in love again of a soldier; he doesn’t want to risk again his heart. For this reason he probably falls for Arin, because the young man is completely out of this contest, a runaway kid who was disowned by his father and has no other option: dying on the street or dying on a battlefield is not much different.

I like this story, it’s dramatic but not without hope. It’s a romance born in unlikely conditions, and Arin is probably a second chance for Jarryd for many reasons. I liked also Sergeant Lvarnan and his unrequited love, in a way Lvarnan is very much like Karl, and Jarryd was not searching for a substitute of his former lover, but for someone completely different, someone who would force him to take a final decision: live far from the war or die at war.

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