CIPHERED HEARTS CHRONICLES • BOOK 6

A Light in the Blackout

By Leo Vescari

In a village that still uses brooms for bayonets, the most dangerous man isn't the one carrying a weapon — he's the one who arrived quietly, asking no questions at all.

Lieutenant Edmund Blake commands Little Brambleford's Home Guard with the resigned dignity of a schoolmaster facing his worst class. His twelve men are armed with carving knives lashed to cricket bats, his superior officer holds him in open contempt, and Edmund's greatest act of wartime courage so far has been surviving morning drill without casualties. He is a careful man living a careful life — until a light flickers from a church tower that should be dark.

The stranger who appears at that first crisis is Harold Pierce: bicycle repairman, conscientious objector, and far too composed for someone caught somewhere he shouldn't be. His lock-picking hands are steadier than any medical orderly's ought to be. His knowledge of German aircraft engine signatures is disturbingly precise. Pierce moves through Edmund's familiar world like a shadow that doesn't quite match the light — and Edmund, a man trained to notice when something doesn't add up, cannot stop noticing him.

Beneath Little Brambleford's pastoral quiet, enemy saboteurs are preparing to destroy the railway bridge that holds their community to the world. As reconnaissance flights sweep low over sleeping fields and cryptic messages pass at village fêtes, Edmund and Pierce uncover a conspiracy that professional authorities refuse to believe and amateur soldiers may be uniquely positioned to stop. Every shared night watch pulls them closer. Every shared secret makes retreat impossible.

But the final operation will force them apart — one man to contain the threat above ground, one man alone in the dark with enough explosive to erase them both. Edmund knows Pierce's careful promises. What he doesn't know is whether loving someone is enough to bring them home.

A slow-burn wartime MM romance featuring found family, enemy agents, and two men who find each other in the blackout.