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The Third Son of a Duke

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War is declared … on the other side of the world.

Of course, things happen, but our Protagonist is nowhere near any of it.  He learns of the conflagration via a rather interesting young lady who flies a plane, delivering mail and urgent supplies to the outlying stations.

Her explanation, a summary of newspaper reports, goes something like this:

“Declare war.  Some Serbian geezer assassinated some old geezer, the Archduke for Austria or some such, and his wife, then the Kaiser, some other old geezer in Germany said he’d back them to attack the assassin’s country, and now it’s on for young and old.  Guys are lining up to enlist, thinking it’s going to be a lark.  Mad, completely mad.”

Where does that leave our protagonist?

Back in the saddle.  The war has affected them too, with several of the station hands taking off to Winton and beyond to enlist.  He was not going anywhere.  But the thought is there, that notion of enlisting himself.  For the moment, though, there was work to be done.

Letters from home. The first was from his wavering girlfriend, who told him she had moved on,  the others from his family, but eventually one from his father, the news he wasn’t quite expecting. The death at war of his eldest brother, the Duck to be, the title moving down to the next son, the brother above him.

Does that mean he now becomes the second son of the duke?

But now he can use his brother’s death at the hands of the enemy as an excuse to enlist and go mete out some retribution.

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1630 words, for a total of 22760 words.