Wounds of the heart are the hardest to heal. Solicitor’s clerk George Johnson has a secret goal when he moves into a London boarding house in the winter of 1920: to find out if his fellow lodger, Matthew Connaught, was the wartime traitor who cost George’s adored older brother Hugh his life. Yet the more he gets to know his quarry, the more George loses sight of his mission -- and his heart. Blessed with boyish good looks and charm in abundance, ad man Matthew is irrepressibly cheerful despite having lost an arm in the Great War -- and soon makes plain his attraction to George. As George’s feelings for Matthew grow, so does his desperation to know the truth about what happened that day in Ypres. Even if bringing all their secrets to light means he’ll lose the man he’s come to love.

To Love a Traitor

He tried not to let the painful memories show on his face and must have succeeded, for Sir Arthur simply nodded. “There are a lot of men, I’m afraid, who’ve found it hard to adjust to peacetime.”


“You seem to have the trick of it, if you don’t mind my saying so, sir.” Roger made a vague gesture towards Sir Arthur’s mahogany desk, epitomising as it did his exalted position within the bank. “I trust you’re well?”


“In excellent health, thank you. You?”


“Yes, fine, sir. I, ah, was very sorry to hear about Lady Walmesley. My condolences.”


Sir Arthur nodded, and sighed. “That damned Spanish flu. Still, perhaps it was a mercy in the end. She’d suffered enough, poor old girl.” The old fellow looked down at his desk for a moment, then back up at Roger. “You did some damn fine work for the Admiralty. If it’s a job you’re after, I’ll see what I can do.”


Chapter 5