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

“It’ll only take the once,” the landlady said darkly but without any real ill humour.


“If you’ve nothing better to do this afternoon, perhaps you’d like to come along and support us?” Matthew asked. “But I suppose you’ll be occupied with sorting your things out,” he answered himself with a genuine-seeming tone of regret.


George shrugged. “I really don’t have an awful lot of gear to sort out—I don’t see why I shouldn’t take an hour or two off to watch a game of football. It seems a shame to waste the good weather, in any case.” Or to waste a chance of getting to know his quarry a little better. Would underhanded tactics at the Front mean dirty play on the sports field?


“Good man!” Matthew beamed at him. “And you’re right about not wasting the weather. I’ve read in the papers it’s to turn cold soon.”


Watkins gave a rather vulgar snort. “Papers! Like they know anything about anything!”


Chapter 15