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

The laughing young woman straightened her hat and brushed the snow off her skirt. “Fancy a go with our toboggan? Archie and Bill won’t mind, will you, chaps?”


“Not in the least,” one of them said cheerfully. “In fact, I, for one, could do with a breather.”


“Need a hand getting it up the slope?” the other asked, eyeing Matthew’s empty sleeve.


“No, thank you,” George answered. “We can manage. If you’re sure you don’t mind?”


“No, please, be our guests. But watch out—it pulls to the left. I’ve got snow down the back of my sweater,” he added plaintively, jumping up and down in what George presumed was an attempt to dislodge it.


“And my stockings are soaked through,” the girl added, screwing up her face in comical dismay. “You two have at it.”


“Right,” Matthew said decisively. “Race you to the top of the hill!”


He set off at a run. “Not fair,” George shouted, scrambling after him. “I’ve got the toboggan.”


Chapter 21