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

And this wasn’t getting his letter written. George took up his pen.


I write, as promised, to reassure you of my continued existence. Really, you needn’t worry on my account. I haven’t even set one toe into danger just yet. Miss P_ (late of Military Intelligence) seemed to think it a good idea that I should start by befriending Connaught, so that’s just what I’ve done. We had a minor skirmish today, but as our ammunition was entirely comprised of snowballs, no casualties were sustained.


Has it snowed back home? I always used to love the sight of the fields clothed in white. Here in the city, it isn’t quite the same—the Heath is a vision in white, of course, but although the trees along the streets are still lovely, the streets themselves soon lose their lustre with all the traffic that passes.


Chapter 22