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

“What you’ve got to think on,” Phillips continued, “is, this is when you find out who’s your friend and who isn’t. True friends, that is, not just some fellow what thinks you’re a good man to have a pint with. A truefriend, whatever his own position may be on the subject, is one who’ll allow that opinions differ, and will respect you and your opinion both.” This last seemed directed rather pointedly, although good-naturedly, in Mr. Mitchell’s direction.


That gentleman merely hmphedunder his breath.


“I…Ah, yes. I’m sure you’re right. But I’d better get these files back to Mr. Whittaker,” George said, anxious to close the subject. 


That evening after supper, still troubled, George excused himself to go upstairs and study his books. He was roused from a somewhat disconcerting reading of a commentary upon the Labouchere amendment by a rap at his door.


Matthew’s face appeared, looking a trifle sheepish. George hastily closed his book.


Chapter 31