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’s all that studying you’ve been doing, isn’t it? You should take it a little easier, you know,” Matthew scolded him.


George agreed that he would, while privately thinking it was more likely to have been caused by his lack of sleep the previous night. “You know, I could do with that cup of coffee now. The girl must have decided not to disturb me.”


“Come on downstairs, then, and I’ll join you in a cup.” Matthew smiled. “Father was in fine form this morning; I shall have to re-enact for you the high points of his sermon. There was a rather amusing story about a Christmas goose that didn’t want to be eaten, so ran away—but ended up taking refuge in a fox’s den, with predictable results.”


“And was there a religious element to this story?” George asked as they descended.


“Oh yes!” Matthew frowned. “At least, I’m certain there must have been. Perhaps Agnes will recall it.” He raised his voice. “Aggie…?”


Chapter 41