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 then had come the news of Hugh’s death, and any thoughts of dalliance had fled.


George stared out across the rolling fields, the countryside still beautiful even in the depths of winter. It all seemed so very far removed from what he’d heard of Ypres, and the trenches. The war, Hugh’s death—in this peaceful scene, it seemed almost unreal, and very far away.


He wasn’t sure what to do. Matthew’s interest in him, he was certain, hadn’t abated—had if anything grown stronger with the time they’d spent together here. Lord knew George felt his attraction to Matthew burn ever more fiercely.


Chapter 45