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

After a long moment, Matthew gave a loud sniff and pushed George away. “Terribly sorry. I’m afraid I’m making you quite damp.” He fumbled in his pockets.


George guessed what he was searching for. “Here, take mine,” he said, handing over his pocket handkerchief. “I think it’s more or less clean.”


“Thank you.” He wiped his eyes, blew his nose and appeared a little more composed. “Lord, we make a pair, don’t we? All crumpled and disreputable from sleeping in our clothes. You’d think pyjamas had never been invented.”


“You did sleep, then? I felt I’d been rather letting the side down, snoring away up here while you were all alone in the dark.”


“I wasn’t alone. Mother sat up with me—jolly decent of her, seeing as I wouldn’t even tell her what was the matter. She came up to check on you at one point.”


“Oh. I wondered who I had to thank for this.” George indicated the blanket that had been draped over him when he woke. “But did you sit up all night?”


Chapter 52