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

“I thought,” George choked out, “I thought you were angry with me. For lying to you.”


Matthew shook his head. “Not once I read your letter.” He made a sound that was almost a laugh. “I think, had I been you, I should have been suspicious of that Connaught fellow myself. I don’t blame you for keeping things secret from me—how could you not, in the circumstances?”


With a sobbing breath, George turned into Matthew’s embrace, flinging his arms around his friend. They clung to one another for a long while, then George felt Matthew draw back. “Come on. We need to make ourselves presentable. And go and borrow Father’s Bradshaw.” 20


Chapter 53