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

George took a seat on the faded sofa, grateful for Matthew’s presence beside him. There was something unnerving about this place and its solitary occupant; the furnishings, and her dress, so humble, yet the fire so fierce, as if all her money went on coal.


Oddly, there was no picture of Donald on the mantelpiece.


Matthew tried again. “I was very much hoping you’d be able to tell me where to find Donald.”


She laughed, but there was nothing of humour in it. “Oh, I can do that all right.” She fell silent.


George and Matthew exchanged glances once more. “Is he still living in the village?” George asked. “When we asked at the station, we were directed here.”


Miss Fuller gave a vicious prod to the coals. Sparks flew and danced in the fireplace. “He isn’t still living here, no. You’ll find him in the churchyard, in the far corner. Three feet from the wall. There’s no stone. They buried him at night.”


Chapter 55