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

“What on earth do you mean? I’m not planning to go anywhere—why should I? These are perfectly good digs, even if I didn’t happen to have a particular reason for wanting to stay here.”


“Then…your position at Forrester and Thingummajigs? That wasn’t just for appearances’ sake?”


“No, of course not. Good God, you’ve heard me drone on often enough about how fascinating I find the law. Did you think that was all smoke and mirrors?” George couldn’t imagine now leaving Forrester & Lindley. Leave Phillips, and Mitchell, who’d opened a niche for him in their strange friendship?


“I wasn’t sure what I should think. I hoped it wasn’t, but I didn’t like to presume. So you’ll stay here? Qualify as a solicitor, and live with me?”


“If you’ll have me,” George said softly. “I wouldn’t blame you if, after everything, you decided I was more bother than I was worth.”


Chapter 59