“TheMadeline Marx?” said Giles. “The head of the Pleasure House of Tarma?”
“By the Seven Suns,” murmured Quinn. “That’syour family, Jack? Marx Amalgamated Concern? Your father isJonathan Marx?”
Jack sat in silence for a moment then said, “I never lied to either of you. I just didn’t tell you the whole truth.” Then he added, “And Jack Marx is my real name after all.”
Giles snorted with surprise. “I always thought you took on that name as a fake, just to take the piss.”
“That’s what everybody thinks. Sometimes the best place to hide is in plain sight.”
“This is a lot to take in, Jack,” said Quinn slowly.
“I know,” he said quietly. “We all have secrets, and I rather think this might be my biggest one. I need you both for what I’m about to do, but I won’t have you following me under false pretenses. That means I have to come clean about my family, and what I’m trying to do next, and that means that I need you, Quinn, to come clean about your past with the Pleasure House.”
“Why does everyone assume that I don’t have any deep secrets that I need to come clean about?” protested Giles.
Jack and Quinn turned toward him. He reddened and looked down.
“Giles isn’t the name I was born with,” he admitted. “My birth name was Chauncey.”
For a moment, there was absolute silence around the table then all three burst into laughter.
“I don’t think I’m ever going to be able to forget that,” said Quinn, wiping a tear from her eye.
“I know I won’t,” said Jack, shaking his head. “So there it is. I’m the son of Jonathan Marx, head of one of the largest corporate concerns in the galaxy. My sister Madeline runs the Pleasure House of Tarma, and she’s in trouble. She’s in a fight for control of the House, and she needs my help. And Giles’ original name is Chauncey. Is Giles at least your middle name?”
“It is. After my grandpa,” said Giles, nodding vigorously.
“So we come to you, my dear,” said Jack, pointing at Quinn.
“So we do,” sighed Quinn. “Fine. You two know better than anybody how much I value my privacy, so no bantering about this all over the ship, all right?”
Giles and Jack murmured their agreement.
“Okay,” said Quinn and took a breath. “You both know I grew up on Tarma. That when I came of age, I joined the House, served as a novice, was being trained as a full consort.”
The two men nodded.
“That was where I met Romain,” she continued. “He was…he was charming, intelligent, a stunning example of everything a young woman thinks a man should be. I had never,neverfelt desire for a man like I did for Romain.” She paused. “Do we have anything to drink around here other than coffee?”
Jack wordlessly took a bottle from a shelf, pulled the stopper, and handed it to his friend.
Quinn took a deep drink, wiped her mouth, and continued. “Romain was a client of the House, who…worked with female consorts in training. A man of vast experience,” she sneered. “Anyway, he had me convinced I was the center of his universe, just as he was the center of mine. He wrapped me around his finger. I would have done anything for him.”
She took another drink.
“He was conning me,” she said shortly. “He convinced me to run off with him but told me we needed the resources to make a fresh start somewhere else. So, of course, I stole money from the House. A lot, or so it seemed to me at the time. Maybe not so much now. I transferred the money to his account, snuck off the House grounds, and waited in a place that we had arranged for him to come and get me.”
The two men sat silently, deeply attentive. Quinn had never talked about her past before at this length, but it was clear that she intended to do so now.
“He left me high and dry, naturally,” she continued. “I waited and waited for a man who was never going to show. Finally, I realized that he had played me, and that I was completely alone, disgraced, and a wanted thief on Tarma.”
Giles reached out to put a hand on her shoulder. Gently but firmly, Quinn moved his hand, although she smiled at him.
“So, with nothing in me but a desire for revenge, I set out to find Romain. It was a dark path, and I did things that I wouldn’t do again. I found him in a flophouse on Kenom. Drunk, high, completely used up, money gone. He actually tried to convince me it had all been a misunderstanding, that he was overjoyed to see me again. And part of me wanted to believe him.” Quinn shuddered.
“I had thought that I wanted to kill him. But when I saw him there, still desperately trying to play the same game, pretending to be a worldly charmer with the needle marks fresh on his arm, I just felt contempt. I didn’t want tolowermyself to take his life. So I walked away from that flophouse and never looked back. And, a week later, I met a damn fool pirate, who, for some reason, thought I would be a good second-in-command.”
“A damn fool pirate who was right that day and has never regretted his decision,” said Jack warmly. A thought struck him. “Holy Hannah. I set out to do the same thing to Aria that Romain did to you. Why didn’t you say anything?”
