Jack blinked, trying to reconcile this with the mentor he knew.
Primus let the curtain fall back into place, turning to face him. “A long time ago, I met a woman. We were married. It did not end well.”
For some reason, Jack had always assumed that Lancaster was a bachelor. The other seemedlike one: unsentimental and unattached, fastidious in his habits.
“I did not know?—”
“It is not common knowledge, and I prefer to keep it that way.”
“Of course, sir.”
Primus adjusted the sleeve of his jacket. “I trust you with this information to show you that I understand your situation better than you realize. But as I warned you before, decisions have consequences. Sebastian Courtenay, the Marquess of Fayne, is dead. He cannot come back.” He paused. “Not this time.”
The reminder sucked Jack into a memory: the warm ooze beneath his palms as he put pressure on the gaping hole in his best friend’s chest.Sebastian’s labored breaths, the pleading in his dark eyes.“It’s too late for me. You…you must be Fayne now.”He’d shoved a crumpled, blood-stained note at Jack. “Promise me…promise you’ll finish the job… Show them I’m a hero.”
Jack swallowed. “I know.”
“She is beautiful, your widow. Intelligent and capable. A rare female, as I said.”
Sensing more was coming, he waited.
“She would be a difficult woman to walk away from. But you did it. And now you must remain committed to the path you chose.”
It is now or never.
“What if there was a way back, sir?” he said.
Greeted with Primus’s stony silence, Jack nonetheless forged on.
“Charlotte is, as you noted, capable. And she wishes to assist in our mission?—”
“Out of the question.” Primus snapped his brows together. “We do not involve civilians.”
“I was a civilian,” Jack pointed out. “And you recruited me.”
“The circumstances were different. You merited the exception. Despite your background, I saw your potential, which is why I mentored you personally.”
At Jack’s lowest, when his sins had come for him and he was friendless and penniless, Primus had taken him on. The spymaster had given him a fresh start and purpose. He was the man he was today because of Primus. And he could never forget his debt.
“And I owe you for it,” he said gruffly.
“You have paid me back.” Primus’s mien softened a fraction. “You have shown dedication to your duty and made invaluable contributions as my second-in-command. It is only natural that, after a sustained period in the trenches, a man should want for the softer things in life. For companionship. To that end, I know women who specialize in seeing to a man’s comforts. Albeit temporarily, but with great discretion?—”
“I don’t want a whore,” Jack said bluntly. “I have a wife.”
“You have a widow.” Primus returned fire with precision. “Due to the arrangements that I helped you to make—which, I might add, took considerable effort—said widow was left in very comfortable circumstances. For the rest of her life, she will be addressed by a coveted title and will want for nothing. Do you truly wish to take that away from her?”
“No.” He hated how he sounded…like a sullen lad. “But she…she grieved for me, sir. You said she would recover and move on. But it took heryears. And she never remarried?—”
“Because she does not know who you are. If she did…”
Primus did not have to say more. Reality sank into Jack like a dagger between the shoulder blades. There was no defending against the truth of who and what he was, and this was the crux of his problems.
“You are an excellent spymaster, Granger. Loyal, bold, and relentless. Yet you have an Achilles’ heel: women. Or have you forgotten the circumstances that led you to me?”
Primus’s words twisted the blade. They were an agonizing reminder of what Jack had done—the lying, disloyal bastard that he was. Shame churned his gut.
“You betrayed your friend and your honor because of a woman,” Primus went on with quiet ruthlessness.
