Pan's Revenge (21 page)

“No thanks,” I growl. “I can manage.”

“I can see that.” He really has the nerve to
chuckle at me. Then he puts his calloused hands over mine, moving
them out of the way. With one quick pull, the knot comes open and
the boat dips down at one side. As he walks to the other side, he
throws me an inquisitive look. “May I ask where you intend to go
once you’re in that dinghy, lass?”

Too stunned to really register what he just
said, I switch my gaze back and forth between him and Hook, who
watches us with strange amusement. “Aren’t you scared your captain
will whip you for helping me escape?”

“There’s no whipping on board this ship,
angel.”

He could only mean the last word as a
derogative endearment, but somehow it sounded like he called me by
my name. The one only my sisters ever called me…and then everyone
out of this fairytale as it is.

“Besides,” pirate Scar Brow continues, “James
Hook is a boneheaded fool. He should know better than trying to
keep you trapped on the Jolly Roger. In the end you’ll talk him
into whatever you want again. There’s no way around that.”

Even though
this guy is obviously eager to help me, I sense he’s holding
something back. He’s two-face. Every cell in my body screams
caution.

“So, you plan on rowing back to London?” He
makes it sound casual, but I notice how he’s fumbling with the
second knot with great reluctance. “Because it sure is a long way
there.”

“I don’t care how long I have to row,” I
snap. And it’s the truth.

Startled by my tone, or maybe just acting
like he is, he placates me with his palms up, then fumbles some
more with the rope. “All right, all right. I was just wondering if
maybe you should take some water with you and food too, so you
won’t die after a day out there.”

Concerned about my life? I eye him
sideways.

Scar Brow lets a smirk slip. “It certainly
would put the cap’n in a worse mood than before, and he was already
insufferable the past few weeks.”

“Insufferable?” I huff a laugh. “I can see
where that comes from. With me gone and no way to press matters
with Peter Pan for his lost treasure, he sure would let his anger
out on the crew.”

The man’s
eyes are trained on me as the rope suddenly slides with a swooshing
sound through the iron ring, nearly startling me out of my skin. A
second later there’s a tremendous splash as the small boat lands on
the water.

I glance down and back at the man who acts so
out of character for a pirate.

“So?” His mouth curves into a friendly smile.
“Shall we go fetch some traveling fare for you now?” At my
hesitation, he dares me with a trustworthy look. “Let me show you
to the galley and maybe give you a quick tour through the ship too.
I promise the boat will still be waiting down there for you when we
get back.” The most unbelievable thing happens then. He holds out
his arm for me to hang on to.

Maybe it’s the surprise switching off my
reason, but my arm actually loops around his without me giving it
intentional orders to do so. The guy seems a little less surprised
about my giving in than me, but it sure makes him happy. “I’m Jack,
by the way. Jack Smee.” Somewhere under that layer of coppery
stubble on his cheek appears a dimple.

“Angel,” I murmur as he drags me away, back
in the direction I came from.

His chuckle then sounds highly amused. “Yeah,
I know.”

Confused about what’s actually happening
here, I throw a look over my shoulder up to Captain Hook, who’s
standing at the sterncastle still, arms folded over his chest, his
focus on me. All this chitchat and help from one of his men must
have confused him too, because he arches one perfect brow at me,
definitely more than just a little intrigued.

Jack Smee didn’t lie about the food or the
tour he promised me, because our first stop is in the ship’s galley
where he tells the tall, slim man who stands with his back to us
that he should throw together some packed lunches for the captain’s
girl. When the man turns around with a disturbingly delighted face
and calls out my name, I duck behind Smee to hide from being
crushed in a bear hug.

“
So it’s true
then, ye don’t remember us,” he states with obvious disappointment.
The only word I have in my mind when looking at him is
potato
, but
that can’t mean anything and it might as well just linger, because
he was peeling a pile of those when we came to disrupt
him.

Loaded with a new charge of enthusiasm, he
straightens his back like a true British gentleman that he sure is
not and holds out his hand. “Me name’s Ralph.”

See?
It’s Ralph. Not
Potato.

Coming out of my hiding, I shake his hand but
remain silent. He certainly knows who I am anyway. “Ye gonna go on
a journey or why the packed lunch?” Ralph wants to know.

Smee
answers for me. “The lass wants to take the
dinghy and row herself back to London.”

So slow that it’s almost funny, Ralph turns
his head to Smee and questions him with a quirky look. The pirate
in black next to me only lifts his shoulders and lets them fall
again, making helpless, big eyes. He pulls me on then but tells the
cook over his shoulder, “Fill her a bottle with water too. We’ll
pick it up in ten minutes.”

I’m tempted
to ask Jack Smee what’s behind all his friendliness, but I don’t
get a chance, because where he leads me next is totally out of a
picture book.

“
Oh my
freaking Goodness!” words
burst out of my
mouth as we stop at the edge of a gallery, looking down at hills
and hills of gold and silver. A ladder leads down to that part of
the ship, but really, I only have to take one step forward and I’d
be standing on the highest pile of coins already. This is one
hundred times the amount that landed in my garden before Hook
cornered and kidnapped me.

“But where does all this gold come from?” I
cry out. “I thought—”

“That Peter Pan had it?” Smee cuts me off.
“He did. But we found it a few weeks ago and of course reclaimed
it.”

I fully turn my skeptical scowl on the pirate
Jack Smee now. “Why are you showing me this?”

“I think this speaks in the cap’n’s favor,
no? You said something up on deck that had me wondering.” A shrug
rolls off his shoulders. “Or maybe just because of the beauty of
it, I don’t know.”

He does know,
all right. So that was his plan from the beginning. To help his
captain earn some brownie points with me. And heck, he almost
managed. Okay, who am I trying to fool here, he
did
manage. Hook was
right when he told me he had his treasure and didn’t need me to
find it. How much more of what he told me was true? I don’t want
to, but I really start to wonder.

“Come on, lass. I’m sure Potato Ralph has
your traveling fare ready.”

Smee’s words
drag me back to the here and now. I shoot around, staring at him
with two pizza plate eyes and a gaping mouth. “What did you just
say?”

Seriously confused about my reaction for the
first time since he approached me, he frowns down at me. “Come
on?”

“
No.”
No!
That
wasn’t what I meant. “You said Potato Ralph.”

“Because that’s the man’s name.” The V
between his eyes deepens even more. “Anything wrong?”

Wrong…right…I don’t know which, but that I
knew the cook’s name, or part of it, before somebody told me is not
really comforting. It’s just further proof of what I struggle to
believe here. Jeez, my head starts to hurt again.

Kneading my temples, I cut a wary glance at
Smee. “All the pirates on board know me, don’t they?”

“We sure do.”

“And I knew you too?”

He nods.

“So you all remember me, but I don’t remember
you. Why is that?”

Losing only so much of his confidence, he
shrugs casually. “I guess there’s always something playing with
your mind when you come here. See, last time you started to forget
your own world, and once you were back home, who knows”—he
grimaces—“maybe you started to forget Neverland.”

“How long have I been here last time?”

“Five nights.”

“
What?”
I gasp. “I’ve never been
gone from my world that long. If it really all happened the night I
fell off my balcony, then it couldn’t have been more than a few
minutes!” That was the time I’ve been knocked out cold anyway. “I
could have dreamed up a lot of stuff during that time, but
five nights in
Neverland
? I beg you!”

Smee scrutinizes me like this bit of
information is as valuable to him as it’s confusing to me. “So
maybe time works different in our two worlds?”

Time must definitely work different. And
suddenly, in all my anger and fear of being trapped on a pirate
ship, I let out the first breath of tiny relief. If five nights
here were no more than a couple of minutes there, my family might
not worry I’d gone missing. I could be back before they even
notice.

And I
will
be
back, because I certainly don’t intend to give this idiot captain
out on deck what he wants and
surrender
. No way. But a little
more time might come in handy. I mean, come on, I’m in Neverland.
The land of the infamous Peter Pan. Who wouldn’t want to know
what’s going on in my place? And with all those freaking déjà vu
things happening around me, I might be on to something here.
Something big. Some
only-once-in-your-life
thing.
Okay, apparently it’s twice for me, but still.

Little later, we’re back outside, Jack Smee
carrying my food and water for the journey. As we reach the place
where I have to climb down into the rowboat, I hesitate.

“What is it?” he demands innocently enough,
but I’m pretty sure I’m reacting totally according to his plan.

“Can you make sure none of the pirates eats
my lunch?” I ask him. “I want to check something before I go. Only
a few minutes.”

Smee presses his lips together, not very
subtly trying to hold back another smirk. “Of course.”

Casting a wary glance up to the bridge to see
if the captain of this ship is still in his former position, I’m
not being disappointed. He stands with his back to me, talking to
someone. As if he can feel my gaze on him, he glances over his
shoulder then turns halfway to me. His look intensifies as does
mine and he tilts his head.

It’s really like we’re communicating across
the distance, even though there are no answers given to the silent
questions we both throw at each other. The only thing it does to me
is quicken my heartbeat, but that happened pretty much every time I
looked at him since the moment he slipped the little note into my
hand in the street in front of my house.

I slowly walk away from Smee. But instead of
going back to my quarters, I’m headed for Hook’s.

ANGEL IS WALKING my way. There’s so much
determination in her eyes that I wonder if she’ll come up to the
sterncastle and confront me with whatever is on her mind. Am I
finally in for round six of her cursing me?

The ugly
feeling when my chest tightens with uncertainty of what to expect
turns into something totally different the moment she stops on the
quarter deck, slides one last, shy look up to me and then
disappears in my quarters.
My.
Freakin’. Quarters.

And what was that look? Did she challenge me
to follow her? Well, I sure will, but first I need to talk to Smee
and find out what the two of them spoke about during the past
goddamned half-hour.

There’s no
chance my first mate misses the tick in my jaw when he catches my
eyes, but he shrugs it off with a grin as he comes to seek me out
by the helm. He has the gall to mock me with an innocent
expression. “Cap’n?”

“
Don’t
you
cap’n
me, Smee. What were you and Angel talking about? Why did
you take her under deck? And why the hell were you helping her to
unfasten the dinghy?”

“Calm down, James.” He laughs. “I was doing
you a favor.”

“By helping her escape from the ship? She
wouldn’t row the boat two miles before she slumps over, beaten and
drained of strength.”

“Yeah, that’s why we got her some lunch too.”
He lifts a small leather bag that smells of roast pork and
cheese.

“Are you shitting me?”

“
Absolutely
not. But your temper with the lass before wasn’t quite helpful now
was it?” He frowns at me. “And having the crew backing off when she
starts to remember isn’t your best bet either.”

My eyes widen. “She remembers them?”

A casual
shrug rolls of his shoulders. “Can’t tell for sure, but she might
have recognized Potato Ralph. Or maybe just his name, I don’t know.
She certainly reacted to it in surprise.”

My heart stutters, which always is a bad sign
because, from past experience, it proves that I can’t think
straight when I’m getting excited…especially about something that
Angel did or said. “So what are we going to do now?”

“
We,” Smee
says and emphasizes the word overly dramatic, “are doing
nothing.
You
on the other hand should go down to your
quarters now and fast. Because the girl you’re crazy about is in
there for whatever harebrained reason and you’ll never get a better
chance to talk to her.”

He’s right. What am I waiting for? With a
curt nod, I dump the command of the ship in his hands and climb
down the stairs to the quarterdeck.