Neverland's Key

by R. V. Bowman

  “Opportunistic?” bellowed Hook. His hand went to one of the swords at his hip. “I’ll show them what opportunity has in store for them, if they go against me.”

  Gentleman Jack pushed to his feet. Rommy couldn’t blame him. Her father was a big man and was that much more intimidating when he was looming over you.

  “Captain, what I’m saying is, perhaps it would be best to not tell the crew the entire plan.” Gentleman Jack raised both eyebrows.

  Hook’s shoulders relaxed a fraction of an inch. His hand dropped away from his sword, and he rubbed his chin. “You might be right,” he said. He narrowed his eyes. “You say there are a few I can’t trust. I know Corelli would sooner skewer me than look at me, if given half the chance, but who else do you think would go along with him?” Hook’s gaze swung to take in Big Red and then the younger pirate. “And what about you, Max? Or have you been too busy flirting to follow the conversation?”

  Max’s face turned red, and he straightened away from Francie who had been whispering something in his ear. Francie’s face flushed, too, and Rommy saw her scoot away from the young man.

  But his grin returned after a moment. “Well, Captain, Sea Hawk has a bounty on his head, so I don’t think he’d want to go back,” he said. “And Jeb, well, he ain’t the sharpest knife in the drawer, if you know what I mean.” Max tapped the side of his head and winked.

  Hook’s lip curled. “That’s only three, but it won’t do to underestimate Corelli,” he said. Hook sank back onto the beach, looking thoughtful. He turned to Rommy and nodded toward her friends. “I suppose all of them will be accompanying us?”

  “Yes, Papa, they will,” said Rommy.

  “Hmmm, that does present a bit of a problem on a number of fronts,” said her father as he inspected all of them one by one. Rommy felt a frizzle of nerves when she caught sight of Tiger Lily. Her lips were pressed into a thin line and her eyes were hard. Tiger Lily and the Captain did not have a good history together. She hoped the girl would go along with whatever plan her father came up with.

  Her father interrupted her thoughts. “We can’t let the crew know this is our last trip from Neverland,” he said. “And they’ll never believe I just up and decided to take a group of children to London out of the kindness of my heart.” He started to pace up and down the beach. An awkward silence fell over the group as they watched him. Finally, he stopped and snapped his fingers.

  “Aha! I have it! I will tell them we are going back to London to deliver the lot of you to the workhouse.” He pointed his hook in the direction of Finn and the four Lost Boys. He spun and pointed at Tiger Lily. “I’ll tell them I am taking you as a favor to your father, to educate you. It is plausible that I would want to reward Chief Hawk Eye for his kindness to my daughter. After all, Captain Hook always repays his debts.”

  “But, sir, I want to go home,” said Walter, shooting to his feet. Tears welled up in his eyes, and his lower lip trembled. “I don’t want to go to no poorhouse.”

  Hook blew out a breath and drew a hand down his face. “Did I say you were actually going to the workhouse, Boy? Use your head. I can’t say I’m delivering Lost Boys to their homes like so many parcels without raising everyone’s suspicions.” He closed his eyes for a moment, and when he opened them, one side of his mouth curved up, and he winked at the boy. “Captain Hook doesn’t do good deeds like that. I have a reputation to uphold.”

  Walter stared at him, his mouth slightly ajar. Finn reached up and pulled him back down.

  “But Capt’n,” said Big Red, “What about the men who would want to stay here if they knew?”

  Hook waved a hand in the air. “I’ll tell them our trip will be extended and give them the opportunity to stay here,” he said. “We can’t tell the rest of the crew the truth, or this whole thing could backfire in our faces.” He pointed his hook at the group. “That means none of you can share a word of the truth. You will have to play along that you are my prisoners or we may all find ourselves stuck in Neverland forever—or worse.”

  One by one, everyone around the circle nodded. Rommy hoped this plan of her father’s would work. So much depended on the crew believing their story. Would the Lost Boys be able to carry off the ruse until they were truly away from here?

  Hook’s blue eyes pierced each person’s. “If anyone of you lets out the truth, I’ll see to it that you are marooned here. Do I make myself clear?”

  “But, Papa...”

  Hook cut her off with a slice of his hand. “This is important,” he said. “If anyone slips up, it will jeopardize us all.”

  Walter, Jem, Henry, and George all looked at the Captain wide-eyed. Rommy felt Alice grasp her hand, and she squeezed it back. She understood why her father had to be so harsh, but she hoped he would leave Captain Hook behind once they left Neverland.

  Smee cleared his throat again, and everyone’s eyes swung to him. “But Capt’n, what about the...” he tipped his head out toward the lagoon and then dropped his voice to a stage whisper, “you know.”

  Chapter 28:

  Papa Shows Them the Money

  Hook seared Smee with a look, and the older man cringed away from him. “No, Smee, I do not know what you are dithering on about, and neither does anyone else.”

  Rommy saw Big Red and Gentleman Jack exchange glances, but neither man spoke up.

  She looked at her father. He had a thoughtful expression on his face and was staring out at the water. After a moment, he seemed to gather himself. He gestured with his hook toward the boat that Smee had pulled up onto the beach.

  “It’s quite a row back to the ship,” he said. “And the boat will be quite full this time around. We had better get a move on.”

  Everyone scrambled to their feet while Big Red smothered the fire with some of the pink sand.

  “It looks like it’ll be a tight fit, Capt’n,” he said.

  Hook shrugged. “We’ll have to just squeeze in,” he said. “We don’t have time to make more than one trip around to the Cove.”

  Rommy tugged at her father coat to get his attention. “Won’t Finn and the Lost Boys have to look like your captives? Won’t that be difficult if we are all squeezed into the boat together?”

  “You do have a point, my dear.” He looked down at his ripped and bloodied shirt. “And I will have to explain this.” He narrowed his eyes as he surveyed the children of varying sizes clambering into the boat. After a moment, a smile curved over his face. “I think I have an idea, but we’ll need to make a stop first.”

  It didn’t take long for everyone to find a seat, although Alice had to sit on Rommy’s lap. Walter sat on Finn’s lap, and Henry was perched on Tiger Lily’s lap, talking a mile a minute. The older girl seemed surprisingly at ease with the little boy.

  Rommy’s father sat at the bow while the four pirates manned the oars. Their long strokes moved the boat toward the entrance of the lagoon at a steady clip.

  Rommy looked out over the lagoon. The sun sparkled on the waves, and gulls called as they swooped and wheeled in the sky. Still, Rommy watched the water uneasily, her eyes peeled for the glitter of mermaid scales.

  Francie was squeezed in next to her. She leaned in. “I sure hope those nasty mermaids aren’t lurking around here,” she said, seeming to read Rommy’s mind. “The last thing I want to do is tangle with them again.”

  Rommy nodded but kept scanning the water. She felt some of the tension leave her body once they were past the entrance to the lagoon. There was no reason that she knew of that the mermaids couldn’t leave the lagoon, but still, it felt like they had left their territory, so to speak.

  The four men kept up a steady rhythm as the boat bounced across the open water. Outside of the sheltered lagoon, the water was choppier. Rommy felt Alice taking deep breaths.

  “Are you okay?” she asked, noticing for the first time that the little girl looked white.

  Alice nodded her head, but she continued taking deep breaths and staring out at the horizon. Poor Alice
. For someone who didn’t like the water, she had been forced into it a lot in recent days.

  The Lost Boys and Finn seemed to keep up a constant stream of chatter and Francie joined in, teasing the boys. Tiger Lily engaged little Walter and several times she had the little boy in fits of giggles. Rommy didn’t ever remember the older girl smiling so much.

  Everyone, even her father, seemed in a buoyant mood, but Rommy couldn’t shake the unease that had settled around her shoulders like a damp shawl. She was so deep in her thoughts that she was startled when the boat’s bottom bumped on something. Looking up, she realized the men had rowed close to the shore of a small, rocky island. The rocks bore a menacing resemblance to a skull.

  Before she could ask where they were or what they were doing. Big Red, Max, Gentleman Jack, and Smee had hopped out of the boat and were guiding the boat through the shallows.

  Her father threw over the small anchor and leaped from his spot. The boat bobbed gently in what looked like less than two feet of water. The shore was too rocky to drag the boat onto.

  Her father looked at everyone in the boat. “Stay here,” he said. “I will be back, and then we’ll prepare you to meet my crew.” He snapped his fingers. “You men stay with the boat. Smee? Come with me.”

  Without waiting to see if Smee was following, he strode up onto the rocks and into what looked like the mouth of the skull.

  Francie waited until Smee had disappeared behind her father before she jabbed Rommy in her ribs. “What’s going on?” she hissed in Rommy’s ear.

  “I don’t know any more than you do,” said Rommy.

  Tiger Lily was looking after Papa with a frown on her face, and Finn was shaking his head. “It must be true,” he said under his breath.

  “What do you mean?” asked Rommy.

  “I mean, there’s been rumors about a treasure that old Captain Hook has squirreled away somewhere.” Finn jerked a thumb in the direction of the creepy cave. “I think that’s where it is.”

  Alice wrinkled her nose. “You mean, like buried treasure?”

  Finn nodded. “Yep, except it ain’t buried exactly.”

  The Lost Boys murmured to each other.

  Rommy glanced uneasily at the three pirates, wondering if they knew about a treasure, and if it could be true. She remembered the look between Gentleman Jack and Big Red when Smee had asked about the “you know what.”

  How would this complicate things with the other pirates? Or did the other pirates know about the treasure? She had never really thought about why all these men had tied themselves to her father and his ship. The idea that they would care about Papa’s revenge for the death of his son at Pan’s hands seemed unlikely. She felt like an idiot for not realizing that those men were likely in this life for the treasure.

  Before she could voice her concerns to Francie or Alice, her father and Smee reappeared. Rommy narrowed her eyes. Were her father’s pockets lumpy, or was she imagining things?

  Hook and Smee splashed back to the boat. Smee was carrying a long length of rough rope.

  “You four boys and Finn, you’re going to need to get out of the boat,” said her father.

  Jem and George shrunk back against Finn, and Walter tightened his arms around Finn’s neck.

  Her father let out a gusty breath. “What are you waiting for?” He swung an arm toward the sun which was no longer high over head. “We don’t have time for theatrics.”

  Finn unlocked Walter’s arms from around his neck and stood up. “What is it you want us to do, Captain?” he asked.

  “Oh, the Capt’n has the best plan,” said Smee, shifting from one foot to the other.

  “Rommy was right earlier,” said Hook. “We can’t row up to my ship with all of you jammed into this boat like so many sardines. Nobody would believe you’d just come along so quietly.” Hook rolled his eyes.

  Finn lifted his chin. “So, how are we supposed to fool them?”

  Hook smiled. “That is where you come in, my lad.”

  It only took a few minutes for her father to truss up Finn and the Lost Boys. Even though Rommy trusted her father, she still cringed when her father placed a rough loop of rope around Finn’s neck and tied his hands behind his back. Smee then took the rope and tied each boys’ hands to it so they were strung together in a long line.

  By the time Smee had tied George’s hands, Walter and Jem were both crying.

  Finn twisted to look back at them. “It’s all right, guys,” he said. “This is all pretend.”

  Hook put a hand on Finn’s shoulder. “Let them be,” he said. “This lends just the right note of authenticity.”

  Finn shrugged her Hook’s hand off his shoulder. “I don’t care about no authen...whatever you said. I ain’t just gonna let ‘em be scared like that.”

  Hook shrugged his shoulders. “Do what you want,” he said, “but if Corelli and some of the others sniff out what we’re really up to, they’ll have a real reason to be tafraid.”

  Chapter 29:

  Fooling the Crew

  The sun was much lower on the horizon when they finally rowed alongside her father’s ship, Finn and the four Lost Boys flying behind them like a macabre kite.

  It didn’t take long before Rommy, Alice, Francie, and Tiger Lily were standing on the deck with her father.

  Smee held the rope connected to the boys, and he gave it a rather vicious tug, pulling them all toward the deck. They landed awkwardly and Finn stumbled, only righting himself at the last minute. Rommy could hardly watch. The boys all looked so tired. She kept reminding herself this was all just part of the plan.

  Hook strode to the bow of the boat and turned to address his crew. “There’s more than one way to defeat our enemy,” he said. He gestured to the boys who stood in a drooping row. “We’ll deliver them to the workhouse. Poor Pan will be beside himself.” A smile curved on his face, and he chuckled. “Now then, we will be pulling anchor before dawn. I want to be in the air before sunrise.” He looked around at his men. “I need a volunteer to take a message to Pan. We wouldn’t want him to worry over where his little friends went, now would we?”

  Hook’s eyes landed on Gentleman Jack. Rommy knew this was part of the plan. The message was just a ruse so that one of them could spy on Pan and the remaining Lost Boys.

  “I would be happy to do that for you, Captain,” said Gentleman Jack, giving a courtly bow in the direction of Hook.

  Rommy watched the crew members, trying to read their expressions. Corelli, not surprisingly, had a sneer on his face. Smee was standing in the back, frowning.

  Stubbs scratched his head. “Why don’t we just make ‘em walk the plank and be done with it, Cap’n?”

  Hook whirled in the older man’s direction and lifted one eyebrow. He lifted his hook to eye level, examined it, and said, “I hope you are not questioning your captain, Stubbs.”

  The older man gulped. “No...no...I...that is...I’s just thought...” he stuttered.

  Hook moved as fast as a snake and was in the older man’s face. “I don’t have you here to think, Stubbs, now do I?” he bellowed in the man’s face.

  The man leaned back and shook his head. “No, Cap’n, of course not, I...”

  Hook leaned away and straightened his cuffs. He looked at the other men. “Does anyone else have any questions?” The silence stretched out for a long moment. “I thought not. You are dismissed to your duties.” Hook gave a sharp nod, and the men began moving in various directions to fulfill their jobs.

  Corelli moved closer to her father.

  “What ‘appened to you? Ya ain’t injured are ya?” he asked gesturing at Hook’s torn and bloody shirt.

  Hook shrugged his big shoulders. “We had a little run-in with Pan, but no worries, I’m in perfect health, Corelli.” Hook flashed a smile that was mostly teeth.

  Corelli narrowed his eyes. “And what about the Indian wench?” he asked, nodding at Tiger Lily who stood rigidly next to Rommy.

  Hook raised an eyebrow. “Wha
t about her?” he asked.

  Corelli used his knife to pick something out of his teeth. “Ain’t she a pal of Pan’s? What’s she doing here, roamin’ around?”

  Hook drew himself up and stared down his nose at the shorter man. “She is coming to England to join my daughter at school,” he said.

  “Since when is they such chums?” Corelli frowned at Tiger Lily and Rommy.

  Hook’s eyes narrowed. “My daughter and her friendships are none of your business,” he snapped. “Instead of worrying about things that don’t concern you, I suggest you get to work. We’ll be pulling up anchor before the night is over.”

  Without waiting to see if Corelli had listened, Hook started giving orders to Smee.

  The small, round man was at his side instantly.

  “Take these boys down to the brig,” he said. “Make sure they have food and water. We wouldn’t want them to be too weak to work.”

  “Yes, sir, I’ll take care of that right away,” said Smee. He bustled over to Finn who stood at the front of the line. “You heard what the Captain said. Let’s move along, and no funny business.”

  The boys shuffled forward, and Finn’s eyes met Rommy’s over the top of Smee’s head. He gave her a small smile. Then without a word, he followed Smee.

  Rommy walked over to where her father stood, a smile on his face as he watched his men moving about their tasks. He put a hand on her shoulder. “I think that went well, don’t you, my dear?”

  “I hope so,” said Rommy. Unease slithered up her spine. From across the deck she could see Corelli, his eyes flicking to her father, a look of utter hatred on his face. Whether he believed Papa or not, they couldn’t trust him. She squeezed her father’s hand. “You need to watch your back around that man,” she said.

  “Don’t worry, my dear, he won’t get the jump on me,” said Hook. “I’ve been around men like him before.”

  Rommy nodded, but she kept her eyes on the burly man. She wanted to believe this plan would work, but there was a sinking feeling in her stomach that was hard to ignore.