by Heidi Schulz
Jocelyn threw her arms around her. “I don’t want you to go!” she cried.
Evie hugged her back. “I know. But this is right and good. We do hard things for our family, sometimes even tell them good-bye, if we know we should.” She let go and stood quickly then, her mind made up. “That bird that brought the letter, can he take me home?”
“What? Now?”
“It’s time,” Evie said. She kissed the younger girl on the cheek. “Until we meet again.”
“Good-bye,” Jocelyn said, choking back her tears. She walked Evie to the deck and made the necessary arrangements with Edgar, paying him with some of the gold Evie had pilfered from Krueger.
Evie took that moment to say her good-byes. “I’m going home now, Roger. Take care of Jocelyn for me.” She gave him a hug. “And yourself, too.”
He nodded. “I will. I promise.”
“And you,” she said to Starkey, “if you sail with Hook in the future—my future, at least—I’ll likely see you then…though I suppose that has already happened for you.” She shook her head. “My, how the Neverland is confusing!”
She settled herself into the hammocklike sling Edgar would use to carry her back to her own time—the very sling that had first brought Jocelyn to the Neverland. “Are you ready?” the great crow asked.
“Just a moment,” she replied.
She dug the logbook and lead pencil Jocelyn had given her earlier from her pocket, and quickly scribbled a note inside. She closed the book and handed it to Jocelyn. “I hope this works,” she muttered. “Good-bye, Jocelyn.”
Edgar rose swiftly, his shadow blocking the moon and the stars. Evie was gone. Jocelyn missed her already.
She looked down at the book in her hands and opened to the note. It read:
Look closely at your locket. Best of luck!
Love, Evie
Jocelyn untied the ribbon holding the locket round her neck. She stepped closer to the light of one of the ship’s lanterns. Her heart pounded, and her hands felt so slick with sweat she thought she might drop the pendant. She ran her fingers over the serpent on the front, feeling for the jewel that stuck out a bit farther than the rest. She pressed it, and the locket sprang open. She examined it, inside and out. It appeared no different from before.
She looked closer. Was that a hairline crack between the tiny portrait of Captain Hook and the back of the pendant? She pressed her fingernail into it and it came apart, ever so slightly. She pressed harder, but it didn’t budge. Jocelyn looked back at the sea serpent. She would force the necklace open if necessary, though she didn’t want to break it. “Come on, open up,” she commanded, poking the jeweled monster right in its ruby-red eye. The back of the locket swung open, revealing a second compartment. A tightly folded piece of paper fell to the deck. Jocelyn snatched it up and carefully smoothed its folds.
It was a page torn from a book of fairy tales—the story of Cinderella, to be precise. On one side, in Jocelyn’s own hand, was written:
Dear Mother,
Whatever happens, I will be fine.
Love from your daughter, Jocelyn
She had written that very note to Evelina just after she defeated the crocodile. Jocelyn turned the page over.
Dear Jocelyn,
Better than fine. You will be great. Now go rescue Sir Charles and get the treasure!
Love, Evie (Your Someday Mother)
Jocelyn slipped the note into her pocket and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. She brought the locket close and looked in the new compartment. In tiny writing, painted on the back of the portrait, Jocelyn found at last the key to breaking her father’s code.
The key wasn’t the only thing Jocelyn gained that night. She also gained a new member of her crew, likely the best she would ever have.
After Evie left, Roger felt it best to give Jocelyn some space. He squeezed her arm, then made a show of taking time to look over the ship’s repairs.
Jocelyn stayed with Gentleman Starkey, staving off heartbreak by contemplating what to do with him. The man was a pirate through and through—and a rather superlative one, I might add—but Jocelyn suspected that he was not entirely heartless, that he had been touched by the bravery he’d witnessed in Evie. She was likely wrong about that, but we can forgive her this once. She was going through an emotional time.
“I knew your mother somewhat, years ago,” Starkey told the girl, “back when she was just a bit older than now—and again after she was newly married to the captain. Evelina was one of the most remarkable people I’ve ever met. I always admired the way she was determined to live each day as if it could be her last. If you are going to save her father, I’ll help you, but I won’t set foot on those school grounds again, and don’t be asking me about it. I have my reasons.”
Jocelyn shook her head. “I’m tired of secrets, both my own and others’.”
“I don’t much care what you are tired of. I’ve a right to keep it to myself.”
“And I’ve a right to return you to Tiger Lily’s village. I’m certain the children would be glad to get you back. How did you know both my mother and I went to school there?”
To Jocelyn’s surprise, the man laughed. “You’re a dirty extortionist, you are,” he said. “I can respect that.” He shook his head. “All right. I’ll tell you. It makes little difference now. I knew about your mother because I was on Captain Hook’s crew while he was building his treasure caves. I never set foot in them, which I believe is part of the reason he let me live. My job was to scout the school grounds, to make sure no one stumbled upon the old carriage house and found their way in before the booby traps were set. To do so, I took a job as an assistant teacher.”
Jocelyn found that hard to believe. “If that’s true, how was it that Evie didn’t recognize you all the times she saw you here on the Neverland?”
“I must have begun teaching after she returned home, so the Evie you knew hadn’t yet met me. And when she finally did at school, she was smart enough not to let on. At any rate, if you’ve finished interrupting, I’ll continue.”
Jocelyn nodded.
“On occasion, the captain would come ashore with a new building crew. He never liked to leave any of them alive for too long, lest they start getting ideas about mutiny and selling out the treasure location. At those times, he’d join me in walking the school grounds to hear my report. I’m sure he thought often of killing me, but he restrained himself, knowing it would be difficult to place another in my position. Not many pirates have been trained as an English schoolteacher, now, have they?”
“I suppose not.”
Since Jocelyn had not added anything interesting to the conversation, he carried on as if the girl hadn’t spoken. “On one such evening, as we were walking along, we overheard a young lady, Miss Evelina Hopewell, boasting to her friends that her father had bought a fine new ship and was planning on sending her out on a pleasure cruise for her eighteenth birthday. She named the upcoming date and time, just a fortnight from thence, and expressed her hope that the party would attract the right sort of gentlemanly attention. Captain Hook quietly parted the foliage separating us from the girl and, upon looking at her, declared to me that he was the right sort himself. He made a dramatic entrance to the party, sacking the ship and beginning a formal courtship of Evelina in one fell swoop. The two were married before a month was out.”
Jocelyn wondered at this. It didn’t sound like Evie, though the details did fit in with what she knew about her parents’ meeting. “But why did he let you live, once the treasure was hidden away and he no longer needed you? And how did you know I went to school there?”
“He let me live because, once he married Evelina, she took a liking to me. She insisted that I stay on as crew and made him promise to never harm or dismiss me. It didn’t hurt that he knew I’d never go back to the school, not as long as Cook was still alive and working there. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Cook may have hated me, but she was happy to work for him, keeping an e
ye out for anything suspicious and, later, keeping an eye on you.”
Cook had known her father? And even more shocking, had had a love affair with Starkey?
“But how did you know that I went to school there?” she asked. “If Cook was so angry with you, she wouldn’t have told you, would she?”
“Once, when he was well into a bottle of muscat, Captain Hook showed me one of her letters, telling how you were getting on. I daresay he was pleased.”
Her father was pleased with her? Of all the revelations Jocelyn had received, this one seemed the most incredible. She was quite speechless over the idea.
Starkey did not seem to notice her consternation. “So,” he concluded, “there you have it. What you’ll do with it, I can’t say. But as I mentioned, if you require my services in saving Evelina’s father, I will do what I can. I think I owe her that much, for my life. But don’t be getting any ideas that I’ll enjoy serving under a mewling infant, such as yourself.”
“Nor would I enjoy your service. But I could use you. I am short a man, thanks to that traitor Dirty Bob. I’ll take you on,” she said, “but don’t cross me again.”
“I won’t. But you had better not put any sticky hands on me. I don’t like it.”
And that is how Starkey joined the crew. Jocelyn was reluctant to have him. He was reluctant to sign on. It couldn’t have been a better match.
Meriwether delivered Jocelyn’s note to the crew, and she was able to round them up without any difficulty. She gathered them together and informed them of her intentions. “The most important thing is that we free my grandfather—even if I have to give up the treasure to do it.”
Jim McCraig volunteered to use the information in Jocelyn’s locket to crack the code. “Says he’s good with languages, miss,” Smee translated.
After copying the code key into the logbook, Jocelyn instructed him to write his translations in it. Blank pages do come in handy for writing, she thought. She also copied the key directly onto the map. She was hoping to free her grandfather by stratagem, but if it came down to it, she was prepared to meet Krueger’s demands in order to save Sir Charles’s life.
Both Gentleman Starkey and Mr. Smee had made the trip from the Neverland to the mainland many times and knew the way. Starkey guided them through a rock arch in the middle of the sea. On the Neverland side it was bright and sunny; a soft, warm snow drifted down and hit the decks with a sizzle. But as soon as they came through the archway, the Hook’s Revenge was plunged into a deep gray fog.
“So, we’re back in English waters, then,” Smee said.
Jocelyn would soon have to face Captain Krueger again. It was not the chilly air that caused her to shiver.
For the average young person, thinking of one’s mother while in proximity to execution dock might be considered strange. That is, unless one’s mother is a wicked and dastardly woman, bent on destruction and world dominion, much like my own.
However, Jocelyn, as you may have gathered, was not an average young person. Evie was very much on her mind as she flew toward execution dock. How the girl wished that both Evie and Roger had been flying along next to her at that very moment, but Evie was gone.
She’d left the Neverland the night before.
She’d died years ago.
As for Roger, he had wanted to come. All the crew had. But Jocelyn could not, would not, risk their lives—or her grandfather’s. Krueger had said to come alone. She did so.
Jocelyn mulled over what she knew of Krueger—aside from his lust for gold. She thought it more than likely he would have extra men hidden somewhere, just as he had on the dock outside the pirate village. She knew there was a large chance that even if she met his demands, he would refuse to turn Sir Charles back over to her, happy and whole. If there was one thing she knew about Krueger, it was that he was predictable. Jocelyn hoped she could use that knowledge against him.
Execution dock made its presence known before the girl was able to actually see it. The creaking of the iron gibbets and the scent of rot carried to her through the fog, informing Jocelyn that she was close. She was taken back to the day her grandfather had brought her there to show her the grisly remains of executed pirates, displayed as a warning to others considering the occupation. It wasn’t an outing planned for amusement (though I would have enjoyed it); rather, Sir Charles had brought her to the docks trying to impress on her mind that piracy would come to no good end, that happiness lay in the future he had planned for her.
That was the last time she had spent alone with her grandfather. The next day had begun a flurry of arrangements and the packing of trunks. By the end of the week, she had been sent away to finishing school.
That walk they had shared seemed so long ago. Jocelyn disagreed with her grandfather now as much as ever, but she felt a new pity for him. Sir Charles had lost his wife, and then a daughter. He wanted Jocelyn to have a quiet life, secure and safe—if somewhat dull. She understood a bit better now, though she still would not choose the life he envisioned for her.
At last, execution dock came into sight, the fog dampening, but not obliterating, its horrors. The girl landed, watchful for the as yet unseen Captain Krueger.
The gibbets hung from gallows, some high overhead, others dangling just above the waterline. The latter held lesser criminals, their bodies on display just long enough for the seasonal high tide of the river to cover them three times, after which they could be buried. Jocelyn couldn’t help feeling a little embarrassed for them, and I, for one, agree with the girl. If only those blighters had applied themselves, they might not have had such a short run of notoriety. Contrast those to the remains of the great Captain Kidd. He had lorded over execution dock for years.
Jocelyn looked about, hoping to catch a glimpse of someone famous, but the ravages of time had left the figures difficult to identify. Still, one hanging over the water a bit farther on looked to be fresh enough. She approached, leaning over the dock’s railing, trying to see through the fog. The man’s back was to her, but the gibbet slowly turned him about as it twisted in the breeze.
His face came into view, and Jocelyn stumbled back. “Grandfather?”
He reached for her through the bars, an innocent man in the iron shroud of a criminal. Relief flooded through her. In the mist, she had thought…At any rate, he was alive. He peered at her with confusion for a moment before recognition dawned on his face. “Jocelyn, my dear girl,” he called to her. “You are alive! You have been gone so long. I had feared…”
“Grandfather, I’m…I’m sorry,” Jocelyn cried, but the reasons why were uttered only in her mind.
I’m sorry I left without a word.
I’m sorry that you are here because of me.
I’m sorry I could not—cannot—be all you want me to be.
He seemed to know what she meant, even as the words remained unspoken. “As am I, my dear girl. But…” His eyes sharpened. “What are you doing here? This is no place for a child. You must leave. It isn’t safe!”
She reached for him, lifting off the dock so that her fingertips could touch his hands. “I came to get you,” she said.
“Such a sweet family reunion.” Krueger’s voice pierced the fog, bringing Jocelyn back down to the dock with a thump. She whirled, searching for him. A dark shape appeared in the mist, gradually developing into the form of a man. He limped slowly toward her. When he drew close enough for Jocelyn to truly see, she let out a gasp.
A startling change had come over Krueger’s already terrifying face since the last time she had seen him. He still had those hideous, pointed teeth, the terrible white scar, and the lifeless, dark eyes, but now, his appearance had taken on a new level of horror. His left ear and the tip of his nose were gone, leaving only angry-looking red and scarred skin in their place, and across his cheeks dead, black patches spread like mold.
Jocelyn shuddered with revulsion and retreated a step, feeling the railing press against her back. The fog swirled around the vile man, turning him misty
again for just a moment. It brought to Jocelyn’s mind the image of her father in the Black Swamp, how insubstantial he had truly been and how her confidence had caused him to simply disappear. She squared her shoulders and put on a brave face.
“You look well,” she taunted.
“Your little trick on the mountain cost me three toes, an ear, and a good part of my nose to frostbite, but don’t worry, you’ll pay for it. I’ll buy new ones once I have my hands on your father’s gold.” He licked his lips, and his black eyes took on a fevered gleam. “You will not thwart me again.”
Jocelyn understood now why he had been able to travel to her When. It was apparent that he had forgotten his home—he was untethered, able to slip in and out of any time. She wondered if he had substituted a gold lust for what he had forgotten. The pursuit of it seemed to be the only thing that mattered to him.
Krueger drew his sword and rested it on a rope tied to the dock. She followed the line with her eye; it ran up through a post to a high beam and back down to the gibbet. If he were to cut through the rope, Sir Charles and his iron prison would plummet into the river, where he would sink to the bottom and never be heard from again. Krueger’s threat need not be spoken. Cross me and your grandfather will die.
“Give me the map.” His voice was quiet and slow, but coiled. He would strike without provocation.
Jocelyn had hoped that she would find a way, a trick of some sort, that would enable her to free her grandfather and still keep the treasure from Krueger, but standing here now, nothing seemed worth the risk. She could fly to the gibbet, but a great iron lock held it closed around her grandfather—there was no way she could force it open. She could attack Krueger, but he would surely cut the rope the instant she moved toward her sword. Besides, he had the advantage of physical strength on his side.