‘Meg!’ she said.
‘Go,’ said Long Meg. ‘Take Molly back to bed.’
Hannah hesitated for a moment, then hauled Molly to her feet, and half-dragged, half-carried her from the room, and up the stairs to the lower deck.
She turned to make her way aft to the stairs that would take them back to their side of the orlop deck, but paused. Something made her turn around and head up another flight of stairs and down a corridor to the officers’ quarters.
She tapped on James’s door. Nothing. She banged louder. Molly was trembling with fear. The door was pulled open.
James’s eyes were rimmed with sleep, but he was fully clothed. His hair was rumpled and Hannah caught a faint whiff of brandy about him.
‘Hannah,’ said James, surprised. ‘What–’
‘Dr Ullathorne,’ said Hannah breathlessly. ‘And Long Meg. She needs help.’
James frowned. ‘What do you mean? What happened?’
‘He – he was hurting Molly,’ she indicated the wounds on Molly’s arm. ‘Meg tried to stop him. She’s still there.’
‘Are you sure Ullathorne was hurting her?’ asked James. ‘You’re sure he wasn’t helping her? And this was all one of Meg’s pranks?’
Hannah shook her head. ‘Of course I’m sure,’ she said, beginning to cry. ‘I was there. He was cutting her…’
She choked up, and James nodded.
‘Stay here,’ he said. ‘Don’t wake anyone else. I’ll take care of it.’
He left quickly and quietly. Hannah dragged Molly into the room, and lifted her up onto James’s bed. She yanked open the dresser and pulled out a linen shirt, tearing a strip from it and binding it around Molly’s arm. Molly was still shaking uncontrollably.
‘I do not like thee, Dr Fell,’ she whispered.
‘I know,’ said Hannah. ‘I’m sorry. Lie down now, James will fix everything.’
Molly closed her eye. After a few minutes, she stopped shaking.
Hannah waited for what seemed like hours. She couldn’t sit still, and kept standing up and fidgeting. She went to the gunhole and peered out, her breath fogging up the thick glass. Stars smouldered in the sky. She looked for the Great Bear, but clouds scudded over the night sky and swallowed the stars.
Finally, she heard footsteps outside, and the door swung open. James paused on the threshold, looking at Hannah.
‘What happened?’ she asked.
He came inside, picking up the torn linen shirt.
‘Everything’s taken care of,’ said James. ‘You should get the child back to the orlop deck before anyone notices. Is this my shirt?’
‘Long Meg–’
‘She’s fine,’ said James. ‘She … hurt her arm. You’ll see her again tomorrow.’
He held up the shirt and frowned at the missing strip, then sighed and wiped his hands on the white linen. Hannah saw smears of red. He took her by the shoulders and looked into her eyes. All rumpled from sleep, he looked more beautiful than ever. ‘I’d never lie to you.’
She looked back into his blue eyes, and for a moment all she wanted to do was curl up inside them and forget about Molly and Long Meg and Dr Ullathorne and the Derby Ram. But Molly was still lying on the bed. James squeezed her shoulders and smiled gently at her. He was telling the truth. He’d never lie to her. Hannah nodded, and stood up.
She bent over the hammock and picked up the sleeping Molly. Molly muttered something, and reached her skinny arms around Hannah’s neck, resting her melted face on Hannah’s shoulder. Hannah turned to look at James.
‘Thanks for helping us tonight,’ she said.
She left the cabin and made her way silently back down the wooden corridors and down the steps to the women’s quarters. None of the sleeping sailors in the hammocks stirred.
She laid Molly on Long Meg’s bed, and lay down on her own. She felt so full of nerves and fear that she was sure she’d never sleep. But before she knew it, a thin trickle of morning light was coming in through the grate.
Hannah sat up, glancing over to Long Meg’s bed. Molly was there, blinking sleepily. Long Meg was nowhere to be seen. When Molly saw Hannah looking at her, she climbed out of her own bed and crawled into Hannah’s.
‘It’s okay,’ Hannah said. ‘You’re safe now. He won’t hurt you any more.’
Molly looked up. ‘Where’s Long Meg?’ she asked.
‘I’m not sure. James said she’d hurt her arm. Maybe she’ll be at breakfast.’
‘I want Long Meg.’
For a second, Hannah was tempted to turn her back on Molly. She was such a horrid little thing. But she was just a child.
Hannah smiled brightly. ‘Then let’s go up to breakfast and see if we can find her.’
Molly sniffled a little, but she took Hannah’s hand and they made their way down the corridor, to the ladder that led to the upper decks. The other women were still all in their beds. They watched Hannah and Molly silently. Sally clutched her infant and crossed herself.
‘Aren’t you coming up for breakfast?’ Hannah asked.
Sally looked away and shook her head. ‘Not today,’ she said. ‘We’m not allowed up.’
‘What do you mean? What’s happening?’ asked Hannah.
Sally shrugged. The baby began to grizzle, and she jigged it up and down. ‘We’m not allowed. There be biscuits in yon barrel.’
Molly’s grip tightened on Hannah’s hand. ‘Why can’t we go up?’ she said in a very small voice.
‘I don’t know.’ Hannah frowned. Was it something to do with Long Meg’s disappearance? Perhaps they were punishing Dr Ullathorne now that he had been found out.
‘I think we’d best stay down here for a while,’ she said.
‘Is Long Meg up there?’ Molly asked. Hannah tried to smile. ‘I’m sure we’ll see her soon. Come on, let’s go and play with your doll. You can make a bed for her out of my handkerchief.’
Molly allowed herself to be led back to their beds.
The wound on Molly’s arm looked red and angry, and Hannah was afraid that the stagnant air of the cabin would make it worse. She traded her biscuit for a finger of gin, and carefully cleaned the wound. Molly yelped as the alcohol soaked into the cut, but clenched her teeth and said nothing. Hannah tore a strip off the hem of her dress, and bandaged Molly’s arm.
Every now and then some sound came filtering down, the banging of wood, the sloshing of water, and once, a strange, high-pitched scream that didn’t sound like it had come from a human. Hannah tried to act as if everything were normal. She didn’t want Molly to be scared.
As the day went on, the cabin grew hot and stuffy. The women dozed and played cards. Noon came and went. Molly curled up in Hannah’s bed and fell asleep. Hannah tried to fight off the drowsiness, but before long she slipped into an uneasy, restless sleep.
Hannah was woken by a screaming, shuddering noise.
Something enormous rushed and scraped down the side of the ship, hitting the water with a thwack. A few seconds later there was a faint boom. The screaming noise stopped and the ship lurched suddenly to one side. The women were all thrown out of their beds. Then, with a juddering groan of wood and water, the ship came to a complete stop.
The sudden stillness, after weeks of rolling and rocking from side to side, was strange. Hannah felt like every movement she made was magnified a hundred times. The women got to their feet and climbed back into their beds. Molly looked dazed. The light had grown dim. Hannah’s mouth felt dry, and her head was spinning. She felt disoriented from sleeping during the day, and could not quite work out what time it was. Was it evening or morning?
A bell was ringing. There was a strange noise coming from above. Chanting and stamping. Molly’s hand crept into Hannah’s.
‘What is it?’ she asked. ‘Is it Davy Jones?’
‘Don’t be silly,’ said Hannah. ‘I’m sure it’s just … just the sailors singing. Or something.’
‘Let’s go and find Long Meg,’ said Molly.
‘I�
��m not sure we should go up there,’ said Hannah.
Molly ignored her, and climbed off the bed.
‘Come on,’ she said, trotting down the aisle.
Hannah hesitated, then followed Molly down the corridor and up the stairs.
eighteen
Scatterheart walked on until she found the house of the west wind, and asked him if he knew where her father’s house was. ‘Oh yes,’ said the west wind. ‘I’ll blow you there.’ But he was just as tricksy as his brother, and blew the girl into a vast and empty desert.
***
As Hannah climbed up onto the upper deck, she was hit with the stench of rotting fish.
The last streaks of light were sinking away below the horizon, and stars twinkled overhead in the black sky.
The air was still and hot. Yellow lanterns hung from beams, casting angular shadows. The deck and sails were festooned with long strings of seaweed, draped like bunting. It looked black and shiny in the strange yellow half-light.
A group of young sailors and officers stood by the port rail, shirtless and barefoot. Hannah noticed Robert Bracegirdle there with them. Without his shirt on, he looked even younger. He was just a skinny, rather nervous-looking little boy. The young men stamped their feet on the deck in a slow, monotonous rhythm, and chanted something over and over that Hannah could not quite make out. The bell was still ringing.
Molly was already standing on the deck, looking around at the decorations and the chanting men. ‘Is it a party?’ she asked Hannah.
Hannah shook her head. ‘I don’t think so.’
No one had noticed them yet, and Hannah led Molly into the shadow of the capstan. They crouched behind it, peering out at the men. Captain Gartside stood alone on the quarterdeck, watching.
The stamping grew faster and faster, until it was just a blur of sound. Then it stopped altogether. The chanting ceased. The bell stopped ringing. There was an eerie silence.
The young men looked around nervously. Bracegirdle was shivering.
Suddenly, there was a strange, animal-like cry, and three strange figures climbed over the starboard rail and dropped heavily onto the deck.
Molly whimpered.
They were monsters.
The tallest one was nearly twice the height of a man, and was some kind of merman, with the tall, pointed snout of a porpoise, a long, grey, shining fish-like body and strong, stout legs. Tall, branched horns spread from its head like antlers. Serpents twisted around its wrists. A rotting stench rolled off it in waves, and Hannah’s stomach churned. It was crowned with a wreath of hemp, carried a tall, wicked-looking trident and wore a long cloak of plaited seaweed.
The second creature was smaller, and clad in a woman’s ragged grey dress and green pelisse. The creature had thick golden curls of hair, studded with starfish and shells. The grey dress stretched awkwardly across the monster’s body, and had torn in several places, revealing pale skin and fine black hairs.
The last monster wore a dark, hooded robe that covered its face and reached all the way to the ground. The creature’s head whipped around, and Hannah felt it staring straight at her. She gasped as she saw a glowing red eye burning within the darkness of the hood, and saw blue smoke curling out from its nostrils.
‘D-davy Jones…’ breathed Molly, terrified.
‘Behold!’ boomed the porpoise-creature. ‘We are Neptune, ruler of the Seven Seas, King of the Secret Currents, Lord of the Boundless Waves, Master of the Tides, High Constable of the Coral Caverns and Uttermost Recesses of the Deep. You, pathetic tadpoles, have crossed over into my land, this land where nothing is everything, where there is no latitude, this middle world. And you must be baptised by my queen, Amphitrite,’ the monster in the dress sank into a low curtsey, ‘in these waters, or else you will be consigned to the depths of the deepest oceans, to an endless existence in the gloom and darkness of Davy Jones’s locker.’
The hooded creature bowed its head, its red eye glowing.
King Neptune raised his trident high in the air. ‘Let the ancient and moistening rites of our aquatic court begin.’
Suddenly, the air was filled with high-pitched cries and whistles, as a horde of men swung themselves over the rail onto the deck.
Their faces were decorated with red swirls and strange patterns, and they wore wigs of seaweed and hemp.
King Neptune approached the quarterdeck.
‘What payment do you offer in exchange for safe passage through these waters?’ said Neptune.
Captain Gartside stepped forward. For the first time on the voyage, he was wearing his blue officer’s coat and bicorn hat. Hannah was surprised to see him smiling.
‘I, Ashton Gartside, captain of the Derby Ram, do offer you a hogshead of our very finest rum, with our great respects to His Majesty.’
King Neptune inclined his great antlered head. As he did so, the porpoise snout slipped to one side.
‘See,’ Hannah whispered to Molly. ‘It’s just the sailors. They’re wearing costumes. It’s Jemmy Griffin. He’s wearing a porpoise skin.’
Molly was still rigid with terror. She shook her head. ‘No,’ she breathed. ‘Davy Jones … the queen…’
‘It’s not really Davy Jones,’ said Hannah. ‘Just someone dressing up.’
Cheers burst from the painted men as bottles were handed down from the quarterdeck. One of them passed Neptune a large, leatherbound book. The great porpoise-king opened the book, and read out the names of the youngest sailors and officers. When he got to Bracegirdle’s name, the boy lifted his head and tried to look brave.
‘You tadpoles have never before crossed the Line. You must undergo baptism.’
The painted men cheered again, and ran about grabbing the young shirtless men. They tied their hands together with rope, and dunked them in barrels filled with bilge-water and effluent. They were then slopped with tar and dripping, and thrown overboard. This was accompanied with raucous shouts and laughter as the bottles were opened. The bedraggled young men were hauled back on deck. A wet and sticky Bracegirdle looked as if he were about to burst with pride.
Then Tam Chaunter produced his fiddle and the dancing began.
‘Bring forth the women!’ shouted King Neptune.
The women were ushered up to the deck, looking wide-eyed at the red-painted men and the seaweed bunting. But the drink flowed freely, and soon the air was full of laughter and song.
Hannah looked around for Long Meg, or James, but couldn’t see either of them. More lanterns were lit, and in the brighter light, Hannah could see how crudely made the costumes were. But Molly still trembled, her eye fixed on Queen Amphitrite and Davy Jones.
‘Molly,’ said Hannah. ‘It’s all over. Now it’s just a big party. Are you going to help me find Long Meg?’
Molly raised a shaking hand and pointed to Queen Amphitrite, who was twirling and dancing with another sailor. Her golden curls fell over her face, and Hannah couldn’t see.
‘No, silly,’ said Hannah. ‘That’s just a sailor wearing a dress. It’s not Long Meg.’
Molly looked at Hannah. For a moment, the giggling child who sang nursery rhymes and stole money vanished, and was replaced by a very serious little girl.
‘It’s Long Meg’s dress,’ she said. ‘Her green coat.’
Hannah went cold.
The creature was wearing Meg’s pelisse – Hannah’s pelisse. It was so dirty and tattered that she hadn’t recognised it. The fur trim had been torn off. And the golden curls weren’t hair at all, they were curly wood-shavings, stuck together to make a wig.
Something roared in Hannah’s head, and she felt dizzy. She ran over to the dancing queen, who had her back to Hannah, and grabbed her by the shoulder, spinning her around.
‘Where did you get–’ said Hannah, and then stopped.
It was James, his eyes sparkling with mirth, his mouth slack from rum.
‘Hannah!’ he shouted. ‘Dance with me.’
He slipped an arm around her waist and whirled her in a c
ircle, lifting her feet from the wooden deck.
‘The dress…’ said Hannah breathlessly. ‘Why are you wearing Meg’s dress? Where is she?’
James laughed. ‘You worry to much, my sweet little Hannah.’ He spun her around again. ‘Meg is asleep in my cabin. She caught a chill the other night, and is resting alone where she will not be disturbed. She let me borrow her dress for the ceremony.’
Hannah nodded slowly, waiting for the feeling of relief to wash over her.
She remembered Long Meg winking at James down in the orlop deck. You looks like you could use another dance with a short-heeled wench, mister.
James swung her about, his seaweedy hair slapping her face, and his boozy breath making her feel ill. Many thanks, ma’am, but I’m not really in the mood for dancing.
She remembered the mocking look in his eyes. People like her – they’re like animals.
She remembered what Long Meg had told her. If there’s one thing I can say for sure, it’s that Lieutenant James Belforte is no gentleman.
‘I want to see her,’ she said, trying to pull away.
James tightened his grip around her waist. ‘Tomorrow,’ he said. ‘You can see her tomorrow. Let her rest tonight. Let us dance. The stars are bright, we are young. You should be happy, Hannah!’
Hannah glanced up at the sky, looking for the burning eye of the Great Bear. She couldn’t see it. She twisted her head, searching the skies.
‘The bear…’ she said. She was beginning to feel dizzy. ‘I can’t see it.’
James chuckled. ‘The bear is gone,’ he said. ‘There are no bears in this half of the world.’
Hannah’s vision began to blur as he continued to spin her in circles. ‘How can it be gone? It’s a star…’
‘We just crossed the equator,’ laughed James, clasping her close to him. He stank of rum and seaweed. ‘The stars are different in the southern hemisphere. Haven’t you noticed them changing?’
Hannah braced her feet on the deck and wrenched herself away from James. But she was so dizzy that the ship continued to spin around her, and she lost her balance and went tumbling to the deck.
Scatterheart Page 13