Belle and the Pirate

by Vivienne Savage

  “They’re all safe?” James asked gently.

  “Yes, though I sense there are two wild souls who would prefer to remain among your crew.”

  “The option is up to all of you, of course,” James said to the men and women rescued from the Golden Goose. “Life is good here, but it means hard work at times and sharing with the community. Or, if you’d rather, I can deliver you to your homelands, or another kingdom if you wish, but I cannot promise how long such deliveries will take.”

  “What about sailing with you, sir?” a man asked.

  “Jacoby, isn’t it?”

  “Yes, sir,” the man replied. “I was a sailor in Ridaeron, before they attacked my village and took us as slaves to sell. They claimed we were traitors to the crown and hadn’t paid taxes, but we had. We were loyal to our kingdom. The sea is what I know and love.”

  “Then I’ll have Nigel speak at length with you. If he believes you can be a valuable addition to the crew, I won’t turn you down.”

  “Thank you, sir,” Jacoby said.

  “But for now, I invite you to come rest and eat,” Tiger Lily said. “You all deserve a respite after the harsh ordeal you’ve endured. Please, follow me. We have beds and food for you all.”

  James remained on the beach while Tiger Lily led the others away, until only he, Eliza, Nigel, and Belle were left.

  “Any initial thoughts on our volunteer?” he asked Nigel.

  “I’ve a good feeling on that one. He kept his head during the attack. Helped secure things below deck and calmed the other refugees.”

  “Good. Still, find out more about him and make sure he understands the risks he’ll be taking if he sails with us.”

  “Will do. See you at supper.” Nigel waved and headed off after the others.

  “I can’t wait to eat. I smelled the roasting pig before we even reached the shore,” Eliza said. Her stomach rumbled in agreement with the anticipatory look on her face. “Coming?”

  “In a moment. Belle, would you stay back and speak with me?”

  Eliza shot him a look that seemed to silently say “fix up your mess” before she headed along the path to the town beside one of the island women. Belle hovered in the air, a glowing speck of green against the darkening sky.

  “Belle, have I upset you?”

  “No.”

  “I’ve never known you to lie before,” he continued in a quiet voice. “Please, tell me what offense I’ve given so I can attempt to make amends.”

  “You’re going to be late for dinner, and then you won’t be able to sit next to your precious Tiger Lily.”

  Realization struck him harder than a thunderbolt, forcing James to study her anew. She’d become a living emerald floating in the evening sky. She hovered with her arms crossed over her chest and her gaze averted.

  “Belle, I believe you already know my thoughts regarding Tiger Lily. I see her as no more than a friend. A woman to be admired and respected, yes, but she doesn’t have my heart.”

  “She likes you,” Tink sulked.

  “Perhaps, but she and I are friends. Don’t you like your friends?” When he offered his hook, she settled on the curved metal, but kept her back turned to him.

  “She likes likes you.”

  He smiled and ran his finger down her back between her drooped wings. “But I don’t return those feelings. You don’t have to worry about her stealing my attention away from you.”

  Soft green bled into vibrant pink. “You promise?”

  “I swear it on my life. My attention will always be yours.”

  Belle fluttered up to his face. As she hugged her miniature body to his cheek, it dawned on him what the color meant. Not embarrassment, but affection. He’d been a fool not to see it sooner.

  Closing his eyes, he soaked in the warmth of her embrace and the delicate kiss she laid on his cheek, wishing for all the world that things could be different.

  How could he admit that his heart belonged to the one woman he could never be with?

  Chapter

  THE CREW OF the Jolly Roger enjoyed two days of relaxation before they set to the task of unloading the ship. The canons were the toughest challenge, having to be unloaded and ferried to the shore one at a time on the island barges, until Tink offered to make them lighter with her fairy dust. It filled her with a profound sense of belonging and satisfaction to aid them.

  Despite Tink’s desire to return to Cairn Ocland, relief flooded her when she overheard James’s decision to careen the ship on the shores of Neverland for no less than a week during repairs. Working together, the crew and the islanders hauled the enormous pirate vessel onto the beach. Once the low tide swept out, the ship remained stranded on the damp sand, her hull infested with barnacles and all variety of sea life.

  “You’ll help, won’t you?” Patrick asked.

  “Of course!”

  With her aid, the projected week for scraping away barnacles and replacing damaged wood became four days. Fearing James would whisk them away earlier, she slowed her work to a crawl until the amused captain caught on and assured her they would remain beyond their task’s completion.

  He’d promised the crew two weeks, after all, and wasn’t so cruel to order them away ahead of schedule.

  During the nights, they enjoyed the hospitality of Tiger Lily’s home. She strung an additional hammock for James and created a fairy-sized bed within a shell lined with soft feathers and a small square of silk. She wasn’t so bad after all, Tink decided. Of course, it was easier to be nice to the woman now that she knew James wasn’t interested.

  A small inkling of guilt slipped into Tink’s conscience. Who was she to deny James a chance at happiness with another woman? As much as she cared for him, loved him, she understood in her heart that she could never be with him. And that fact made her heart break, because, more than anything, she wanted to be that woman.

  “Will you come join us for the celebration tonight?” Tiger Lily asked, jarring Tink from her musings.

  “What celebration?”

  While Tiger Lily couldn’t understand her speech, the woman still had a knack for guessing what she said.

  “Once they get the Jolly Roger back in the water, and at least two of the canons on board, they always enjoy a bonfire and dancing on the beach,” the town leader said. “Then they finish loading it over the remaining days. We’ve had pigs roasting in their pits since dawn.”

  Tink licked her lips, and her belly growled in hungry anticipation, causing Tiger Lily to giggle.

  “I’ll take that as a yes. Perhaps you’d be willing to help me string flowers with the children?”

  They spent the afternoon stringing garlands in the meeting house. The fragrant blossoms perfumed the large space with heady scents, and the children laughed and threw petals at one another. Thrilled to see Tootles among the little ones, Tink settled in place at his side. By the time the sun began to set, they’d made hundreds of necklaces. Everyone took up as many as they could carry and dashed outside toward the beach, only stopping to pass out the garlands to the people they passed along the way.

  Tink had made one especially for James, choosing creamy white gardenias paired with blue flowers that reminded her of his eyes and a few smaller pink blossoms tucked in with the dark greenery. She weaved through the growing crowd in search of him, ducking past Eliza and one of the islander women then circling around Little Wolf and his heavily pregnant wife.

  As the party drums began, she found her pirate on the beach staring out at his ship in the bay. The wind ruffled through his black hair, blowing it back from his face while the setting sun cast a golden light on his proud features. He truly was the most handsome of all men, so she paused to study him, wanting to forever hold his image in her mind and heart.

  At that moment, whether by coincidence or an uncanny sense of her arrival, James turned to face her. The intensity of his gaze slammed her pulse into a galloping pace, making it thump wildly against her ribs. Words caught in her throat, she closed t
he distance between them and settled the flower necklace over his head.

  “Did you make this?”

  “Yes,” she answered, ducking her head so that her hair drifted into her face. “Tootles helped me with others, but I did this one alone.”

  “I’m afraid I haven’t a touch delicate enough to string flowers, but I did come upon this yesterday.” James opened his palm to reveal a single tiny pink pearl strung on a silken thread. Tink drifted down and put it on, her throat thick and her eyes wet with tears.

  “I’ll treasure it forever.”

  “I hope it will always remind you of me.”

  Why did it feel like they were saying goodbye? Tink swiped at her cheeks and fluttered up to kiss his cheek. Behind them, the dramatic drumbeat crescendoed before the flutes joined in and the native voices raised in triumphant song. Islanders and pirates joined each other in dance.

  “Shall we?” James asked with a smile.

  “Yes!”

  With Tink riding his shoulder, James took a place in the chain between Peter and Eliza, and they danced around the bonfire in circles, going back and forth, until even Tink was dizzy. The general merriment and laughter were as welcoming as her family in Cairn Ocland, and she thought she could happily live out her days on Neverland if the option to go home became an impossible dream.

  If it meant she could stay with James.

  “I wish I could really dance with you,” she said after they moved away to eat.

  “We did dance,” James pointed out.

  “No, I mean, holding hands. Face to face. Like my glass sculpture.”

  His teasing smile softened into something tender and wishful. “I would enjoy that.”

  They sat apart from the others, James on the sand with his back against a slender palm tree and she on his knee. Moonlight sparkled on the water.

  “James?”

  “Yes?”

  “I…” The words stuck in her throat, and she glanced away, picking at the remains of her meal.

  “What is it, love?”

  “Is it bad that I sometimes wish I could stay? That you couldn’t get me home?”

  “No,” he answered softly. “It’s not bad. I wish the same sometimes, but I know you’d be sad if you didn’t get back to your family, and I would hate myself for denying you that happiness.”

  “But I’m happy here, too. With you.”

  His throat bobbed, and, for a short time, James said nothing. Instead, he stroked her hair with one finger and closed his eyes. “I promised to get you home, Belle, and I’ll keep that promise. After that… I suppose we’ll see what hand fate deals us.”

  Fate. Tink only wished there was a way she could have both things her heart wanted, but she feared fate would force her to choose one over the other, and she dreaded that day with all her soul.

  * * *

  Soft voices roused Tink from slumber. She didn’t recall when she’d dozed off at the party, only that she had been on James’s shoulder and now she was tucked into her little bed. Curious, she remained lying down and strained to listen to the voices beyond the curtain separating the room.

  “But the sea witch can grant me my heart’s desire,” an unfamiliar voice said.

  “True, but at a cost,” Tiger Lily replied in her placid tones. “Think this through carefully, White Doe. She may grant your wish, but not in the way you hope, or at a price you will later regret.”

  “I… I know, but I have considered this for a long time, and I am ready to seek her aid.”

  Tiger Lily sighed. “Then travel the eastern beach northward until you’ve circled around the base of the mountain, past the point where the pink sands have faded to white. Once you reach where the sands blush pink once more, you’ll have reached her home.”

  “Thank you, Tiger Lily.”

  “Don’t thank me yet. I fear for what she may ask of you. Wait for the low tide and enter the cavern you find there. I pray the spirits give you guidance. Do not give of yourself blindly, dear one, and consider her offer well. Remember that she must have your permission to take her price.”

  “I will.”

  Tink cracked upon one eye and peeked, but no one noticed she’d awakened. She considered everything she’d heard and wondered if it was true. James had told her the sea witch protected the islands, which surely meant she was powerful and good.

  But if the witch was good, why had Tiger Lily warned White Doe to beware?

  Chapter

  A DAY PASSED before Tink worked up the courage to venture to the northern coast and seek out the sea witch’s lair. The few people she’d spoken to about the mysterious sorceress had warned her she was not to be trifled with, and that she always demanded a cost for her magic.

  Even Anastasia says magic isn’t free, so that’s only fair for her to ask a price, Tink thought as she followed the directions up the beach.

  Eventually the opal sand bleached white, a dull and lifeless ivory for a long stretch before a hint of blush peach appeared again at the northern face of the Aliki Mountain. The beach thinned and the sea lapped against the rocky shore, crashing against the stone outcroppings and throwing salty spray into the air.

  Exactly as Tiger Lily described, Tink made out a cavernous entrance open to the sea.

  “Hello?”

  She drifted inside, keeping well above the water stirring and foaming around the sharp rocks below. Droplets falling from the ceiling forced her to zig and zag to keep dry.

  “Hello?” she called again.

  A low and raspy voice snaked around the rocks, appearing to come from all directions at once. “Come in, sweet. Come in.”

  Around a bend, the tunnel widened into a larger hollow. There, the water cast an eerie blue glow with no discernible light source. A stone ridge led deeper into the cave, where crabs scuttled across the wet floor to a lone figure standing alongside a raised basin carved from the rock.

  Dark hair hung around the witch’s shoulders in lank strands that reminded Tink of slimy seaweed. Her pale peach skin had a prunish, damp appearance. She wore rags woven from old plant matter and had bone ornaments in her black hair. In place of legs, she had a single long tail winding over the rocks and coiling beneath, though it resembled a dead earthworm more than anything.

  Tink hesitated. She darted behind a hanging rock and began to rethink her impulsive decision.

  “Don’t be shy. Come out and see me. It’s been so long since a visitor has come to visit me and now the fates have brought two of you within a day of each other. Come to me, dear child.”

  “I can do this,” Tink whispered. Abandoning her hiding spot, she crossed the room and landed on the basin’s edge. “Hello. Are you the sea witch?”

  From afar, the woman had appeared huge and intimidating enough to gobble a sprite in a single bite. Closer quarters made it apparent her lower body made up the bulk of her size. Tink’s pulse raced.

  “I am, and I know what it is you want, little one.”

  “Y-you do?”

  “I could make you as large as a human, my dear. And you would be able to do all of those things you dream of. To dance along the beach with the sisters of Tiger Lily’s tribe. To climb the trees with your hands instead of flitting through the branches. You’d dine alongside the pirates who adore you so well, sitting in a chair instead of perched on the edge of a plate. Wouldn’t you enjoy that?”

  “Really?” Tink clasped both of her hands together.

  “Truly. You’d be able to do all of these things if I worked my magic over you. I ask for only one thing in return.”

  “Anything!” Tink cried. Her heart pounded in her chest, its ecstatic rhythm flushing her body with heat.

  “Your wings.”

  She froze, her elation doused by a cold surge of fear. “My wings?”

  “Yes. It is no trifling thing you ask me to do. Your wings are a tender component to many… useful potions, and were you to give those to me, I could make all your dreams come true. Besides, what good are they to you
if you would prefer to be human?”

  “But… if you remove them, then it’s permanent.”

  The sea witch leaned forward, widening grin revealing her mouth of wicked shark teeth. “Indeed. Isn’t that what you want? Wouldn’t you prefer to remain a human forever, to never find yourself caged and threatened again?”

  “I… I don’t know. I thought maybe it could only be for a few days, so I could see what it was like.”

  “And go back to being small? Why deny yourself a new human life?”

  Tink bit her lower lip and hung back. She’d never taken into consideration that she’d be losing her wings if she wanted to become human.

  “Think of all you could do,” the witch cajoled. “You could hold hands with your man.”

  “I never said there was a man.”

  The witch clucked her tongue. “My sweet, there is always a man involved in requests like this.”

  “I don’t know…”

  “It’s a small price to pay for what you want. You won’t need them, anyway.”

  The harder the witch tried to convince her, the greater Tink’s terror grew. To give her wings meant she’d never have fairy dust again. She’d never work magic, never fly, never help others with her tinkering. “No. You can’t have my wings. I won’t give them to you. I need them.”

  “Think carefully on this, little sprite. You are lucky you came to me when you did. Should one more night pass, I won’t be able to cast the spell at all for another year. This is your last chance to become a human forever.”

  “I…” Tink flitted her wings and glanced over a shoulder. Her wings made her who she was, and as much as she longed to walk alongside James on the beach, hand in hand, as true lovers could, she knew in her heart she’d regret her choice. “I just can’t!”

  Tink shot from the grotto and into the night air with tears streaming down her cheeks. In all her life, she’d never come so close to acquiring what she wanted and had to let it go.

  * * *

  Two days had passed since Belle disappeared to explore the island alone, but she spoke few words to James since her return. Sometimes he thought he heard her sobbing. At other times, soft hints of blue and green shone from the rear bedroom of her dollhouse.