To Love Would BeA Great Adventure

Chapter 1:

A Breakfast For Prisoners

It had been two years since James Barrie's greatest adventure had begun. In those 2 years, Mary had left him and married another and as rumor would have it, she was due with a child sometime in the winter. Although James had often wondered just how often Mr. Cannon had stayed an afternoon in his home, he felt no true animosity toward them. He had what he needed most, he had his writing and he had his boys.

Emma, the boys' grandmother had agree with James early on that it would be better if they moved into James' far more spacious upper-London home. And so, not long after Sylvia's funeral when James and Emma were named the official guardians of Michael, George, Peter, and Jack, they all moved into James' home at the top of Crandall Street. Also in that time, Peter had shown himself to become quite the budding young author and James couldn't help but feel overly proud and ecstatic to see Peter's talents developing and took every opportunity to nurture his writing. Having never truly been a legitimate father, James felt that maybe this was as close to being father as he could get. Except of course that his title was 'Uncle Jim'.

This morning, James had risen at his usual 6:50 and was bathed and dressed by 7:20 and was in the study now at 8:30. In fact, the only difference in his routine was that he had not woken the boys up at their usual 7:30. It being a Saturday, he decided it couldn't hurt if they slept in every once in a while. A decision, James sensed, Emma would not be happy with at all.

"Well, what's done is done." James said aloud to himself as he reached the stairs. He'd made it halfway up the staircase to wake the boys when he noticed Emma leaving Peter and Jack's bedroom and heading straight for him, an evil gleam in her eyes and playing off of her polished hook. James nearly laughed when he saw the boys following single file behind her as condemned, yet sleepy, prisoners and he could see perfectly the ropes that bound them to their line as the evil pirate captain led her captives down to the brig.

Emma dropped him a most venomous glare as she passed him and he straightened immediately, his grin gone in the blink of an eye. He adopted a most comical look as soon as she passed though, and one by one, Peter, Jack, George, and Michael all broke from their tiredness and giggled in a most tell-tale way and Emma promptly halted causing Jack, now almost 10, to grab hold of the banister in a desperate attempt to keep from knocking into his grandmother.

"James," Emma had dropped her most bothersome habit of calling him 'Mr. Barrie' last year, "Would it really be too much to ask of you to wake the children at 7:30 so they may be ready to eat breakfast at 8 o' clock?"

"Only on Saturdays." James answered most respectfully and young Jack's stifled giggles burst into full-fledged laughter and if looks could kill, James felt certain he would fall down dead with the way Emma was glaring at him now.

Her eyes were little more than slits wedged into her well preserved yet wrinkled face. Once more he could see her polished hook as it rested beside her on the banister and then scraped down the smooth wood as she resumed her descent toward the brig with her four pajama-clad prisoners filing along behind her. James hesitated only a moment before following the doomed boys into the brig.

'It seems as though breakfast will be quite the adventure today,' James thought to himself with a smirk on his face. He heard a faint scuffling down the hall and headed down the stairs a little faster. He had just reached Porthos' usual breakfast spot by the kitchen doors when one of the maids let out a yelp and Porthos came bounding into view. James kneeled down and rubbed the great dog's shaggy head. When Sally appeared to take Porthos back, James gently waved her away and took Porthos by the collar and led him toward the dining room.

"Someone wanted to say 'Hello'." James announced as Porthos bounded delightfully to each of the four boys barking 'good morning' to each of them in turn.

"Really James!" Emma strained, "That's quite enough!" The rest of her protests were drowned out by Porthos' barking and the banging of chairs as their occupants left them. By that point James could tell that he was pushing things a bit far so he brought Porthos back to his side.

"Alright, there will be plenty of time for that after breakfast." James announced, his soft Scottish lilt becoming stronger as his voice grew slightly sterner, "Go on, sit back down." Michael and George were the first to return to their seats, in fact, the only one reluctant to go was Jack.

"Oh please, just another minute?" he pleaded.

"Come sit down Jack." Emma instructed. When Jack looked for support from James, all he could do was give him a powerless shrug.

"Yes grandmother." And Jack begrudgingly climbed back into his seat and after that breakfast went quite smoothly. That is it went smoothly until just after breakfast.

Emma sent the boys upstairs to dress before heading to the park and the she turned her attention to James.

"Honestly James, letting them gallivant around like hoodlums!" she started in her usual huffing manner.

"I would hardly say 'hoodlums', more like 'young boys'. And besides, it's not like they were in public." He explained calmly.

"Public or not, I don't care for that kind of behavior at all," she insisted, "What would Sylvia have said?" She watched James freeze and knew she'd struck a chord in him. Emma had learned a few things in the past that she could use to make James see face and normally this was one of her tools.

"Honestly, I believe she would have laughed." He answered slowly. It wasn't what she wanted to hear and so she moved on swiftly. Another thing she was good at, conversational direction changes.

"Well, however she may have reacted, all I ask is for a little propriety." she plowed ahead.

"A horrible word indeed." James said more to himself than Emma and he looked like Jack when he was forced to eat vegetables. It was hard to suppress the smile that was threatening at the corners of her mouth as she looked at him so she continued,

"Be that as it may, " James looked back and caught that ghost of a smile on her worn face, "the boys' Aunt Elizabeth is going to be visiting from Whales next month and when she sees them again I don't want them acting like they did at breakfast just now."

"Well the boys are smart and they have common sense enough to know when to behave properly and they will." He reassured her before excusing himself to check on the boys.

"One can only hope." Emma said to herself as she looked through the window James had previously been in front of.