/
CHAPTER 3
A man inside a room is shaking hands with other men
This is how it happens
Our carefully laid plans
/
The cabin in which Jane had been thrown was no larger than a cupboard; and, for a while, Jane could only stand, gazing at the door while looking back at the recent events and trying to understand what had exactly happened to her.
To be sure, she was extremely relieved to still be alive at this point, when not so long ago she had stood onto the deck with her life hanging on a thread. Raising a hand to her throat, she mindlessly passed a finger over the spot onto which the captain's hook had lingered dangerously. Obviously, he had thought it useful not to finish her off immediately. But to what purpose? Not out of sheer generosity, quite evidently... However, sitting there in semi-darkness, it didn't take much longer for Jane to figure out his motives. As soon as he knew she was in contact with Peter, he let her go... And for one reason: to use her as a bait. Jane couldn't argue with that plan: what else was there to do for those pirates than to try to lure Peter into a fight?
Quickly, she came to the realization that she couldn't stay here any longer. Not if she wanted to keep Peter and the Lost Boys safe; for they were not risking their lives for hers! She had to find a way to escape. She figured that once she was outside, she could sneek to one of the canoes she had spotted hanging from the decks...
She took a look at the door; it was firmly locked. Having no experience whatsoever in lock-picking, she figured that unscrewing the door's handle might as well be a good start. Looking around, it only took Jane a few seconds to find something that might do the trick: from a slat of the parquet flooring seemed to stick out a poorly-hammered down nail. Jane immediately rushed to it; it seemed rusty, but it still could serve her purpose. Protecting her hands by wrapping them in some loose fabric hanging from her shirt, she got her fingers around the head of the nail – and, on the count of three, she pulled as hard as she could. Her back protested as she heard some cracking noises coming from her spine, but she kept pulling for a while before letting go to see if any change had taken place. However, looking down after her first effort, she repressed an exasperated grunt.
If the nail had budged, it had barely made a difference. Grunting and counting to three once more, she pulled again, significantly harder this time. To her relief, she clearly heard the rusty old nail emit a high gritting sound as it squeezed its way out of the wood – it was halfway out. Her spirits significantly higher, she pulled once more – and the nail came out of the slat of wood with a crash, as Jane tumbled backwards while keeping it closely enclosed in her hand.
Jane had stumbled a few steps backwards and now found herself spread out on the cabin floor, one leg outstreched while she sat on the over one, her right hand clutching the rusty nail hanging in mid-air. Breathing fast, she kept still, trying to detect some sound outside of her cabin which might indicate that her loud crashing didn't go unnoticed. However, as several moments passed, nothing seemed to stir more than usual on the deck. By the sound of it, no one had been alerted by the noise which came from her cabin.
Promptly, Jane got up on her feet – her left leg had gone slightly numb, but she shook the prickly feeling off and proceeded towards the door. Crouching in front of it, she tried to slip the cruciform-shaped end of the nail underneath the damaged screw securing the handle to the door. She could feel it starting to loosen; a victorious smile on her face, Jane figured that if she kept on fiddling it along, she could manage to get it off; and then –
But, without a warning, she heard the rustling of a key, and she only had the time to take one step back before the door opened widely, barely knocking her nose off.
On the doorstep stood someone whom she recognized to be boatswain Smee, seemingly a little bewildered to find Jane standing so close to the door, looking slightly ruffled.
'Er – miss? It looks like the captain has asked for a word with you,' began tentatively Smee. Jane froze. What could he possibly want?
'And I suppose there is no way I can refuse?' Smee looked at her apologetically, and Jane took it upon herself to act obediently. 'Urgh. Fine – I'll go. After all – there's nothing much I can do, right?', she muttered to no one in particular.
She could tell Smee was relieved to see her come along without putting up a fight. Silently, she followed him up to a door, where the inscription "Jas. Hook" was delicately engraved. There was no need to knock: the door was already open. Inside the cabin sat captain Hook, set elegantly on a velvety footstool while performing one of his compositions on a preposterous golden harpsichord. She could easily guess it was one of his, since the lyrics were more or less based on words such as 'murder', 'gutting' and 'cannons'.
Now knowing his main purpose was to use her as a bait, Jane felt slightly more relaxed in the presence of the captain than a few hours earlier on the deck. He needed her alive, and unless she cared to act recklessly, she was safe from a harm for a while longer. Trying to look as if she almost walked here by accident, she waited on the doorstep, hands joined in her back while waiting for him to acknowledge her presence.
Then, as he finished, he let his hook glide along the keys and turned in the same movement towards her, his hook raised in the air.
'Ah. Our guest has arrived, I see.' With one glance, he dissmissed Smee who vividly nodded and left while softly closing the door behind him. Then, looking back at Jane, he detailled her from top to bottom, while she tried with some difficulty to look as calm and confident as possible.
'You look far better than you did yesterday, dear. I do hope your – ah, lodgings, are at your liking?' he asked, an eyebrow raised as if to underline the sarcasm in his statement.
Jane glared at him for a second, before playing along and answering in a false light tone. 'I have been more than satisfied, captain. But surely, you didn't invite me over here in order to discuss the comfort of my cabin.'
Hook's eyes slightly narrowed. 'Not one for small talk, then.' He considered her for a moment more, before continuing. 'Please, do seat.' Even if he suggested it seemingly politely, he spoke on a tone of voice that didn't leave any room for refusal. 'You must be hungry; help yourself.'
Jane stared at him suspiciously; nevertheless, she sat facing the captain on the other side of the table. To her surpise, she noticed that what was spread out between them was not a few bits of bread and wine, but a heap of various elaborated meals – way more elaborated than what she could have imagined, coming from a pirate ship. That's when she realised that she hadn't been eating anything for the last few twenty-four hours – apart from a few pomegranates that she shared with the lost boys earlier – and was, therfore, terribly hungry. As Hook started pouring himself a glass of wine, she promplty put in her plate a huge amount of the first thing that she could get her hands on and started eating greedily.
'So, you are working for Pan.' Jane almost spat out her bite. Oh, that was it, he addressed the topic right away! 'I thought that someone as perspicace as you would have known what to expect upon accepting my invitation. I'm a very busy man and I do not wish to waste any of my precious time beating around the bush.' Slightly leaning towards her, he looked at her straight in the eye. 'So?'
Jane was caught off guard, but tried her best to hide it. She knew he was eventually going to ask her this question sooner or later, but not right now!
Jane could see where he was going, offering her food, using blunt flattery; he meant to manipulate her as though she were another lost boy. Somehow, she felt insulted by this more than anything else. He surely hadn't missed the fact she had slightly overstepped the age limit to be part of Peter's crew and that she wasn't as gullible as them? Fortunately, she had nothing to hide; he couldn't coax her into saying anything that would cause trouble to Peter and the boys. She didn't have to alter her story. And, soon enough, words were already flooding from her mouth with no way of stopping them.
So she told him everything: who she was, where she came from, the death of the fairy at her door, her life with the Lost Boys, her fall from the clouds... He never interrupted her once, allowing her to speak freely. As she talked, she slowly realized that for the first time since she arrived in Neverland, she could express to someone her doubts, her questioning. She had never had the chance to tell Peter – or any of the other boys, really – that she sometimes felt a little out-of-place on the island. And before her sat an adult with a much longer attention span than all the children of Neverland put together. An adult in Neverland – an outcast, an outsider.
Although she wasn't treated like an outsider herself, she often felt like one; neither a child, but neither a grown-up, she wasn't offered any chance to find her right place between those two states. And, without getting her hopes too high up, she expected she had finally found someone who had, possibly, felt the same things once. However, she quickly found her hopes to be misplaced.
Hook had been listening to her closely, without losing a word of her story. He waited for her to be entirely done before speaking again.
'I have to admit...,' he let the moment float for a while as he took a sip from his cup, '… I am a little unimpressed. There is nothing I had not guessed already – apart from a few details, of course. I mean – we have gotten used to recieve visits from Pan's little friends. I am afraid your story, my dear, is almost the same as theirs.' Jane had to repress from gawking. He carried on.
'Every time, we tried to extrapolate the best from them – we have tried to charm them, threaten them, lure them... All of it in order to destroy this wretched boy once and for all. Yet, you may have noticed that despite our efforts, those never worked out, as Pan still lives – thus, to my great despair. Whatever we tried, Pan's friends decieved us by simply refusing to follow our carefully-laid plans. It's hard to concieve, the way small girls get so quickly attached to this brat.' He stopped for a second, sipping his wine and looking away as if he didn't care about her presence at all. Jane, on the other hand, was boiling with irritation. Was she really nothing more than 'a small girl'? As Hook didn't notice her glaring resentfully at him, he carried on. 'And I suppose it will be the exact same with you: we will try to convince you to join us to defeat Pan, but you'll most likely stay faithful to him and betray us. Nothing I haven't seen so far.'
Jane was in shock. So, her adventure – the time of her life, the adventure she dreamed of for so long – wasn't intersting in any way to the captain? And, more than that, she was dissmissed as a small and slightly annoying disruption in his grand plan to get rid of Peter? In all her life, Jane had never felt more insulted.
'What do you want from me, then?' The captain deigned to look at her, and answered as if he had been prepared for such question.
'It's simple. Do you want to stay faithful to Pan? You have the chance to tell us now. We won't harm you in any way, if you do admit it; actually, we will let you leave the ship freely. You have my word.'
This was the least expected thing that Jane could have imagined. Only an hour ago, she had plotted to escape from the Jolly Roger – and now, she was offered freedom as though she was of no use to them at all? This made no sense, and she would sooner cut off her own hand than to believe he truly meant to act in her best interest. Why had she been captured, been placed in a locked cabin, if it was all to be realeased a few hours later? Recovering from her anger, Jane examinated his suggestion, trying to understand what his ulterior motive was – for he was, after all, an ill-disposed pirate. And, soon enough, after contemplating it for a moment, she understood Hook's hidden agenda.
For now, he acted exactly as though he wanted to help; in order to gain her trust, and then allow her to leave the ship, clueless and thankful... But, she knew that as soon as she would place her foot on solid ground, she would be followed by some people from the crew. They would undoubtedly follow her until she would lead them – unknowingly – to Peter and the Lost Boys. It was a smart plan – and it might have worked if Hook hadn't acted so uncharacteristically generously, thus waking Jane's suspicion.
As he waited for her answer, Jane thought fast about a way out of his plan; she wouldn't lead them to the Lost Boys, if it were that last thing she did. The only logical thing to do was obvious – even if it meant she had to put her freedom in jeopardy. She had to reject the captain's offer to leave safely. Then, she would remain here for a while – that is, until she found a way to escape and rejoin the children again. She had to do something that didn't please her: she had to lie and manipulate the captain in order to make him believe she didn't care about Peter.
'You know what, captain?' she started off a little shakily, but quickly tried to get her tone to sound as detached and careless as possible. 'I never truly cared for Pan – he was my ticket to Neverland, for sure – but it would be mindless of you to belive for a second that I enjoyed spending my time constantly surrounded by kids. Plus, I don't mean to brag, but I've always thought I'd make a wonderful pirate.' He watched her silently, so she continued. 'Look at me, captain. Do I really look like a frightened little girl' – she put an emphasis onto those last words, 'that would follow Peter Pan like an awestruck puppy?' She frowned and slightly shook her head. 'Let me tell you something: I've been looking for something new for a while now... And I cannot bear to imagine spending another minute with those children,' she finished, managing to bring a look of extreme disgust on her features.
Upon these words, Hook sat back, slightly stroking his beard with his valid hand as if undisturbed by her statement while he detailled her from head to toes. After a while, he spoke.
'So, you admit you do not suffer from this childish admiration that bind the other girls to Pan...' Jane shook her head once more, feigning to be offended by the mere mention of this idea. 'Therefore, you would have no reason to betray us... Is that so?' He adressed her such a penetrating glance that for a second, Jane was afraid that he had seen through her lies and guessed her true intentions. Yet, she endured the look he gave her and nodded as if she had never thought to betray him for an instant. In the end, she was never really sure if the captain was buying it or not – but after a silence that seemed to be lasting forever, he spoke again.
'Very well. I accept you as a pirate amongst our crew. You will most certainly help us – in time – to defeat Pan.'
Jane couldn't believe it. Had he just accepted her as a pirate, without further ado? This was the second time Jane got caught off-guard this evening. He didn't let her think about it anymore, as he already approached to fill her cup with wine.
'Well then, let us drink - to your recruitment.' Jane contemplated her cup, then raised her eyes to the captain, a look of defiance in his. The will for some competition emerging inside her, she toasted with the captain and emptyied her cup. She did not prentend to have a pirate's liver yet, but she still wanted to gain the captain's trust before finding a way to escape – and that meant, in the present circumstances, that she had to finish off wine in his company.
They spent the rest of the evening chatting about unimportant things they wouldn't remember the next morning, while drinking bottle after bottle – long after the dinner was finished. Jane's lips loosened considerably, and in the end, she wasn't so sure as to why she had ever feared captain Hook before. He did seem at the very least quite reasonable – for a pirate, that is.
However, Jane was starting to become increasingly feeble – soon enough, she had to repress herself from dozing off. In the end, Hook himself escorted her to her cabin, as she couldn't walk two steps without staggering.
'Can I let you open your own door or do I have to carry you inside, since you seem rather liable to tumble down anytime soon?'
'Please, I'm a pirate, now,' – determined to prove him wrong, she wrapped her hand around the handle – missing it once or twice before, 'and I can very much carry myself inside on my own.' To her surprise, the cabin she had been locked in a few hours before was now accommodated with a newly hung hammock, which seemed like the most comfortable thing on earth. 'No longer locked up in an inhospitable cupboard now, am I?' she smiled maliciously at Hook, who didn't seem as dangerous now that she had spent an evening with him and made it out alive.
He smiled back at her, and that's when she knew he was slightly drunken as well. Then, she noticed that he was standing close to her – maybe a little too close, even. She could have taken a step back, but strangely didn't feel like it. She could percieve he smelled like tobacco and rhum – and she didn't hate it. Actually, she could even appreciate that specific smell. Hook broke off her trail of thought.
'Well now, I must bid you goodnight...' For the first time in the evening, she noticed that he wasn't taking his eyes off her. Then, he got distracted by her hair, as he absentmindedly seized one of her auburn strands that had gotten into her face to put it back behind her ear. She felt lost in his eyes, and looked promptly away. Sensing her discomfort and apparently coming back to his senses, Hook immediately took a few steps back and left in large, heavy steps, leaving Jane alone in front of her door, her heart beating fast and her cheeks - red.
'What was that?' Yet, feeling too tired to put her head around it, Jane decided to blame the behaving of the captain on the account of all the wine he had been drinking during the evening. Once back inside, Jane barely had the time to collapse on her hammock – she was asleep before her head had even touched the pillow.
/
She awoke next morning with a confused feeling, at first not recognizing the place she woke up in. Blinking the blur of the morning away, she noticed that the sun was just rising and the early dawn light was starting to fill the cabin. Some shy rays of light came warming her bones, and through a small window she could distinguish the sun and its reflection on the water. She put her two swaying feet on the ground and waited for the room to stop spinning. As she did, memories of the day before came rushing back to her – soon enough, she remembered everything about her purpose – pretending to work side by side with pirates, but trying to escape unnoticed as soon as possible. Right, she smiled lamely, that seems reasonable and easy enough.
Some noise coming from above came into focus, distracting her from her worries about her hastily-prepared plan. On the deck, people were already up and kicking: sailors and other shipmates were working, cleaning the boat, taking care of the sails, rolling barrels around. Jane was wondering about what this day would bring when her eyes fell on a letter that had been placed on a shelf next to her. Unfolding it with care, she read:
'Miss Jane,
The captain has informed me about your situation; allow me to welcome you into our crew. I suppose you're not yet aware of your duties; that is why I invite you to join me upon the deck of the Jolly Roger as soon as you're awake.
Mr. Smee'
Jane folded up the letter. Smee must have placed it here while she was sleeping, without waking her up. Absentmindedly, she thought that was quite gallant – that is, coming from a pirate. She judged it was better not to make Smee wait any longer. Jane swiftly jumped out of the hammock; and, taking a deep breath, she decisively opened the door wide before heading resolutely to the deck.
There, she was soon peered at by a numerous pair of curious eyes. She was tempted to look down as the scene reminded her of her arrival on the ship the day before. Yet, she decided to stay strong – if she couldn't face some pirates, what was she going to achieve in Neverland? – and even found the ability to smile as if she knew personally every single one of them. Stepping on the deck and careful not to trip, she turned to face a pirate on her left – a man with his hands sewn backwards – and asked him, with her shinest smile:
'I beg your pardon, but would you be so kind as to tell me where I could find Mr. Smee? He asked me to find him on the deck. Oh, and by the way; I'm Jane, and I'm joining the crew.' She would have shaken his hands, as her common way of greeting people, but with this pirate, she wasn't really sure of how she could accomplish such an act. At this moment, she heard someone calling her name rather loudly.
'Miss Jane! Yer already up, I see! Wonderful!' She sighed out of relief, as Smee was saving her from a certain form of social awkwardness. He continued, unstoppable: 'I've got so many things to tell you! Well – maybe I could show you around first, and then pe'haps show you some different chores you can do today. 'Cause there's plenty to do, missy, be sure of that, since our crew is always getting smaller and smaller whenever there is a fight between us pirates and that blasted Pan.'
Peter... Once more, she thought about him and the boys. She had been missing for almost a day now – what would happen when he realized she was missing? If she didn't find a way to escape soon, they would go looking for her – and run into the dangerous Hook and his crew.
With this, Jane paused abruptly, almost bumping into the nearest door. Sudden realization hit her. She had thought she had been clever yesterday, believing she understood Hook's intentions? She was cruelly mistaken. In truth, she had been played – whatever she did, she led Peter straight to danger, and Hook would win. If she stayed, Peter would eventually search for her on the Jolly Roger, thus taking the risk to be wounded, or worse. And if she had left yesterday, their secret hideout would have been found... She never had a single chance. And this was why Hook had agreed so easily for her to join the crew.
Free to walk around the ship or not, she was still nothing else but a bait. Surely, he didn't make her a prisoner... But it was all the same. Jane gritted her teeth, trying to contain herself. If only she hadn't fancied a fly amongst the clouds that night!
Bitterly, she realised she had no other option but to escape no later than tomorrow. Any longer, and either Peter would come for her – either Hook would understand she wasn't going to help them defeat Pan at all.
'Well, too bad for you, James Hook,' she muttered to herself,' I know what your plan is. And I won't let you use me as your patsy.'
After showing her around the ship, Smee assigned her some chores she could do – tidy up the weapons, arrange the barrels of rhum and the barrels of canon powder, clean the deck... She worked for hours amongst the different members of the crew, but she didn't have to complain: she rather enjoyed manual work. At the end of the day, she had made some friends and was officially part of the crew.
One of the pirates, nicknamed Terrible John, seemed eager to keep a close watch on her by keeping her company as she went through each of her chores. As they talked, he informed her that, according to him, she couldn't be considered a true pirate as long as she hadn't been in a ruthless fight. Noticing Jane's disappointed pout, he comforted her with something that came as the greatest information she had scrapped all day. 'Don't ye worry! Tomorrow, we're goin' to do some treasure huntin' on the island; there, we'll meet some Indians for sure, and we'll have a great fight, you'll see!'
Knowing this, Jane was invigorated, and pretended to smile because of the restless fight that was about to come. In truth, she coudn't stop grinning by knowing she had finally found a way out of the ship. By tomorrow, she could sneak from the pirates and find Peter on the island, warning him of the trap Hook tried to set for him.
Once all the chores were done, the moon was already high up in the night sky. Going back to her cabin to get some rest, she realised she hadn't see the captain all day. He was probably preparing for the treasure hunt tomorrow; or maybe, she thought with some contempt, maybe he was polishing his elaborated plan to lure Peter into fighting. Jane reminded herself that this only happened because of her, and felt guilt building up in her chest. But now that she had outwitted him, she knew she wasn't going to stay here and act her part as a lure in his vengeful play. She was going to find a way to avoid Pan to confront Hook – if she had managed to avoid leading the pirates to their hideout once, she could also manage to keep Peter from coming straight at them.
Dignified and proper, she opened the door to her cabin. 'Tomorrow,' she thought, 'tomorrow, I will be able to outplay him, no matter what he thinks.'
