19.
To London Town
They had found Stutter in the kitchens, eating a warm roll, and being supervised by the cook, who was an impossibly patient soul...and seemed to enjoy and welcome the urchin's company. Stutter was indignant when Wendy wanted to have the doctor examine him.
" I d-d-d-on't neeed n-n-n-noo -d-d-d-octoring." he insisted. " Th-th-th-at's for g-g-girls."
The Captain had raised a brow at that, but Wendy had only frowned at them both, and sensing a fresh onslaught of argument from her, Hook sent her to dress for a trip ashore, while he interrogated Stutter about the days events.
In her own little cabin Wendy undressed and washed, removing the smell of fish and sea weed that clung to her skin. The Captain had ordered her many dresses, the last day in town, and she pulled a sensible cream travelling dress from the mahogany chest ...another gift that had gravitated to her quarters.
The dress was too extravagant for London, she thought. But here in Neverland, there were no rules about what people should attire themselves in for different occasions. In Neverland, you simply took what was pretty, and did what you liked.
There was not a drab frock among her clothes...all were rich in velvets and silks, strung with pearls, and embroidered heavily, some with gold threads...others with soft silks in rich colors. What would Mother say? She thought, as she dressed...pulling the dress over her soft chemise, and starched petticoats.
Wendy couldn't remember what her mother would say...or even what her voice was like...she had only a hazy image in her mind, of a woman who looked much as she herself did, with dark hair, and blue eyes...
Would mother remember her? She froze at this thought, hairbrush still in hand...trying to discern whether or not she...Wendy, looked any different than she had upon leaving. She really could not recall, but she was certain that if she felt this much different...surely it must show. Maybe here, on the curve of her mouth. Had the hidden kiss been stolen by the roguish captain, or was it still there, lingering in the corner of her smile? Did her eyes sparkle in a new way...did they cry out to the world that she was a woman now?
How would her family react if she returned to the door, and rang the bell, and the maid came to answer the door...only to find the young miss Darling returned, on the arm the spectacular Captain? The thought made Wendy smile just a little, as she imagined John's face...his last words to her returning to her memory.
It would be a subtle surprise...at the very least.
She was so immersed in her new worries about her return to London, that she forgot about the execution of the three men, until she was ashore.
" What are to become of the men?'' she asked, turning to Hook.
" They are to be hung." he said simply.
" Oh." she sighed.
" Is that not appropriate?" he leaned close to her to ask, in pretense of their discussion being private. His real intentions though were to inhale the delightful aroma of her hair and sin.
" I suppose so, it just seems a little barbaric." she said, with a flounce of her hair to displace him.
" Barbaric?" he almost laughed, stopping in the middle of the street. " Are you to give lessons against barbarity, after this week?" he chortled quite loudly.
Wendy turned crimson..." Yes...well, hanging them seems barbaric. Now, after the fact, at least." she hissed in a low voice, tugging at his sleeve as if this would urge him to be silent.
" It wouldn't be possible to hang someone before a crime, now would it?" he smirked, his voice still loud enough to draw attention.
Although he was teasing, she could catch, in the perfect blue of his eyes...a coldness. He had no qualms about killing those men, and had no doubt killed men for lesser crimes. He was still, among many things...a dangerous man. A villain, to the heart.
Wendy knew she should have felt a small chill, or a tinge of fear at the knowledge that she was so close to a man who had made murder and piracy his career. But the fact that she was so close to him, was because, he was also more than a murderer, and more than a pirate. The very idea of his many facets of personality sent small thrills through her...and not a single thrill was the result of any fear.
She couldn't say just then, whether or not she loved him...but she knew that two things were certain. She would never loathe him, and she would never fear him.
" Well, Captain, do I owe thee an apology for my conduct ? I wouldn't want to think I had been a nuisance."
" You have been a nuisance since you were twelve years old. I am slowly and painfully acclimatizing myself to it."
He tilted his head and appraised her a moment, in an ungentlemanly fashion.
" Somehow, against my better judgment, and I find it in myself to forgive you..." he said, again loud enough for every one in the street to hear., and she blushed. "And I can only wonder where this new magnanimousness has arisen from."
And linking her hand over his arm, he continued down the street...Wendy for once being cautiously silent.
Once they were back aboard the ship, and eating their dinner, Hook leaned back in his chair and began polishing the hook with his napkin.
" Now, I have a gift for you." he leered over at her.
Wendy blushed. " But I have too many fine things as it is!" she protested.
" This is a special gift. I wish to see you outfitted as a true lady, and a lady is not wholly or full complete without this one accompaniment."
She leaned back a little, looking suspiciously at him. she had dresses, and hats, and shoes, and a parasol...ornaments, from the gaudy hairpins to the beaded clutch. What could she possibly be lacking?
" What is this marvelous invention that I have so ignorantly existed without?" she asked.
He merely smiled and rang a little bell. I bustled Mr. Smee, looking harried as usual.
" Yes, Cap'n?" he breathed.
" Bring Miss Wendy's...gift." Hook said lightly.
Now she was very concerned. His mood was suddenly too light, and she worried that perhaps she was being tricked again. "Let it not be something horrible!" she thought, imagining all manner of pirate tricks. Prisoners were the first possibility.
But when Smee returned, he had with him...the last thing Wendy had expected to see in Neverland.
A girl!
Or, rather, a young lady, not a year or two younger than she herself! The girl was dressed in a plain grey dress, with a lace cap over her auburn curls. Her round face was pretty , and shy, and she dropped an awkward curtsy to Wendy and Hook.
" Ah, Miss Jane. " said Hook." Wendy...this is Miss Jane, and from now on, she is to be your companion. "
Wendy sat stunned for a moment, she had never had a maid! She was practically royalty! However, unlike royalty, she was at a loss as to how to behave in this situation. She wasn't sure whether or not she should address the girl, or run to the Captain, and thank him. That latter choice seeming to be the most enjoyable and the least acceptable. As if sensing her dilemma, Hook nodded to Jane, who was looking with shy amusement at Wendy's burgeoning smile.
" Smee, show Jane to Wendy's cabin. Have a cot brought in. Please excuse us Jane, a moment...I am sure Wendy will be along ...momentarily."
Jane nodded and curtsied again, before following Smee out of the room.
" Well? Is this a pleasant surprise?"
" Yes! Of course it is! But I have never had a maid, or a companion, and for a moment, I was caught up in the novelty! It is just like one of my stories!" she rushed excitedly.
" Yes, well, after the days events, I decided it would be best if you did not wander around unchaperoned. It would put me at ease to know that you have a companion...and, I believe it is fashionable, if not preferable in London society?"
" She may go to London with me?" she cried.
" Yes, of course. I trust her to be discreet, and trustworthy. If she proves otherwise, I will have her keel-hauled, and find another." he said.
Wendy blinked a moment before acknowledging that she was being teased. " Oh you wouldn't!" she said, a little uncertainly.
" Better to warn her not to tempt me." he said. " and now, I suggest you retire...to instruct your new maid in her duties. We leave before dawn...so it might be more...restful... for you if you remained in your own cabin for the night." and he gallantly kissed her hand, with only the smallest glint of devilry in his eyes.
Wendy couldn't be certain whether it was sparked there by his implied statement, or by some wicked trick he had planned for later...so she took the precaution of bolting the door to her cabin. She did not want her maid to think wrongly of her...or him, from the beginning.
Wendy soon found any modesty she had to be as un-necessary with Jane, as it was with the Captain. Jane was not a mild London girl earning wages...she was something almost otherworldly.
Wendy wondered almost instantly whether or not this girl were real...or only a pretend. Whose pretend though? Hers? The Captain's? Surely that was nonsense...but if it were all nonsense...then so was being here in the first place.
She shook her head as she watched Jane deftly and gracefully packing her things into the small trunk...the more she put in, the more seemed to fit. She hummed a soft song like a lullaby under her breath, as she worked, and the smile she gave to Wendy was one of wisdom, and understanding. Wendy needed to instruct her in nothing, and Jane would not allow Wendy to help her.
" No, now, Miss...the Captain wants me to take care of you. In all ways. don't you worry, as long as Jane is here...you'll neither want nor worry."
So Wendy contented herself with appraising the gifts she had purchased for her family. There was the weaponry for her brothers, and the model ship for her father, exotic scents for her mother, and a box of hairpins for her sister. Also, the Captain had chosen from the stores of jewels and treasure, a rather luxuriant set of ear-bobs, choker, and several rings. He might not be able to charm Mrs. Darling into forgiving him, but he could dazzle her into speechlessness.
Wendy carefully wrapped them all so that Jane could tuck them in amongst the linens in the chest.
Wendy wondered if she ought to pay Peter a last visit. Stutter said that Peter was getting fat from merely laying about gorging himself. Prisoner he may be, but starved he was not. She decided against it, after the last episode.
" Were you here...when those men...?" she asked Jane, and Jane smiled serenely,and shook her head.
" No, Miss, but, I heard the men talking of it, and they said, it was done, and good riddance. "
" Oh...dear." Wendy sighed.
" " Something wrong Miss?''
" I feel a little responsible, " she said. But that wasn't what was bothering her. It was that she did not feel very remorseful...that worried her. But she could not confide such a thing to Jane...not just yet.
Instead, she began to interrogate the new girl. Even as the girl answered, Wendy began to imagine her in a story...she could envision her...a lowly maid, perhaps an orphan, eloping with a handsome highwayman..galloping away behind him on his black steed...her auburn hair flying...no, billowing behind her.
" And how did you come to be in Neverland?"
" Oh...it was awkward. My father, Miss, he was one of the lost boys. Many years ago. Decades. I don't know about my mother...she was gone before I was born."
" He grew up here?"
" Oh yes. One can, if one has the mind to. But...he pined for the days when he was young. He couldn't go back you see, after he became a father, he couldn't be a boy..he was man, and he had to stay away from Pan" Jane whispered Pan's name.
" And you grew up here?'
" Oh back and forth...it is easier than one thinks, Miss, to go from one place to the next. It takes spirit and courage is all. You do not have to be young, or even happy."
" Is it the fairy dust?"
" Oh...it helps Miss. But there are some of us, who can go without it." Jane said seriously.
" How is that possible?"
" I do not know, Miss...when wants to, one can. That is how things are, like water...all you have to do is dip your hand into it..."
" It is magic!" Wendy grinned.
" Aye, Miss, that is it. Magic. And those who believe in it, can use it." said Jane. " Now, are you ready for bed then? Shall I have you a bath brought?" and Jane was back to business.
Wendy slept very soundly...like a child with no worries. And it was only Jane's persistent calling that woke her at all.
" It is time to get ready Miss...we go to London!" Jane sounded excited. She had a blue dress laid on the bed, and was all ready to lace Wendy into it.
" Oh...not that one! Surely!" Wendy exclaimed. It just didn't seem appropriate for travel.
" Aye, Miss, the Captain insisted. He said if you were to argue, I should tell you that he expects you to travel with him as a wife, and this dress is very becoming." She pulled Wendy's gown over her head, and began dressing her from the skin outwards, despite Wendy's discomfort. She had not had another dress her since she was a babe, and only the Captain since had seen her unclothed.
Jane ruthlessly laced Wendy into a corset...a garment she had not worn since first donning the pirate garb, before dropping the blue dress over her head, and buttoning an excruciating number of tiny pearl buttons up the back. There would be no getting back out of the dress unaided...Wendy thought.
Then Jane arranged her hair in a very..unique style. Wendy was dazzled at just how mature it made her seem, as did the jewelry that followed. All of this took her only a half hour.
Five minutes later Wendy had joined the Captain on the deck, with Jane in tow. The few articles of luggage were there, and Stutter was there to see her off. He almost embraced her, but stopped himself at the last minute, and merely bowed. She noticed that he was growing already! Soon, he would be as burly and tough as any of the pirates.
Well, maybe not as tough...Wendy smiled. He had just stopped and stared, open mouthed at Jane, who had smiled...a little coquettishly at him. Stutter was now bravely retreating to stand behind Mr.Smee.
Peter was brought up from below, and he had been scrubbed clean, and dressed in humble but clean clothes. He was sulky, but did not try to escape his fate. Nevertheless, Wendy was relieved that they were being accompanied by
Two of the crew, a precaution against any trouble that might arise.
It was very strange to be returning to London in such a way. They did not fly. Wendy was not certain of what happened...she only remembered that they were in the little rowboat, and the captain had her hold on tightly to the sides, while he poured something from a phial over them all. It must have been fairy dust, but instead of flying...they seed to be sailing. But of course, the Captain was a sailor..why wouldn't he prefer to go by boat!
Wendy closed her eyes and let the sensations of the rise and fall of themselves over seeming nothingness course thought her.
They stopped abruptly, like a sled coming to a halt at the bottom of a snow covered hill. Almost exactly like!
Wendy opened her eyes...and a rush of vertigo and memory flooded through her. They were just outside London...landed where no one would notice the strange appearance...and it was late afternoon,judging by the light.
But...it was snowing!
" James! Look!" she exclaimed excitedly..."It's snowing! " she caught the delicate flakes on her hands. Then she peered towards town, and noticed the familiar groups of hooded figures. Nostalgic fragrances drifted to them, and she turned to the Captain, dizzy from her glee.
" Do you know what this means? It's Christmas!"