Captain James Hook and the Curse of Peter Pan (16 page)

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“It’s unclaimed treasure, so we claimed it. Swearing to secrecy, of course,” he smiled wickedly.
 
“Every so often, we take a little to further our careers or our properties.”

“Piracy?” William stammered.

“Opportunity,” Ashley corrected and turned to me.
 
“Your father and I ambushed and sank a small armada of pirate ships not too far south and west of here,” he told me.
 
“Some of the savages swam ashore and we took boats to follow.”

“My captain and I found it first.
 
Jonathan stumbled upon us already dividing up our stakes.
 
He insisted that we bring it back to the ship and pay our share to the crown.
 
Always procedures with him.
 
Still, my captain is a very convincing man and, in the end, your father wasn’t as noble as he let on.”

“That’s not true,” I growled. My fists clenched at the thought of what he was suggesting.

“Oh, it most certainly is,” he sneered at me.
 
“In fact, since that day, every pirate ship we took, we added to the pile of our fortune.”

“And now you have a much larger cut of that pile,” I snarled at him.
 
“My father’s death has played out well for you, hasn’t it?” He looked at me with a newly heavy seriousness.

“I never wanted your father dead,” he told me.
 
“I just wanted him to admit to himself the man he was.”

“Wait,” William said.
 
“My father knew about this?”

“Harrison knew nothing, which was his role in life,” Heath said.
 
“A big, dumb, reliable ox for Jonathan to order around. If Jonathan actually respected him, I’m sure he would have told him.”

“I won’t let you slander my father’s name,” I told him.

“Neither of you are in any position to clear it,” Captain Ashley stepped over to the fireplace and shuffled through some papers.
 
“I hope you understand the gravity of your actions,” he said over his shoulder before placing a note on the table.
 
I picked it up and read it in disbelief.

Emily,

I have found William and James, or rather, they have found me.
 
They are alive but there is something you need to know.

They were on the ships raiding Charles Town.
 
James is using the name Hook and looks every bit the pirate.
 
I barely recognized him or William.
 
They’re both so hardened and cold.

James told me that they are trying to get back to Port Royal, but I don’t see how anyone can return from such a life.

I’m sorry. I wish I had better news.

Regrettably,

Thomas Darling

“As caretaker of the Jukes’ estate,” Captain Ashley said. “I receive all mail sent to this residence.
 
I spared Emily from reading it.
 
Sadly, I didn’t get to your poor mother in time.”
 
My heart sank. I looked up at the man who had beaten me.

“So,” he said, “does the dread pirate, Hook, prefer his hanging in the morning or in the evening?”

Before I had a chance to respond, William leapt onto the table and dove at Captain Ashley. They tumbled to the floor and I was left dumbfounded. I quickly came to the conclusion that when all civilized action was exhausted, the savagery that lies within all of us was the only answer.
 
I folded the letter into my pocket and joined the tumble.

Our advantage was short lived.
 
William was strong and we were two to his one, but Captain Ashley was a trained killer.
 
We both wound up lying on the floor, backs to the fire, with an enraged Captain Ashley standing over us. He pulled out his pistol and took a steady aim.

“There will be no noose for you,” he said, “no crowd to view your deaths. You will die alone and uncelebrated, like every pirate should.”

I stared him down boldly, knowing that this was the end.
 
I had traveled this far only to be shot by the man who abandoned my father to his death.
 
I knew that similar thoughts were going through William’s mind as well.

As I awaited the click of the hammer and the burst of gunfire, I heard the unexpected crash of glass.
 
Heath Ashley slumped to the floor and my Emily rushed to us.

“Hurry,” she said, “there are more on the way.” In our shock, she grabbed us both by the wrist and led us to the window.
 
We saw five men breaking down the front door.
 
I grabbed my father’s coin and watch before we opened the window and climbed down the grate to the side.

“Why?” I asked once we reached the ground.
 
I tried to come up with more to say but failed.

“When your mother died,” she said, “I thought I lost the last part of you. I’m not losing either of you again.”
 

“What about Captain Ashley?” I asked her.

“He’s after the estate,” she said.
 
“If he wants it, he can have it.” She mounted one of the horses left by the soldiers. “So, what are you waiting for? Let’s go get your ship back.”

“Not yet,” I told her.
 
William and I mounted horses of our own. “If we’re sailing, we’ll need my crew.”

“Fine,” Emily said. She sidled over to Heath Ashley’s horse and threw me the ring of keys on his saddle. “You’ll need these.”

“We’ll meet up at dusk,” I said. “You know where.”

Chapter Thirty-Two

My mind chased ideas that came and went as fast as our horses rode into town.
 
I didn’t need to think about how to get to the holding cells.
 
I’d seen them a dozen times in my youth.
 
My mind was occupied with how William and I were going to overcome British soldiers.

We approached the jailhouse without one shred of a plan. We couldn’t run in shooting, we’d surely end up dead.
 
Nor did we have the time for anything fancy. However, I did remember something that could help. William and I dismounted and crept around the back of the building.
 
I remembered a small grating in the alley where one could look in and see the prisoners.

Captain Ashley was telling the truth.
 
The entire crew was in this cell.
 
Starkey, the gentleman, and Cecco, the Italian, sat in one cell. Noodler, with the backwards hands, was in the second with the others.
 
I didn’t see Smee right away, but found him lying in the cot behind Cecco.

There were two guards in the lower area. One seated. One standing. There were always two at the desk, plus the interrogator, made five. I felt the edge of paper in my pocket and the seed of a plan formed in my mind. I waited for one of them to look over.
 
Cecco saw me first and elbowed Starkey quietly.
 
He motioned to Noodler, then slid over to catch the keys as I dropped them through the grate. I pointed to the two guards and then back at Starkey, letting him know that they were his responsibility. I turned to William and told him, “Follow my lead.”

Dressed as we were, we looked respectable. That should get us through the door.
 
I pounded my fist against the heavy door.
 
Metal scraped against the wood and a man peered through a slat.

“What is it?” he asked.

“I have a message from Captain Ashley,” I told him. William shot me a surprised look but I continued, “He has captured the two missing pirates at the Jukes’s household and requires the presence of the interrogator.” The bolt slid and the door opened with a creak.

William and I stepped through and were greeted by three men. Two were husky soldiers.
 
The other was a sharper, leaner man, who had to be interrogator. I pulled Thomas Darling’s letter from my pocket and waved it in the air.

“This correspondence demands your presence at the Jukes’ household with your instruments immediately,” I told him.
 
Captain Ashley must have garnered an impressive reputation at my father’s expense because the interrogator nearly jumped out of his skin as he bolted through the door. One of the husky soldiers followed him out, leaving only one soldier behind the desk.

“Hand it here,” he said.
 
I must have looked at him blankly because he said it again, this time more forcefully. “The letter. Hand it over.”
 
I gave it to him.
 
I watched as his face twisted with confusion. “What is the meaning of this?”

As the echo of gunfire sounded from the cells, the soldier turned and William and I lunged at him.
 
William held him as I wrestled his pistol away and fired.
 
The bullet hit him high in the chest and dropped him to the floor.

William and I rushed to the cell.
 
We found one soldier already dead at the feet of Cecco, who now held the soldier’s pistol.
 
The other soldier was being held against the bars by Noodler and the others, while Skarkey attempted to unlock their cell door.

There was no time to waste.
 
Someone must have heard the gunfire.
 
On the table next to me were the items that were confiscated during the arrest.
 
Of the selection of knives and tools was a single boarding hook.
 
I grabbed it and swung a hard overhand strike to the soldier being held against the bars.
 
The hook sank deep in the soldier’s chest.
 
I must have hit the heart, because blood gushed out onto the floor.
 
It wasn’t clean, but it ended quickly.

“Round up the men,” I shouted.
 
“It’s time to leave.”
 
The satisfaction of giving orders was only dulled by the feeling that something was wrong.
 
Something was missing.
 
It took me a moment to figure out what it was.

“Where’s Smee?” I asked.
 
It wasn’t that I didn’t notice his presence.
 
What I noticed most was the absence of his objection to me being the one to give orders. Noodler pointed a backwards finger at the far cell.

Smee was now sitting upright on his cot.
 
As I walked towards him, I saw that his head was wrapped with cloth and there was dried blood down the side of his face, staining the hair that was starting to grey slightly at the sides.
 
And then I remembered what Captain Ashley said about having to strike one of the pirates with the hilt of his sword.
 
Somehow, I never expected it to be Smee.

“How bad are you hurt?” I asked. Smee turned to me slowly and smiled. This smile was not that of a predator. There was no hidden intent.
 
This was a true smile and considering the man supplying it, it was far more terrifying.

“What are my orders, Captain?” he asked.
 
Confused, I looked to Starkey for an answer.
 
He just shook his head. Cecco, Noodler and the others did the same.

“We have to go now, Smee,” I told him.
 
Obediently, he nodded and stood.
 
He stumbled and I caught him. I surprised even myself that I didn’t let him fall.
 
After all the beatings he gave me, Smee didn’t deserve my sympathy. But then I’d never seen him so weak and defeated.

“It’s me,” he stuttered quietly.

“Yes,” I told him.
 
“Your name is Smee.”

“No, IT’S ME!” he yelled.
 
“What I was saying when they found me.” He turned his glassy eyes up to meet mine. “It’s me.”
 
I looked at him for a moment before remembering Jesse Labette’s story of how Smee came aboard the
Queen Anne’s Revenge
.

“I was on a freighter with my parents. We were attacked by pirates,” Smee began.
 
“There were so many.
 
They killed my father and the captain.” His breath was shallow between statements.
 
“I managed to throttle one to death. I grabbed for my mother to take her below deck.
 
She turned and ran me through the gut.” He wrenched over and held his stomach as though the wound were still fresh.
 
“I heard her cries as I tumbled overboard. ‘It’s me,’ I kept saying. ‘It’s me.’”

Until now, the idea of leaving him behind had been very real.
 
Now, I couldn’t seem to bring myself to let him fall.
 
So much of his life was taken by pirates and even more was taken by Heath Ashley.
 
If there was such a thing as justice, abandoning Smee would not serve its purposes.

“Do you remember your name?” I asked him.
 

“What good is it?” he said.
 
“I’m Smee just like you’re Hook.”
 
He looked at me with glassy eyes and began to blubber.
 
I covered his face and shook him.
   

“Look sharp,” I barked.
 

“Is the ship where we left it?” I asked. Smee regained his composure before he answered.

“Y—Yes, but there are soldiers on her now.” I looked down at the bodies of the three soldiers at our feet.

“I’m sure I’ll think of something,” I told him. Then, shakily, Smee put one foot in front of the other and followed me out of the cell.

Chapter Thirty-Three

Recovering the ship was easier than expected.
 
William set fire to the jail cell, drawing most of the soldiers and local officials away from the pier. The two adjacent buildings went up in minutes.
 
By the time we reached the sloop, that whole block was engulfed in black smoke.
 
We killed the two soldiers aboard the ship quickly.
 
We took our time with the dock keeper.