Hook: Dead to Rights (Captain Hook and the Pirates of Neverland Book 1) by Melissa Snark

Author:Melissa Snark [Snark, Melissa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Nordic Lights Press
Published: 2018-09-25T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

Mermaid Lagoon—Mr. Smee

Mermaid Lagoon lies south of Devil's Rock and east of the Dragon's Spine Mountains. Land surrounds the oval bay on all sides, except for a narrow passageway between two finger-thin peninsulas. Blackberry Bluff forms the northern point, and Currant Cape the southern. The mouth to the lagoon is too shallow for a ship to traverse without scraping bottom. A patchwork quilt of submersed rock formations, sandbars, and coral reefs stretches for miles.

Summertime, Pan's favorite season, occurred about ten times a year in Neverland, where even the climate was susceptible to Peter Pan's compelling charisma. The weather changed to suit his whims.

When the days grew hot and long, Peter and the Lost Boys often sought refuge in Mermaid Lagoon. There, they dawdled away countless hours, basking on the warm ivory sands. They swam in the emerald waters, played at being mermaids and pirates, and chatted on Marooners' Rock, a smooth isle set bullseye center in the round bay.

From a high sea cliff overlooking the lagoon, I watched through my spyglass. Children cavorted in the lagoon below. I counted them... or tried to. With frustrating regularity, I would reach a solid head count of eight before I had to restart. They darted through the shallows like a school of sardines, changed course at random, dove in one spot, and surfaced in another. In my paranoia, I imagined the youngsters thwarted my efforts through conscious design.

"How many boys are there, Captain?" Smee asked in that servile tone of his. It grated on my nerves so much, I cringed.

"Too many."

"Six?" Smee suggested with hopeless optimism.

"At least a dozen, and those are the ones we can see. There could be scores more spread out across the rest of the island."

Peter Pan's disposable coterie. No matter how many children I captured, it never seemed to do any good. Pan always found replacements.

"Dozens? That's not good, Captain."

"It is the opposite of good, Mr. Smee." Anger and frustration twined like serpents within me. My jaws ached because I'd been grinding them again. Dr. Chopp, the ship's surgeon who also doubled as our dentist since we lacked a proper barber, reproached me often about the bad habit.

"I could send Beaver to fetch the nets." Smee scrunched his nose, sending his spectacles sliding to a precarious perch on its bulbous end.

"It'd do no good. The second they see us coming, they'll vanish like little mice. We'd waste an entire day chasing them through the brush and be lucky to capture two." Spying was an exercise in futility. I collapsed the scope and stowed it. I had only kept watch this long in the hopes of spotting the girl, anyway.

"True, Captain."

I dragged a handkerchief across my brow to keep stinging sweat from my eyes and then toweled off the back of my neck. It came away sodden. An unusual and oppressive heat hung over Neverland. As a concession, I'd already shed most of the finery I favored, including my hat and jacket. My long-sleeve blouse and sash had followed, leaving me clad in a corset, a blouse, trousers, and boots.

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