Pan's Revenge (14 page)

At my command, the ship dips slightly
portside after we passed an impressive clock tower, following that
direction. The brighter lights fade along the ride, giving way to
empty streets lined with trees and an occasional streetlamp at the
corners. My stomach twists in a funny way all of a sudden, almost
like someone is twirling it in a spiral. A huge house stands under
the ship. It has a dark roof, two half round balconies extend from
one side of the façade, and ample gardens stretch all around the
property. Some of the windows cast a warm yellow shine into the
darkness.

“I think we’re here,” I whisper to Jack.

“Do we drop anchor?”

“Not necessary.” The ship comes to a
standstill by itself. We must be hovering right above Angel’s
house. “Ravi,” I call with a suppressed voice to the man in the
crow’s nest. “What can you see?”

The bald, black pirate lifts the spyglass to
his good eye. “Not much, Cap’n. No one’s outside. Movement on the
second floor. Someone just closed a window.”

My heart thuds in my chest. “I’ll go
down.”

“What? Now?” Smee’s brows shoot up. “We
didn’t check out the perimeter. What if someone sees you? And how
do you go down anyway? For all it’s worth, you can’t fly.”

“I don’t care. It’s dark, no one’s in the
street. Let me down on a rope if you must.”

“And then what?”

“Then I’ll knock on her door.”

Smee gives me a skeptical look, but from
those staring contests I always come out as the winner. Captain’s
authority. He fetches a rope and winds it around the main mast then
he hands me the other end. “Jerk twice when you want back up.”

The rope wound tight around my hands, the men
let me down into the garden. The air is chillier on the ground. I
sneak around the house and step up to the wide wooden door that has
bits of glass in it. A button with a bell sign glows yellow in the
dark. At my push, a soft melody of eight notes plays inside.

Moments
later, a middle aged woman with graying hair tied into a bun at the
back of her head opens and greets me with a polite smile. She
straightens her black dress over her chubby body as though she was
in a hurry to get the door. “Good evening, Sir. What can I do for
you?”

If this is Angel’s mother, there is no
likeness between the two of them. “Hello. Is this the house of
Angelina McFarland?”

“It is, Sir.”

It’s hard to keep my face straight and from
beaming when my heart does a double-somersault.

“But I’m afraid you’re calling in an
inappropriate moment,” the woman continues. “Miss Angelina has gone
out with her parents and her sisters.”

Ah, not her mother but the housekeeper then.
I make an effort to sound like a gentleman and less like a pirate.
“You must be Miss Lynda.” She smiles at my recognizing her. “Can
you tell me when they’ll be back?”

“Not before late at night, I fear. Maybe it
is best for you to call on the young lady again tomorrow.”

“
Yes,
maybe.”
Not.
“Good night, Ma’am.” I nod at her and walk down
the path to the street then cast a brief look back, but the door
has already closed. Ducking under the trees, I sneak into the
garden and signal Smee with a double jerk on the rope that they can
pull me up.

“Did you see her?” Jack asks, his voice
excited, as he hauls me over the railing.

“
No. Just the
housekeeper. Angel is out with her family. They won’t be back until
later.” Time to come up with a plan. If she returns with her
parents at night, they might not be too happy if I ring the bell
again and then just steal Angel out of their house. But I don’t
have time to wait until tomorrow, especially when I can’t meet her
during the day. It has to be tonight.

“So, what’s your plan?”

“There should be a way to lure her outside
after they return. Secretly…” Taking off my funny hat, I toss it at
Smee’s chest and smirk. “That’s it!” He scrunches up his face in
wonder, but I ignore him and call up to the crow’s nest, “Ravi,
keep an eye out for Angel. Let me know when she and her family
return.”

“What are you up to, James?” Smee demands,
following me to my quarters.

“
I’m going to
slip her a note.” Oh, the brilliance of me. “I’ll ask her to come
out to her balcony”—the one she fell off from when she came to
Neverland for the first time—“and meet me there. No one but her has
to know.”

Smee slowly wobbles his head like he’s
testing my plan. “Might work.”

“
It will!” I
dash into my study and find a blank piece of paper in the top
drawer. After I scribbled the words
Meet me on your balcony
at the
bottom, I tear the strip off and pocket it. Now all I can do is
waiting for Angel to come back.

As I slump
over the railing and scan the street below for any movement,
minutes turn into hours. So close, and still there’s no way to tell
when we’ll be meeting again. It’s gnawing at my patience, the
longing for Angel uncomfortably burning in my chest. Then Ravi
shouts down to me, “Cap’n! Someone’s walking around the corner down
the street!”

In an instant, I straighten, holding my
breath, and lean farther out to see what he saw. The people
strolling up the walkway are too far away. The only thing certain
is that there are five of them. “Ravi, give me the spyglass.”

Bull’s Eye
Ravi drops the metal tube from the top of the mast. Smoothly
catching it, I deploy the spyglass and lift it to my eye. A wild
rhythm takes over my heartbeat the moment I see Angel. She’s
walking a few steps behind a couple where the man is carrying a
child sleeping on his shoulder. Another child, an identical one,
holds on to Angel’s hand. There’s no way to tell which of the girls
is Paulina and which is Brittney Renae. And right now, I couldn’t
care less. My gaze is stuck on Angel. She makes me draw in the
relieving breath I was waiting for to come for so long.

Anticipation foams over. I grip the rope and
turn a bright smile at Smee. “Let me down. Quick!”

Smee knows
better than to hesitate. Silently, I glide through the dark until
my feet touch ground behind Angel’s house. As fast as possible, I
dash through the bushes and duck under the trees then jump out over
the fence. A constant tingle in my limbs makes me aware of just how
close I’m to the girl I love. Only a few more steps and they’ll
reach the gate to their front garden. It’s time.
It’s time.
I step away from the shadows and walk toward the
family.

Angel’s father and mother don’t pay me any
attention as they sidestep me. I keep my chin dipped low, so the
fancy brim of this hat covers my face. Whatever Angel’s reaction is
to seeing me—whether she recognizes me or believes I’m a total
stranger—I want to save that for when I’m as close to her as
possible. When her shadow moves into my vision, I lift my head.

Bang!
All I see is her beautiful
face, all I hear is the surprised intake of her breath when our
eyes meet. She doesn’t smile or fling her arms around my neck. I
was prepared for it from what Peter had told me. It doesn’t mean I
hadn’t wished for it to happen anyway.

But now’s not
the time to whine. I only have a couple of seconds to give her the
note. Passing her very close, I slip the folded piece of paper into
her hand. Instinctively, her fingers close around it. Soft and
warm. Heck, how I want to stop and take that delicate hand of hers
into mine. Hold it, feel it, kiss it. Being so close to her makes
me feel all these hard emotions that I can barely control. But I
have to. For now.

Not even
slowing down, I keep walking straight ahead. Only when I notice
that the clacking of her sandals on the pavement has stopped, I
slide a glance over my shoulder. She’s staring back at me.
Surprised and fascinated. One corner of my lips curves up.
Read the note
, I want to mouth at her, but it’s not necessary. I know
she will as soon as I’m out of sight. So I keep walking.

Three minutes should be enough for Angel to
read the note, catch up with her parents and walk into her house.
It takes me this long to head down the street and round the block
to finally enter their garden from the backside again. Up in a tree
with a perfect view of the only two balconies, I hide out until
light comes on in both rooms.

Through the
sheer curtains behind the door on the right balcony, I see the
mother tucking in one of the twins. Angel follows and sits on her
bedside for a moment, kissing the small girl on the cheek. This was
all I had to know. My aim is the other room.

AFTER I SAID
goodnight to the twins, I finally head into my own room and close
the door. My parents
went to bed as well.
They won’t get up until early in the morning and if they do, none
of them will come to my room. They never do. Still, tonight I lock
the door.

My heart races like that of a frightened
rabbit, only I’m not frightened at all. Just curious. And more than
a little excited. Who was this guy? Why this note? There’s no
chance I know him, can’t recall his face from school or even
recognize him as the son of any of my father’s business partners.
To me, he’s a total stranger.

Yet he looked at me like we knew each
other.

I unbuckle my
white sandals and kick them off not to make a sound on the balcony,
then I smooth my dark blue dress with tiny daisies on it and move
the straps perfectly into place. Thrills zip through me as I open
the French doors and slip outside.

Without my
coat, it takes only seconds until goosebumps rise on my bare skin.
At late May, the nights are still a little chilly. Rubbing my upper
arms, I pad across the cold balcony, brace my hands on the
balustrade and lean over. There’s no one waiting for me beneath. On
tiptoes, I try to overlook the entire garden, scanning for a face
in the dark. Nothing. Did I get this wrong? Maybe he didn’t mean
tonight. Or he meant it, but later. On a sigh, some of the
excitement that kept me in a stranglehold for the past fifteen
minutes slips away from me.

And then something warm envelopes me from
behind. The warmth of someone. Hands touch the sides of my
shoulders. I gasp and jerk around.

The same guy
who gave me the note in the street now stands only inches away from
me. With my mouth dropped open and eyes wide like saucers, I stare
at his shockingly handsome face. Deep blue eyes gaze back at me
from under long fair lashes. Without his ball cap, his blond hair
falls tousled over his forehead, accentuating boyish features under
a man’s mask. A delighted smile pulls hard at the corners of his
mouth, even though it looks like he’s giving his best to keep it
under control.

Reality drags
me out of my daze. I swallow hard and hiss, “How did you get up
here?” The frightened rabbit metaphor hits a little closer home
right now. It was romantic to think of this guy waiting for me down
in the garden. To find him just outside my room is
creepy.

He nods to the tree next to my balcony.

A frown pulls my brows together. “You climbed
up? But why?”

He hesitates a second before he finally
speaks. “Because I couldn’t wait another minute to see you again,
Angel.” His melodic deep voice, weaved with the evening breeze,
settles like a veil around me. It tries to stir something awake. A
memory maybe, but there’s no way to be sure.

“
See
me
again
?” I cock my head. “Do I know you?”

He reaches for my hands and strokes his
thumbs over my knuckles. I jerk my hands away. “I’m sorry,” he
says. “It’s just been so long, and you have no idea what it took to
finally come here and find you.”

I don’t have
a clue what that means, but with the confusion comes also the
suspicion that he’s not quite right in his mind. Jeez, what if he’s
a stalker? Or worse, a serial killer? Fair enough, I never imagined
serial killers to be this gorgeous, dressed in skate pants and
black hoodies, but one can never be cautious enough, right? I take
a step back and promptly knock into the balustrade behind
me.

He reaches
out to help me but stops before he touches me this time. “Careful,”
he warns in a drawl. “You don’t want to fall off this balcony a
second time.”

If I do, it’s
his fault, because the sound of his voice makes my head spin in the
weirdest way. Where did I hear it before? He acts like he knows me.
But I certainly don’t know him. “Who
are
you?”

“
My name is
Jamie. We met some time ago. In a different…
place
?” The last word sounds
like he’s probing for something. But I don’t know what place that
should have been, so I only shake my head at a loss.

His hopeful face falls. “I know you don’t
remember anything from the time we spent together. Peter told
me.”

“Peter?” I stiffen. That’s just too much of a
coincident. “Peter from next door?”

“No. Peter from Neverland.”

Yeah, that’s
too funny. “Why is everyone speaking of Neverland these days?” Now
I’m almost certain the two guys know each other. “Is this a prank
you and Peter plotted together?” I snap as I jab my finger at the
center of his rock-hard chest. “Because I don’t find that
funny.”

Jamie backs off, hands lifted in surrender,
but the shadow of a smile settles on his face. What’s amusing him
so?

A beat passes before his expression sobers.
“I didn’t talk to my brother recently. And this is most definitely
not a joke,” he says.