“I say it’s a law,” said Noah with a flare.
Jasper smiled conspiratorially. “Well, we are at sea . . .”
“And we can invoke Scottish law,” said Noah.
“Oh, yes!” Lucy jumped up and down again. “Let’s do!”
Faye humphed. Jasper smiled at her, then glanced over at Lucy. Faye understood immediately that this was a good distraction for the little girl, and for them all—to think about something other than their absent parents and uncertain future.
“Well then, I think this requires some planning,” said Faye.
The children set about writing out a list of demands. They did it in the style of a declaration:
We, the members of the Young Inventors Guild, have declared that Scottish law be set in place for All Hallow’s Eve, or Hallowe’en, or Hallowtide, or the night of 31 October, or whatever other name by which it may be known. As such, to our knowledge, law requires that children be given treats upon demand.
Each member of the Young Inventors Guild signed the docu-ment—even Faye, as a result of Lucy’s pleading. Now it looked truly official.
“And who do we give this to?” asked Lucy.
The five children headed off to find Miss Brett. Faye grumbled, but she kept behind the others so they couldn’t see her grin.
“You’ll have to hold up your part of the deal,” said Miss Brett when they found her in her room. “You’ll have to dress up in costume this evening.”
Soon, the children were at the closet of costumes,
Jasper and Noah each found a pair of short britches, but neither fit very well. Noah found what appeared to be an artifact from viking times to wear on his head. It had horns coming out on each side. Jasper found a hat that seemed to be from Napoleon’s army and a bright yellow silk scarf that he wrapped around his neck,
Wallace found a galabaya, a traditional robe of Arabia. This one was from Egypt, according to the inscription (“made in Cairo by a hand”). He found a scarf that, with the help of Faye, he wrapped around his head.
Faye herself looked beautiful. The dress she found looked as if it had been sewn just for her. It was pale yellow with a deep red-and-gold trim. There was a single pale yellow glove that matched the dress, and Faye wore this as well. There were no fancy shoes that fit her, but there was a single silk slipper. In the spirit of things, Faye wore the single slipper. Behind his own scarf, Jasper blushed.
Lucy wore a beautiful Elizabethan dress made of the finest red velvet and gold lace. It was trimmed in black silk thread, and the most delicate of flowers had been sewn into the trim. Upon her head, Lucy wore a flowered hat, which must have come from a much more modern era than the dress. Why, a modern lady in 1903 might very well have worn it—a very small lady, that is. The single shoe—well, that lovely little shoe must have come from a generation before the hat,
Lucy also found a lady’s handbag with green and blue beads. In it was a small gear and a handkerchief—nothing else. The handkerchief had a lovely embroidered letter, but it was so ornate, the children could not decide whether it was an “H,” an “A,” or a “K,” not that it mattered.
“We’ll put our sweets in this handbag,” Lucy said. “It will keep them safe.”
“Our sweets safe in your handbag?” said Noah.
“I won’t eat them all!” Lucy cried, indignant. “And it’s not my handbag.” But Lucy considered that perhaps it was. “H,” “A,” or “K” probably had little interest in returning from their century to retrieve it. And the kerchief was so lovely. She wished it were hers.
After a dinner concluded with a delicious pie of apples and caramel, which was hardly touched by the excited children, there was a mad dash to get into costumes. They knocked on several doors that night before anyone answered. They found one door that was partially opened, but when they peeked in, it was dark, and Lucy was desperate to leave it alone.
But by the time the others began to walk away from the dark room, Noah’s eyes had begun to adjust, and he could see something hanging on the wall. Yes, he thought, this is perfect. Lucy had planted an idea, and a night of tricks and treats would be perfect. He slipped into the room.
As the others continued along the corridor, Lucy insisted that they knock on every door
“But that’s a maintenance closet, Lucy,” groaned Faye.
“You never know,” Lucy said, knocking for a third time on the closet door before she moved to the next.
“You must not knock!” came a sudden shout from down the hall. Lucy jumped. The others were startled, too. A hooded figure all in black, face obscured by the shadow of his hood, came billowing down the corridor after them, shaking a scolding finger. Wallace looked as if he’d seen a ghost.
“What do you mean?” Lucy whined. “Why not?”
“Very dangerous,” he insisted. “Could bring death.”
“Death?!” cried Lucy, shrinking into Jasper, looking around as if death might be lurking,
“Death,” the hooded figure said. “And very bad teeth.”
Lucy’s hand shot to her mouth to check that her teeth were still there. Wallace, too, put his hand to his mouth, but as he did, he cocked his head to one side and considered the figure. Jasper’s eyebrows went up, Wallace squinted through his glasses, and Faye folded her arms and looked dangerous.
“Oh, goodness!” cried Lucy. “Noah’s gone missing!” And she burst into tears. “It’s all my fault for knocking!” She buried her face in Jasper’s side, mumbling, “Oh why did I want the party? Why, oh, why? . . . Now he’s gone! Like Mummy and Daddy!”
“Lovely.” Faye tapped her foot in fury. “Just lovely. Well, if death hasn’t carried Noah away, then I plan to throw him to the sharks! How utterly ghastly you are! Honestly.”
Lucy sniffled and looked at Faye, confused. As Jasper patted his sister’s back, he shook his head at the hooded figure. “Please try to have a bit of sense some of the time, Death,” Jasper said.
Lucy’s eyes darted between her brother and the hooded figure, who now seemed less terrifying and somehow diminished—even shrinking.
“What were you thinking, you idiot?” Faye demanded.
“Think I not,” said the figure. “I trick, no treat.”
“Oh, shut up!” Faye turned and knocked on the next door.
Lucy’s eyes suddenly grew enormous. “Noah?”
Noah pulled the hood from his head. “Sorry, Luce,” he said. “I thought it’d be funny.”
“Well.” Lucy wiped her nose on her lovely costume sleeve. “Maybe it is, a bit.”
Noah hugged Lucy, but he felt wretched. “I’m going to put this back before someone misses it.” He ran back down the corridor.
“Don’t hurry back!” called Faye.
“He didn’t mean to be horrid,” Jasper said. Noah had looked mortified that Lucy was actually crying.
Noah ran back down the corridor. He knew the door was one of the middle ones by the stairwell. He grabbed the handle of the first door, but it was the wrong one, so he tried another. That handle turned, and he opened the door
Luckily, he caught himself before he made a squeak.
He had entered a room full of hooded, robed mysterious men in black. Slowly, Noah slipped into the room to observe.
The men were not very interesting, however. They all seemed to be in silent contemplation. After a few minutes, or more likely one minute that seemed like more, Noah stifled a yawn. Was this some kind of ritual? Well, thought Noah, maybe he’d catch them again on a more interesting day. Odd, though, to know that under those robes must be the mysterious, oddly dressed men in black they were used to. Here, they were all dressed alike.
Noah slipped back out and found the next door to be the closet for the robes. He put his away. Then he caught up with the other children, who were not finding anyone at home behind any of the doors.
Finally, they knocked at a door in a lower deck corridor. They could hear someone coming.
The door opened.
“Treats, please,” Lucy said, opening her empty beaded bag. She had taken the handkerchief and the gear out to make more room for sweets.
“What.” It was a man in a tall black top hat and goggles. He had a watch chain and vest over a poofy black shirt.
“Treats. Please,” said Lucy. “It’s Halloween.”
The man did not respond, as if he had not heard what Lucy said.
“Halloween. All Hallow’s Eve. Hallowtide,” said Noah. “Don’t tell us you haven’t heard of the most important holiday to be acknowledged by all of the good Earth’s inhabitants, especially those of us at sea.”
The man just stared at the children.
“Treats,” Lucy said again, giving the sweetest little girl look she could muster.
“Treats,” repeated the man.
“Yes, please,” said Lucy, excitedly.
“What it?” the man asked.
“Treats,” said Lucy.
“Oh, forget it,” groaned Faye. “He hasn’t a clue what—”
“Keep your hair on,” Noah said.
Lucy rubbed her tummy. “We’d love something delicious.”
“Go to kitchen,” the man said.
“No, it must come from you,” Lucy said. “Really, it must. Otherwise, it isn’t the holiday treat adventure at all, and we’d just be children off getting something yummy from the kitchen and not getting to show our costumes to the people who supposedly have the delicious treats to give us, since we’re asking for them on Halloween.”
Faye swallowed hard and nodded with the rest of the children, Something was seriously wrong, as she’d actually understood what Lucy said,
The man looked Lucy up and down, then closed the door.
“Honestly.” Faye turned, but Lucy knocked and the man opened the door again. He had a tray of dry crackers. Lucy took five and placed them in her bag. “I suppose those might be treats,” she said, nodding at the man. “Thank you, sir. Thank you for the Halloween treats.”
“Right. Treats.” Noah coughed through crumb-filled lips as he fished a cracker from Lucy’s bag. “Only if you’re starving all alone on an island, or a monk after a hunger strike.”
Somewhat discouraged, the children made a beeline to Miss Brett’s room. Faye knocked. They could hear a strange noise from behind the door. Lucy looked up at Jasper, but he smiled down at her.
“What can this intrusion be?” came a cackling voice from within. The door opened, and a bent figure covered by a large red blanket answered. At first, Jasper felt Lucy’s hand slink into his and tighten its grip on his fingers. “Who be knockin’ at me door?”
“It’s only children,” said Lucy, squeezing behind Jasper.
“I love children,” said the bent figure.
“Not to eat!” cried Lucy, squeezing harder to Jasper’s ill-fitting britches.
The bent figure again cackled, and it reached out a hand that touched Lucy’s arm. Lucy screamed, then suddenly laughed. She looked at the lovely, delicate hand that touched her.
Lucy’s grip loosened on her brother. “May we have a delicious treat, you lovely, grumpy old witch?” she said with glee.
It was the lovely hand of Miss Brett that had reached out from under the blanket. Now, in the other hand, she held a bowl of meringues. Squealing with pleasure, Lucy took the meringues, one by one, and stuffed them into her handbag.
“Best be taking these, too,” said Miss Brett, handing Noah a basket she had filled with wrapped honeyed biscuits. “You’ll all be needin’ your strength. Now off with you!” said Miss Brett as she closed she door.
“She’s the loveliest old hag I have ever met,” insisted Lucy as she reached into Noah’s basket and unwrapped a biscuit that simply oozed with honey Her mouth now full of biscuit, she added, “I wonder what other treats will be given to us by darling ugly monsters.”
Unfortunately for the children, this was the highlight of their culinary adventure through the corridors of the ship. No doors hid biscuits, and no other ghouls promised buns. They nibbled as they walked, but this served only to make them aware of how few treats they had managed to get. While Lucy seemed ever able to engage in the hunt, the others were getting tired and losing interest after running up and down the corridors from deck to deck.
It was this, and the memory of apple pie with caramel, that finally drew the children back to the kitchen.
“Where do they keep it?” said Lucy, peering over the counter at the row of jars and bottles, watching the sweet sugar syrup loll gently back and forth against its glass shores.
“Probably in the pantry,” said Wallace with confidence, though he hadn’t a clue which latched door led to the pantry.
“Look, I’ve found their store of chocolate,” Faye boasted, pulling a handful of lovely chocolate chunks from a large tin next to a bread box. “We’d best not eat them all, since we’re at sea, and we don’t want the kitchen to run out,” she muttered despite a chocolate-filled mouth. The others joined her until they had devoured all that Faye doled out to them—all except Noah, who quietly grabbed another hefty handful.
Lucy ran her fingers along the side of the massive wooden table that made up the center of the kitchen. She opened several pots and looked in at their emptiness. The last pot, however, simply could not be opened.
“What do you mean it can’t be opened?” said Faye. She tried herself to pull off the lid. When it did not budge, she declared, “It must be rusted shut.”
“I don’t see any rust,” Noah said, tugging at the lid.
“Look,” said Lucy, pointing at the rim of the pot. “There’s a little folding thing, and it’s grabbing the edge.”
“Who ever heard of a locking pot?” said Jasper in disbelief.
Faye had already gone to the knife drawer and grabbed a small knife with a wicked edge. She tried to pry off the lid, but did not have any success. Noah tried, again, to pull it off,
“Get me a hammer,” said Faye. Jasper noted a slightly mad twinkle in her eye.
“What? Are you crazy?” Noah looked at Faye. “And create a gong out of the pot lid? That’s not very clever if we’re up to no good and don’t want to be discovered.”
“Something important must be in the pot,” Faye said, trying again with the knife. “Maybe it’s a clue to everything—or, at least, something valuable and secret. Something that had to be hidden away.”
“In a pot?” said Noah.
Faye looked around in vain. There was nothing else to use for prying.
“I say we throw it down and break it,” said Faye.
“And break the wooden floor boards?” The iron pot was stronger than any wooden floor.
Then Wallace stepped closer. He ran his small fingers over the edge of the rim and around the handle on top. He took hold of the handle and turned. With a click, the seal was broken, and he was able to pull off the lid.
Everyone at once peered into the pot. This created some commotion, and several bumps on the head. The pot, as it turned out, held something completely unexpected—a small leather pouch, wrapped in a torn and crumpled page from a newspaper
Lucy reached in and uncrinkled the paper in hopes of discovering a treasure, edible or otherwise. The pouch, unfortunately, contained neither treasure nor delights. It held a tiny piece of paper—the corner of a map. Perhaps it had been torn when removed from the pouch. But where the map had come from or what it meant, the children had no idea.
“Well, that’s disappointing,” said Noah.
While the others lamented the situation, Lucy attempted to straighten out the crinkles in the newspaper. She scanned the page and Faye leaned over to join her.
“Nothing of great interest,” said Faye, turning over the page, then moving on with the boys to look elsewhere.
Suddenly, Lucy gasped. With a tiny cry, she threw the page back into the pot.
“What was that?” Faye whispered loudly.
“It was awful,” said Lucy, lifting the lid with some difficulty and slamming it back on the pot,<
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“What fun. Sounds Halloweenish,” Noah said with a grin, but his grin slipped when he saw the real fear on Lucy’s face.
Once Faye removed the lid again, the rest of the children struggled to see the newspaper. Faye took more thought now in reading the articles, but again, she didn’t see anything really terrible. Neither did anyone else. At first glance, Jasper figured it was the awful photograph of a pinched-faced lady that had scared Lucy
“Yes, that is a rather gruesome visage,” Faye noted as Jasper pointed out the photograph,
“Horror!” Noah gasped, putting his arm before his eyes in mock terror.
“But what is that leather pouch doing here?” Faye asked. She looked at the article, which was from The New York Times and mentioned some awful woman and something in a tunnel. “And why was it wrapped in newspaper?”
“What does it have to do with anything?” Noah asked. “It’s another bit of nonsense from those fellows.”
“I want to go to bed,” Lucy declared. She was chewing her nails and hiding behind her brother.
“We won’t let the nasty lady get you, Luce,” said Noah.
“You’ve weakened her defenses with that hooded stunt of yours,” said Faye.
But Lucy shook her head,
“It’s a photograph, and it can’t come to life,” Wallace said, putting his hand gently on Lucy’s shoulder.
“Nothing comes to life, does it?” mumbled Lucy through her nails. Jasper took that hand and pulled it from her mouth.
As the others resumed their search, Faye straightened the page again, rewrapped it around the pouch, and closed the lid. With some effort, she turned the handle to lock the lid.
“I found the pie!” called Wallace from inside the pantry. Noah dashed ahead and carried out the remains of the prize. Soon, the pie took precedence over the crinkled newspaper and the clamber of the pot lid. Instead of nibbling her fingers, Lucy, whose formidable memory was able to shift to more pressing concerns than an old newspaper, joined with the others as they happily consumed the sweet tartness of the delicious dessert.
The Ravens of Solemano or The Order of the Mysterious Men in Black Page 11
