فصل 14

CHAPTER 14

THE OTHER TRAIN

M OLLY GLANCED LEFT, THEN RIGHT; no one was looking. She eyed the ship, mentally measuring the distance. She took George’s hand and counted softly. “One…two…”

When Molly and George returned to London, Louise Aster was furious at them, especially Molly, for having left London without permission. But her anger evaporated when the children told her what they had learned in Oxford. Louise immediately sent a telegram to her husband in Paris to let him know that she and the two children would be joining him there on urgent business. George’s parents were, as usual, traveling, but his governess readily gave permission for George to travel with the Asters.

Leonard Aster met Louise and the children at the train station in Paris and took them to his hotel suite. There he listened intently as Molly and George recounted what they had learned in Oxford: that the cryptic personal notices in the Observer had been placed by a Mr. Pan; that Pan and his wife had disappeared under suspicious circumstances; that their son had been sent to St. Norbert’s; and that the boy’s name was Peter. The last piece of news drew a gasp of surprise from Leonard.

When Molly and George were finished, Leonard quizzed them until he was satisfied that he had extracted every last bit of information from them. He then gave them a lecture about having gone to Oxford without permission. But he was so obviously impressed by their detective work that Molly could barely suppress a smile of pride.

It was nearly midnight when Leonard sent the children to bed. He then left the hotel to share their findings with the other senior Starcatchers meeting with him in Paris.

The next morning, Leonard, Louise, Molly, and George ate breakfast around a table in the hotel suite next to a window with a grand view of the Seine. Molly noticed that her father’s trunk had been packed and placed by the door, but, following her father’s lead, she said nothing until the waiter had left the suite.

The door clicked shut. Leonard said, “I sail today for Mollusk Island.” Molly started to speak, but her father held up his hand to stop her. “I believe Peter is in grave danger,” he said. “I never should have let him go back to the island. I had a nagging feeling that it was a mistake, but he was so eager to get back to his mates, and he’d done so much for us, I just couldn’t bring myself to stop him. Now I wish I had.”

“I don’t understand,” said Molly. “Why is he in danger?”

“The Others,” said Leonard. “I fear they’ll come back for him.”

“But why?” asked George. “They were after the starstuff, and that was returned at Stonehenge. The Others know that. What good is Peter to them now?”

Leonard paused, as if deciding how much to reveal. “Peter may have certain abilities that could be very useful to them,” he said.

“You mean flying?” said George. It bothered George that Peter could fly.

“No,” said Molly, looking at her father. “It’s not flying. It’s the falling starstuff, isn’t it? You think Peter can do what his father did.”

Leonard smiled at his daughter’s insight. “Yes,” he said. “This Mr. Pan apparently had the ability to predict starstuff Falls. And if Peter is, in fact, Mr. Pan’s son…”

“Then he might have the same ability,” said Molly.

“He might,” said Leonard. “He certainly has other unusual abilities. And if he can, in fact, predict starstuff Falls, he would be very valuable to the Others.”

“But Peter would never help the Others!” said Molly.

“Not willingly, no,” Leonard said softly. “But I doubt they would give him a choice.”

Molly was silent for a moment. “So,” she said, “it wasn’t coincidence that Peter was put aboard the Never Land.” She thought back to the day she had met Peter, both of them passengers aboard an old, ill-fated ship carrying a mysterious trunk.

“I now believe it was not,” said Leonard. “I believe Peter was being sent to Rundoon to be used by the Others. I think the same thing may have happened to his father.”

“You think Mr. Pan was taken to Rundoon?” said George.

“Possibly,” said Leonard. “That would explain why he disappeared a dozen years ago, and why we received no warnings from him after that—and why the Others knew about that last starstuff Fall in Scotland.”

“But if the Others have Peter’s father,” said Molly, “why would they need Peter?”

“I don’t know,” said Leonard. “Perhaps to keep him away from us. Or perhaps something happened to his father, and they want Peter as a replacement. If that’s the case, they’ll want him even more now. We managed to get that last batch of starstuff away from them. It was obvious they wanted it very badly—sending that Ombra creature after it. They’ll be looking to get more.”

“And they’ll try to use Peter to get it,” said Molly.

“I think they might,” said Leonard. “We can’t take any chances. I’ve arranged for a ship to leave Le Havre tonight. Whether Peter wants it or not, I’m going to bring him back to London, for his protection as well as ours.”

“When do we leave?” said Molly.

“We?” The exclamation came simultaneously from both of Molly’s parents.

“Oh please, can’t George and I go?” said Molly.

“Absolutely not,” said Louise.

“It’s far too dangerous,” said Leonard. “You, your mother, and George will return to London, where you’ll remain under protection.” Seeing Molly’s disappointment, he softened his voice. “I’m sorry, Molly. I—all of us—very much appreciate all the good work you and George have done.”

“If you appreciated it,” said Molly, “you’d let us go with you and stop treating us like children. Without us, the Others would have the starstuff and you’d be—”

“That’s quite enough, young lady,” said Louise, in a tone that did not allow for a reply.

Molly said no more, but she seethed with disappointment and anger. She felt betrayed. To be treated like this after all she had done…and after Peter had risked his life to come to her rescue in London. Now, when he was in trouble, she was being denied the chance to help him. It wasn’t fair!

For his part, George didn’t look too unhappy about not being included in the voyage to find Peter. He and Peter were not exactly best friends. “Your father’s right, you know,” he said to Molly. “Perhaps there’s more to be done in the libraries and public records to—”

Molly shut George up with a glare that told him she was not interested in libraries or public records. She wanted one thing and one thing only: to be on the ship bound for Mollusk Island.

Three hours later, Molly, George, and Louise Aster boarded a train for Calais, where they would board a ship to England. But Molly’s mind was on another train in the same station: the train her father had just boarded for Le Havre. The two trains were scheduled to leave only minutes apart.

As her mother was supervising the storage of their luggage, Molly pulled George into their train compartment and whispered, “You can do what you want, but I’m going with Father.”

“What?” George said. “Are you insane? How…”

“Shh!” Molly said as her mother entered the compartment. “Mother,” she said, “George and I are going to explore the train. Can I bring you anything from the dining car?” She knew her mother was never far from a cup of tea.

“Some tea would be lovely,” her mother said. She dug into her purse and, after searching a bit, frowned and said, “All I have is a twenty-franc note.” Handing it to Molly, she said, “Make sure you get change.”

“Oh, I will,” said Molly. She saw the worry in George’s eyes, and for a moment she feared he might reveal her plan. Louise also noticed George’s expression.

“George, are you all right?” she said.

“Yes, Mrs. Aster,” George answered. He forced a smile. “One tea, coming up!” He turned and followed Molly into the train corridor.

“Molly,” he whispered. “You can’t be serious. Your parents will…”

“I am completely serious,” interrupted Molly. “If you wish to stay, fine. But don’t you dare give me away until the train is under way. Do you hear me, George Darling? If you muddle this up, I will never speak to you again, ever.”

“I’m not going to muddle anything,” George said quietly. “I’m going with you.”

Molly stopped and turned to look at him.

“Are you sure?” she said. “It may be dangerous.”

“I’m sure.”

“Thank you, George,” she said, and both of them blushed.

They moved into the next car. Molly bent and peered out a window until she caught a glimpse of the train to Le Havre, three platforms away.

“What time is it?” she said.

George consulted his pocket watch. “Three minutes before the hour.”

“There’s no time to lose,” Molly said. As she spoke, the train car lurched and began to move. “Hurry!” said Molly. With George right behind, she ran to the end of the corridor, opened the coach door, and descended the steps. The train was moving quite quickly now; the end of the platform was near. Molly looked at the platform and prepared to jump.

“It’s too late!” said George. “You can’t possibly…”

But Molly had already jumped. The train’s momentum sent her stumbling alongside the train, almost falling. She caught her balance and turned to see that George had been unable to catch his; he was sprawled on the platform, wincing in pain.

“George, are you all right?” she said, reaching to help him up.

“I’m fine,” he snapped, ignoring her offer of help as he scrambled to his feet, his face beet red with embarrassment.

The train rumbled out of the station carrying Molly’s mother, not to mention Molly’s luggage and any hope Molly might have had to avoid infuriating her parents. All she had now were the clothes she wore and the twenty-franc note she clutched in her hand. And, of course, George.

“Hurry,” she shouted, running toward the platform stairs. “Father’s train is about to leave!”

The train station in the port city of Le Havre smelled of coal smoke, with hints of salt water and fish. Molly and George emerged cautiously from the third-class coach they had ridden in to avoid being seen by Molly’s father. The night sky was cloud-covered and dark. Molly and George hid behind a column on the bustling station platform and watched as Leonard Aster descended from the first-class coach. He was met by two men and a porter to carry his trunk.

Hanging back in the crowd, Molly and George followed Leonard and the other men downstairs to a waiting horse-drawn carriage. A few minutes later, the children were in a taxi following the carriage along bumpy cobblestone streets lit by flickering gaslights.

They soon arrived at a busy wharf lined with tall sailing ships in various stages of being loaded and unloaded, with sweating dockworkers moving heavy barrels and crates this way and that. Keeping well back, Molly and George followed Leonard Aster and the other men to a large, handsome ship that bore the name Michelle in gold lettering on her bow. The men walked up a gangway onto the deck, followed by a dock man with Leonard’s trunk.

Molly and George got as close to the ship as they dared, concealing themselves behind a stack of wooden crates.

“We can’t just walk up that ramp,” George whispered.

“No, we can’t,” agreed Molly, looking desperately for some other way to board. She touched the locket she wore around her neck. It held a small amount of starstuff, enough to enable her and George to fly onto the ship. But it had been given to her by her father to be used only in the gravest of emergencies. She wondered if this qualified.

Molly studied the Michelle, whose crew was preparing the ship for departure. All of the activity, she noted, was taking place toward the stern. At the moment, there were no crewmen at the bow, which was attached to the dock by a thick line.

“Can you climb a rope, George?” she whispered.

“Of course I can,” George said, his gaze following Molly’s. “But you can’t seriously be thinking about…are you?”

Molly’s look answered his question.

“We run across to that pile of nets,” she said. “From there, it’s straight to the bow line. And up. Quickly, George. It’s our only chance. All set?”

George was about to say that no, he was not all set, but Molly wasn’t interested in his views.

“On three,” she said. She took a deep breath, looked both ways, and took George’s hand.

“One…two…”