A Neverland Tale - HOOKED (eng)

Chapter 1.5 - Luke

Lukes POV

That the pirates were the 'bad guys' in this game? Well... no one here probably had to tell her that. But even before she came to Neverland, she had little love for pirates.At least since that rainy day in November, almost 2 years ago now, when the London Department detective had appeared at the door of her estate with that melancholy expression on his face. Until that day, she had loved the sea and had been swimming or boating often enough at the nearby lake of her family's summer residence. Contrary to what one might suppose, she had not been born and raised in the docks or the East End of London.

 
Lucienne Adelaine Emilionette Hawker was born the youngest child of Jonathan Hawker and Claudette Hawker. Her family lived at the crossroads of Oxford Street near Hyde Park in the West End - the well-heeled area of London. Her father was not a lord but was a wealthy and respected owner of a trading company who had the honour of some friendships with members of the House of Lords. That was also how he met her mother, the daughter of a diplomatic envoy from France. Be that as it may... they were not poor and Lucienne grew up sheltered under good education and between governesses and domestic lessons.

As children, the sense of 'good and evil' sometimes blurred and it was fun to take on the roles of the villain once in a while. With her brother Jake, she would hijack banks ships in Kensington Gardens or chase him around the oceans as a naval officer. As children, she had played pirates with her brother more than once. They had fought duels with each other to the (imaginary) death, had sent each other over planks and sunk their common enemies without mercy! The 'Pirates of Kensington Garden' had always gathered a band of bloodthirsty pirates around them. And even she, as a girl, had made a feared pirate bride or, when her mother wasn't looking, stuffed her hair under her hat and plundered and captured with the other pirate rats!

Unlike most ladies, she had spent much of her time with her brother under his influence and had been devoted to 'unnamed' interests from an early age. Where sporting activities were frowned upon by most ladies, who preferred to loll about on chemises with tea, she spent her time with her brother fencing, archery, reading books or - if they got the chance to travel to the summer estate - riding horses in the woods adjacent to it. She had also already accompanied her brother on a trip to France and Spain when he finally began to accompany the merchant ships of the family business now and then. By now she detested pirates. But that was hardly surprising, after all, the childish naivety had given way to lessons about morality and 'good and evil'. The knowledge of how cruel pirates were. Unrepentant, greedy, plundering and nefarious murderers.

Until that dreary November day, however, she lived in an ideal world. She didn't care about the ladies' gossip and her father cared less about nipping her budding little rebellions right in the bud. But after the Golden Queen, along with two other ships, sank with man and mouse.... everything changed. Her family's world and her own. Where before she had stretched her face towards the sun, now there were thick clouds in the sky that only occasionally broke open to let rays through. Surely even a storm would not have lessened the suffering. Grieving and hating was human and it needed a target for her young, broken heart to fixate on. Over the years, her torn open wound had healed a little, the pain faded and the wound was closing. Now, in Neverland, things were different again. Childhood games suddenly came back to sinister life with the villains. Admittedly, the way the Lost and Peter sold it, it wasn't hard to hate the pirates dearly and see them as great villains in this 'adventure'. There always had to be the 'bad guys' somewhere.
Luke didn't really notice much of the fight outside the cabin. She knew, of course, what the original plan had been - and already thought her brother would have a blast doing it.