Chapter 11
Maggie
One guard, his weapon sharp and not daring to turn away, inched closer, his grandish helm marking him as the reigning superior.
His steely blue eyes narrowed as he glanced between the three of them, holding suspiciously onto Peter and Maggie.
One by one the guards had their attention entirely on them, not bothering to even ask Selina any questions.
She said it before that the Treasure Room was strictly off limits – but it wasn’t at all odd to see the Princess wandering the halls.
“Who are you two?” the guard snapped. “Well?”
Maggie looked over at Peter, but he didn’t seem all too confident in what he should say.
It looked like wielding the King of Neverland title wouldn’t go quite far under the waves.
And who was she, if not a simple human plucked from a faraway land to simply cook?
There wasn’t a guard in his right mind who’d believe such a thing.
Maggie reached for Peter’s hand instead, intertwining around his fingers as a last pitch resort.
If that was to be the end, at least she was still connected to him in some way.
The guard glowered. “I won’t ask another time. Who are you?”
Selina jolted forward, her rosy frame snapping to stand in front of Peter and Maggie. Immediately, the spears began to lower. “My apologies, fellas,” she called out, waving a dismissive hand in front of them. “But there’s no need for your pointy things anymore. Ta-ta! Head on home!”
“What is the meaning of this, Princess Selina?” the guard asked again, not daring to let his mermen leave. “You know more than anyone about how restricted this area is. Outsiders are never allowed near King Neptune’s Treasure Room.”
Selina gasped dramatically, one hand grazing her cheek. “Who at all said I was going to Father’s Treasure Room?”
He raised a brow, his spear pointing to the doors directly behind them. “That Treasure Room?”
“Silly,” she teased, hands twisting effortlessly behind her back. The Princess was ever so casual, rolling the situation off her shoulders. It was as frightening as it was impressive. Maggie tried to steal some of her nonchalant nature, but she hardly had a steady heart to begin with.
“You know as well as I that my father’s birthday is approaching,” Selina continued, earning a few nods from the diligent guards. “Out of all the things we have gotten him over the years, Coralyn and I searched high and low for the best present. Something no one has ever thought of before.”
The guardsman’s shoulders lowered. “Princess, respectfully, would you get to the point?”
Selina’s arm snapped out around Maggie’s shoulders.
They were suddenly as close as best friends, with the Princess’s chin leaning affectionately against the top of Maggie’s head.
“This is Maggie Hart, the most talented chef in all of Neverland. You wouldn’t know the boy – he’s simply her assistant.
We have acquired them for the day, guard, in order to surprise my father with the most delicious meal he’ll ever experience.
You wouldn’t want to ruin King Neptune’s wonderful day, would you? ”
The guardsman cleared his throat as he lowered his long, glinting spear.
The other guards followed suit, their high alert status dropping into something much more at ease.
A few of them continued down the hall, walking along their predisposed path and keeping an eye out for any more odd strangers wandering the palace.
Selina’s arm never once loosened from around Maggie’s shoulders.
“You’re going the wrong way, Princess,” the guardsman said with a placid smile. “Would you prefer a guarded escort to the kitchens?”
Uh-oh.
Selina’s painted nails dug into Maggie’s shoulder as a smile stretched across her face. “How kind of you, sir,” she forced out through clenched teeth. Her gaze snapped to Maggie for a split second.
There was nothing else to do but follow the guard through the palace halls.
The golden halls studded with rubies were left behind, along with the Treasure Room.
Maggie tried to memorize the twists and turns at first, but it was forgotten in moments.
The halls were innumerable it seemed, spanning on for ages and riddled with doors at every other corner.
How on earth were they expected to locate it again, if they were under the disguise of surprise cooks?
Well, at least there’s one plus to our predicament.
Maggie tried her best to hide her growing anticipation to see the mermaid’s kitchen.
It reminded her of seeing her restaurant for the first time, when the Lost Boys and their King led her through Cricket Hollow to find it.
Knowledge untapped, questions unanswered, all waiting for her and her alone.
It was far more exciting than any heist, at least that was the case for Maggie.
“You’re looking forward to this, aren’t you?”
She glanced over at Peter to see his teasing expression. He was already pinching her elbow, the corner of his lip tugging up mischievously. “Oh,” Maggie drawled, trying to playfully push him off, “you’re ridiculous.”
“Ridiculously right.” Peter grinned. “You wanna cook for the King. Admit it.”
“It’s just a ploy, Peter! We’re here for the –”
“Hook’s statue,” he finished, giving her a long nod. “I’m surprised you remembered! You know, with the kitchen looming and all.”
Maggie’s laughter blurted out before she could stop herself.
She clamped a hand over her mouth in the same instance, cutting the sound short.
But it had already bounced off the walls, and the guardsman looked over his shoulder, one brow raised ludicrously high.
Behind him, just slightly obscured in his blind spot, Selina starkly dragged her hand across her neck, shaking her head profusely.
Don’t!
The guard slowly faced forward again, continuing on his conversation with Selina, whose polite smile had quickly returned.
Peter leaned over, twirling a strand of her hair around his finger. “Someone got in trouuubleee,” he teased, his sing-songy voice making the hair stand on the back of Maggie’s neck.
“All thanks to you, King of Neverland,” Maggie mumbled, smiling.
Of course she was excited to see the kitchen.
To cook for royalty was a great honor in the human lands, and it felt like even more of one on Neverland.
The King of Atlantis sounded like a great pain, one that Maggie had her fair share of.
She knew more than anything that all it took was a good bowl of food seasoned with love to cure an ailment like that.
The guard halted in front of a pair of swinging doors.
“Here you are, cook. The servants are getting ready to prepare the King’s lunch, so I’m sure they’ll be ready for any further instructions.
Princess Selina,” he paused to bow, one arm striking across his sternum respectfully, “please allow me to escort you back to the throne room. I am sure His Majesty would like to see you.”
Selina didn’t stop smiling. She glanced in Maggie’s direction, giving them a short nod before readily following at the guard’s tail. As he pressed on, Selina took a quick look over her shoulder, mouthing: make the lunch!
Maggie was almost delighted to see her say that.
She bit down on her lip as a smile threatened to crack across her face, very much aware of Peter’s presence close behind her.
If all she had to do was make a good meal for the King, one well enough to get them to the Treasure Room, how hard could it be?
Maggie was in the kitchen more than any other place on most days.
Sometimes she imagined being born on the kitchen tiles, being raised between the oven and the sinks.
She knew it more than anything else. What else was she good at, if not running a kitchen?
She would leave the thieving and sneaking to the Lost Boys.
Maggie confidently swam into the kitchen.
The wide room had about ten or eleven merpeople working around the countless counter spaces.
As soon as they entered, their eyes rose, clinging to Maggie as she came closer.
Maggie’s mouth opened and closed a few times as her eyes scanned the room.
Most of the appliances looked familiar, if not changed or adjusted in a way for the merpeople to call it their own.
It wasn’t that that had caught her eye. Any food that she did see, which wasn’t too much, wasn’t anything she was used to cooking with.
There were exotic fruits, harvested nuts, cured and smoked meats.
Maggie drew in a breath as Peter touched the small of her back. “You’ve got this, chef,” he murmured in her ear.
And even if you don’t, she thought to herself, do it anyway.
“Good afternoon, all.” Maggie strode further into the kitchen. “The daughters of King Neptune brought my assistant and I in today to cook a surprise lunch. We are a bit more recognizable on land,” she quipped with a wink.
A light chuckle rippled through the cooks as they readily approached her. Effortlessly, they were ready to take in whatever orders she was about to give. A few even raised their notepads, armed with quills and ink.
“If you all don’t mind,” Maggie began as she struck her arms through the waves, pushing over and around their diligent eyes, “I’ll take a look at what you already have to offer.”
The cooks and Peter followed at Maggie’s heels wherever she went.
It was a bit alarming at first, knowing that their eyes were watching wherever she reached.
But as it settled in, Maggie wanted to blush and hide away sheepishly.
They eyed her like a teacher, like a master, like an expert.
They soaked up her movements as though it was the very knowledge she had been looking for all along.
Maggie arrived in the merpeople’s kitchen with the intention of learning everything they had to offer, only to realize that they were learning worlds from her.
By the time Maggie had finished looking through their fridges, she was thoroughly disappointed.
Not many things were familiar to her and everything that was couldn’t be turned into anything gourmet, anything that was worthy of pleasing a grumpy old King.
She shut the last fridge door and spun around, causing the sea of cooks to jerk back in surprise.
“I hope you don’t mind me asking,” Maggie began, “but how difficult would it be to get things from the surface to cook with?”
A small framed mermaid with a teal colored tail came closer to her, dressed in a pristine cook’s jacket. “Not hard at all, miss. We often use land food for special occasions.”
“And it holds up down here?” Maggie winced, unsure of how to even put it. “Beneath the water, I mean?”
A ripple of laughter passed through them another time.
“The magic is very healthy ‘down here’, miss. Everything works as it would on land,” the mermaid explained with a sweet smile. “Is there something in particular you’d like to make?”
Maggie turned back to the fridge, catching Peter’s expression in the door.
He gave her a beaming smile that seemed to say, go for it.
Excitement nipped at her fingertips. They seemed ready to do anything at all, and that was enough to get Maggie started on something spectacular.
She reached for some of the paper the cooks had been using, equipped with a quill herself.
At the top she wrote in a neat scrawl, Ingredients.
There was a slight chill in Atlantis, though Maggie wasn’t entirely sure if the merpeople felt it as well.
Nevertheless, she had already decided on serving soup.
They cooked for some time, but as the flavors develop over time, the final product becomes something entirely unexpected.
It would blow anyone's socks off – King or not. And it was rather simple to put together, at the bare minimum. The cooks wouldn’t need too much instruction to throw it all in a pot and consistently stir.
Soup would hardly be enough, though. The King was a hardy man and hardy men often did well with a meaty lunch.
Herbs were growing along all the wildflower fields on the island and were accessible to practically anyone.
Maggie listed out a few, already drooling at the thought of building an aromatic and earthy crust over a juicy roast beef.
The soup would do for a good starter, relying on some acids to open up the palate.
To finish it off, Maggie remembered seeing pears reach their harvesting time.
Poaching them in a mulled wine with cinnamon sticks and star anise would be the best way to end it all.
King Neptune would be doubled over with an overfilled stomach by the time lunch was finished.
He’d be in even better spirits with the red wine Maggie already paired with the meal.
Maggie looked away from the list and faced the cooks.
“We will serve a tomato-basil soup as a starter, followed by an aromatic herb crusted roast. Poached pairs will follow as a light dessert, and I have already chosen a delicate red wine to pair with it all.” She handed the page to a nearby servant, who was already swimming off.
“The servants have a list and we can get started once the ingredients arrive. If you’d all like to get your stations set, we can kick off this surprise lunch! ”
As they scurried off to prepare, Peter hooked an arm around Maggie’s waist. “Soup and roast, Magpie?”
“You heard me,” she murmured with a sheepish grin. “I-I know about the statue, but –”
He cupped her cheek, silencing her rambling with a light caress. “We’ll go to the Treasure Room after lunch, alright?”
“Are you sure?”
“Of course,” he replied. “I wouldn’t want to miss out on poaching pears. Would you?”
Maggie beamed. “I wouldn’t.”
And as she turned back to the kitchen, her mind already racing with recipes and preparations, Maggie stole a glance over at Peter Pan once more, completely gobsmacked and speechless at being blessed with a person like him.