“Hello, Tinker Bell, Smee here will be right back with your cakes,” James said, smiling at the fairy. “I’m so happy to see you, to see all of you really. My memories of being here when I was a boy are cloudy, so I’m looking forward to getting to know all of you again. I have been reading about you for years, and I must confess I feel as if we are all good friends.” Tinker Bell just glared at him with her hand on her hip, and he had to wonder if she felt that he was up to something. He knew she didn’t feel he could be trusted, and he supposed she was right—he was after all planning to kidnap her—but at the same time he couldn’t help but feel hurt that she should feel this way when he had done nothing (that she knew of, anyway) to make her distrust him.

“Peter, I’ve always wondered, why are there no Lost Girls in Never Land, and only Lost Boys?” asked James.

“Because girls are far too clever to allow themselves to fall out of their prams,” said Peter, laughing.

Tinker Bell was still giving James the eye. It hurt him that she didn’t trust him, and he thought perhaps it was for the best he was taking her to the Many Kingdoms after all. He didn’t want her standing in the way of his friendship with Peter. “Ah look, here is Smee with Tink’s cakes,” James said as Smee placed the little plate onto the table. Even though the cakes were bite-size for a human, one of them was more than enough for the little tinker-fairy, but Smee had piled the plate high with colorful little cakes, and James could see he had sprinkled them with the sleeping draft mingled with powdered sugar so she and Peter wouldn’t notice.

“And what shall we send your mermaid friends? Is there anything I can tempt them with?” he asked, giving the mermaids the side-eye. He hadn’t thought the mermaids would come. He had to think of a way to put them to sleep, otherwise they would see him flying off in the Jolly Roger with Tink, Peter, and the Lost Boys.

Tinker Bell sniffed at her cake, wrinkled her nose, and stamped her foot, causing fairy dust to erupt from her tiny feet, and she angrily pointed her finger at Smee.

“The cakes are quite good, my dear, I promise you,” said James, but he could tell Tinker Bell was onto him. She had her hands on her hips, and was glaring at him.