rest of his lies?’
All eyes turned to Rat Bait.
‘I appreciate ye standin’ up for me, young Whisker,’ Rat Bait said humbly, ‘but Miss Ruby has a right to be angry. I’ve done some terrible things in the past, an’ hidin’ behind another name won’t change that fact. Perhaps I should have told ye the whole story sooner, but I been afraid o’ losin’ me second chance.’
Horace gave Ruby a light jab with his stump. ‘Those don’t sound like the words of the scandalous Ernest Winterbottom. Perhaps Whisker is right. Maybe Ernest Winterbottom is nothing more than a distant memory marooned on an onion-scented island.’
Ruby let out a long sigh and lowered herself back down. ‘Cursed apprentice with his forgive-and-forget attitude. He does this every time. We’re supposed to be a band of vengeful pirates – not a convent of saintly sailors. I’d slap him in the face if my paw weren’t stuck to my sword.’ She gave Whisker a look that said she wasn’t serious about the slap, then shifted her attention back to Rat Bait. ‘Alright, Ratbag. We have enough enemies as it is without adding you to the list. If our gracious leader, Whisker, believes you’ve left your wicked streak behind, then who am I to argue?’
Rat Bait nodded meekly.
‘But don’t push your luck,’ Ruby added. ‘I can only use Eddie as my punching bag for so long.’ She thudded her boot onto the gerbil for dramatic effect, her sword jabbing Horace in the process.
‘Ouch!’ he exclaimed, leaping up from the stump. ‘I’m the innocent one here.’
Ruby rolled her eye. ‘Call it payback for a past crime. Now, be a dear and fetch my earring and necklace.’
While Horace began scrounging through the items Rat Bait had dropped on the ground, Rat Bait stepped towards Whisker, a hopeful look in his old, brown eyes.
‘And what about us?’ he asked.
Whisker wasn’t sure if he had fully come to terms with what had just happened, but he knew that, deep down inside, Rat Bait was the same old jolly rascal he had been an hour ago – and that at least deserved some acknowledgement.
‘We’re okay,’ Whisker said, putting on a brave face. ‘I’ve kept my share of dark secrets, too.’ He thought of something else and added, ‘And what rat can stay mad with his grandpa, right?’
A smile touched Rat Bait’s wrinkled lips. ‘Grandpa Rat Bait. That might take some gettin’ used to.’
Whisker glanced across at his sister, Anna, standing a short distance away with Balthazar. Throughout the heated conversation she had been attempting to juggle three small pine cones while the swan honked in encouragement. The spiky brown objects were almost as big as she was.
‘I never knew Molly,’ Whisker said quietly to Rat Bait, ‘but Dad sees a lot of her in Anna.’
‘Aye,’ Rat Bait agreed. ‘It’s the performer in them both. And the eyes. They have the same deep brown eyes. It be the first thing I noticed when I cut li’l Anna down from the web. I thought to meself this wee lass has me dear Molly’s eyes – though I never dreamed she be me granddaughter.’
‘Do you miss Molly?’ Whisker asked him.
‘I missed her from the day I left,’ Rat Bait said longingly. ‘An’ I often dreamed o’ returnin’ to her in all me triumphant glory – the capt’n o’ me own ship with gold an’ jewels aplenty. But there be always another battle to fight an’ another ship to rob. And then one day I realised I be but a shadow of the rat Molly once loved …’ His words drifted off, his mind lost in the past.
‘Ye know, Whisker, it ain’t easy tryin’ to remember what I had to forget, but when I see that wee child, Anna, I can almost imagine I’m back in the rose maze with Molly runnin’ beside me. Sure I be confused ‘bout which direction to take, but I know I got someone with me every step o’ the way. An’ that be a mighty comfortin’ thought.’
Whisker glimpsed Ruby out of the corner of his eye and remembered his own desperate dash through the maze – two rats, paw in paw, and one scarlet rose. Like Ernest and Molly, they had won the race. And like Ernest, Whisker had left in the dead of night without even saying goodbye.
There was no comfort for Whisker. All he felt was shame.
‘We’re more alike than you know,’ he said.
Rat Bait shook his head knowingly. ‘Don’t confuse yer actions with the reasons for doin’ them, me boy.’
‘But –’ Whisker began.
‘An’ don’t think for a moment that because we’re related, ye’re destined to make the same mistakes that I did,’ Rat Bait added quickly. ‘We might start at the same port but we’re sailin’ to different destinations.’
‘And yet we both ended up here,’ Whisker argued.
‘Aye,’ Rat Bait agreed. ‘But our journeys be very different.’
‘I guess,’ Whisker conceded.
‘Let me put it this way,’ Rat Bait said. ‘Some o’ us spend our lives tryin’ to be different. We distinguish ourselves from the pack while pretendin’ we’re superior to everyone else. Others, like ye, young Whisker, have their hearts set on makin’ a difference. It be this quality that compels Horace an’ Ruby an’ the rest o’ yer friends to follow ye into danger an’ risk their lives for the causes ye stand for. Not because ye radiate uniqueness, but because ye radiate conviction.’
Rat Bait extended his right arm towards Whisker. In his open paw lay the gold anchor pendant, its four sets of engraved initials facing upwards.
‘One day ye’ll be a great capt’n like Anso,’ he said. ‘May this remind ye of where ye’ve come from, an’ where ye’re headin’.’
Whisker looked at it hesitantly.
‘But Anso intended for you to have this,’ he said.
Rat Bait shook his head. ‘Anso intended for Ernest to have his pendant, not a scurvy dog like Rat Bait. ‘Besides,’ he added with a grin, ‘me neck be too fat for such a delicate item.’
Whisker smiled at the joke but kept his paws by his side.
‘Go on,’ Rat Bait said, thrusting his arm forward. ‘Take it, before I change me mind and give it to yer father, Robert, instead. His initials ain’t been crossed out yet.’
‘So you’re coming with us?’ Whisker said, his face alive with excitement.
‘O’ course I’m coming with ye,’ Rat Bait laughed, throwing the pendant to Whisker. ‘I’ve got a son and daughter-in-law to meet, ‘aven’t I? An’ ye could do with a bit o’ maturity on ye team.’
‘Humph,’ Ruby snorted in the background. ‘I’d take a map of the prison over maturity any day.’
‘I don’t have no map,’ Rat Bait said with a sly smile. ‘But I might have somethin’ else o’ value.’
‘What?’ Horace asked, looking up from his hook
