The Voyage of Lucy P. Simmons (6 page)

10

F
our of us sat at the table and spread the deck of cards before us. Side by side we laid out our clues. “We have to be missing something,” Pru said. “Something so obvious we're not seeing it.”

I hunched over the display, searching for some scrap of significance we may have overlooked. Walter frowned in concentration. Marni, however, seemed distracted, distant. She went through the motions of considering this and that, but her mind was elsewhere. I gazed at her, undetected, and wondered what was going on behind those sea-green eyes of hers. A mystery, as always.

Pru tore several pieces of paper from her notebook. “Let's review what we know.” She licked the tip of the pencil, reading each word aloud as she wrote, looking to the three of us for confirmation:

1.  Great-grandfather E.S. and pirate Mary Maude Lee had a child—Marni!

We glanced at Marni. Then, as if to prove the point, Pru unrolled and smoothed the scrolled document portraying the Simmons family tree. We stared at the branches illustrating how we were all connected to one another—and to the curse.

 

 

Pru penciled the next clue:

2.  E.S. stole Mary Maude Lee's treasure and M.M.L. placed a curse on all the Simmons men, killing three generations thus far.

“Not to mention the loss of your mother and Aunt Margaret,” Marni added. “And the close calls all of us have had. It seems no one related to the family is safe.” She paused for emphasis, then pointed toward the lyric sheet. Pru wrote:

3.  The ballad explains that the treasure must be returned to Mary Maude Lee's kin for the curse to be lifted.

Pru and I exchanged a knowing look. Three of the once-famous female pirate's relatives sat around this very table—Pru, Marni, and myself.

4.  E.S. had fled to Australia, but we didn't find the treasure there.

Walter laughed. “I'll never forget all those holes you dug out there in the outback looking for ‘J-3'—only to find it here on Clare Island.”

Pru smiled ruefully, waving one hand under our noses. “I still have the callouses to show for it—and little else!” She bit her bottom lip and went back to her list.

5.  Another group is desperate to find the treasure—Quaide, the pirate, and the green-eyed man.

Walter nodded. “They've been tailing us every step of the way. The question is, are they just treasure hunters following the rumors of Edward's exploits? Or are they connected in some other way? What do they know that we don't?”

“Good question,” Pru said, tapping the pencil on the table before going on.

6.  The cards my grandmother—your great-grandmother—Molly O'Malley designed depict the treasure being buried in a grave on Clare Island. But the treasure is gone.

“And,” I added, “besides Old Peader, there was no corpse in the coffin. Either it has been removed or it was never there to begin with.”

“Good point,” Pru said.

“Maybe your great-grandfather faked his death,” Walter suggested.

“And buried his treasure in his own grave!” Pru scribbled furiously:

7.  Edward's wife, Molly, carved a message on the coffin—suggesting she'd stolen the treasure to double-cross him.

With that, one of the cards flipped up from its spot on the table and hovered around us. Before I even looked I knew which card it would be—the queen of diamonds, Molly O'Malley. My great-grandmother leaned off the card, her jowly face raised defiantly, wagging her chubby index finger in the air. “Nobody deceives me and gets away with it!” she crowed.

My aunt's voice rose to a shrill cry. Her cheeks were flushed and her mouth pinched. “But Lucy and I are your own flesh and blood,” Prudence cried. “Why don't you help us? Tell us what you know? Holding back has led to many deaths already—your own son, Edward the Second; my brother and Lucy's father, Edward the Third; my brother, Victor; not to mention Lucy's mother, Johanna, and Victor's wife, Margaret! When is enough, enough? You're no better than Mary Maude Lee! In fact, you're worse!”

The force of Pru's emotion caused the animated card to quiver and dip. I almost expected it to revert to being just a plain old card again and drop, lifeless, to the table.

But it flipped up again, the queen of diamonds's face like that of a spoiled child, her bottom lip petulantly rolled. “What makes you so sure I know where the treasure is?”

“Your message carved on the lid of the coffin!” Pru exclaimed. “The treasure was in there until you made off with it!”

“Brilliant, if I must say so myself,” Great-grandmother Molly said, puffing up like a proud mother hen. “True, I dug it up, and hauled it off with me to the mainland. No small task, I'll have you know! But I figured it out and I did it! Then I used some of the money to build myself a little inn and tavern, set up a business fer myself.”

“And . . . ,” Pru urged, circling her hand in the air impatiently.

The queen of diamonds smiled, basking in the attention. She cleared her throat, stretching out the suspense. “I had a secret vault built into the foundation of the place. That's where I hid the treasure.”

“Where is it now?” I asked.

“How should I know?” The queen of diamonds snorted. “Stolen out from under my nose. So you know as much as me. You'll have to use your wits for once!”

My aunt flew from her chair and in one swift blow smacked the card to the table. Pru stood, palm down, breathing heavily, nostrils flared. I could see the queen of diamonds's buggy eyes peering up between my aunt's slender fingers. Walter, Marni, and I held our breath. Another card rose, as though carried by a playful gust of wind. We stared at the dapper king of diamonds, his crafty smile spreading ear to ear. “Can you see how she made it easy to betray her?” he quipped. “The woman could drive a person mad!”

“You're even worse!” Prudence exclaimed, snatching his card from the air and holding it before her.

The queen of diamonds wriggled out from beneath Pru's flattened hand and flew back into the air, facing her king. “I may have lost the treasure,” she taunted, “but at least you never found it!”

“Oh, I found it all right,” he snarled, “and died trying to take it back!”

“How?” I sputtered. “Where?”

“How? Where?” he mocked in a high-pitched voice. “That's for you to figure out!”

Pru snapped up both cards, stuffed them in the box, and slammed the lid. An uncomfortable silence filled the room.

Marni shook her head. “I'll never understand how some parents can be so ignorant of the ways their decisions affect their children, and their children's children.”

Walter's face clouded over, and I thought of how we'd all been let down by one ancestor or another—Marni betrayed by both parents, Mary Maude Lee and my great-grandfather, Walter, Georgie, and Annie, by their brute of a father. At least Pru and I enjoyed loving parents, although they were lost to the curse of the previous generations. If they'd taken the curse seriously, they might still be with us. I shook my head, dispelling the litany of what-ifs that traipsed through my brain.

My musings were interrupted by a knock at the door. “Comin' to see if Miss Marni made it back safe 'n' sound!” came a voice from outside. Pru quickly rearranged our clues and evidence into a neat pile and opened the door. A large wedge of sunlight spilled inside. Seamus stood framed in light, his curly hair sparkling as if on fire.

“I'm fine,” Marni assured him, “after my skirmish with the Grey Man. Thank goodness I'm at home in the water.” A little too “at home,” I thought.

“Well, thank the good Lord,” Seamus exclaimed. “Was hopin' fer nothin' less.” His eyes wandered to the papers on the table. “What were ye's workin' at there?” he asked. “Looks like quite a pile o' stuff.”

Walter swiped up the evidence and handed the collection to Pru. “Nothing,” he said, his eyes boring into Seamus's face. His tone let Seamus know it was none of his business.

Undaunted, Seamus grinned. “Hurry out then! I've somethin' to show ye!” His enthusiasm was infectious, and even Walter, in spite of himself, followed Seamus outside.

The sky was bright blue, without a cloud, the moisture from an overnight shower still glistening in the sky. Seamus took me firmly by the shoulders and turned me about. I gasped.

Arching across the sky to the east, as far as the eye could see, was a rainbow, the colors brilliant and shimmering. It curved over the sea to the mainland like a luminous celestial bridge. One by one the others caught sight of it, and for a moment all thoughts of curses and clues were forgotten. “Couldn't let ye miss a glimpse o' this,” Seamus exclaimed.

As we stood ogling the spectacle, Grady and Miss Oonagh climbed the hill to our cottage, arm in arm, eyes peeled skyward. It seemed the grassy knoll in front of our door provided the best vantage point. Grady nodded at Marni, as though not at all surprised to see her reappearance, and turned back toward his mother. “Nowhere in the world can ye find such heavenly finery, ain't that right, Mam?”

Miss Oonagh had her white pipe clamped between her teeth, her weathered face tipped skyward. She gave no indication that she'd heard him, nor did her expression reveal any trace of wonder or delight. Perhaps she'd seen many an Irish rainbow and was no longer impressed. The ancient woman puffed on her clay pipe, her eyes riding the crest of the rainbow, shore to shore. “'Tis the way t' take, I sees it clearly.” She spit the words between her teeth, the pipe bobbing with every other syllable.

Walter chuckled. “You know what they say about leprechauns and rainbows—a pot of gold at the end. . . .”

“Don't be daft,” Seamus said. “Cain't ye see Miss Oonagh's prophesying?”

Walter bristled. “It was just a joke. . . .”

“The rainbow leads to the mainland,” Marni said. “Westport, or maybe even Galway.”

Miss Oonagh raised a hand, silencing them. “Ballyvaughan,” she breathed.

“Ballyvaughan!” Pru and I exclaimed at precisely the same moment.

“Where Addie, the capt'n, and the little ones await,” Marni said.

“Why Ballyvaughan?” Walter asked. “What will we find there?”

All eyes were on Miss Oonagh. She inhaled deeply, plucked the pipe from her mouth, lifted her chin, and drew her lips into a small spout. Her sunken cheeks puffed in and out, sending several short bursts of smoke into the air. It was as though she willed the smoke to shift and change shape, like turbulent clouds on a windswept day. Fascinated, we watched the smoke rings stretch, separate, and take on a new configuration. With the rainbow as a backdrop, the wisps of smoke twisted and danced. Miss Oonagh inhaled and expelled another mouthful of smoke, her pursed lips opening and closing like the beak of a small bird, sculpting the escaping vapor into the strange symbol she'd drawn on the hearth—the uneven rays reaching away from a circle. Before I could point this out, the smoke dissipated and all that remained was the rainbow. The old woman removed her pipe and smiled, revealing one snaggly long white tooth, a large gap, and a golden incisor. “Ballyvaughan,” she crooned, as though that explained everything.

“What about Ballyvaughan, Mam?” Grady asked. Miss Oonagh seemed not to hear him, and kept grinning foolishly, her pipe jammed between what teeth she had.

“Then Ballyvaughan it is!” Pru said. “Molly O'Malley's tavern is on the road between Ballyvaughan and the Burren—I know this from the last time I was here.”

“I've been missing Georgie and Annie,” Walter said.

“And Addie and the capt'n,” I added.

“Best to take the ferry to the mainland, then go by land,” Grady said.

His mother vehemently shook her head. “The
Lucy P
.
,” she hissed.

“Impossible,” Walter said. “We don't have a crew to sail her. I agree with Grady. Take the ferry.”

Miss Oonagh removed the pipe from her mouth, pointed a bony finger at Walter, and pronounced it slowly, deliberately, one syllable at a time: “The—
Lu—cy—P
.!” Walter took several steps back, buffeted by the intensity of her words.

“Look!” Marni exclaimed. A second rainbow crystallized before our eyes, arching even farther toward the western sea. Miss Oonagh nodded, turned, and began to walk to the west. Seamus shrugged and motioned for us to follow. We paraded like mice behind the Pied Piper, toward the edge of the island that faced the Atlantic. When the shore was finally visible Miss Oonagh stopped.

The second rainbow arched over the island and exploded in a glittering cloud around our ship. Seamus gasped at the sight of the
Lucy P
., surrounded by a swarm of brilliant glittering particles at the base of the rainbow. Miss Oonagh's gray eyes shone in kind, like liquid silver. She made a sound, “Ah-ya!” affirming her assertion about the vessel. “Ah-ya!” she repeated. “Not today, no, but as soon as ye can, haul anchor and set sail!”