Chapter 1
"Catch a falling star and put in your pocket
never let it fade away.
Catch a falling star and put it in your pocket
save it for a rainy day."
Alice stared at the window to the small garden within her view. She sang the tune in a whisper to herself, imagining the brightness of her pocket should a star be tucked away in there. She smiled at the thought. Would it be hot? Would it glow? Would she be able to bring it with her?
Her gaze moved from the white flowers of the garden to her reflection in the glass. It was faint, but she could see the dark circles under her eyes and how her long blonde hair hung limply around the hollows of her cheekbones.
"This will not do," she said aloud to the room. "It's the hour for tea and I look horrible." Alice turned away from the window and moved over to the bureau and picked up her hairbrush. Running the bristles through her hair she locked on her gaze in the mirror. "Alice you are all wrong," she yelled at herself. The young woman leaned forward into her reflection, fed up and angry. "You are not the right Alice. Too tall. Too small. Not right at all."
She laughed at her rhyme. "Alice, you are completely mad. Mad. Miserable. Melancholy. Morose. Moping..."
A knock on the door of her room stopped Alice from her rant on the letter M. A small smile touched her lips as she walked over to it. She knew who it was and why he was there. Always prompt, he was.
"Miss Kingsley," inquired a voice on the other side. "It's the hour for tea."
Alice opened the door to the young man on the other side. "Mr. Whittaker. Prompt as always," she said, any traces of her anger or madness gone.
Alex smiled in return and offered her his arm. "Miss Kingsley, tea is the highlight of my day, you know."
"It is for me as well, Mr. Whittaker. Especially on such a wonderful English day as this is to take tea in the garden. I think I actually saw the sun at one point today."
Alex chuckled as he led the young lady down the short hallway to the garden doors. "Sun in England is a rarity for sure. When I moved here from California everyone warned me that I would be leaving the sun as well as the state. I thought for sure it was an exaggeration." He opened the doors for Alice, letting her walk ahead of him towards their usual seat among the flowers.
The tea set was already laid out with a plate of sweets. Alice smiled as he held the chair out for her and took the teapot. "I managed to bring in my own tea today instead of the usual sludge they try to pawn off on us here, Miss Kingsley. I hope you'll enjoy this." He poured out the tea and waited until she sweetened it and took a sip, looking at Alice for her approval.
She took the drink and inhaled the sweet and heady aroma of the herbs. "A perfect blend indeed, Mr. Whittaker. I daresay that this has to be the best I have had in a very, very long while." Alice closed her eyes, momentarily taken far away in her mind from this garden to....to...somewhere far better. She sighed as she opened her eyes and watched Alex.
"Mr. Whittaker...Thank you for this. I very much appreciate all that you do to...humour me in this."
Alex looked up from where he was pouring his own cup and nodded. "You're welcome, Miss Kingsley. And don't think I'm simply humouring you. I do this for myself as well," he smiled, sharing a conspiratorial smile. "I could be tucked away in my office all day flooded by paperwork. This gives me a chance to escape. "
Alice nodded, taking a small cake off of the plate and biting into it. Cafeteria food, she thought with a hint of a scowl. Unlike the tea which was full of promise, the sweets dropped Alice into the dank reality. She looked up at the building where they came out of. She could see her first floor room not far from where they sat.
The three-storey building was outside of London, far away to almost be considered countryside. While the signage on the door out front claimed it was a clinic, Alice knew it was the right place for her. A looney bin. A quack hut. A mental institution.
"A mad house, Mr. Whittaker. You have to be one of the lucky ones to escape this place. And yet you come out here day after day when we can and offer me a tea party. Which one of us is the clinically insane?"