A/N: It had to get out of my head. I was going mad.
There was something she had to remember.
Something which she had forgotten, and had to be recalled quickly, lest she forget to remember entirely. But sometimes she felt that if she remembered, she would want to forget, and would then suddenly be wishing that she remembered to forget.
So whenever she felt like there was something she had to remember – which was often – she did more work. After all, the only things she could be forgetting were things to do with work, weren't they?
So she went over the accounts twice, thrice, four times and more, hammered out the details of minor things usually left to someone of less status than herself, insisted on being a physical part of every venture, and inspected every type of item they were importing. Her name was attached to this company now, and it wouldn't do for someone to be less than happy with its work. She even looked over the trifles they were exporting. In fact, she was one of the very few people who seemed to bother with basing their trade off of mutual appreciation, instead of military might.
Luckily, one of the others was Lord Ascot.
Strangely enough, by actually caring for the people they did business with, they had made quite a few enemies back home in England. It seemed as if when people were respected, they were more willingly to trade, making Ascot and Kingsleigh one of the most successful pairs in the entire company. The success one incurs, of course, is directly proportional to the amount of jealousy one incurs. So Ascot and Kingsleigh looked after each other, voicing suspicions in private about new investors, confiding private intuition about such-and-such proposed plans, and overall remained as best of friends that an old man and young woman could be.
Ascot was very glad that he didn't have to warn her against the numerous ladder-climbing suitors that proposed to her. After her initial success in China, these entrepreneurial young men came in droves. After his son, however, she never needed twenty minute "moments." In fact, she never even need twenty second moments. She would barely look at the hopeful man before gracing him with a smile and shaking her head.
Her family, of course, worried. But Ascot decided he would be far more worried if she ever decided to take up one of these depressing prospects. So life continued in a pleasant way for them. They spent the majority of their time in China, of course, but they had also ventured out into the Pacific Islands, Korea, Southeast Asia, and India.
It was as they were heading back to England after a trip to India several weeks longer than anticipated that Alice suggested a new venture which would unknowingly change their lives forever.
"You know," she said, cooling herself from the murderous heat with an exquisite Chinese fan. "We seem to always find ourselves in incredibly hot places."
"Indeed," he replied from across the table where they were taking their tea iced. "I never thought I would long for a good English winter."
"Does it have to be an English winter?" she asked, grinning as she brought the chipped cup to her lips. He suddenly saw that very familiar spark in her eyes, the one that he couldn't possibly ever say no to, and found himself laughing.
"Well, I suppose not," he chuckled. "What were you thinking, my dear?"
"Scandinavian furs," she replied, after sipping her tea. "Though I certainly can't picture wearing any right about now, I'm sure our friends experiencing the good English winter would very much appreciate some."
"You're right, of course," he sighed. "Though I was looking forward to a bit of a vacation."
"It won't be nearly as long as our other trips, and the return trip home should be substantially shorter," she argued. "We can leave as soon as we unload, and be home before Christmas."
"Very well," he yawned. "But this is your venture, and so you have to do all the preparation work this time."
"Like I haven't been for the past six years?" Alice teased.
He smiled at her, and wished for the millionth time that he had been blessed with such a daughter.
To Scandinavia it was.
Norway was a very pleasant country, really. The people were friendly and generous, the furs were warm and plentiful, and at the time, Ascot even quite liked the climate. The lack of sunlight could be rather depressing if one lived there all year round, he supposed, but it didn't bother him just then. That was, of course, until they started sailing home.
Alice was going to be right. She usually was, that precocious child – woman, he corrected himself mentally – and they were right on track to be home for Christmas. He figured that if any of them had really thought about it at the time, sailing so far north in December probably wouldn't have been a great idea. But after sailing around the Cape of Good Hope, through the monsoons of India, and threading through the islands of the south Pacific, the North Sea didn't seem so threatening.
Caught in the midst of horrible storm a day off the coast of Bergen, however, the sea seemed very threatening indeed. He was below deck, looking out from the porthole to waves twice the size of their ship, hearing the shouts of the desperate captain and frightened sailors from above. Alice, of course, was itching to go up and take a look, and it was all Ascot could do to convince her that she'd just be a nuisance, let alone in danger, if she went up there.
"Look, you can see from here. I hope we don't wind up halfway to Iceland at this rate," he said, moving to let her look out the porthole.
"Iceland?" she asked, perking up suddenly.
"No, Alice," he said, frowning. "We've done quite enough this year. We're not sailing again until spring."
She sighed, and barely glanced out the porthole before sitting back done. "Another Season in town. Wonderful."
"You did manage to escape last year by wintering in Hong Kong, remember?" he reminded her.
She frowned suddenly. "Did I forget something?"
"No," he said again, sighing as well. "You never forget anything, though you always think you do. Provided we get to London in one piece, everything's all in order."
"What if we got to London in two pieces? You first, and then I'll come once the Season's over," she joked.
"In which case maybe three would be better: the cargo, then me, and then you, for I'd much rather stay home as well. You know that," he replied. She nodded, and opened her mouth to reply when the door swung open to reveal a soaked-to-the-bone sailor.
"Begging your pardon, sir, ma'am, but the captain asked me to come and respectfully request a reroute due straight east, instead of us following this storm, which seems to be headed in the same southernly direction as us right now," he said.
"Of course, whatever the captain thinks is best," Ascot agreed quickly. "And wait it out for several days before returning over sea?"
Alice almost laughed at the older man. He was completely immune to seasickness, but felt every bump in every carriage ride he ever took.
"We're not sure, sir," the young man said apologetically. "We're not sure what shape the ship is in yet, which is why we want to dock up north before spending more time at sea."
"Tell the captain he may use his own discretion in all matters," Ascot replied. "Thank you."
"I haven't ever been to Scotland," Alice said once their messenger had left.
"So you get your wish of another adventure after all," her partner laughed.
"Maybe you and the cargo will arrive back first, while I explore the countryside on the way home," she suggested.
"Conveniently missing half of the social events on the way? Your mother will have a fit," he told her.
She shrugged. "She's used to it by now."
He privately agreed, but refused to comment on the topic anymore. Instead, he continued to play his fatherly role, and suggested she get some sleep while she could.
It was always the same dream.
It had been years since she called it a nightmare, and for awhile she even looked forward to going to sleep precisely to see her "friends," the blue caterpillar, the white rabbit, the grinning cat, the twins, the hare, the mouse, the bloodhound, the woman in white, and above all, the strange man in a hat.
But recently, the dream changed.
It wasn't so recently, perhaps merely a year or two ago, but it was recent enough in her twenty-five year old life for her to still be puzzled by it. Instead of happy greetings and tea parties, she found them locked behind bars, strung up in chains, on their way to execution by a woman madder than all of them put together. She tried to save them, but nothing she could do helped. In fact, they didn't even see her anymore. It was like she was a ghost in her own dream. In the morning she would wake up in a cold sweat, her tears not out of fright, but out of helplessness.
Sometimes she debated about confiding in Lord Ascot, asking his opinion on the change. But she never did. The dream was hers, somehow, and talking about it would be tantamount to giving it away. There wasn't much she hid from her mentor and partner, but this was too important to lay out in the open. Besides, Alice felt that if she could just remember whatever it was she had forgotten, she would know how to fix the dream, and maybe she could wake up happy again.
That particular night, it changed again.
"Let them go!" she cried to the card-knights who were torturing her friends. She tried to fight them off, but she passed through them as easily as if she was a ghost. They didn't notice her at all.
A cry of pain behind her found her staring at the dormouse, who was valiantly trying not to scream as a horrible looking man slowly cut her tail off millimeter by millimeter with a hot knife.
"Alice," she gasped, and Alice, shocked at even being seen, ran to her.
"Mally!" she found herself crying out. "What have they done to you? Where is Mirana?"
"Alice is not here, you pitiful excuse for a rodent," the one-eyed man laughed. "Your champion abandoned you, remember?"
Remember? There was something she had to remember…
"Alice!" the dormouse shrieked as she started to fade away.
She was waking up, wasn't she? Because what was it she couldn't forget…?
"Alice, find the Hatter! He can fix this, Alice, please…"
"So you do know where he is?" the man roared, and the last thing scene before she woke up was the dormouse's tail completely severed, and a high-pitched wail of pain.
"Alice, Alice…"
She was crying. She was helpless. Her face was wet like it was every morning, but why could she still hear the mouse's voice? The mouse… what had she called her? Ma…Mal…Mel…It began with the letter M…
"Alice, wake up, dear. We're here."
Here? Where was here? She opened her eyes to find Ascot standing over her, then remembered the conversation from last night. She sat up and sniffed, wiping at her eyes futilely.
"What's wrong?" he asked concerned. "I thought you were excited to be seeing the one country you haven't yet."
She managed a weak smile, and shook her head. "Bad dream," she explained. "Let me throw a dress on and I'll be out in a moment."
"I'll meet you on land. Captain says we're going to be here for two or three days while they fix the ship up, and I think we should take opportunity to meet with the locals."
"You mean buy everything they have worth selling," she translated, and he laughed before walking out to give her privacy.
True to her word, she threw on a dress, nothing underneath but her chemise and knickers, and slipped on shoes without stockings or socks. She ran a brush through her hair, but left it down, and merely splashed some water on her face before running outside. She took a deep breath of the salty ocean breeze, and was pleased to look out on the land before her.
"Heading to shore?" one of the Wonder's crew who had been with her since her first voyage called. She nodded, and he pointed down to the figures of Ascot and several others on the ground. She quickly flew down the gangway to join them.
"Ah, Alice!" Ascot said happily. "Allow me to introduce you. Apparently hearing that an English merchant ship has been temporarily forced to dock here is wonderful news for this village!"
"We're hoping you could trade with us directly here, instead of us having to go through the middleman and pay exorbitantly, as isolated northern villages often tend to have to," said one of the two men in front of her, wearing a kilt and woolen socks with his white shirt and black jacket.
"This is the town tailor, Mr. Gordon Walker," Ascot said, and Alice curtsied lightly.
"Mr. Walker," she said.
"Miss Kingsleigh," he replied, bowing slightly.
"And this is the town hatter, Mr. Tarrant Hightopp," Ascot continued, and Alice turned to greet the other man. Though he and Walker were nearly identical in dress, Hightopp's tartan was slightly different, and he wore a rather strange top hat on his head. And whereas Walker had dark hair and blue eyes with freckles, Hightopp's hair was the most stunning orange, eyes the purest green, and pale skin completely untouched.
In fact, he seemed so familiar…
"Miss Kingsleigh," he bowed, and their eyes met. She completely forgot to curtsey.
"Have-have we met?" she asked.
"I was going to ask you a similar question," he replied, looking at her with the same curiosity that she was sure she was looking at him with.
"I've never been to Scotland before," she said. "But do you travel? Perhaps we've seen each other in India, or China, or Korea, or…"
"No," he cut her off. "I don't travel."
They stared at each other, both completely bewildered.
And that was when Alice knew that the something which she had forgotten was something which she absolutely had to remember.