A/N: I am such a big fan of Alice so I typed the first part of a five chapter Alice fanfic. Please R/R. Its one of many fics I'm working on so please don't be to impatient with me. I hope you enjoy it. Ooh right and Anon reviews are completely welcome :)
I have too stop getting my hopes up that my dream world is real but when odd events happen i cant help but feel a little hopeful... I saw a ginger cat run past me in my kitchen earlier whilst I was in hiding and waiting for the opportune moment to grab iced buns for me a Edith- I'd been waiting for a full twenty minutes already and I simply refuse to let that nasty withered cook best me again. The thing seemed in such a rush that it ran right in over my foot, Exciting me enough into almost prematurely giving up my spot, and out into the main floor where all the cooks and maids were working.
In the ordinary fashion of the Liddell kitchen not one person seemed to pay a blinds bit of difference to the tabby - or anything for that matter as they rushed around powdering victoria sponge, adding fresh cream to the macaroons and cutting the crusts of the small finger sandwiches. I'd have assumed father had purchased a new mouser to avoid any uninvited part guests until, and I will swear it upon my life up until the day I drop dead that the bizzare animal turned its feline head and singled me to follow him. Wonderland! I thought without hesitation as I, struck by an odd familiarity and as does always seem curiosity to best me, crawled out from under the cabinet, in which had been my hiding place and attempted to follow the cat. Attempted being the operative word as the old hag snatched me up by my forearm, No prizes for the assumption she was expecting another assault on the sweets, and frog marched me to fathers study. Looking back on the cat he had completely vanished without a single trace maybe Coldwell scared him off. I felt a sadness within me that I couldn't describe, A figment of my imagination sadly. That place really is only a dream. I should stop getting my hopes up... Wonderlands don't exsist. At least I thought so until I caught a sideways glimpse of the animal. A small glimpse mind you but it was enough to reassure me. I felt bad forever doubting wonderland although I do not understand where my loyalty to the fiction appeared.
Now I'm standing in front of the huge cherry wood doors that guard fathers study waiting for him to allow us rare entrance. The anticipation of me getting a good telling off is practically overflowing from Ms. Coldwells plump and purple face. The woman hardly seems to be able to bare my presence, and hasn't for the eighteen years of my life that I can remember her weathered face, yet she plays the-Queen-of -hearts when it comes to facing mother or father. Mother can be a bit of a witch herself to be frank and tends to always be around when I get up to mischief, she never holds back on a chance for good scolding or lecture about how I should act like a proper Lady of my status either.
What a bothersome phrase "Proper Lady of my status" does she mean to imply woman with a far less substantial bank account are not to be counted as a "Lady"? Because I was under the impression gender made you a Lady and not ones purse. And the term "Proper"
also vexes me. What is proper? To wear a respiratory restricting corset under an overly exquisite dress while attending mind numbingly boring party's with esteemed scholars and other associates of my fathers, like the one I'm being forced to on the noon? Is it"Proper" To smile as though I am not praying for a thunderstorm to roll up above our heads and for the heavens to open upon the dreary event?Or perhaps she means like Lorina before me, Proper means I shouldmarry a man with a wallet as fat as my fathers and bare many children I will also scold about being proper. If that is indeed the case then no thank you I shall much rather sit up in my room like a hermit and write my stories. My wonderland stories.
"Enter" I hear boom out from behind the thick doors, Father sounds like he is allowing a maid to bring in his morning tea and daily newspaper than allowing his daughter into his study for the third time ever. Alas what did I expect? I am being brought in for a telling off as apposed to a chin wag on London's latest fashions.
Dressed smartly in a suit of peacock blue he turns from the floor-to-ceiling windows to look at me. His dark eyes seem to skim my presences as he turns a warm smile to the old bint still burying her fingers into my forearm. I also turn to face her, even though I would rather not look directly at her I am rather intrigued to see how she will handle fathers warmth. It so turns out that Ms Coldwell was indeed married once and from gossip I over heard he was quite a handsome man too, The pair were deeply in love once yet he suddenly divorced Ms Coldwell for a younger Lady with a society name and deeper pockets, that was before she nabbed the converted job working as a cook in the Liddell household. However much I despise the woman for her cold attitude towards me I do greatly loath her previous husband. Looks nor money should never be a reason for abandonment of the one you swore an oath to.
I cannot say that I have seen love what with both my parents making separate rooms for berth and only playing marriage to appease guests and benefactors and, well Lorina claims to love her husband but I can see it in her eyes she is not "in love" with him but at Twenty-one years of age and married to a man almost thirty years her senior that was to be expected. Love... Another concept I'm unfamiliar with, I wonder what it would be like to love? I wonder what type of man would snatch my heart? I often dream of princes or knights as brave as they are handsome, He'd be smart and present himself well but he would make me laugh, unlike the single humorless welps my mother introduces me too and well he'd have to be slightly mad to accept all the mischief I get up too and all the adventures I crave... Like the brave Knave of hearts from my dream. Even though the man is not real.
Ms. Coldwell maneged to blur pink over the purple of her cheeks as she dusted of the kindly-cook rouse. After throughly hamming up my actions to far worse than they were she accepted my fathers apologies for my disturbance and left with a all to happy smile plastered across her face. Probably because father assured her i'd be given suitable punishment for my crimes. Fidgeting on the spot I looked at father through my blond fringe and waited for his scolding, which after several minutes of boiling never came.
"Alice, May I remind you that the staff have less than an hour to prepare for a party of eighty-five guests?" he said so coldly I could feel them slide all the way down my spine and back up again till my hairs stood on ends.
"Apologies father, but there was a cat in the kitchen moments ago and he signaled me to follow him" is I mumble as I pull on the bottom of my apron.
"Oh Alice again with this..." he sighed as he looked at me, frustration clear on his face. Mother acts the exact same way when I bring up my dream world she doesn't miss any opportunity to scold me for bringing up a my story of that marvelous place I once dreamed of either. A place were nothing made sense and every inhabitant was just a little bit wonderfully mad, sometimes I secretly wish that place existed and i could visit for real instead of just in my dreams.
"Father I swear! It looked at me and not one single person present could see him but me..."
"ALICE ENOUGH! When you were a mere child this was quite charming but now you are Eighteen years of age and at the rather wrong side of it too!" he slammed his palm on the table top sending his neatly stacked papers into a flutter. He is seething with me right now, his anger is causing his dark eyes to flicker like a candle with its wick down to the wax.
"You will not bring up this childish nonsense again, Am I clear!? Even Edith stopped believing in your made up fairytale long ago" he kept his cold eyes upon me till reluctantly I agreed to not mention my beautiful world again, even though such a suggestion has brought me near to tears I am not one to go back upon my word. No more wonderland...
"Good, now please go bathe and change we have guest arriving shortly" he said in a passive tone as he wafted me out of the grand study. "Oh and Alice do remember to wear all of your proper dress this time" he added with his head down as he intentive scanned the paper chaos on his desk. "Also if you see your brother Henry tell him to come to my study sharpish" he finished as the doors shut tight enough to keep even the coldest winters draft out. Tears ran down my face as I slowly headed down to my bedroom. How could he force me to give up on the one escape that I have from this grey life of mine? Looking out onto the rose garden maze I sigh. Wonderland...
The tall forest that resides between the blades of grass where the flowers are pleasant and have faces. The daffodils sing whilst the bluebells hold the intelligent conversations of things only an inhabitant and me would be able to understand. I'll miss those times when I'd run out into the garden and pretend that those roses could reply to my mad suggestions. In my dreams I'd entered a maze that even my own homely estate was beaten by, in size that is. The maze walls were far higher than the walls of my home yet they didn't make me feel as traped... Even the small cottage on the outskirts of maze, the one I had stumbled upon and met the most peculiar of party guests... Ones who seem to offten escape my memory yet linger there as if old friends... I assume i must part with them too?
Upon entering my room I walked slowly to my desk where I wrote my adventures to the mysterious place in a leather bound book. Picking up the book with care I held it tightly to my chest as if I were holding my nephew Leopold, I gripped tightly to the book as the thought of what I must do slithered into my head like the snake from the Childs Jungle book tale. Allowing myself just one last grip of it, I dare not turn the pages and revisit my other life for fear of not letting go... Taking in one deep breath I hurled the book straight into the fire and quickly turned on heel so i didn't have to watch The grass forest, The madly built cottage, the castle and even my childhood burn away. Enough wonderland Alice... Tis time to grow and act 'Proper'.
Hardly a breath escaping my pulled in chest I sigh as I take a full glance at the gown I have been wearing for the past hour. Beautifully crafted material that appears to have the shine of a melted down golden coin entwined with the whitest pearls that shine pink in the sun and fine lace sleeves that come down to drape ever so slightly over my knuckles one can only imagine the work that went into such a fine dress and yet I hate every second I am forced to wear the darned thing. I much rather prefer my usual dress and apron, far more comfortable than this thing. The gown falls on the heavy side and to avoid any more near mishaps, like the one previous in which the heaviness made me lose balance and fall on the steps, I keep my feet firmly planted to the spot I'm standing on. Sadly even kepping myself on the very outskirts of the event I have had no short of both men and woman alike engaging me in frivolous conversationalist topics.
Oh how I wish I could switch with the care free Edith whom is right now sitting underneath the banquet table with a tray of strawberry-sugar coated- shortbread with neither a care nor bother in the world, Only until the days end mind you Edith is turning fourteen soon which means like me she will be forced to under go etiquette classes so she may present on a high class front when required. If I were also a few years younger I would be allowed to talk of my dreamed up wonderland until I was blue in the face but since father forbid it...
I am so trying my hardest to stay interested in these conservations these kindly people put forward but I don't know much about the sciences nor do I know a great deal about Europe, I have never set foot outside of England. I try to focus and not let my attention wonder as frequently as it is, but even with my efforts my eyes begin to drift around the spacious garden and often my attention wonders to the stories that play out inside my head from the stimulus present.
I can see a grumpy old man sitting hunched over a chair and in an attempt to cheer myself up I give him a story. The mans name is Arthur Penniesmith and he is usually charming but today he has misplaced his grandfathers pocket watch that has the uncanny ability to halt time, he fears the watch as been dropped in his office building and is worried a disgruntled worker may find it and use it to progress further inside the company. I find myself giggling a little as the man I named Arthur drops cream from the suex bun he was eating on the lapel of his dinner jacket. Arthur must have heard my snicker as he shoots a cross glance my way causing me to turn but not ebbing my small giggle fit.
Yet that ginger cat from the kitchen staring at me does. The creature appears to now be wearing a waistcoat. A charming yet boring old man chattering my ear off to the left of me hasn't seen to notice the creature that has its yellow-gold eyes looked on me. I blink to try and rid myself of the image but upon opening my eyes the cat is still there standing with its head arched to the right. Once again it seems to be signaling me to follow it.
"Curiosity does kill the cat" I thought to myself as I glance sideways at the somewhat impatient feline. Perhaps it was unwillingness to let my dream die or maybe I am as Lorina puts it "too curious for my own good" but I politely excuse myself and follow the cat into the rose bush maze at the edge of our garden. Lifting my skirt up so I don't trip I follow fast on heel as my agile guide turns corner after sharp corner until I don't recognise any part of the maze in fact I'm not entirely sure that I am in my own garden anymore. I cant hear the soft piano music nor do I hear the low buzz of conversation. I'm beginning to wonder if I should turn back when the cat stops and eyes me again, I could almost swear its frowning underneath all that ginger fur. Looking at me it tilts its head toward a grass arch and walks through. Perhaps i should go back... Surley by now my parents have noticed my disappearance and are quite cross on the other hand i cannot return with the excuse "The ginger tabby from the kitchen told me to follow it, so I did" naturally they'll be even more cross and I have come this far... Its only one peek, one small peak and then I shall return to the party.
Walking through the arch I am completely befuddled by what I see... Is this it? Is this really the topsy- tervie wonderland from my dreams? Is it really in front of me?