Hare and Hatter
Thanks to everyone who reviewed, it awesome to hear what you think!
It's going to be a few chapters until Break shows up, but here's a little Sharon in appearance in the meantime. And little she is indeed! Enjoy and please review.
Part One
Chapter Three
"Have you heard?"
"Ah, have your heard?"
"The boy,"
"Yes, the boy,"
"Has suppressed March Hare,"
"Ah!"
"What shall we do with him?"
"Now?"
"Yes, now."
"Keep him close,"
"Keep him safe,"
"Keep him ignorant."
He is too young to work at Pandora, technically, but since he has a chain he is too important to not be kept close to the organization. It is fortunate that he showed an aptitude for organization and has excellent penmanship, for there is no way they can send him into the field as an agent, and there are far too few staff members to do the paperwork.
It was a bizarre sight, a boy of only eleven; he had had a birthday --celebrated at the Rainsworth estate, where there was cake and a present and celebration--, sitting all alone at a desk that is too large for him, surrounded by piles of paper and stacks of books, ink staining his nose. He had to keep pushing his glasses back up his nose, thus the ink.
It was fortunate that he was uncommonly clever for his age, a child with less discipline than him would have long grown frustrated with the hours of work, thrown the papers into the air, and run out into the fresh air. But he had grown up in the Barma household, with a malevolent master and illusions lurking around every dark corner, and Liam was good at controlled.
And he liked the little room in the Pandora barracks that he was given, it felt… safer. Even though it was surrounded by people who kept monsters.
He was distributing reports around the table in the main meeting hall, in preparation for a meeting, never mind that he was scarcely taller than the table, when his master, Duke Barma, walked in. Or, rather, the ridiculous illusion he used in public walked in.
It --he?-- glanced at him briefly before taking his place at the table. Liam made himself small against the far wall as Lady Cheryl entered, leaning heavily on her cane, her 'attendant' close behind her. Liam didn't really understand why Rufus Barma insisted on this disguise and deception, but he supposes that it was to protect the head of the Pandora organization.
The Duke, the actual Duke, glanced at him even more briefly than his illusion had. And Liam could have sworn he heard him mutter, "Useless." under his breath.
He as he kept his post at the wall, he felt his heart sink.
March Hare still whispered to him,"I can not see…"
"I can not see…"
"And there is no Hatter…"
"Where is my Hatter?"
"Hatter…"
Liam is in the gardens with little Miss Sharon, who is only just two.
He remembers he grew up like this, passed between the Barma and Rainsworth households, until he was old enough to be a proper servant, but those were the days before March Hare, and before the glasses.
So though he is fully twelve years old and far too old to be playing games, Liam cannot resist the soulful begging eyes of young Lady Sharon and ends up in the gardens lifting a laughing Miss Sharon up into the air and twirling her around. He laughs with her, unable to
contain the happiness inside him, he always surprised he is able to make the little girl smile so freely with such a small thing.
Then her arm accidentally caught his glasses a glancing blow, sending them spinning off his face and into the rose bushes. Nothing truly was wrong until Lady Shelly came to see where her daughter had run off too.
One look at the Lady and Liam screams, because he see, sees, the chain lurking inside her like a malevolent, black shadow. His screams only stop when he finally faints.
That night Miss Sharon crept into Liam's room, finding him curled up onto his bed with his arms over his head and pressed his glasses into his hands.
"I's sorry," she whispered in her little girl's voice. "I's really sorry, Mis'er Liam."
He puts his glasses back on with shaking hands, only then daring to open his eyes. The world was clear and in focus again. He sees nothing.
Lady Sharon looks up at him, tiny face a picture of concern. "You okay, Mis'er Liam?"
But there is no way to answer that question so she will understand so he just hugs her as gently as he can, resting his chin on her curls.
Because the monsters he was afraid of were not under the bed or in the closet.
There were in people he loved.
And they frightened him.
March Hare whispered to him in the dark of night, "Where is Hatter?"
"Where is Hatter?"
"Hatter…"
"Hatter…"
TBC