The next few days went by in a sort of blur. Alice didn't say much and no one really talked to her, probably because they could sense they wouldn't get much of an answer and if they did it wouldn't be a very nice one. Still, Tarrant took Alice back to his home since she didn't have one of her own yet and calmly told her that she could stay as long as she liked. A small part of him had wished she would smile at him when he said that and maybe say thank you but instead she just gave him a slight nod and sat went up to her room, leaving him alone in the garden. The March Hare and Mallymkun didn't come over for tea as they usually did, instead Tarrant went over to the Hare's hole since they wanted tea but still didn't want to disturb Alice. An entire week past before Alice finally came downstairs, fully dressed and quite normal looking without it being dinner time. The Hatter looked at her a little surprised.

"Alice. Are you feeling better?"

She looked at him with a look in her eyes that clearly stated she didn't, but she didn't feel like talking about that so she just went on with what she was going to say.

"Actually I've been thinking. If I am to stay in Wonderland I will need a house of my own, so today I thought I might go looking for one. You're welcome to come if you want to."

"If I want? Oh I'd be delighted to! You know there are so many places that are just plain empty since the Red Queens reign seeing as those who used to lived there are..."

Tarrant stopped in the middle of his sentence when he realized what he was about to say. He didn't like talking about Iracebeths' reign and he hated talking about all the people that she had killed during it. Alice understood him, she thought it was horrible to so she just took his hand and smiled carefully, squeezed it a little.

"Let's go then."

The Hatter certainly hadn't been lying when he said that there were many empty houses, the lot of them never seemed to end. Alice soon came to realize that if she were to pick a house, she ought to do it soon, otherwise she would soon forget the ones that they had already been looking at. A few look-arounds later, she picked a purple house that had been one of the first houses they had looked at. It wasn't too far from the Hatters', but still far enough for some personal space. The house itself was light purple, with a odd green roof and white windows with matching green shutters. One side had a balcony peeking out of ivory that covered pretty much the entire wall and right my the front door (that was also green) there grew a few rose bushes, filled with white roses. All together it looked adorable and the inside wasn't too bad either, a bathroom, a kitchen, a small livingroom and two bedrooms which was good in case she had any guests. There was dust all over and Alice knew that it would take a while to clean out. Not that it mattered. She had all the time in the world now that it appeared as though she'd be staying in Wonderland. So after having the first cup of tea that had been made in that house in a very long time with Tarrant, Alice politely asked him to leave so she could get on with what needed to be done.

It wasn't very easy to clean up her new house, mostly because she had never cleaned her house before. Since she had grown up in a wealthy family, there had always been servants around to do all things like cooking and cleaning. Alice herself didn't have a single clue on how to run a household. Now she looked around in her own house and wondered where she ought to start cleaning. Then she remembered the time she had asked Chessur which way she ought to go and he had simply replied that it completely depended on where she wanted to get to. When she had sid it didn't matter he had said that then it didn't matter which way she took. This was sort of the same thing, the only goal she had was to get the house clean, she didn't know what to start with and it didn't matter, as long as she started and so she did. None of the stuff in the house was hers, but it was not like it's original owner was going to need it so she started digging through a few boxes that where standing in a corner to see if there was anything that could be of use to her future stay here. Unfortunately she didn't find anything. It appeared that the people who had lived here had been taken by surprise when the Red Knights came because everything appeared to have been left in a hurry. The dishes weren't clean, a shirt was hanging over the armrest of a chair in the kitchen and a pair of boots stood in the hallway. It was sad to look at and even though Alice tried not to think about what had happened to them, it was hard and all red items reminded her of Iracebeth,

When the night came, she was only completely finished with the livingroom and the bigger bedroom, but that was the only room she needed at the moment since all she wanted was to sleep. It was a tired Alice that crawled down into the sheats that she had temporarily borrowed from Tarrant and soon fell asleep. That night Alice didn't dream. She hadn't had a single dream since she came to Wonderland, which was very strange because she usually had a lot of dreams that never made sense.