The Move
We left the windmill for the last time around midday. Before we headed off Tarrant said a quiet goodbye to the house he'd lived in for as long as I could remember.
He laid his hand on the wall and whispered, "Goodbye old friend. You've sheltered me from more than any one house ought for their owner. I'll come and say hello every so often."
As we left in the coach Mirana had loaned to us for the trip I could see tears welling in Tarrant's eyes.
"Oh Hatter. I have never seen you sad before. I've seen you happy, mad, angry, but never sad. What is troubling you?"
"Are you sure you want to know, Alice?" I nodded. "Well, when you came the first time, I had another wife. She was like you, had come from your world. Her name was Margret." I gasped. Surely it couldn't be. I remembered that Margret had been away for a couple of years, but my parents had always said she had gone away to Southend – on - Sea for the air. Why would they lie?
"What is it Alice?"
I shook my head. "Nothing. Carry on Tarrant."
"Well, when she arrived, she thought she was stuck here and was going mad. We welcomed her into our community and slowly she seemed to accept it. So much so she agreed to marry me. Then came the Horevendush Day. Before the festivities began, Margret disappeared. Then the jabberwocky came. After I'd saved Mirana, Stayne came up to me and bragged to me how the Red Queen knew where to send him and the Jabberwocky because of Margret. Margret had been in cohorts with the Red Queen and told her everything she needed to know in return to leave this place. The information nearly killed me. When I got to the Windmill which belonged to my family my anger knew no bounds. The windmill just let me take my time in recovering. It didn't judge me, didn't look down on me, it was just was there. It took me the better part of a year to get over it. I've been staying there ever since because it just seemed to let me be me. I always knew that when my madness threatened that the windmill would let me get over it in my own time."
I could feel the anger towards my sister grow inside me. I just wanted to shout and scream at her because she hurt my Hatter.
"Alice, I can see something is wrong. Please tell me what it is."
I turned to look at Tarrant. I could feel the tears streaming down my face. "Oh Tarrant, I'm so sorry. Margret's more like me than you think. She's…..she's…. she's my sister," I managed to whisper. "I never knew she had been here. I'm sorry."
Tarrant took my face in his hands and wiped my tears away with his thumbs. I looked at him and saw in his eyes not hatred but kindness.
"You weren't to know Alice, what she did, you were too young to know or understand, and we never had the opportunity to talk about such things the last time you were here. It's not your fault." He wrapped his arms around me and squeezed me close.
When we arrived at Witzend I felt very tired and ready for a good nights sleep. We thanked Alfred the horse and said he could stay the night if he needed to recuperate after the long journey. He nodded to us and wandered off to a nearby field.
"So Tarrant, which cottage is ours?"
Tarrant pointed at a small white dot in the distance near the sea's edge. "That one. I used to stay there when I was a boy with my little sister, Siobhan, and my parents." I looked at Tarrant and saw a far off look glaze over his eyes. I knew he was remembering his childhood and for once I left him in his memories.
When Tarrant was ready we headed off in the direction of the cottage. When we arrived we heard something odd.
"A phiùthrag 's a phiuthar, hu ru Ghaoil a phiuthar, hu ru Nach truagh leat fhèin, ho ho ill eo Nochd mo chumha, hu ru Nach truagh leat fhèin, hu ru Nochd mo chumha, hu ru Mi'm bothan beag, ho ho ill eo ìseal cumhag, hu ru." It was very faint and sounded like it was coming from inside the house.
Tarrant pushed open the door and started singing "Mi'm bothan beag, hu ru ìseal cumhag, hu ru Gun sgrath dhìon, ho ho ill eo Gun lùb tughaidh, hu ru Gun sgrath dhìon air, hu ru Gun lùb tughaidh hu ru, hu ru Ach uisge nam beann, ho ho ill eo
Sìos 'na shruth leis, hu ru."
I followed Tarrant in; nervous at what might be inside. What I saw made me gasp. In the middle of the main room was a woman who was the exact double of Tarrant except she looked wild. She was staring at us her head tilted.
What I saw in her eyes made me shiver. I saw a different type of madness to Tarrant's. It had taken complete control of her. Tarrant knelt down in front of her.
His voice was shaking uncontrollably when he spoke, "Siobhan, it's me, Tarrant." He reached out his hand to touch her pale cheek but she flinched away. I rested my hand on Tarrant's shoulder. "Let me try."
I knelt down in front of Siobhan and rested my hands on my knees. "Hello Siobhan. My name's Alice. How long have you been here?"
Siobhan looked at me intensely. She reached out her hand and stroked my cheek. "Hello Margret. You were always so nice to me."
I took Siobhan's hand in mine. "I'm sorry, but I'm not Margret. She's my older sister."
Siobhan took her hand away from mine and curled up in a little ball. "You're not real, are you? You're never real. I always see my beloved brother and his lovely wife but they're never real." I could hear Siobhan softly sobbing. I looked at Tarrant full of sadness for him because he had to see his sister like this.
Tarrant suddenly had a little smile flicker across his face. I frowned, "What is it Hatter?"
"I have an idea." He took out some material and started working intensely. Once he'd finished I saw a lovely little dolly with a green dress on and ginger hair. He'd made Siobhan a dolly of herself. He knelt down in front of her and held it out to her. "Siobhan look, I've made you a dolly, just like I used to." She looked up and saw the doll. She took it off of hatter looked at it for a moment then hurled it across the room screaming.
"I HATE YOU! I HAD A LIFE UNTILL THAT BITCH MARGRET CAME. SHE PRETENDED TO BE NICE TO ME BUT ALL THAT TIME SHE WORKED FOR THE BLOODY BIG HEAD!"
Siobhan started throwing all she could lay her hands on about the room, many times narrowly missing me or Tarrant. The all at once Tarrant sprung into action. He managed to pin Siobhan to the ground. He turned to me and shouted, "Go get Absolem. I think it's time we need some advice from that blue butterfly."
I turned on my heel and sped out of the door towards the coach. When I arrived I couldn't see Alfred. "Alfred. Alfred are you there?" I heard his hoofs softly clip clopping on the grass.
"Yes Alice I'm here. What is it?"
I turned round to se Alfred looking at me somewhat puzzled.
"Alfred. I need to see Absolem. Would you take me if you are able to?"
Alfred let me climb onto his back and sped off into the woods. I felt worried for Tarrant and what might me happening back at Witzend.
