The Hatter had brought along a picnic lunch that he had packed that morning before Alice woke up. When the sun was high in the sky, he suggested they stop and eat. "It isn't so far to Marmoreal, you know," he confessed. "Only a couple hour's walk, but I did Time a favor last month, so today he agreed to let it take a long time for us to reach Marmoreal. I have been having such a wonderful morning walking with you that I didn't want it to end so soon. I hope you don't mind."
"I don't mind. I've been enjoying it as well."
"Even though it has been a bit, uh, sorrowful?" The Hatter asked, ruefully holding up a decidedly damp purple handkerchief that he had used to staunch his own tears.
Alice held up her own yellow and green one that he had given her. "There is no one whose sorrows I would rather share, Tarrant, nor trust with my own."
"Ah, Alice, you must stop saying things like that to me, hen. Whenever you do, I just want to grab you and kiss you some more." He gave her a shyly mischievous sidelong glance and begged, "Please don't stop saying such things!"
Alice laughed and assured him she wouldn't.
Over lunch, he cleared his throat self consciously. "It means a lot tae me that ye'd ask me about ma family," he said. "I havenae spoken of them for years. All t'ithers are afraid to bring it up. I have been known to go a little mad about it, so no one else ever mentions it noo."
"I'm not afraid of your madness, and I would be miserable never speaking of my family if it were me. They deserve to be remembered and spoken of."
"Aye, they do. Alice," he said, cocking his head to one side, "why is a river like a racehorse?"
"I'll have to think on that one."
"Alice?"
"Hmm?"
"There is a particular question I wish to ask you. I had been planning to wait a good while longer before I asked it, but I just cannot do it. I cannot wait. I am sorry, love, for I know this is too soon, too fast, not planned out, not romantic. Why would you ever—but perhaps you will be kind to me anyway—you always have been kind to me, Alice, dear—"
"Hatter!"
"– and I hope you'll be kind even if you say no. Which I'm sure you will say, because you could have anyone you liked, and lots of other men here are completely sane, and you're a sensible, clever girl who would quite naturally want a sane man instead of someone who is half-mad. But, my Alice, I have a question for you. It's such a very important question that it is simply—well if I don't ask it right away, I may burst."
"Tarrant!" she touched his cheek gently. He took her hand and kissed the palm of it.
"Will you marry me, Alice?"
Alice did not hesitate. She had known the answer to that question since before she had even stepped through the mirror. "Yes, Tarrant, I'll marry you."
His eyes closed in bliss. "Oh, say it again, love. I swear that's the most beautiful thing you've ever said with those beautiful lips."
Alice giggled. "Yes, Tarrant, I will marry you."
"Again!" he demanded.
"Yes, Tarrant, I'll marry you."
He sighed and opened his eyes to smile at her. "That was lovely. I'll remember that forever."
"Really? May I try?" Alice asked playfully.
He laughed. "Please do!"
"Will you marry me, Tarrant?"
His response was a mixture of his pleasant, cultured accent and his rougher, Outlandish one. "Aye, Alice, I'll marry you." He took her hand and stroked across her inner wrist with his thumb.
Alice closed her eyes and smiled. "Oh, I see what you mean! That is nice, isn't it? Say it again, please."
"Aye, Alice, I'll marry you."
"Once more, please."
This time his voice was low, the Outlandish burr quite strong. "Aye, Alice, I'll marry you."
He put his arm around her and drew her close, and just as he kissed her Alice felt a sudden snap of inner satisfaction, as if something that had been missing for her whole life had finally just clicked into its proper place.
"Oh!" she said in surprise.
"Did you feel it?" the Hatter asked. "I did."
"Yes, well, I felt… something. What was that?"
He nodded sagely. "Promises made three times are magically binding. We both made a promise three times to the other, so it's well-night irrevocable now."
"Oh, good," Alice said. "I wouldn't want to revoke it." She felt settled, complete, for the first time since her father had died. She began to tidy up the picnic things. "That's settled, then. It will be a load off my mother's mind that anyone is willing to marry me, at this point. I doubt she would object too strenuously to my marrying an honest, respectable tradesman, for all she wanted me to marry a lord!"
He sprang into action, helping her re-pack the satchel. "Well, she'll get her wish, then, as I happen to be both an honest, respectable tradesman and a lord," he said. "After my actions on the Frabjous day, the queen gave me some land and a title."
"You're a lord? Really?"
"Tarrant, Lord Hightopp, Baron of Capelas, at your service, my lady," he said, doffing his hat and bowing low. He pronounced it "cap-less," which Alice found ironically amusing considering his line of work.
"Congratulations, then, Hatter! Or would you prefer me to call you 'my lord'?" she teased, getting to her feet and brushing off her skirts.
The Outlandish burr was back. "I'll be yours no matter what ye call me, love," he said, rising smoothly and taking the basket from her. "However, ye've just agreed to marry me. I dinna want formality between us, do you?"
"Not at all," Alice replied, "Tarrant." They swung into step towards Marmoreal again, and Alice asked, "So tell me about Capelas?" She pronounced it properly, the way she had heard it in Greece when she had once spoken to a Greek hatter.
The Hatter told her about his new lands, located in the Tulgey Downs near Witzend, where he had grown up. Cleared and farmed and fertile, his land contributed greatly to the well-being of the new White Kingdom. "Best of all," he said, lisping excitedly, "it isn't far from my snug little cottage. Really, the queen was most generous. I also keep rooms at the palace in Marmoreal—I have a workroom there as well—and I spend a few nights there when I'm very busy at court. I'm sure the queen will have rooms prepared for you as well, Alice."
He sobered for a moment and looked worried. "I don't know how happy she'll be about our engagement."
"Whyever not? I thought that when I returned, she'd welcome me back to Underland to stay."
"Oh, she will, she will. But you are the queen's champion, and a lady. She may have wished you to marry elsewhere, you know, to cement an alliance, or to form a new one with another country, or some such thing. Something political. Perhaps we had better not announce our engagement publicly until after we've had a chance to tell her privately."
Alice stiffened her back. "I ran away to China once, to escape an arranged marriage. I will not submit to one here. And think of this: if we announce our engagement right away, publicly, then the queen will hear it at the same time as everyone else. This will not give her time to try to talk us out of it."
"Good point! If I know Queen Mirana, she'll seize the excuse of your return to host a ball—and that is when we'll tell them all. Oh! I rhymed!" He tittered happily.
"Good plan," Alice affirmed. "Nice rhyme, too."
Note: Got a PM from a reader about this, so I figured I'd address it here. Yes, I know I always tend to write short engagements and love at first sight. That's because this is fiction! In real life, it is always best to take time to get to know the person, and to make sure that you really can spend the rest of your life with him or her, before agreeing to get married. Really, marriage is a decision that will effect the entire remainder of your life. It's worth taking the time to make sure it's what you really want, before leaping in. What I write in a fanfic is not what I did, nor what I actually recommend anyone doing in real life! This is a fairy tale, dearest readers. Life isn't. :)