Chapter Eleven


After a quick bath and change, Marianne knew she would enjoy tonight. It was because she was finally getting out of the palace and having the chance to spend time with the Hatter, Mally and the Hare. She would get his name properly – soon, she would be sure to. It was one of her new personal tasks! The young woman slid her hairbrush through her long hair as she looked at herself in the reflection. She didn't look too bad, but she didn't want to wear a big dress walking through the woods to get to the Hatter's house.

She guessed it would be through the woods. That was the way that she got to the Hare's and she recalled a sign, vaguely on her way to find the Cheshire cat who had ditched her, which pointed in two directions. She had been drawn to the hare's, naturally, as that's where she found the cat, but the other one had the Mad Hatter's name carved onto it.

Marianne was thrilled at her choice of outfit actually. She probably would have been ridiculed thoroughly at home if she had decided to wear riding trousers whilst being female. She didn't care. She wore a long shirt, tied around the waist with the material from her night robe as she moved her hair back into a ponytail. She knew she was dressed like a man, but she wasn't going to be treated the way she would in England, she knew that. Her father would most definitely have turned his nose up at her if he could see her now.

Only a man would wear trousers and get away with it but she knew that she was wearing trousers in that training armour she had been wearing and got no hassle. Besides, it was late and no one would see her but the Hatter and his guests. She didn't think he would say anything, actually part of Marianne knew he wouldn't. Marianne stood up from the table and made her way out of the bedroom she had been staying in – but she had felt more inclined lately to call it her bedroom, she didn't see any reason why not. She enjoyed staying here – part of her already didn't want to go home.

Marianne made her way to the entrance of the palace where she had left the Hatter to see him there waiting for her. Thackery was shivering, bouncing around with some bottle of liquid in his paws. She thought he really should of been careful – wouldn't want to drop it. She couldn't see Mally from quite far away, but as she walked closer, it was soon discovered that the dormouse was once more on the Hatter's hat. She sure enjoyed riding on it that was for sure. "I'm here." Marianne spoke behind them, causing Thackery to jump, almost throwing the glass bottle at her. She was amazed it didn't soar towards her actually. He had stopped himself and she was shocked for he usually didn't care what he was throwing at people.

"Sorry." She apologised to the hare that seemed jittery, yet he always was quite easily scared it seemed. Well scared probably wasn't the right word – just… mad. As they walked towards the Hatter's house, she couldn't seem to find herself to focus to memorise the route or anything. You see her curiosity was getting the better of her regarding the strange bottle. She had soon realised that the liquid inside was actually a sauce of some kind and the hare was guarding it with his life. "So what's…" she asked, moving her hand near the bottle that got shifted away from her quickly, with the hare's free paw slapping her on the back of the hand as a punishment.

"Dinnae touch tha'!"

Oops. "Sorry, just curious." She spoke to the hare as she looked towards the Hatter and Mally for some sort of answer whilst the hare bounced off a few paces ahead of them. She sighed, that must have been just in case she had decided to try and steal his sauce bottle again. She was only interested. "What is it?" The dormouse answered for her, said it was a special sauce blend to add on the different type of bakery that they had shared when they had tea. "Sounds good, he seems so protective of it." She noticed, tilting her head and watched the hare.

"Special recipe, secret, top-secret, cannae find out unless you're there when he's making it." The Hatter informed her as they walked through the woods. The moon was out, crescent shaped, almost seemed like it had pointed teeth actually. Marianne observed this, shook her head, imagining she had made the teeth part up. Marianne jolted out of her thoughts as she had realised, she hadn't thanked the Hatter for making that gown for her yet and she was so determined to do so earlier. How could something that she had tried so hard to remember slip her mind so easily?

"Oh, Hatter." She gained his attention once more. Marianne leant forward, kissing his cheek, missing the fact that they turned a slightly pink shade by the contact of her lips. "Thank you for that gown, for my ceremony." She continued, as she moved back, looking towards their surroundings as she walked. "It really was beautiful and the material was so soft." Something she had done, she wasn't sure what it was – but she had gained a glare from Mally. Marianne rose her eyebrow, trying to make the little rodent out. She wouldn't apologise though – she did nothing wrong.

"O-Oh that's quite fine. I'm glad you liked it. You looked beautiful, astounding, and pretty in it; it was pretty for a champion wasn't it? A fine champion at that. Oh dear, I'm rambling."

Yes he was. She laughed at the fact he had realised this himself. Marianne hadn't really seen him take notice of his own ramblings before. "Knight now." She teased, moving her finger to the rim of his hat. "Actually I prefer champion." She said, looking away from the Hatter before shaking her head. "No I prefer Marianne." Laughing as she went through the titles she owned and which she preferred. To herself she thought she actually preferred Mary. She really had no idea why she was rambling, sometimes when she was in his company she found herself rambling along with him.

"How about Lady Kingsleigh, knight and champion of Underland, otherwise known as Marianne?"

She laughed: "Yes I like that. A little long, but I like it nonetheless. We'll stick with Marianne." Marianne noticed when they were walking another large table coming into view – this was much different from the little ones pushed together to create the Hare's table. This one was one long table, with a smaller rounder one at the top. Obviously the Hatter sat there as there was a large chair to accompany it. She smiled, it was really – although messy – quite a sight. "So this must be your house." She spoke looking around to see where the building was. When she set eyes on it, it really matched the Hatter quite well. She had seen houses similar in England, but they were usually much bigger. She didn't like big houses, they always made her feel cold inside, and a smaller house was easier to make felt lived in.

As she looked around, she saw the picket fence had little hats on top of the pointed edges, the tiled pave way was multi coloured but dulled from being walked on so much. The house itself was a dirty white colour, with a red roof (this was shaped almost like a top hat). It almost matched the Hatter's head – if that wasn't rude to think. She smiled as she looked towards the Hatter: "And I almost expected the window rims to be green." She smiled, she wasn't being sarcastic or rude – in fact she would have found it quite fitting if they were. Green to match his eyes, would have been rather fetching if the rims were white (as they were) but the windows to be stained green, then it would have matched exactly how she viewed the Hatter's appearance. It was a tall house, not like one a child would draw when drawing their first house. A child would draw a square with a triangle roof, and the Hatter's house was almost like a long rectangle with a horizontal rectangle and a square to make that almost top hat like roof.

There were bushes around the house, which was expected, they were in a woodland area – and next to the house was a large tree – and many other trees scattered here and there. Marianne could also see, turned away from the house that the old windmill where the Hare lived wasn't actually that far away – it was in plain sight. No wonder they could have late night parties and not worry about anyone getting lost to get home. "I really… it's just wonderful." She spoke realising she actually preferred being here than the grandeur of the palace. The palace reminded her of being home 'yes miss, no miss, let me get that for you miss.' She wasn't like that – she didn't want to be like that. She wanted somewhere that felt like a home. That and she wouldn't want a hundred people walking around her home and waiting on her hand and foot.

Marianne made her way over to the table. Amongst the mess of broken teapots, cracked teacups, stale buns, cutlery and random splashes of now cold tea, was a pink and blue table cloth. She was amazed at the design; it fitted the Hatter's personality exactly as she would have said his personality was. She wondered if Alice had ever been here – because she had remembered that when she met the Hatter and had their tea parties that it had been at the Hare's house. She didn't care, she didn't even ask, curious or not, she wanted to have this tea party. Thackery dashed into the Hatter's house and a light went on. She heard the rushing of water and expected the hare was making fresh tea for the party.

"Ye can sit here."

She turned looking at the Hatter who had pulled out a seat next to his almost throne and smiled, nodding her head. "Okay." Marianne made her way over, taking her seat, as she glanced across to see Mally making herself comfortable in a teapot. She sure liked teapots. "You don't have a house?" Mally corrected her, quite abruptly, declaring that the teapot was her house. Marianne moved her elbow onto the table, placing her head upon her hand and sulked. There was no getting through to the dormouse. She just didn't seem to like her very much. She wanted Mally to like her, but it didn't seem to be working. Marianne's eyes looked to the window of the Hatter's house and she could see Thackery jumping up and down getting everything prepared.

Soon Mally was snoring and she smiled. The dormouse might not like her, but Marianne was starting to hold a soft spot for her. "Was she a little grumpy because she was tired?"

The Hatter, who was setting through the task of finding a clean teacup for Marianne, (which included throwing half full cups over his shoulders, with a crash to the ground) nodded his head as a reply. She smiled as she watched him, he sure was a character – just like Mally and Thackery. She moved herself to sit straight as she found a teacup placed in front of her. White with little blue stripes, it was perfect. She smiled looking to him as he moved to sit beside her. Moving as Thackery made his appearance with a pan full of boiling water which he placed into a teapot – much to Marianne's gladness that it wasn't the one that Mally was snoozing inside.

It was Hatter that started pouring out the tea before banging his hand against the teapot Mally was in to wake her up. "Tea time, Mally." Marianne heard the tiny groan of disproval before the top of Mally's head came popping up over the rim of the teapot. The mouse crawled out of the teapot and placed herself on her tiny seat made out of a pile of books. She looked so cute. Marianne watched Mally threw sugar cubes around the table, landing in each of the cups without fail. Marianne watched her with a look of surprise – Mally had never missed a single cup, which was so impressive to her.

"You're good at that."

Years of practice, noticeably, then remembering the stories – years of practice wasn't the best expression for Marianne to think of. This was simply because they didn't go through years in their tea parties. It seemed that time stood still for the Hatter and his friends when Alice wasn't there. She wondered if time played along with Marianne being there now. Maybe time was frozen right now and she had no idea about it – which would mean all these weeks she's felt like she's been in Underland, hasn't been ticking away in England. Even though days and nights had come, was it possible the world played along with time? Leaving the characters to be stuck in an ever playing day? Maybe the sky moved through the same day over and over again, which was why daylight seemed to change to night time, but nothing that occurred between the Underlanders stayed the same.

She wasn't sure if she was making sense, but it was possible. If time decided the people wouldn't age, that trying to kill him was such a bad offence, then he could let them stay stuck in the same day over and over. Circumstances changed though – she had been here what seemed days simply because she wasn't doing the same thing over and over again. But, then again, the training, the days she trained seemed to be similar only for the fact she was so bad at it, but she was slowly improving.

The Hatter had moved his hands up as he caught Marianne's attention. "So! We have to toast your knighting." The Hatter moved his teacup up and moved it close to Marianne who in return did the same with hers and the small clink of them moving together to collide softly. Then the same sound as the Hare and Mally did the same thing, but it did not stop there for then there was a crash, as it seemed the Hare had thrown his cup instead of climbing over to Mally on the table. Marianne couldn't help but laugh. She was told she'd enjoy the tea parties if she was ever lucky enough to attend one, but she never thought it would be as fun as this! "To Lady Kingsleigh."

The hare moved a chair closer to Marianne to the next teacup and threw the cold tea over the grass before making himself a fresh brew. "I'm having so much fun." She spoke, as she turned to the Hatter once more. "This is such a relaxing experience after training this morning." She explained. She had felt so stressed out during the session with Sir Rook who had definitely been strict with her. Even with the fact the tea party was fast tracked and on-going, with loud noises and lots of laughter, she found it very relaxing. "I thought I'd never get a moment to myself."

A familiar chuckle arose from the Hatter. Marianne moved her hands to a slice of toast before picking at it and eating what she tore away. The Hatter chatted away with her for a while. Her tea was soon finished – thankfully too because Mally had fallen asleep into the teacup. The Hare was back in the Hatter's house and she could hear crashing and was wondering why the Hatter didn't seem to mind the Hare was breaking things in his home. She let it slide as she stood up from the table and moved back, leaning against it, her eyes watching Thackery. "I should be heading back before it gets too dark, I just wish I paid more attention to the way we came than to Tha-… the Hare."

"I'll take ye back." Marianne shook her head whilst the Hatter rose from his seat. She didn't want him to take her to the palace only to come back here. It felt stupid for him to do such a thing. Just to make sure she got home. "Ye kin stay 'ere and I can take ye back to the palace in the morning. I'm there first thing." Marianne looked towards the house and then towards the Hatter, it didn't seem like Thackery would be heading home either tonight so it wasn't like she'd be imposing, although in some way she felt like she was for the fact he probably dealt with the hare and dormouse for company many nights, just not… not her.


"I mean, are you sure?"

Marianne asked as she found herself being led up the garden path, her wrist held by the Hatter's. She gained an 'aye' in reply from him as he pushed the door open and dragged her inside. She looked around at the very messy house. What had she expected though, with the state of the table? She had guessed when one could be off making hats, or having tea parties there would never be time for cleaning. Okay, it wasn't messy giving it a second look – it was just… organised chaos. There wasn't any dirt.

From entering the house there was a long hallway, the door to the left led to the kitchen, there was a staircase, and then a door to the right that led to the living room. She found herself dragged upstairs, as the Hatter kicked away things that were lying on the steps. That was quite dangerous, but at least there was a route down them? Top level, from what she could see as all but one door was closed, was a bathroom and then the three closed doors. She looked towards the Hatter.

"How about a tour?" She thought that was what she was getting though. He moved to the first closed door, opened it wildly and inside she saw it was a work room for him. There was a mannequin and many hats lying around. It was quite messy – but organised at the same time – she could tell that the Hatter would be able to know where everything was. "Careful if ye go in there though, lost a pincushion the other day." Or maybe not. He seemed awfully calm in his mind right now though, Marianne had noticed that much.

Next room she was dragged to was a bedroom. She looked around at the mass shades of different colours. There was a large double bed that she was amazed would have fit in here upon first glance into the room! It was like the rest of the house a little disorganised, with a wardrobe, table and the window looking out behind the house and into the forest. This was the Hatter's bedroom. She had guessed this because of the fact the bed was unmade, and the homemade patchwork cover was lying half across the bed and floor. It was recently used. She smiled glancing back at the Hatter who had disappeared.

Making her way out of the bedroom she found him looking into the last room. She made her way over and saw that it was another bedroom, but this time, it was the tidiest of all the rooms. "Wow." Was all she could express at the view that she saw. There was another double bed, even though the room was smaller than the one she was in before. How in Underland did they ever get the bed to fit in here? She never would have expected it, but maybe it was a magic house, that was possible. The walls were a pale blue with black roses painted on. The floor was covered with a white carpet and the bed was white with black sheets with a pale blue stitched pattern. The room screamed Marmoreal, but it screamed something else but Marianne couldn't place her finger on what it was.

"I decorated this room for Alice's return."

That was it. It screamed Alice. He did have feelings for Alice, she knew he had. She could tell by the way he reacted whenever Alice was mentioned. Those feelings had to have been mutual at one point, the way her grandmother had talked about him – it made sense for that to be true. Then again, she somewhat felt whenever she spoke to Raven about the Hatter she almost sounded the same way Alice had. Whatever that meant, Marianne had no idea why, she just liked talking and remembering the Hatter when she wasn't in his company.

"She would have loved this, Hatter." Marianne spoke as she moved her hand onto his arm. "I'm not just saying that, either." She knew her grandmother loved the colour blue – when she got married to her grandfather her dress was white, but she had many a blue objects on her. Marianne still had one of the jewellery pieces. Alice had given it to her to wear. Her eyes glanced down onto the ring on her finger, it was silver with a blue diamond in the centre, simple, but elegant at the same time. "She loved simplicity and she adored the colour blue." She already knew that the Hatter knew of Alice's fondness of the colour blue though. "I myself, I think the roses are beautiful." She wondered if he had painted them on himself.

"This room is fit for a Kingsleigh, any Kingsleigh, Alice Kingsleigh, Marianne Kingsleigh, so you, a Kingsleigh, must use it."

There he goes again, but Marianne didn't mind his outbursts as much as she used to. She found herself in the bedroom as she turned to face him. She would be back in the palace after tonight, but she already liked this bedroom far more than the one she had been living in. "Okay." She agreed. "I'll stay the night – but – only if you're sure." She kept assuring herself that the Hatter wanted her to stay the night. It wasn't as if she was staying in his bedroom, or sleeping in his bed, leaving him to the couch. Marianne wondered if Mirana would have known if she was here. The Queen seemed to be in contact with everything about Underland.

"You know about the ball, this weekend?" She changed the subject, taking a seat on the bed as she looked upon the Hatter. "I can't dance." She finally told someone. He laughed, telling her everyone can dance. "I was thinking I'll have to get a dance teacher, but knowing my luck I'll end up with Mally." She joked. The Hatter raised his hand like he had an idea, waved it in the air and turned on his feet.

"What a marvellous idea, Mally would be perfect!" Wait, what? Mally? She wasn't serious – she had been joking. The mouse couldn't teach her how to dance – besides, Mally was tiny compared to her, and she didn't seem like the type of character to like dancing, let alone teach someone how to dance. As comical as it would be – if the Hatter just wanted a laugh… he was gone. She was too late to stop him. Dammit. She had been told that the mouse enjoyed the Hatter's dancing – she knew he did a dance himself, but she wouldn't have asked him to teach her – for that would have been very, very, very embarrassing for her. That would have been more embarrassing than being taught by Mally.

She sighed and placed her hands together in her lap as she leant back on the bed. Her ponytail was digging into the back of her head as she closed her eyes. "Do they expect me to shrink overnight?"


Authors Note: This chapter, I'm much happier with than the last chapter. This one was to introduce us to my vision of what the Hatter's house would be like, as it will be playing a big part in my fan-fiction, and I'll end up using the same idea of the house in any Halice fan-fiction I write in the future. I knew from the start that her dancing problem would end up bringing Mally into it, because I thought it would be hilarious at the idea. I can't wait to get into the next chapter, for the Mally, Marianne and Mirana interaction that I've got planned [the three Ms haha] and I hope you liked the little bit of Marianne and Hatter in this chapter. I think I enjoyed writing Thackery the most. I hope I kept the characters in character! Thank you all for the reviews, alerts and favourites as always and I hope you keep reading :D