As Lord Ascot rode in the carriage from the port of Dover the man struggled to find the words he would tell Helen Kingsleigh. While Alice had rejected his son's betrothal, she had become more than a business partner to him. Not that he dared dreamed to take Charles' place as a patriarchal figure to the young woman- but by God, he cherished the girl.
Her wit, her spunk and most importantly, her imagination. Nothing was impossible for her, save for the word impossible it seemed. It was Alice's daring choices that exceeded the projections in profits from the trip to China. Then there was also leading the United Kingdom in the Great Tea Race, and then some.
But all the Sovereigns in the world couldn't bring her back. That was indeed impossible.
Lord Ascot placed a hand upon his temple, guilt racking his mind. Arguably, he had taken the best years of Charles' life away from Helen and now he had robbed the woman of a daughter as well. The crew of the Wonder was a suspicious bunch, and he had heard the whispers. It was as though once the sea had Alice the waters were soothed and the man had to admit, had Alice remained on board for another few minutes she would have seen the rainbow greeting The Wonder to the English Channel.
As the carriage arrived at his estate he knew that Alice's family would be inside waiting to hear of her adventures, but he could not face them yet. He still had to find the words for their loss. Simply saying 'I wish it were me instead,' wouldn't suffice. And that's when Charles' ever resplendent voice rang out.
"When troubled, walk along a forgotten but familiar path to find your way through."
Halting the carriage, the tycoon stepped out and took in a deep breath before letting out a sigh and asked for the driver to stay put. His home was well within view, but he hoped that none of the help would notice his chariot. Looking to the beaten path that led to his wife's hedge maze, Lord Ascot took his first step forward. Then his second, followed by his third.
Walking farther and farther from the carriage, Lord Ascot was still no closer to finding the words he needed. The sailor's tales would bring no comfort and explaining the chaos on the water but just didn't seem fair given that he, the rest of the crew and all of the cargo survived. He would have dumped ever barrel of tea into the sea if it could bring Alice back.
Tears burned in his eyes and he grabbed at his handkerchief to stamp them out when something caught his eye. A large white rabbit. If the pest started digging holes in his wife's labyrinth he would never hear the end of it, he would have to try to scare the creature off and convince it to never return.
Rounding each corner of the maze, Lord Ascot had only been able to keep up with the creature's foot or tail, but seeing those parts alone told him that this may in fact be the largest hare he had ever come across, and while he wasn't one for the sport of hunting, he couldn't help but think of what a great stew that rabbit would make. Before he knew it he was out of the hedges and facing towards the forest that bordered his estate. The vermin was nowhere in sight which should have satisfied the man but he wanted to see the entirety of this unusually large fauna.
Venturing out further towards the forest he heard something quite large stirring from behind a rotted tree. The rabbit's den no doubt, he just had to double-check to ensure that this could be the spot where he could come with one of the dogs to snuff out the large rabbit.
Stepping over the gnarly roots of the tree, Lord Ascot came to a full stop at a sight he could not comprehend. Laid out by the edge of the massive burrow was none other than Alice. She should have been at the bottom of the ocean, and she most certainly would be in her current outfit. A full suit of armor that was the shade of the boding storm clouds that pulled her away.
"Impossible," the Lord whispered as he neared closer to the unconscious woman. Surely he must be mad, China was well known for their potent opium, perhaps some had slipped into his personal tea supply?
Observing what could only be a horrid hallucination, Lord Ascot motioned to touch the woman's shoulder. Upon the contact, the woman's eyes shot open and she sat up drawing for a weapon that the Lord was thankful she didn't have. The two stared at one another in silence before Alice turned around to view the hole and to the man's further surprise, she tried to throw herself down into the ground.
"Good Lord, Alice! What are you doing?!" Lord Ascot shouted as he tried to pull the woman back. What he believed to be a ghost was proving herself to either be real or a very convincing hallucination.
"I have to go back!" Alice cried out, her hands digging at the pit, pulling up roots and rocks. "He needs me! I promised him I wouldn't leave, I swore I that I would be at his side!"
Lord Ascot pulled the woman back with all his might and succeeded to remove her from the rabbit hole. "Who? Who did you promise- and bloody hell Alice, how did you get here?! How are you here?!" Lord Ascot asked as he held her back, trying his best to put distance between them and the tree. "The Wonder, you went overboard a week ago! How in the hell did you end up here, and what are you wearing?"
Alice managed to pull herself away and went right back into the hole but stopped seeing that the way was shut off to her. She was closed off from Underland. Closed off from Ilosovic, and the battlefield she was just on and she had no idea how to get back. Why did these doors open only when they wanted to open and not when she needed them to open.
"Alice!" Came Lord Ascot's voice again. Turning her head over her shoulder she stared at the concerned man and furrowed her brow.
"It's only been a week?" She asked softly and Lord Ascot was still questioning his own sanity. As he nodded in response Alice sat back and stared deep into the forest. What had been only days for her home had been months in Under. From the auction to the wedding, the betrayal, the training- and then the battle. How had it gone so wrong? This wasn't how it was supposed to end. It couldn't be.
"I'm afraid you wouldn't believe me if I told you," Alice stated plainly making the Lord snort in response.
"That's the first thing you've said that makes sense," he replied as he inched closer to her on the ground. "However, I need to hear it from you. Where have you been, Alice? How did you survive the maelstrom?"
Bringing her knees closer to her chest, Alice took in a deep breath and looked to her friend and business partner. "It wasn't the first time I fell down a hole…"
It's been nearly four years since I've touched this and I am so sorry. It's been a rough four years.
Time got away from me. Life kept me busy, kept me down, but also gave me some great moments too but I've tried on several occasions to come back to this fic- and then I saw the sequel to the film. There were more parts I disliked than liked. They did my man real dirty, but it was kind of cool seeing that Hollywood also picked up on use Time as a character as he is mentioned in the original books… Still not happy though.
If anyone is following this still, just wow wow wow. I'm truly sorry for not coming back sooner- and I hope to be updating on a semi-regular basis. Maybe once a month? It's been kind of hectic lately but I really liked this and want to keep at it.
I'll be cleaning up the previous chapters this week (hopefully) but for future updates, I'm hoping to have a beta reader or two if possible. I'm the worst with seeing my own errors. Just message me if you are interested but above all else- be safe out there. The virus is no joke. Trust me.
