Chapter 2
Alice stared out at the guests chatting and gossiping among one another. The Declans' garden party was in full swing with many of the wealthiest families there. Snow White's family being one. The dark haired princess was currently dancing with one of the many gentlemen at the party. Quite a few had stepped forward to her asking for a dance. It seemed like there was a never ending line for the princess Alice thought. She smiled lightly. She knew that her friend wasn't looking for a suitor here. She was being the ever kindhearted princess she was and dancing with all the men who asked her.
Alice sighed and leaned her cheek against her palm. She envied her friend. She was gorgeous and many men wanted her hand, but the difference with her and Snow was that the men would compliment Snow's beauty whereas Alice had never heard that compliment given to her before. Most men just found her dreaming odd once she would try to have fun and let her imagination be known. But after the first two suitors leaving because of this (and her refusals), her mother had her keep her wild thoughts and dreams to herself. Just once, Alice wanted to be seen as beautiful, imagination and all.
"Alice, sit up straight!" her mother chastised her from her seat next to her daughter.
Alice quickly shot up straight and grabbed her cup of tea in front of her taking a sip, smiling sweetly at her mother.
Her mother shook her head. "Honestly, Alice. You need to start behaving properly. We need you to make a good impression on Nicholas today."
The young woman sighed, setting her cup down. "Mother, I don't want to marry Nicholas. If I marry I want to marry for love. Not someone I barely know. I don't even like Nicholas. He's so…so…snobbish."
Mrs. Liddell frowned. "Alice, don't talk like that about Nicholas. He's a kind young man and he will help our family. You know very well that after your father died we would need someone to help with trades and the Declans are the only family who can help us with that. We need the money, Alice."
"But I don't understand why I need to marry in order to help the family. Can't they help without having to force Nicholas and me to marry?" Alice questioned.
"Alice, if you marry into the Declan family you will get a portion of their money. George Declan is also one of your father's business partners. He knows all about the trade your father did better than anyone else. We need the Declan's help," her mother said, her face growing stern.
"That's not fair!" Alice protested. "I don't want to marry him!"
"I'm sorry, Alice, but it's too late. The marriage is already arranged. Dear, this is your engagement party. Nicholas is proposing today. Right now actually," her mother said, nodding her head in the direction behind her daughter.
Alice's heart skipped a beat. She stared at her mother, eyes wide and mouth open in shock. She took a deep breath and quickly looked around at the patrons of the party. She spotted Nicholas walking over to their table. She was frozen as he greeted her with a charming smile.
"Hello, Alice," he said, taking her hand and kissing it. He pulled her up from her seat, taking her hands in his. He turned his attention to the crowd, gathering their stares up at the pair.
As he made his announcement to the guests, Alice's ears began to ring. She grew deaf to whatever the Declan boy was saying. Her heart was hammering as he turned to her and got down on his knee. Her eyes grew wide.
"Alice Liddell, will you marry me?" Nicholas asked, smiling up at her.
Her heart rate picked up even more. She could hear the blood pumping in her ears. She looked from Nicholas, to her mother who was smiling up at her encouragingly, to the crowd of party guests. She caught Snow White giving her a small smile, she knew well what the blonde was thinking at this moment. Alice turned back to Nicholas and began to shake her head slowly.
"No," she whispered breathlessly.
Nicholas blinked. "I'm sorry, I don't' think I caught that."
"No," she spoke louder.
She quickly stole her hands away from his, grabbed the skirts of her dress, and bolted down the patio steps. She ran past the guests, through the gate to the house, all the way to the woods. She ignored all the shouts and gasps from everyone. She needed to get away. She needed to get away from there fast. She didn't care where she went as long as it was away from the party. She kept running, ignoring the snags on her hair and dress from the branches, twigs, and thorns she ran past. It wasn't until she was far into the woods that she couldn't hear the party anymore. She was out of breath and didn't realize she was crying until she stopped. She sat on a log, burying her face in her hands. Why? Why did this have to happen? Why her?
"I assume you're lost?" came a man's voice.
Alice's head shot up and stared wide eyed at the man in front of her. He was clothed in mostly black. A black trench coat, red scarf, dark brown vest, black pants, and black boots. In his hand he carried a rather large hat. His hair was disheveled and his eyes were the bluest ones she had ever seen. She didn't think anyone would be in the woods. What was he doing here? She quickly stood and took a step back away from the man, only she forgot about the log. She stumbled backwards as the back of her foot hit the log, but she was quickly caught by the arm.
"You're not the most observant person are you? You seemed to have forgotten you were just sitting on that," he said, nodding to the log. He pulled her back to her feet and took a step back.
"Th-thank you," she stuttered.
"Not a problem. Now, I'd ask if you're lost again, but I believe your face gives that away," he said.
Alice blinked, but soon realized what he meant. She quickly took her hands and wiped the tears from her face. "I-I'm not lost. At least…at least I don't think so," she said, looking around her. She didn't recognize the area. Then again she had never really ventured into the woods before. Not many people did. For one her mother forbade her from playing in them and most people avoided it unless they had guards or an escort.
"You don't think so?" the man said slowly, raising a brow. "I would think you are just from that statement alone. Why are you out here?"
"I…I um…" What was she supposed to say to this man – this complete stranger?
"You're lost, clearly," the man said, rolling his eyes. "Which town did you come from?"
"Um I…"
The man sighed, shaking his head. "Look, I can take you to the next town over or whatever town you came from. If you don't know where you're from we have a problem, but like I said, I can take you to the next town over."
"C-could you?" she asked, looking at him hopeful. "Take me to the next town I mean?" There was no way she was going back to the party. She wanted – no needed – to get away from everyone there.
"That's fine," he said, turning to leave. He began walking away, not even bothering to wait for her. "But once we get there I'm leaving you on your own. I have my own business to take care of. I don't need to worry about someone else."
Alice nodded quickly and picked up her dress, running to catch up to him. "Thank you so much, sir."
"It's Jefferson," he simply said, keeping his eyes trained forward. He quickly looked to the side when he heard a thud. His eyes grew slightly when he found the girl on the ground. "What did you do?" he asked.
"I uh I tr-tripped," she said quietly, keeping her eyes from his. Her face heated up as she moved her foot from what caused her problem. It was a small rabbit hole.
Jefferson held out his hand and pulled her to her feet. "You've really never been through the woods before," he questioned.
Alice shook her head. "This is um my first time going through."
"Well, you're lucky that I am here," he said, giving her a small smirk before he continued on his way. "You're not the first poor soul I've helped find their way."
"Thank you, Jefferson," she said, smiling up at him.
"Not a problem…" He turned to her, giving her a puzzled look. "I don't believe you've given me your name. I feel it's only fair since I gave you mine that I learn yours."
"Oh!" Alice exclaimed. "I'm Alice Liddell."
Jefferson smiled lightly at her. "Nice to meet you, Alice. Let's hurry though. Like I said, I have business in the town we're heading to that I need to take care of fast," he said, picking up his pace.
"Ri-right," Alice said, picking her pace up as well and doing her best to keep up with him.
ooOOoo
"I'm so happy for you!" Ruby exclaimed loudly, jumping up and down. She quickly enveloped Rose in a big hug, still jumping excitedly. "You've finally got your own place! How does it feel to be a business woman?" she smirked.
Rose blushed as she looked around the diner at the onlookers at the dark haired woman's outburst. She laughed lightly at her friend, who continued to grin brightly at her. "I'm excited. I was able to buy the building from Mr. Gold, but it's kind of run down. There's so much I need to fix up before I can even start the shop up."
Ruby's face fell, but she quickly smiled. "Don't worry, Rose. You'll get it done. And if you need any help-"
"Ruby! Get back to work! We have some new customers!" Granny called out from behind the counter.
The brown and red haired girl groaned and rolled her eyes. "I'll be right back. Take a seat and I'll get back to you in a few," she said, taking her tray and heading to the table where the customers were.
The blonde woman smiled and walked over to the counter and found an empty seat. She greeted Granny with a warm smile, who in return smiled at her.
"So I heard you finally got your own shop," the elderly woman said. "We'll miss having you helping around here. I know Ruby will miss having less work to do," she said, looking over at her granddaughter as she took some customers' orders.
"I'm sorry," Rose said, laughing lightly. "I'll stop by for lunch every day though," she smiled.
"I hope so," Granny laughed. She turned her head to the door when she heard the bell chime, announcing more customers.
Rose looked towards the door and saw a little boy with brown hair walked in with a tall woman with bright blonde hair that could match Rose's, but certainly no contest. Rose's hair was a pale blonde, nothing too exciting, whereas this woman's was bright and shining blonde.
"Hello there, Henry. Miss Swan," Granny greeted as she placed a menu in front of Rose.
"Hi, Granny!" Henry said, taking up the seat next to Rose. "Hi, Rose!"
"Hello, Henry," Rose said, smiling warmly at the little boy. She turned to the woman next to him as she took a seat on his other side.
"Rose!" Henry exclaimed. "This is my mom, Emma!"
"Hey," Emma said in greeting.
"Nice to meet you," Rose said. She gave the woman one last smile before turning back to her menu. Rose shifted her eyes to the two next to her when she heard Emma whisper something to Henry.
"So which character do you think Rose is?" the blonde asked the little boy.
"I'm not entirely sure, yet," Henry answered. "She hasn't reminded me of anyone."
"Hi, Henry! Hi, Emma!" Ruby greeted as she walked up to the counter. She smiled brightly at the two before turning to Rose. "So, will we be expecting to see you during lunch or will that be when you have your tea parties?" she laughed, winking at the blonde. "I'm also going to miss seeing your cat. She's so precious! And so well behaved. She's probably the only animal Granny will allow in the back," she said, whispering the last part so no one else heard.
Rose giggled. "Yeah, Dinah's going to miss you too. You spoil her too much whenever she visits. I feel like she loves you more than me."
"What can I say? I have a way with animals," Ruby said, smiling with a small giggle.
"Tea parties?" Emma questioned, leaning towards the two females.
"Oh yeah!" the waitress said brightly. "Rose here bought herself a place! She's going to open up a tea shop. You should stop by when she gets it up and running!"
"Ruby!" Granny called out.
Ruby rolled her eyes. "I'll be back in a bit," she said, turning and heading towards a table in the corner.
"A tea shop?" Henry asked, a smile knowing smile on his face. "That sounds cool. I also don't remember you saying you had a cat."
"Oh, sorry. Dinah is usually in the back," Rose said, smiling lightly. "Granny only lets her stay sometimes when I worked here because she didn't really get into anything she wasn't supposed to. She also doesn't like to be by herself a lot so Granny kind of made an exception."
"Her name is Dinah?" the little boy asked, his eyes lighting up. "That's a nice name."
"Thanks," Rose said just as Granny walked up to her with a notepad.
"What are you thinking, kid?" Emma asked as the other blonde woman was distracted with ordering. "I know that look on your face. You get it whenever you talk about that book of yours."
"I think I know who Rose is," Henry said, pulling out his book. "He began flipping through some pages until it landed on a picture of a caterpillar sitting atop a mushroom. "I think Rose is Alice!"
"Alice? Like Alice in Wonderland Alice?" Emma said, quirking a brow as she peered at the book. "I guess it makes sense. The tea and the cat and all."
"She even looks like her. Look!" he said, showing off a picture of a woman who looked exactly like Rose.
"And can I get that to go, Granny? I'm sorry, but I have to get going. I need to go find some people who can help me with repairs for the shop," Rose spoke up as she gathered up her purse. She turned to Emma and Henry. "Bye, Henry. And it was nice meeting you Emma."
"You too, maybe I'll see you around sometime," Emma said, giving the woman a small smile.
Rose smiled just as Granny placed a to go box in front of her. She grabbed it and rushed out the door just as she looked at her watch mumbling "I'm late".
"See?" Henry said.
"You said she was Alice, not the white rabbit," Emma laughed. She peered through the window as she watched the woman race down the street. "But I can see where you're going."
"So you believe me?" Henry said, his face lighting up all over again.
"I said I see where you're going with it. I never said I believed you," Emma said, shaking her head.
"Yeah, but you didn't say you didn't believe me either," Henry grinned.
"Whatever, kid," Emma laughed, pushing their menu towards him. "Just order before your mom finds out you're with me again."
Well holy crap. It's bee over a year since I started this story. I feel bad that I haven't updated since then, but life got busy and my interest in this story died down a lot. It wasn't until today where I had a random stroke of inspiration that I wanted to (hopefully) continue this story. I have a few ideas for it, but its all about the matter of writing it down. Let's hope I'm able to keep up with this. Right now I'm busy working on prompts for one story and chapters for my Bucky/OC story. So I hope you can bear with me with slow updates for this story. I get random bouts of inspiration for things here and there and combining these three stories will be a doozy. Especially since I'm studying every morning and night with my dad so I can pass Econ. Terrifying class, not gonna lie.
Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I hope you can stay with it long enough for another update! Thanks!