"Well," Alice Liddell said carefully. "I think you had both better come inside."
The Alice in a dress immediately moved forward. She curtseyed politely as she introduced herself. "Miss Alice Kingsleigh."
Their hostess returned the greeting. "Miss Alice Liddell."
The tomboy Alice did not curtsey, but gave a wry smile and stuck out a hand for a mannish handshake. "Alice Hamilton. And at least we're not all the same person!"
Miss Liddell gingerly returned the greeting. "Do come in. As I said, I was preparing tea."
Once inside the cozy house, she directed her unorthodox guests to the sitting room, and quickly prepared a pot of tea, and gathered extra biscuits from the pantry. When she returned to the sitting room, Miss Kingsleigh was sitting properly close to the table, while Miss Hamilton was peering out the front window.
At first, the two more lady-like Alices made the polite noises of a proper afternoon tea, ascertaining preferences for sugar or cream, and so forth. Alice Hamilton passed on the beverage.
"Sorry," she said ruefully. "I'm more of a coffee girl." She still joined the others at the table.
Alice Liddell chose to broach the silence on the most interesting subject. "Now, let me see if I understand our situation. We are, all of us, Alices. And we have all of us had certain… adventures."
Miss Kingsleigh nodded. "However, I must say, upon my last visit, I was rather clearly corrected that the name of this place is Underland, not Wonderland."
"It was Wonderland when I came," Alice Hamilton pointed out.
"And it has been Wonderland as long as I have known it," Miss Liddell agreed. She turned to Miss Hamilton. "You mentioned that you were unfamiliar with the landscape."
"Well, other than the City, I'd only visited the Casino and some of the Forest of Wabe where the Kingdom of the Knights used to be," Alice Hamilton explained.
Miss Kingsleigh's expression turned concerned. "I do beg your pardon, but there is no City, no … Casino, whatever that is, and no such forest. Underland was a great wasteland when I visited, though the land's around the White Queen's palace of Marmoreal was lovely."
"White Queen?" Alice Hamilton repeated curiously.
Alice Liddell took a judicious sip of tea. "I have only known Wonderland to be a garden-like place. There is Wonderland, and then there are several other lands, all of which circle the Park at the center. The Castle of the Queen of Hearts is west of here."
"I think…" Alice Hamilton hesitated, and then smiled at her hostess. "I believe you are who the Wonderlanders I met referred to as The Alice of Legend. Your adventures inspired the book."
"Oh, the Reverend Dodgson published that dreadful bit of nonsense? Oh dear," Alice Liddell frowned. "I hadn't known."
"But, you were a small child then, weren't you?" Miss Hamilton asked.
"Well, yes. But as I grew older I found I… missed the…freedom of life in Wonderland. So I came back." Alice Liddell hid her face with a deep sip of tea. She hadn't really considered the motivations that brought her back to Wonderland in some time.
Alice Hamilton tapped her fingers on the table a moment, and then turned to Miss Kingsleigh. "I hate to say it, but I don't think we're in the places we remember."
"How so?" Miss Kingsleigh asked.
"Well, Alice Liddell is living here, so this is obviously HER Wonderland. You visited a place called Underland – a lot similar, but clearly different. I visited a place that's either…. 150 years in the future of this place, or yet another DIFFERENT Wonderland." Her breath hitched as she realized something else. "Hatter's going to try to come after me! Will he end up HERE, or in his original Wonderland?"
Both Miss Liddell and Miss Kingsleigh spoke at the same time. "You know a Hatter too?"
to be continued