For what ever reason Alice had imagined Kier Cheston to be decades ahead of her age. Yet man stepping out of office door labeled "Kier Cheston, Attorney at Law" had no more then ten years on Alice; if even that. Young man's hair too dark, skin too smooth and eyes too bright to be any more her senior then her sister Lizzie had been.

In her astonishment Alice's observance took a few more seconds then natural to realize she was being watch; assumed Kier Cheston eyeing teen girl.

"Mr. Cheston?" Standing from the seat a secretary had guided Alice to a moment earlier, she made her voice as firm as it could be.

"That depends." Man opposite answered with a tone that hissed like a simmering tea pot and a slight curve of his lips.

"Depends on what?"

"Who you are."

"Alice Liddel." Before finishing her introduction young man's curved mouth broke into a smirk that was somehow not a smirk. Expression to gentle to be a grin, but to strong to be a smile.

"Oh! I see. For Miss. Alice Liddel I am Mr. Kier Cheston; or anything else she needs. I see my letter found you well."

"It did." Meeting his leer with a frown Alice folded her arms. So far her trip was not panning out as well as her Ches Cat had portrayed it would. She wasn't in a taunting mood today, or any other days for that matter, and Mr. Cheston had the presence of a jester. Teases where what her Cat was for anyway; and haft the time she didn't have the patient for him.

"Pardon my manners." Cheston gestured to his office door. "Please come in. We can have a proper discussion in privacy, if you like?"

For an instant paranoia froze Alice. The last time she had stepped into a man of authority's place of practice Alice had very nearly allowed herself to be hypnoses into forgetting her past. For all she knew Kier Cheston could very much be "another thorny rose," as her cat had put it. Ready to use her madness in less then honest ways. He probably knew of methods to perform such manipulative tricks; the man's letter having contained an admitted of being a former medical student.

Yet an odd look attracting her eye caused Alice to reweigh her options. Coming not from attorney, but secretary seated at desk behind his back. The crimsoned haired, porcelain white assistant smirking over paperwork. Her expression reading as if she suspected what ever fallowed between attorney and girl would be worth money to watch.

Mistrust somewhat calmed by look Alice, in a moment of inspiration, declared she had more concern for repeating past mistakes then concern for privacy. She would only enter his office unattended if door were kept ajar; if only by a hair. Young man quick to agree to demand gave Alice a somewhat greeter sense of security and Cheston's secretary an ear to what she looked so eager to be an audience to.

"Again, forgive my manner." The young attorney apologized as he fallow Alice into his office; man branching out to journey around a small room made even smaller from disordered furnishings and un-shelved books. "My letter does imply that my base of operations is outside London, but what I'm sure you did not except was to discuss business in a location ruined with disarray. This office has only just been set up as a go-between from here to Doomsville. Nothing is as it should be."

"I've seen worse." Although, Alice thought fallowing young man to a off center and crookedly placed desk, her "worse" had been in relation to her own head and not a mover's mess.

"Speaking of your letter." Alice addressed before Cheston had even managed to flow a complete sit into a set of chairs accompanying desk. "You mentioned my inheritance? I'm not sure what kind of information you have gained on me Mr. Cheston, but I have not be left penniless. I have enough coils and bills to keep me off the street, even if I wasn't currently employed, for a time. And what else my family would have left to me has been liquidated. Seeing as how I'm a unwed, young woman, with a history of madness, and no relations left in the world I have "no real right to unearned money." I'm sure what ever fancy law schools you attended taught you that."

"Really?" A sly line twining it's way onto his lips Cheston gestured Alice to make herself comfortable in a chair matching his. When she did exactly the opposite, remaining were she had come to a halt, he made no note of it. "Who might have said you have "no real right to unearned money?" Your family's former attorney, Mr. Radcliff?"

"Yes. Actually."

"And you trust his words?"

"Radcliff may not be my idol of a lawyer but he must has passed some tests to gain my family's trust and business. And in all honesty society isn't all that forgiving when it comes to those who have been labeled insane, let alone an insane woman."

"A cured insane woman, according to documents from a Dr. Wilson and Rutledge Asylum. Forgive the horror of honesty, but you probably wouldn't have made it out of that facility at all, let alone alive, if you weren't worth something Miss. Liddel."

For once Alice wasn't entirely sure what to say. Not just because she proffered not to dwell on her time in Rutledge, but because no one other then herself had even spoken of asylum life like living in a torture chamber before. At least not out loud.

"And what am I worth to you Mr. Cheston?" Finally settling on words to say Alice refused to let her suspicion of Kier Cheston go easily. He wasn't a tulip in her mind quit yet.

"Worth? You Miss. Alice Liddell are worth a life to me. And if a life has been diminished it's only natural of me to attempt to restore that shrink with whatever substance is available."

"Just like that." Alice raised her eyebrows. More alarmed that she hadn't coughed in disbelief at overly earnest statement then fact that she had finally met someone with the nerve to act like they had a heart. "Anyone with a hole in their soul and you leap in to refill it?"

"Well, they have to walk into my offices first." Cheston's mouth altering a bit with joke.

"Then why offer to help me? I never sought you out. And it is not like I have a worth while amount of money to bleed into your salary."

"There are only so many injustices one can experience before standing up against cruel acts. Of course I can't take on every unfairness I have ever witnessed, but at least in you, I have a potential to right a wrong. Besides, I simply want to help you."

Hitting Alice like the Caterpillar's account aboard infernal train Alice didn't have to reason with Cheston's dialoged for long. Maybe because she herself felt guilt for not acting sooner on crimes she should have seen clearer, or maybe because attorney across from her added.

"Come now Alice. Is there nothing taken from you that can be returned through my assistance? I can't work miracles, but surely I can ease something in one way or another?"

"My rabbit."

"Rabbit."

"Radcliff has my Rabbit. I'd like it back."

His grim growing as large as it thus far had gone Mr. Cheston physically, and metaphorically, opened his arms to Alice. "Then I shall fight for your rabbit."

"For now, Mr. Cheston attorney at law, You've earned my business. For now." Alice found herself mumbling as she sat opposite lawyer.

She still wasn't completely convinced this attorney was with out thorns, but at least he dimly beamed tulip gold and not rose red.