Mireille-chan: Thank you to everyone who reviewed!! I hope this chapter is good enough. Anyways here it goes please review!

Part Four: The Guests Arrive

Alice spent the rest of that day in her room; coming out only for dinner and to say goodbye to her sisters. She did not want to face anyone; for once again, she was the outcast. She did not want to grow up, she did not wish to marry and she did not want to stop pretending. What she wanted, more than anything else, was something she thought about on occasion when things were looking particularly bleak, and when she was feeling unobjectionably alone. She wanted to go back to Wonderland.

"If I could only find the white rabbit, and fall back down through the rabbit hole. Back through the tiny door and into the caterpillar's garden. Oh, if only I had some escape, a way to get back to my Wonderland," Alice thought with a sigh.

"Once again she took out the silver pocket watch. She held it close to her ear and listened to it ticking, the rhythm seemed to match that of her own heartbeat. Once again she let the rhythm and the spinning motion lull her to sleep, a wondrous dream filled sleep about a land she had visited once long ago.

The days had past, one after another, slowly and painfully. Alice hadn't cried since the day of the funeral, but she still mourned both the death of her mother and the death of her childhood. Alice often awoke at night form some terrible dreamless sleep, feeling as though she would spit up every bit of blood in her body.

"It's no use crying, momma isn't coming back. It will not change things. I am older now and I must grow up into a proper lady," Alice said, trying to convince herself that the words were true. She stood alone in her room in front of a full-length mirror. She fidgeted with her dress and her hair, anything to keep her mind of the party that would be starting in just a matter of minutes.

"Alice, the guests are arriving. You'd best get out there and greet them," Nanny called from outside Alice's bedroom door.

"Yes Nanny," Alice said quickly. She gave herself one look in the mirror before stepping out into the hall.

She walked quickly to the entrance hall. When she saw her fathers face, looking quite furious at her for being tardy, she quickly skidded into place beside him, not looking him in the eye at all. Her father was a strict man, sometimes cold. He had never been home much, so he never really knew his daughters. Alice sometimes felt that he hated her, but he knew nothing about her. She however decided not to argue on this point, which for her was rare, because she held some secret fear of what might happen.

Alice cleared those thoughts from her mind and turned her attention to the guests. She noticed many of the people from town, and almost everyone brought their sons. The young men were all good looking enough, but Alice couldn't care less for such attributes.

Soon after dinner, which would have been a delightful meal if Alice had half a mind to care, the crowd moved into the ballroom. Alice began to talk and dance with many of the bachelors. They were all kind, almost all handsome, and each had good respectable lineage. However, they all wanted a good wife, to keep house and have children, not to imagine or dream or have any life of her own at all. It became apparent that they were truly only here for her families money.

Suddenly Alice felt a chill run down her spine. She turned to see in a far off corner of the room, a set of fierce golden eyes looking her way. Their owner was a boy around seventeen years of age, with dark hair that shone slightly purple in the light.

Their eyes met for a moment, her eyes a stunning blue, like that of moonlight, his eyes golden, like a reflection of her dreams. The music struck up again, but Alice moved swiftly to the balcony doors as opposed to the dance floor.

Mireille-chan: I hope you liked that chapter. Next chapter is coming soon!!