AN: I'm sorry for the delay in updates. I mapped out the rest of this story and even have a sequel in mind. If you want to read some more of my work, I have a new Alice/Hatter story up too. I will still be continuing this one.
Dislcaimer: I own nothing. Lewis Carroll owns "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking Glass". Syfy owns "Alice".
What the man said couldn't be right. Her father hadn't left her to Hatter. He would have never done such a thing. Although he knew as little as she did in regards to Jack proposing to her, he had to assume that there was a small chance that the king might. Why would he ruin her chances with Jack that way? Annoyed tears escaped from her eyes as she tried to track down a page somewhere in the palace. This had to be a misunderstanding.
Finally finding one of the young men in the king's livery she almost forcefully grabbed his shirt sleeve and requested a carriage to be brought down to the front courtyard. The frightened boy nodded quickly before taking off down the hall to fetch the carriage driver. Forcing herself to take a deep breath Alice leaned against the stone wall. She would straighten this out and just forget that it happened. Although to forget something like this was nearly impossible.
Poor Hatter! If she was upset there was no doubt that he would be too when he found out. She didn't even want to think how embarrassing it was going to be having to explain this to him. Even after he gently rejected her it would be hard to continue their friendship the way that it had always been. Walking as quickly as she could she made her way down to the courtyard where the grooms were just finishing hitching the horses. She gave the address of Hatter's townhouse to the driver before stepping into the carriage. She had never actually been to his home before but he had shown her once when they had gone walking. If she remembered correctly, it was two blocks away from his shop.
She took a deep breath as she tried to focus on the houses passing by the carriage window. After this quick conversation with Hatter she could go back to the way things were. Maybe one day she'll even forget about it. But still her stomach twisted at the thought of confronting him. The rocking of the carriage and the thoughts flying through her head made her feel as if she was going to be sick. She unwillingly closed her eyes try to relax.
But now, how much time did she have to think about what she would say? She couldn't figure out her location by closing her eyes. Every time she did try to open them she was hit with another wave of nausea that forced her to close them again. She continued this way for the entire ride until the knocking on the carriage door by the footman jolted her back to reality. The footman, having heard from the page how alarming the Lady Alice had been to him, barely met her eyes as he helped her down.
"I won't be long," was all she said before starting up the short steps to the front door of the house. She breathed carefully to make sure that she wasn't going to be sick, and when finding that she was alright, knocked on the door.
Barely a second later a rather plump looking old woman answered the door. She surveyed Alice for a moment before reluctantly allowing her into the entrance hall. Alice barely had a chance to take in the room before the woman accosted her. "May I help you?" she asked in a voice normally used to scold young children. Instantly Alice focused her attention on the woman and narrowed her eyes slightly at the tone used.
"I'm here to see Mr. Hatter. I must speak to him right away.....my name is Alice Hamilton."
It was as if she had announced that it was the old woman's unbirthday. Instantly her face lit up and any earlier hostility had vanished. "Lady Alice! Please, come in here. I'll just get Mr. Hatter." Before she knew what was happening she was being jostled into a parlor. The woman nearly pushed her into a plush armchair in her haste and left the young woman without another word. Recovering from such an abrupt greeting Alice found herself looking around the room. Slowly she stood up from her chair, trailing her fingertips over the green velvet as she stood. It was clear that the room was owned by a man, from the dark wood to the earthy colors that accented it. Two armchairs-including the one that she had been sitting on- were positioned on either side of an empty fire place. A short bookshelf rested near the only window of the room, which faced out to the street. On the other side of the room was a bureau with a series of objects upon it; pictures, portraits, knick-knacks. One particular picture-a standard black and white one- caught her attention. Carefully she leaned slightly as to get a better look of the man and woman in it.
The man was tall and thin while the woman beside him was much shorter. They both had dark colored hair from what she could tell of the black and white picture, although she could not determine their eye color. But there was something in the man's eyes that set him apart from the woman. It was almost as if he was in on a joke or knew something that Alice clearly did not. It made her uncomfortable.
"My parents."
Jumping she straightened and turned around. Hatter stood at the entrance to the room, smiling gently at her before glancing back at the picture. "It was taken a few months after their wedding,I believe. Mad looking fellow isn't he?" His smile widened in reference to his father before he gestured to her vacated arm chair. "Sit, won't you?"
Alice felt her face grow warm and she carefully adjusted the skirt of her mourning gown before going toward the armchair. She wasn't sure how to exactly explain this mistake to him without embarrassing the both of them. As she was about to speak the woman from before entered the room with a tea tray. Still beaming at Alice she set the tray down on a short table beside the two before quickly leaving the room. "Mrs. Merryweather has been with me for years," he explained in reference to the woman. "She is a very capable housekeeper. I think that you might like her." He smiled before glancing again at the door where the woman had been. "I used to play quite a few tricks on her as a boy. I don't think she has every really forgiven me for them."
She numbly accepted the tea cup and saucer that he offered her and didn't realize that it was her favorite strawberry tea until about four sips in. "I'm sorry to visit on such short notice," she began before staring down at the cup. Hesitating she finally looked back up at him. "I know you had wanted to speak to me earlier but I hadn't been able to make it."
He waved his hand in the air, as if brushing away her apology. She continued,"I spoke to the executioner of my father's will and I......I'm sorry to say this but you were mentioned." Finding that her hands were shaking too much to hold the tea cup she placed back on the tray. "For some reason my father felt that it was best to leave you something."
Her face felt as if it was on fire. She could feel him watching her, waiting for her to continue.
"He felt that he should leave you me."
There was a moment or two of silence before she looked over at him. He didn't seem changed by what she had told him, and she realized that he looked as calm as if she had told him that it was snowing outside.
Not knowing what else to say she continued to talk, but a bit faster than before. "I realize how embarrassing this is and I apologize for it. All you need to do is speak to the executioner of the will and we can have this mistake fixed." She kept her eyes on him but still didn't see any reaction from him. Why wasn't he telling her to get out of his sight and to never speak to him again? Why wasn't he laughing at her?
Finally after what seemed to be nearly a minute of silence she moved to stand with a final "I'm sorry".
"It wasn't a mistake."
His voice stopped her mid-rise. She was so used to hearing his joking, friendly tone that this sudden serious one surprised her. Her eyes flickered to him as she wearily set down his own tea cup before standing. "Your father was right in including me in his will. After all, I had already signed the paperwork. It would have been unlawful for him not to include it. I was going to speak to you about it earlier."
For a moment Alice felt as if she was in a bubble. Hatter was still speaking, although she couldn't hear him or speak Instead she was running over what he had said in her mind while still half rising from her chair. Finally she felt his hand on her arm helping her up from her weird position. She quickly jerked back her arm as if he had burned her.
He stopped speaking and the two stared at each other for a moment.
"I'm sorry to disappoint you but I am going to have to get this removed from the will," she said, her voice surprisingly calm from shock. She moved to leave the room but she stopped once he spoke.
"You know that it won't be approved, right?" he ventured before taking a few steps toward her. He stopped by the cold look that she gave him.
Instead of moving closer he kept speaking. "You aren't considered an adult yet by law. What your father wrote in his will still stands as he was your guardian at the time of his death. No lawyer is going to be able to fight that, Alice." His voice gentled for a moment. "But it will be alright. I need a wife and you need someone to take care of you. We both are such good friends....don't you see how this will work out?"
She felt herself growing warm again, although this time from anger and not embarrassment. "Why didn't you ask me?" she asked, trying to keep her voice low. It wouldn't do to throw a tantrum that the neighbors could hear. "Did you have no concern for what I thought? That maybe I was in love with someone?"
Growing frustrated he fixed the rim of his hat. "This is best for you-for us- Alice. You are almost eighteen....you have to grow up. You know as well as I do that there is no way that the king could marry you. Don't you see that the council would put a stop to it? Or that the nobles would be bullying him into rejecting the idea? It would have never happened."
She could see that he was trying to make her see reason, but his choice of words kept her from feeling sympathetic to his attempts. Without another word she left the room and opened the door to the front steps. The footman that had been sitting on the edge of the carriage quickly jumped up to help her inside. She barely noticed that Hatter was standing at the entrance to his home and instead focused on the empty bench in front of her. After arriving back at the palace she found that she had gripped the material of her skirt so tightly that her knuckles burned when she tried to remove them. Feeling the blood moving back into her fingers she nearly stumbled out of the carriage. It wasn't until she was back in her apartments and Jane had innocently asked what was wrong that she began to cry.
The next day she set off for the city again. Jack had offered to accompany her but she had gently refused his help. She needed to think things through on her own to find her way out of this mess. He instead put his own group of lawyers to work on finding any way out of her fulfilling her father's will.
She dismissed the carriage driver after he pulled up to The Great Library, knowing that she would be there for too long to keep the man waiting. It was uncomfortably quiet in the cavernous room and she almost thought of returning to the palace and allowing Jack's lawyers to handle the matter. But seeing that a mousy looking librarian that was perched on a battered stool behind a desk had noticed her kept her from retreating. The woman nearly jumped from her chair in order to help her. "Good morning," she said cheerfully with a smile, clearly unaware of Alice's less than cheerful mood. "Can I help you find something?
Alice was unable to talk for a moment, having been taken aback by the woman's sudden, too cheerful greeting. "I'm looking for information about wills. I mean....the legality of wills." The woman gave her an odd look for a moment before reverting back to her earlier, wide smile. "All of our books on wills are located on the west side of the third floor. But we have a marvelous collection of clothing patterns on the east side of the first floor. Wouldn't that interest you a bit more?"
Momentarily puzzling over how the woman knew exactly what floor and wing the information she wanted was in, she shook her head. "It is very important that I see the information as soon as I can," she said with a bit of annoyance in her tone. Had this been another situation she would have responded to the woman kindly. But now was not the time to make friends. A surprised look crossed the woman's eyes before she silently began moving toward a carpet lined staircase near her vacated desk. Alice hurried to catch up with her as the woman moved much faster over the numerous steps than she was able to.
Trailing after the woman she came to a stop in front of a long shelf of books. "Here are all the books concerning wills," the woman said, a bit of her cheerfulness gone after Alice's rudeness. "If you need me, I will be at my desk." Flashing a smile once more the woman left. Alice turned her attention to the rows of books before glancing over the various titles. Every few books she pulled out a volume until she had quite a stack built up in her arms. She carried the stack to a small desk at the end of the row and began to skim through them.
She wasn't sure how long she had been there but when the light began to dim in the room she realized that she had been there for hours. She stacked her books to return them to their shelves even though she hadn't found anything to help her cause. She had come across mentioning minors in wills but the information hadn't helped her.
The librarian was missing from her desk when Alice returned to the main level and, not bothering to hunt her down to say goodbye, she left. The long walk back to the palace didn't bother her even though it was growing darker. She felt better alone without having Jack give her looks of pity or Jane clutch her arm with compassion. Both of them didn't know how she was feeling.
Before returning to her apartments she stopped for a moment in Jack's council room. His lawyers had left, leaving the young king to pour over their notes. Her footsteps startled him and she felt her stomach drop at the look on his face.
"I'm so sorry," was all he said as he embraced her.