AN: Another update! They really aren't on any type of schedule, just whenever I have the inspiration or time to post them. But thanks for sticking with me. I have been skirting around the idea of keeping this a T story, as I have never written a M before. Hopefully I can accomplish that tastefully. But you don't have to worry about a possible rating change this chapter.
If you want to read another AlicexHatter story of mine while waiting for this one to be updated, check out "Mad Love". Thanks!
Disclaimer: Lewis Carroll owns "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and "Beyond the Looking Glass". Syfy owns "Alice".
Alice stood awkwardly in the doorway to the dining room, Jane having gone to the kitchen for dinner with the rest of the staff. Her empire waisted gown was one of her newest, as it had been sewn a week or so before her wedding. The soft pink colored fabric felt nice against her skin after having been restrained in her wedding gown moments before. The two men already seated at the table rose as they noticed her. March gave her a quick smile before plopping back into his chair. Hatter gave him a disapproving look before helping her into her chair.
"March has just been telling me how...happy he is to be given a nicer position at the shop. Right March?"
The man in question was eying the food that was being brought in, and was half listening to what Hatter was asking him. "Great. Just great," he responded although it was clear that he had no idea what his friend was talking about. Hatter gave him a well aimed kick to his ankle under the table, causing the other man to jump in his chair. "Give a man a break, will ya? I haven't eaten all morning, since you just insisted to be married at first light." He rolled his eyes before turning his attention to Alice, who had been quiet during the confrontation. "But congratulations," he said, lifting his wine glass to her. He gave her a half smile before digging into the sliced chicken on his plate.
Alice found herself glancing at her own plate, unable to stomach the idea of the chicken and potatoes, no matter how wonderful they must have tasted. Instead she casually sipped from her wine glass while moving around her food every now and then. At least it looked like she had touched it. She just couldn't concentrate on her food with her new husband across from her. She couldn't look at him. He wasn't Mr. Hatter anymore; he was her husband. If he noticed that she barely ate, he didn't call her out on it.
She listened as politely as she could to both Hatter and March talk, although she would have much rather stayed in her bedroom the entire time. She wasn't feeling up to being the mistress of the household and entertaining her guest. It was going to take her a bit of time to adjust to this new job. She knew that she would have to meet with Mrs. Merryweather each morning to go over that day's assignments. Then she would have to speak with Mrs. Grey about the meals to be made that day. Hatter had gotten by without socializing much as he had been a bachelor. But now that he was married, his wife was expected to involve them in social activities of the town's merchant class. Jane had briefed her on all of this weeks before her wedding to help her learn what was to be expected of her. She numbly noted that her current job would have been magnified had she been queen instead of the wife of a merchant.
Thinking about Jack wasn't what she needed right now. She twisted the cloth napkin in her lap tightly, momentarily catching it on her ring. She looked down at it before adjusting her napkin. She couldn't go on moping. Papa wouldn't mope.
Feeling a bit of bravery running through her she dared to look up from her lap, catching the eye of her husband to her surprise. She refused to look back down into her lap, and instead waited for him to break eye contact. March chattered on, not even noticing the silent stare down between husband and wife. Finally, with a playful smirk, Hatter broke eye contact. He jumped back into talking with March, feeling a little pleased with himself. He knew that he hadn't chosen a shrinking flower for a wife. Alice would come around to this, and from what he had seen, she had already shown him that she wouldn't take this by allowing him to walk over her.
Nearly twenty-minutes later the plates were taken from the room and the three moved onto the sitting room. She found her attention focused on the very arm chair she had been sitting in when he had told her of their engagement. Her husband must have noticed, for suddenly he was speaking to her. "Why don't you find Mrs. Merryweather, Alice? I'm sure she would love to show you around." He had chosen wisely in involving Mrs. Merryweather instead of himself, as she was not too keen on being alone with him at the moment. Maybe after a few decades she could get over it...
The woman hurried her from the room, amazing Alice by the speed that she had entered. She must have been waiting behind the sitting room door, but Alice was too shy to call her out on it. "You've already seen the parlor and dining room now, haven't you dear," the woman asked as she steered Alice down the hall. The young wife stumbled over herself to keep up with the hustling woman.
"The kitchens are toward the left, but I'd rather you not go in there just yet. is still is cleaning up the remnants of the chicken Mr. Lizard purchased today." Alice knew that she would have to go in eventually; she had been taught that a society wife would personally go over the week's menu with her family's cook. There were so many things to manage she wasn't sure if she was ever going to be able to wrap her head around them all.
She followed Mrs. Merryweather up the stairs to the second floor. "There are two spare bedrooms on the opposite side of yours," she explained as they walked past. She propped open one of the doors to give Alice a peak at the bedroom and Alice didn't bother to remind the woman that Hatter had already shown here these rooms. The maid seemed too into her impromptu job. The room was furnished and, although it was clean, it gave her the sense that no one had slept there for quite a while. She almost thought that she had caught the maid looking wistfully at her and the room but didn't have the chance to comment on it as she was rushed into the next hall. "Mr. Hatter's study is to the right," she said while opening the door. "He usually keeps to himself here at night but with you here, my dear, we might actually see him show his face."
The maid sighed as the two started the next staircase. "It gets so lonely here, my dear. So quiet. But I suspect in a few years it won't be; you look in good health. Babes will be no problem for you." Alice nearly tripped on the next step in her surprise at the woman's brashness, now understanding why Mrs. Merryweather had given her that strange look in the spare bedroom. 'She wants these rooms to be filled' she thought as she half-listened to the old woman gesture towards the servants' bedrooms.
"That is about it, I suppose," the elder woman said, her breathing a little heavier than the start of the tour. She leaned against the stair railing as she waited for Alice on the second floor landing. The house seemed eerily quiet now that the maid had stopped talking. She looked at Alice sympathetically for a moment. "I imagine that you could stay up here for the rest of the afternoon, if you wish. Mr. Hatter will probably still be talking with Mr. March. Smoking their cigars more like it. If I catch Mr. March dumping his cigar ashes off onto the side table one more time..." For a moment Alice was reminded of her first impression of the housekeeper, when she had come to confront Hatter about her father's will. As nice as she was, she guessed that Mrs. Merryweather ruled the household with a firm hand, which in this case extended to March.
"How about I send you up a cup of tea, dear. Strawberry, right?"
Without waiting for a response Mrs. Merryweather bustled off down the stairs toward the kitchen. Not wanting to stand in the hall looking like a fool in her own house, Alice slipped into her bedroom. Dinah still was curled up in her basket enjoying the quiet atmosphere of the room. She barely bothered to pick up her head when she noticed Alice. Ignoring being jilted by her own cat, Alice began to inspect the bedroom more closely than she had before. It seemed a bit unsettling to see that her things had been placed among Hatter's. The lace square that she had worked on the year before rested carefully on one of the nightstands where a vase on flowers was resting on it. Her knitting needles, which she thought that she might have touched only once in her life, were placed in a basket with her embroidery threads and wool beside her chest of drawers. It almost looked as if she lived here already. Well, didn't she?
She still felt as if she was a guest here and she supposed that she would feel this way for quite some time. Her attention strayed toward the bed at the other end of the room. Carefully sitting on the edge she ran her fingertips over the coverlet. Hesitantly she placed her head on the pillow nearest to her. Her husband's scent lingered on the sheets, and she found that she enjoyed that smell that was uniquely him: tea leaves with a hint of cigar smoke.
Alice nearly jumped at the knock on her bedroom door before Jane came in holding a tea tray. "Mrs. Merryweather asked if I would bring this to you," she said, closing the door softly behind herself. She set the tray down on a side table before carefully pouring the steaming liquid into the single cup placed on the tray. After preparing Alice's cup she gently handed it to the new wife. Jane watched her for a moment, as if expecting her to explode or start ranting, but instead found that Alice simply sipped from her cup in silence. She acting like she had been in the past few weeks again: sullen, quiet. But instead of trying to forget her fate she was now trying to accept it.
"It won't be terrible," she rambled on as Alice continued to drink from the cup. "You and Mr. Hatter are friends; not many marriages are built on friendships to start."
"And he is handsome, Miss. At least he doesn't look like Mr. Kensington." At the mention of the grumpy, elderly man with no teeth that worked as a manservant in Jack's court, Alice burst into laughter. She found laughing felt liberating and she realized that she had never actually considered it that way before. So many emotions could be expressed in a simple laugh: amusement, happiness, joy. Or in other ways if you wished to pity someone, to mock them, to darkly laugh at yourself and your situation. Abruptly she stopped, surprising her maid. Still, she didn't retreat into her gloomy behavior from earlier even if, Jane noted, she was not yet back to her exuberant attitude.
"Tell me about your situation upstairs, Jane," Alice requested, glad for the conversation to focus on someone else.
Alice spent the rest of the afternoon up until supper listening to Jane. She approved of the young girl sharing one of the upstairs rooms with her, even if she was a little quiet. Jane was determined already not to get in Mrs. Merryweather's way. She didn't want to be the cause of the elder maid's frustration. Another knock at the door exposed Miss. Amelia James, Jane's new roommate, with the news that supper was to be served. Jane followed her mistress down the stairs to the dining room before dutifully standing to the side in the room. Alice frowned as she realized only one place was set at the table.
"Is Mr. Hatter not joining me?" she asked, refraining from using the word "husband". Amelia shook her head, blushing slightly in her shyness. "He is busy in his study, mistress, but apologizes." She disappeared into the hall for a moment before returning with a simple meal of mixed greens and mutton.
"You can go on to supper, Jane," she suggested after realizing that poor Jane was going to have to stand in silence the entire meal. If her husband had been there than protocol would have kept Jane in attendance. But Alice didn't have the heart to keep her waiting for her. Jane curtsied before leaving the room. Alice watched Amelia carefully as the young woman poured white wine into her empty glass. "Miss. James, correct," she asked, already knowing fully well that she was correct in the girl's name. But at least it was a start for the conversation.
Amelia nodded quickly before averting her eyes as she stepped back to the far wall. Seeing that the girl was too shy to help the conversation along, Alice attempted to prod information from her. "You have been working here long?" she asked after a sip of wine. The girl glanced up from the floor, a little surprised that her new mistress was bothering to talk to her. Mr. Hatter talked to her from time to time, but Amelia had supposed that his new wife wouldn't even both. After all, she was from King Jack's court. She thought that she would have thought herself too high.
Pleased to be spoken to she sounded a bit more confident.
"For about four years now, Madam. It will be nice having another person here; it gets lonely at times."
She had been the second staff member to tell her that the house was very quiet at times. She wondered if Hatter was always like that at home. She had never seen him act that way on their walks, or when she was at the shop.
The meal passed in small chatter until Alice had finished. Amelia curtsied carefully before exiting with her plate and suggesting that she might like to retire to her bedroom to prepare. Alice had almost asked her for what, before she realized. Her wedding night.
She had almost managed to forget about it. Turning red she hurried from the room to seek refuge in her bedroom. Jane was already there waiting for her, surprised by the flushed look on her mistresses' face. It took the maid a moment to understand.
"I'll draw a bath," was all she said, pushing her charge into the adjacent bathing room.
While Jane fretted over Alice, Hatter had locked himself up in his study. The list before him contained an inventory of the latest shipment of tea, but he found that he couldn't concentrate on it. His thoughts kept drifting to the young woman who was, at that moment, being fussed over. He was starting to regret his tactics. Maybe if he had taken time out to actually court her instead of just asking her father for her hand, she might be a bit more eager to be his wife. But if he had waited, the king might have been able to get the Suits on his side, and Alice might have been his wife instead of Hatter's. Anyway, there was too much doubt in his mind that Jack would have been able to convince the Suits. He would need a marriage to an actual noble who would help back his claim to the throne.
He loved his wife, really he did, but he wasn't sure how to best get around this speed bump of intimacy. Over time she would get used to the building, to him, to the staff. But this wasn't something that she would just get used to in a week. While he tore himself away from his unfinished work Alice was being ushered into her nightdress. The faint smell of roses lingered at the base of her neck where Jane had sprayed a bit of perfume. The white flannel was soothing against her skin after her maid insisted upon Alice scrubbing herself nearly raw. She almost felt as if she was five again when Jane would check if she had washed behind her ears or not.
Jane paused in brushing Alice's hair as the door opened, revealing Hatter. He nodded in greeting to the two before rummaging around in his chest of drawers for a moment. He exited to the bathing room leaving the two women in silence. Jane set down the hairbrush on Alice's vanity table before gently pulling her into a standing position. Without a word she pulled Alice into her arms, held her tightly for a moment, before releasing her. With an encouraging smile Jane left the room. Alice felt as if her heart was going to jump out of her chest with anxiety now that her ally was gone from the room. She heard stirring in the other room before Hatter returned once more.
He was dressed in his nightclothes which she had just realized he had been searching for earlier in his drawers. He stood before her, a look of determination in his eyes. His hand flitted through the back of her hair causing goosebumps to bloom on her scalp. Her eyes were locked onto his as he moved down to kiss her. It wasn't distasteful, but it wasn't as if Jack was kissing her. But maybe because she had never been standing in her nightdress with Jack and her martial bed in front of her. The kiss between the two wasn't as chaste as the one in the chapel, and she detected some type of desire or need behind it. To her surprise, she returned it. But abruptly he broke away from her, the look of desire fading in his eyes.
"Go to sleep, Alice," was all he said, smiling slightly before leaning over to turn down the gas lamp. She frowned in the dark, glad that he couldn't see that she was disappointed. She had worried for nothing. Climbing into bed beside him she pulled the blankets up to her chin. Soon afterward she noticed that her husband's breathing had gone even, hinting that he had fallen asleep. Alice stayed up for a little while longer, thinking over her sham of a marriage.