Page 14 of Madness Becomes Her

Hatter sighs. “Now look what you’ve done. You woke her. And with a head like that, she needs all the sleep she can get.”

I gasp. “I wish you’d decide if my head is perfect or perfectly alright already. The back and forth is giving me whiplash.”

I ignore how normal conversing with them is feeling, stepping toward Lewis to greet him.

“Where are you two going?”

“The palace,” Lewis says at the same time that Hatter says, “Nowhere.”

Looking between them, it’s obvious Hatter doesn’t want to leave.

“Why the palace?”

It’s very early outside. The only crooked window beyond a pile of books and fabric tells me it’s nearly dawn.

There are clocks everywhere, but all of them display different times. It’s very disorienting. I was unaware of how much time played a valuable role in my life until I landed here.

Here, time doesn’t matter much.

“Hatter works for the Red Queen. She has an event and needs her abnormally colossal head hatted for it. He’s the only one who can do it.”

“Despicable woman,” Hatter mutters, shivering as he shoves into a coat.

“You love to hat, though,” I offer, attempting to give logic to a man with mismatched buttons on his shirt.

“If one loved to swim with the Basilisk in the purple lake, should one do it all the time?” Hatter breaks into a mad laugh, and I am left bereft, listening to the melody of his insanity decorating the air knocked from my lungs.

Fuck, he’s beautiful.

But he also makes no sense. Ever.

Keep your head, Eleanor, I tell myself. I’m determined to make it out of this alive and unscathed. Mentally and physically.

“Basilisks sound awful, so I’d say…”

Lewis shakes his head at me. Not that I know what that means.

“Maybe one shouldn’t swim with them. What would happen if you didn’t go to this Red Queen?”

Hatter shivers again. “Doom. Murder. Malady. The typical things.”

I swallow. “None of that sounds good. What if I go with you?”

Hatter turns lethal, his eyes sharpening. “No! You mustn’t go. I’ll be off, and when I return, that awfully enormous head of yours will be all mine!”

I’m left with my mouth open as Hatter exits the house, Lewis in tow.

Lewis turns at the door, smirking. “Good day, Eleanor.”

“Good day, Eleanor, you and your large, perfectly alright head,” I mock as the door shuts.

Fuck, this place is getting to me.

I find pastry in the kitchen and make myself some tea as dawn breaks. I spend at least three hours tidying the living space until no hats or fabric are lying around.

Straightening Hatter’s workshop in the back seemed like an awful idea, so I only tossed fabric and things from the living area into it and shut the door.

After a sandwich from the platter that magically appeared at lunchtime in the kitchen, I find myself outside.