Page 68 of Madness Becomes Her

His napkin falls from his lap, and I find myself fixated on how it drops beneath the table, likely landing over his shoes or hitting the ground beneath him.

It seems symbolic somehow, like everything is about to change.

“The Red Queen’s got a new pet,” the White Guard says beside the queen.

The queen is rubbing her temples, muttering incoherently to herself.

“Seems she’s on a rampage of sorts with it. Erotsy is on fire. She was last spotted heading toward the Bog.”

Hatter turns and locks eyes on me. “She knows.”

My hands shake beneath the table as a tear trails down my cheek.

Sitting up,I wipe the sleep from my eyes. Finding tears in them isn’t anything new, especially not after a memory has emerged. Since being in the White Queen’s palace, quite a few have returned.

I had to be fifteen in that one.

Was that memory the trigger for Hatter sending me back home shortly after?

“Lie back down,” a voice groans. An arm lifts over my chest, tugging me back onto the bed.

The room is dark, and I grin as Hatter’s scent envelops me.

“Another memory?” he whispers, and I shiver.

“Yes. I think it was the Chatterwocky. We were having tea, and a guard came to tell the White Queen that the Red Queen had a new pet and we were to go to the Bog.”

“Mm,” is all that Hatter replies.

“How long after that day did I return home?”

“A week.” Rolling onto his back, he sighs.

“Something you said in the memory has me perplexed.”

“What did I say? You know I’m as mad as the next man. You can’t trust things I say sometimes.”

Lies.

He’s the best man I know.

I soldier on. “You said ‘She knows’about the Red Queen. What did she know?”

“About you.”

“About me? Why would I have been a secret?”

“Abovelanders aren’t supposed to be in Wonderland. While the White Queen took a liking to you and was keen to allow you to stay, the Red Queen wouldn’t have been so kind.”

“Is that why you told her I was your ward?”

“It was.”

“But she found out I was from the human world somehow?”

“She did.”

“How?”