The Mad King (The Dark Kings #1)(62)
After ten years of being best friends, Alice had grown used to Tabby speaking in stream of consciousness. She peeled the paper off her cake. “What?”
She nibbled, content to be lazy and eat slowly. The kitchen could be on fire and she doubted she’d get her tired butt off the chair. Her feet ached and her toes tingled. She wasn’t sure that was totally normal, but at the moment, she couldn’t even muster up a grain of “care.” She was blissed out.
“K1 News Now called this morning, wants to do an interview with you tomorrow.”
When the words finally registered through the fog in Alice’s throbbing head, her pulse fluttered and she sat up straighter in her chair. “No way! And I’m only hearing this now?”
Tabby shrugged as she popped the last bite of her cupcake in her mouth. “What? We were busy. Not like I had pet mice to do my bidding. Some of us”—she pointed at her chest and raised a brow—“were actually working.”
“Cinderella had mice, not Wonderland.”
“Pssh, who cares? I get them all confused anyway.”
“Sacrilege. Off with her head!” Alice shrilled in her best Red Queen impersonation.
Tabby rolled her eyes. “And that’s why you never get laid anymore. You. Are. Weird.” She patted Alice’s hand. “Honey, you do know they don’t actually exist, right?”
Alice chuckled. Tabby always gave her grief about her love of—okay... obsession with—all things Wonderland. “What? You mean to tell me the face-painted man who crawls in my window and makes wild monkey love to me every night isn’t actually real?” She tapped her finger to her chin. “That could be a problem.”
Tabby chuckled. “I’ve got dishes to clean. I’d like to get home before ten anyway.”
“Ooh la la.” Alice winked and sat back. “Another hot date with Mr. HPD?”
Tabby bit her bottom lip, a shy look in her eyes. “I don’t know. Maybe.”
Alice giggled and rubbed the back of her neck. “Then I suggest you get those dishes done.” She winked.
Tabby ran back, a spryness to her step Alice couldn’t hope to match. She was exhausted.
Not “I was out working in the garden exhausted” either. More like “I’ve run ten miles, hiked Mount Kilimanjaro, all while carrying twenty-pound dumbbells” tired. She rubbed her nose, feeling the beginnings of a headache spreading behind her eyes and shooting down the back of her neck. She winced.
Too many long nights, too much stress of opening day, too much. She needed a break already. Tired as she was though, it was a good tired. She brushed some crumbs off the table, filled with a sense of accomplishment.
Alice sighed, content to stay put a moment longer. Tabby teased her about her lack of a love life, and even though she played along, the truth was Alice was beyond sick of being alone. She wasn’t that crazy. Really.
Her bedroom might be decorated a bit like an enchanted garden, full of potted plants and candles and gauzy silky drapings. And so maybe there were the wall clocks, faces painted to appear like the Cheshire cat, the Queen, and of course... handsome Mad Hatter, Johnny Depp. But that wasn’t that weird, right? She had a thing. Didn’t everyone?
Alice shook her head, slipped her shoes back on, and with a heave, was headed toward the register when the front door jingled. She smacked her forehead. In her laziness, she’d forgotten to lock the door.
“Sorry, we’re closed.” She turned, spying an older woman—maybe in her late fifties—wearing a sad look.
“Oh my. I smelled something so heavenly and knew I must, must get a taste of whatever special surprises were in here.” She threaded her fingers together. “Truly, could you not find it in your heart to allow a tired old woman, frail too, I might add...”
Alice couldn’t stop the smile. The woman had balls. She kind of liked her.
“Oh come on, auntie.” The local island patois slipped from her tongue as she jerked her hand. “But lock that door behind you. I don’t have much left.”
Blue eyes, still as sharp and bright as they must have been in her youth, lit up. She rubbed her hands in anticipation. “I’ve heard so much about you, Alice Hu.”
Alice frowned. How did the woman know her name? Paper maybe? Had she given her full name? She rubbed her forehead.
The woman’s face went soft, eyes deep in contemplation. “Extraordinary likeness.” She spoke quietly and reached out a hand to frame Alice’s jaw. “Oh, Alice. I’ve found you.”
Alice’s heart clenched. She wanted to jerk out of the woman’s grasp, but something made her pause as an answering awareness fluttered desperate wings in her chest. Then the lady gave a tiny shake of the head and laughed, as if suddenly recalling where she was. She dropped her hand and took a step back.
Alice released a breath, suddenly confused by what’d just passed between them.
The woman flashed straight teeth at her. “Wild, reckless child you were. Head in the clouds, nose in a book. Hatter in the heart.” There was a lyrical, chiming quality to her laugh that made Alice think of bells. “But now you are a woman grown, and my, what a woman you are. You look so much like her.”
This was all too weird. “I’m... I’m sorry.” Her brows dipped. “Do I know you?”
The old woman was now at the counter. Her clothes were stylish, fashionable even. But the fabric was unlike any Alice had ever seen, as if someone had gathered the finest spider silk, still sparkling with morning dew, and woven a pale white top from it. She wasn’t a large woman, but her personality swept in like a tidal wave, filling the room with its bubbling presence and making her seem much larger than she was.