“He can try the patience,” Warren said affectionately. “Try and try again, Hatter never gives up.”
“Which patients?” Hatter narrowed his eyes on Warren. “Are you here for a check-up?”
“We need a doctor!” Dormouse exclaimed.
“I am a doctor,” Hatter said airily.
“What's up, Doc?” Hare asked.
I burst into laughter, and the men stared at me in surprise.
“It's a human thing,” I waved off their curiosity. “Where is the real meeting, King Jaxon?”
“In Hatter's house.” Jaxon stood and gallantly helped me out of my seat. “Or beneath it, rather. If you will allow me, Your Majesty?” He held out his arm to me, and I took it. “This way.”
“We'll meet you inside, Your Majesty,” Nick said. “We're going to scout the area, just in case the Queen's men are lurking about.”
“All right,” I agreed.
King Jaxon led me to the tiny cottage behind Hatter's chair, and Hatter watched us go longingly. Right; he was stuck at tea forever. How sad to never be able to enter your own home.
“Take point,” Jaxon said to the soldiers that followed us in.
The men nodded and hurried up a small staircase. Jaxon led me further into the house, and then into the kitchen. He went up to a tall, slim cupboard and opened the door. It had a broom hanging on a peg, but that was all. King Jaxon pushed against the back wall of the cupboard, and it moved inward, revealing a set of stairs. He went in first, then offered me a hand. I climbed in after him, and he shut the cupboard door, then the false panel.
“Sneaky,” I said. “I like it.”
“Oh, we've learned to be very sneaky indeed,” he purred.
There was only one lantern, halfway down the stairs, burning a low flame, and the stairwell was narrow, putting us in close quarters. Jaxon's stare roamed my face, but then he held his arm up between us, and I laid my palm on it. He smiled as he led me downstairs, but it looked a little self-conscious.
The stairs curved and then let us out into a rectangular room full of soldiers. They were already armed with assorted weapons, their stares set on the stairwell and our approaching footsteps, but when they saw King Jaxon, they relaxed and bowed. Jaxon nodded to them and led me through the room, to a door on the other side. I noted the insignias on the chests of the soldiers: playing card outlines with red diamonds and black clubs.
We entered a sitting room. Two cozy chairs were placed before a small fire, and behind the empty seats, two men sat at a table with the remnants of a meal between them. They looked up at our entrance.
One was more beautiful than handsome, with heavy-lidded bedroom eyes in the deepest shade of green, and sensual lips. His hair was dirty blond and disheveled in a sexy way, as if he'd just gotten out of bed... and he hadn't been there alone. He wasn't as large or as muscular as Jaxon, but there was an air of authority about him that screamed “king,” and he looked like he could fight for his crown if he had to.
The other man looked harder, but only because he was more aggressively masculine than his companion. Shoulder-length, dark-brown hair was pulled back from his face and tied with leather at the nape of his neck. The firelight turned the strands of his hair auburn, but I wasn't sure if that was truly its color. His eyes, though, those were definitely dark, nearly black, but there was a kindness in them that, when paired with the rest of his competent looks, made me want to trust him immediately.
Both men stood.
“Queen Alice,” Jaxon said, “these are Their Majesties, King Draven of Diamonds”–he indicated the blond first and then waved to the brunette–“and King Bevan of Clubs. Men, here is our long lost queen.”
“Queen Alice,” King Draven snatched my hand and kissed it lingeringly. “It's an honor and a pleasure to meet you at last. We've all waited a very long time for you.”
“Lay off her, Draven,” King Bevan growled as he came around the table to shake my hand. “I am most relieved to have you with us, Your Majesty. We have been waiting, some of us more patiently than others, for this day to arrive.”
“Twenty-two years, if I'm not mistaken,” I said.
The men blinked at me.
“Queen Alice,” Draven said, “we have been in hiding for over forty years.”
“Forty?” I looked them over. “You all look as young as I am.”
“Time lives in Wonderland,” King Bevan explained. “Because of this, he has more power here, and as an incentive for the rest of us to allow him to wield his power, he stops the residents of Wonderland from aging, once we reach an acceptable maturity.”
“But, my uncle,” I whispered.
