Chapter Text
The street of Kensington lay undisturbed in the late evening chill. No carriages travelled down the road. No Sir or Lady walked the street. And the only lights were from the flickering gaslight streetlamps, and the candlelight that shone through the houses veil-like windows. But, at the end of the street, sat a most grand looking house. A manor to be exact, and it only had one window with light shining through it. The manor was indeed very hard to not be noticed, as it was painted a lavish pearly white, with a black steel fence guarding it. And a plaque that said 'Kingsleigh Manor'. In the room that was lit, were a group of incredibly prestigious looking men, all dressed in black and white three piece suits, with proud mutton-chop beards on their faces, and lit tobacco pipes in their mouths, with overly-proud looks on their faces. And the room did indeed reflect the men's looks, as foreign artifacts adorned every shelf and the mantlepiece, and the lit candles and crackling fire lit up the room. But the mood of the room was lifted by their warm glow. In front of the fire, stood a very stressed-looking man, with ebony shaded skin, wearing a similar suit to the other men, besides the sweat around his collar. This man was Charles Kingsleigh, the head of the manor, and the head tradesman overseeing the company the other men in the room worked for also. And his wife, Alice Kingsleigh, sat in the corner closest to him. She was a very formal looking woman. With fair, yet slightly frizzy blonde hair, and she wore a simple, and frankly quite plain, light blue dress, and sat with one leg tucked behind the other. Quiet...but observant.
"Charles, you have finally lost your senses," a tradesman in the back said, not aiding Charles's current stress.
"Gentlemen, please," Charles sighed, pinching the corners of his eyes, "I've spent months planning this route. Please just imagine, a trade route to Thailand. Rich culture, beautiful designs. Just think of all the trade opportunities! And as my dear wife Alice says," he gestured to Alice, and gave her an appreciative look, "The only way to achieve the impossible, is to believe it is possible."
"That kind of thinking could ruin you!" a tradesman in the back spat, "Thinking ridiculously like that. And taking advice from a woman nether the less!"
Charles looked like he wanted to throw the tradesman directly out of the window, but he breathed his anger away, "Sir, i must remind you, if you are to stand in my house and presence, i do request you treat those who inhabit it with the upmost respect-" A creak in the doorway directed all the attention in the room to...something the tradesmen weren't expecting. It was a young boy, about nine years old, with warm caramel shaded skin, wearing a cotton knee-length nightgown, and he had a stuffed bear toy in his arms, and he had a rather sleepy, yet scared look in his eye. He held his bear toy close to his face, as the, in his eye, odd-looking men looked at him, as he trotted over to Charles, and put his hand in his.
"I...i had a nightmare," the boy mumbled.
Charles sighed louder than ever, pulling his hand away to put on his forehead, not even looking down to his son. "Alice dear, could you please...?" he huffed. Alice caught on to Charles's stress getting worse quickly. So quickly stood up and put her arm around her son's shoulders, leading him out of the room. When they reached a safe distance, Alice's sophisticated face turned into a face of pure humour.
"Oh, thank goodness Andrew!" Alice knelt down to her son's level, "I couldn't stand being in that room for a minute longer! I swear, my eyes...were...were..." Alice comedically hung her head backwards, letting out overdramatic snoring noises, making her sons fear fade into enjoyment.
"Mother, wake up!" Andrew giggled, as he gently shook her shoulder, making her snap awake with a sharp snore. They both let out content giggles, before walking away from the room of overly-orthodox men, taking about things that could bore anyone to death. And they made their way back to the safety of Andrew's room, where Alice told him a story, that was one of many tall tales of a wonderful place she used to visit, time and time again. Coincidently called...Wonderland.
*
"There we were!" Alice said, as the light from the candle in the candlestick holder she had in her fingers lit up the striped wallpaper of Andrew's room. It was a fairly average room for a boy Andrew's age, with picture books on every bookshelf, clockwork tin toys placed on the highest shelf, too delicate to be played with regularly, and stuffed animals toys were strewn all over the floor. Andrew sat with his legs crossed on his luxury white feather bed, his chin resting on his bear toys head, as he watched his mother twirl around the room, recalling the time she, and a friend she had in Wonderland, a hatter who was rather mad, evaded the tyrannical Queen of Wonderland. The Queen of hearts, in her own maze of rose bushes. "Everywhere we turned had roses, dripping with red paint, until...we hit a dead end!" Alice faced one of the walls, pretending it was a rose bush, blocking her path. "And then, lurching around the corner, with her vile Knave and her many red knight's..." Alice placed the candle on Andrew's bedside table, and put one of Andrew's jack in the boxes behind of it and cranked the handle, playing the little out of tune song. "It was the..." the jack in the box sprung out of it's box, casting a giant, looming shadow on the wall, "...The Queen of hearts!" Andrew of course had never met the Queen of hearts, but due to all of Alice's stories, he knew she was someone to avoid. "Oh, we were for sure finished! Where else could me and the Hatter go?...and then...i remembered." Alice pulled out a little wooden toy cake from behind her, but Andrew knew it wasn't his. It must've belonged to the daughter of another tradesman, Hannah Bulhamet, after she forced him to have a tea party with her. "The 'EAT ME' cake!" Alice beamed, "So i gobbled it down!" she pretended to eat the cake, and it dropped onto the floor. "And i went up! And up! And up!" with ever 'up', Alice stacked one of Andrew's picture books on top of each other, and stood on them, "Until i felt like i could touch the sky! The Queen, that Knave, and those little knights weren't so confident now! And they fled before i even had the chance to shoo them off!" Alice gave a proud little curtsey as Andrew gave a little round of applause, and she moved the stacked up picture books aside, knowing there was no point putting them away, as Andrew would only take them out to read again in the morning, and she went to pull his bedsheets back over him. "And now my dear, time to sleep again."
"Oh, surely i can hear another one?" Andrew protested, pushing the sheets away, "What about when you and the Tweedle twins evaded the Queen by using the twins weird way of speaking to confuse her? Or...or when you and the Hatter tried to throw the biggest tea party in Wonderland, and the Queen got angered cause she wasn't invited?"
"No no darling. You have tutoring in the morning," Alice reminded him, "Plus, Mr Bulhamet and Mr Hargreaves will be coming around for tea in the afternoon. You'll need your energy to play with Hannah and Ciel, won't you?"
Andrew seemed kind of deflated when Alice mentioned Hannah, and he looked down to his bear toy again, "I know...but...Hannah isn't all that fair with things, and she always nit-picks everything i do. I prefer playing with Ciel, cause he's nicer, and doesn't mind sharing his books."
Alice saw how deflated Andrew had become, so sat next to him on his bed, and stroked his raven black coily hair with her fingers. "Andrew darling, Hannah is just very...plain, i'll admit it. Her views are far too straight forward, and she tries to act like an adult even though she isn't even ten yet. You know how to savour your childhood darling, and you don't stick to the usual ways of thinking. And remember what the Hatter told me? So what if your mad....?"
"All the best people are?" Andrew finished, a little smile growing on his face. Alice held up the bedsheets as Andrew shuffled back into his bed, and let the sheets be placed back over him. "Oh, i almost forgot." Alice took a little red velvet drawstring bag out of her dress pocket, "I know it's a while until your tenth birthday. But...i feel like i should give you this now." Alice took out a little silver necklace, that had a charm of a flat silver top hat, with a little feather made of amethyst crystal poking out of the side. "Oh, it's beautiful," Andrew beamed, as he saw the charm glint in the candlelight, and he sat up slightly as Alice put it around his neck, "Who made it?"
"All in good time, my dear," Alice said sweetly, "But now, it's very much past your bedtime. So now, sleep, ok?" Andrew knew he'd be safe, as Alice gave him a kiss on his forehead, and he watched as she left the room with the candle, giving him him one last look before closing the door behind her. Leaving Andrew to drift back into a secure, dreamless sleep.
Everything went downhill after that.
Alice started coughing a few days later, and couldn't stop. The doctor said Cholera was serious with Alice. It hurt her...oh, it hurt her so! But she hid her pain whenever she saw Andrew and Charles, not wanting her husband and son to worry. But, as Andrew's tenth birthday grew closer, and as the illness worsened...
Alice died.
The day before Andrew's tenth birthday.
Andrew remembered watching her coffin get lowered into the ground. And how the tears just couldn't stop streaming down his face. And how Charles kept his hands on Andrew's shoulders the whole time, just as distraught as he was. Andrew knew he had his Father, but without his Mother...he was just...lost. Alice knew what made him happy, what brought his spirits up, and all her stories of the wonderful land she visited. But Charles...he believed in the opposite, and he made sure to drill that into Andrew's mind any chance he could. And as the years went on, Wonderland went from the front of Andrew's mind, to the middle, then to the back...then it was gone. He forgot entirely about Wonderland. And he didn't hear anything related to it....
For many...many...years...