The mournful, faraway look on Alice’s face had a profound effect on the prince. “I shall talk with the queen,” he said after several moments. “I think we might establish a Commission of Inquiry into the matter and, in the meantime, arrange for an increase in food rations. How does that sound?”

“It sounds like generosity rarely met with among the living,” said the woman.

“Well, no one here shall soon discover if it’s to be met with among the dead either, if I can help it.”

The orphans blinked and said nothing, hardly believing what they had heard: Queen Victoria and Prince Leopold were going to work on their behalf! The wardens offered the prince their thanks many times over, while Alice looked on and smiled, which was all the thanks he desired.

On the walk home, they stopped to rest in the university’s botanic garden, where Alice found herself sitting on a bench with Leopold suddenly kneeling in front of her.

“No matter what you decide, Alice,” he was saying, “I want you to know that in the coming years I will be only too glad to assist you in your charitable endeavors. But I hope with all my heart that you’ll allow me to do so as your husband.”

Alice didn’t understand.

“I’m asking for your hand in marriage,” Leopold explained. “But…Your Highness, are you sure?”

“That is not exactly the answer for which I was hoping. Alice, you are a most uncommon commoner, to say the least, and I would be proud to call myself your husband. Of course, you realize that you will not

have the title of princess, nor be entitled to ownership of the royal estates?”

“Of course.” Marriage? Again, she felt the tug of a long-buried affection for one who…She would not allow herself to think of him. She had to be realistic. The marriage would please her mother. She would do it for her mother, for her family’s sake. “I accept, Leopold.”

She let herself be kissed, feeling the coolness of dusk settle in around her.

“I have already spoken with the queen and I have asked for, and received, your father’s blessing,” the prince said. “We shall host a party to announce the engagement.”

If she’d had time to think about it, Alice might have stopped herself, considering the idea too whimsical. But the words had a force of their own, and only after she said them aloud did she realize just how appropriate the idea was.

“Let’s have a masquerade.”

Yes, it felt right: a masquerade to celebrate the orphan girl’s impending marriage to Prince Leopold of

Great Britain.

T HE LONG, tortuous trail of publishers and translators led Hatter to Christ Church College in Oxford, England. He stood outside the door of a bachelor’s apartment in Tom Quad. The time was 12:30 P.M. He was closer to finding Alyss Heart than he had been in thirteen years. On the other side of the door: Charles Dogson, aka Lewis Carroll. He knocked.

“Who’s there?” a voice called.

“My name is Hatter Madigan. I am a member of Wonderland’s Millinery and I’ve come to find Princess

Alyss Heart.”

There was a long pause from the other side of the door, then, “I-I don’t know who s-sent you, but th-this isn’t fu-funny. It is Sunday, sir, and n-n-not a day f-for whimsy.”

Hatter stood outside the door long enough to realize that Dodgson was not going to open it. Shwink!

The blades of his left bracelet began slicing the air and he pushed them into the door. It splintered apart and Hatter stepped through the opening into a small, warm room where a fire burned in the hearth. Dodgson jumped up, spilling tea onto the rug and dropping his fountain pen, which dripped ink onto the pages of his journal.

“I beg y-your-” Dodgson started, backing into a corner of the room.

Hatter snapped shut his wrist-blades. The man before him had the brightest glow of anyone he’d ever seen. “Where is Princess Alyss?”

“Wh-wh-who?”

“Princess Alyss of Wonderland. I know you’ve been in contact with her. I’m in possession of your book.”

As Hatter reached into a pocket of his Millinery coat, Dodgson whimpered.

“Please, n-n-no!”

But Hatter was only reaching for the copy of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. He returned the book to his pocket, strode to the writing desk, and flipped through the pages of Dodgson’s journal.

“Do you know who I am?”

“I…I th-think I know who y-you’re s-s-supposed to b-be. But I can’t s-say that I f-find…find this a-at all amusing. Did A-Alice send you t-to make fun of m-me?”

“I’ve searched many years for the princess-more than half her life-and made little progress. But now

I’ve found you-”

“Y-you c-can’t be s-s-serious?”

“Oh, I’m very serious. And I will find her whether or not you tell me where she is. But it will be better for your health if you help me.”

“But I’ve hardly s-seen her in n-n-nine years. She re-re-refuses t-to have anything t-to do w-w-with m-me.”

Hatter considered the sadness, the mournful reminiscence, in the reverend’s tone. The man was telling the truth. “Where do I find her?”

“Sh-she l-l-lives at…at the d-deanery here at Christ Ch-Ch-Church.”

Hatter was about to ask where the deanery was, but his eye alighted on a newspaper spread open on the tea table. One of the headlines caught his attention:

Lewis Carroll’s Muse Alice Liddell to marry

Prince Leopold

Alice Liddell?

“She goes by a different name?” he asked aloud, but more to himself than to Dodgson, who said nothing. There was urgency in his voice when he asked this time, “Where is the deanery?”

“In…in the n-next quad. The b-b-blue door, but…” “But what?”

“She is currently at K-K-K-Kensington Palace, prep-p-p-paring for-”

Hatter snatched up the newspaper and bolted from the apartment, scanning the article as he sprinted in the direction of London. Why had the princess taken a different name? How could she pretend to be an ordinary, soon-to-be-married young lady of Earth? He hadn’t known what to expect when he found the princess: perhaps a young woman not quite ready to fulfil her destiny, a woman who would need convincing of her own powers, in whom the bravery of a warrior queen was not yet second nature, but he hadn’t expected this.

Kensington Palace. Hatter ran toward the front gate, showed no sign of stopping. “Halt!” one of the guards ordered.