HATTA’S Marvelous Millinery had returned to its spot in the forest meadow, the little ramshackle cart in the shadow of broad, leafy trees. But when Andy had brought Ashley before, the lane in between the Crossroads and the hat shop had been empty – abandoned in the dead of night in a secluded corner of the kingdom.
Not so any more.
Ashley passed more than a dozen patrons of the shop on their way back to the Crossroads. Birds and mammals and reptiles, all with smiles on their faces and elaborate hats on their heads, some with servants dragging along in their wake, carrying yet more brightly papered hat boxes.
The Hatter’s popularity was expanding like a hot-air balloon.
An OPEN sign hung on the shop door, crisp with newness. The window that the Jabberwock had broken had been replaced.
Ash entered without knocking. A pair of Owls were standing before a mirror, trying on different hats and hooting to themselves, but otherwise the shop was empty. It looked much as it had at the beach, only the long table was back, now covered with tools and supplies for shaping and felting and ornamenting a variety of headdresses. Not only shears and thread and ribbon and lace, but also the strange little ornamentations that Hatta was becoming known for: soft-worn chips of blue and green sea glass. Fish scales. Talons. Long, sharp teeth – she didn’t know from what creatures. Assorted seashells. Still-sticky honeycomb. Dandelion tufts and huckleberry branches and white bark peeled from a birch tree.
There was a curtained doorway at the back that Ashley was sure hadn’t been there the first two times she’d been in the shop. She approached it and knocked softly.
‘You can pay the money tree out front for your purchases,’ came Hatta’s tired-sounding reply.
Steeling herself, Ashley pulled aside the curtain, revealing a small, cluttered office and Hatta with his feet thrown up on to a desk.
‘I am not here to make a purchase,’ she said.
His eyes lifted and there was a quick and deep down-turn of his mouth. ‘Lady Costello,’ he drawled, ‘I wish I could say this is a pleasant surprise.’
Ashley shouldered through the curtain. ‘Good day to you, too, Hatta. I didn’t realize you’d gone back to disliking me.’
‘What do you want? I’m busy.’
‘Would you like me to come back later?’
‘I wish you wouldn’t.’
A twitch started above her left eyebrow. ‘I’m not sure what I’ve done to earn your ire this time, but I’ve come with a proposal for you, Hatta.’
He guffawed. ‘A proposal! My, my, you capricious thing. How many men do you intend to attach yourself to?’
Her shoulders tensed. ‘So it’s the King’s proclamation that has you turned against me?’
‘I apologize, Your Ladyship,’ he spat, ‘but you are not the Queen yet, and I have no time to entertain your whimsies. As you see, I’m working.’
He did not at all look like he was working, but Ash bit back the accusation. ‘I am not engaged to the King, whatever you might think—’
He snorted.
‘And even if I were, it would be no one’s business but mine and His Majesty’s. You have no place to criticize.’
‘No one’s business but yours and His Majesty’s and the hapless chap that would twist himself into knots to impress you. But then, I suppose Andy willingly took the role of amusing plaything for the King’s court, so why should you treat him any differently?’
YOU ARE READING
White Roses a.b
FanficI screamed loudly as the beast grabbed the poor Lion. I fell to my knees and cried. Andy ran over to my and knelt beside me. I looked at him and he whipped away my tears. "I'm so sorry, I put you in danger," he said quietly. I huffed and wiped my ch...
