Chapter 48
Alice wandered the upper floors of Palace North, though not aimlessly.
She was hoping to see Blinkem, but the endless corridors of doors made that seem unlikely.
He had returned with the others as Tattypoo promised—and had spent the morning combing the grounds above and below in search of gnomes, and on the lookout for the witch Mombi, whom Blinkem had narrowly escaped from for the second time in his life.
Ready to abandon her searching, Alice heard a familiar sound.
A melody that descended like a feather to the ground.
Alice followed the echoing of piano notes until she found a room, much like a library, near the end of the corridor.
Blinkem gently played, his hands moving tenderly up and down the keys of the warm wooden piano covered in gold metal foliage.
Blinkem saw her and smiled slightly as she approached, continuing to play with his eyes locked on hers until Alice was beside the piano.
Blinkem’s hands left the piano, and before Alice could say anything he stood to meet her.
Her stomach flipped as she smelled clean soap and some type of mint aftershave. It was enchanting, to say the least.
“I’m so glad you are all right,” he said.
“I am, as well. That you are all right.” Alice smiled but didn’t quite know what it was she had been planning to say to him if she found him.
“Are you hungry, by any chance?” Blinkem asked through a sudden wide playful grin.
“I am indeed!” Alice said, nodding as she took in his charming smile.
“You’re sure we are safe from gnomes?” Alice asked, once she and Blinkem strolled outside, but she felt little fear herself, for there was no well nearby, and evenly dispersed along the perimeter were guardsmen, whose white uniforms slowly turned pale pink from the setting sun beneath the trees where they were stationed.
Alice stopped for a moment. Could these be the toy soliders from her dream of Blinkem, back when she’d first met him at Pastoria House?
“We should be safe enough,” Blinkem said, taking her hand to guide her to sit upon the embroidered picnic quilt that he’d sent staff to lay out in advance. “What amuses you?” He grinned, taking notice. The blanket was not checkered as it had been in her dream, but it was an evening picnic no less.
“Our chaperones,” she said, feeling a bit foolish, looking back to the guards. “Pink toy soldiers.” Blinkem’s smile returned. He seemed nervous—well, not seemed. He was nervous. He sat beside her and took a sharp breath.
“You often say things that…” He paused, looking at the toy soldiers across the lawn.
“They are filled with a sense of wonder, I suppose.” He glanced at her.
“It brings joy to my heart.” He did not look at her, for he likely felt the squint of her eyes.
It was such a kind remark, but one that alluded to far more.
“I fear that I have been mostly combative with you. I would like to apologize for the many times over the past couple of days where I have been unpleasant,” Alice said, but then returned to his loaded statement.
“In the time we have known one another, which is quite brief, I can’t recall anything that I have said to you that was particularly filled with wonder or joy-inducing.
” Blinkem laughed, to Alice’s relief, as she was feeling right nervous, as well.
“I don’t wish to boast, but my memory is usually quite exact.
” She tried to make light of what was likely the wrong response to such a compliment as bringing someone joy.
“You have said things of the sort in my dreams.” Blinkem waited for a moment, then leaned toward her.
“When I said that I have dreamed of you, it is as though I have years of memories with you, exact and unforgettable.” Alice could hardly imagine, though she understood what an unforgettable dream felt like.
“Have you ever dreamed of me?” he asked.
It was a forward thing to ask, to say the least, but it excited Alice, nonetheless.
“My goodness,” she said, brushing her skirt and looking around the field at the edge of the palace wall. It was near evening and cool.
“My apologies. Tattypoo warned me against this type of talk.” Blinkem shook his head and moved slightly away from Alice to recline beside the picnic basket the staff had left.
She was honored, in a way, that he would seek counsel, not to mention intrigued, but felt utterly frozen.
Her mind told her to touch his arm, to assure him she wasn’t uncomfortable, but she felt it might be silly or… she didn’t know.
“Well,” Alice said, opening the basket. Inside were cucumber sandwiches and a small bundle of daisies.
This was her dream of him. Alice stared down.
Blinkem hung on her words. “Of course, but you were always a rabbit,” Alice lied and took a bite of the cucumber sandwich, and a wave of memories flooded her. “Oh my.”
“What is it? Is something not right?” Blinkem asked, with a concern so intense he likely was fearful she had poisoned herself.
She shook her head, nodding, trying to quickly chew so she could respond without being unpleasant.
The sandwich’s crisp texture and delicate sweetness evoked memories of childhood picnics and lazy afternoons spent lounging in Kensington Gardens.
The cucumber’s mild flavor mingled with the air, releasing a scent that was simultaneously fresh and earthy, as if it had just been plucked from the fertile soil of her mother’s garden.
“You seem upset,” he said, reaching for a handkerchief. Alice didn’t even realize the silly sandwich had brought tears to her eyes.
“No, no,” she said, laughing a bit at herself. “I don’t know what came over me. It’s as though I could feel the land and love of the earth in each bite. I sound silly.”
“No, not at all,” he said, nodding and leaning back into his reclined position.
He began to laugh. “You do adore food in Oz. Well, you from a dream.” He smiled to himself, recalling a memory she did not have.
He turned, rolling over onto his shoulder to light the lanterns that the staff had left for them.
His body moved so gracefully that Alice turned away, afraid he’d catch her gaze.
This was why she was supposed to have chaperones in the company of handsome young men, she realized, although she also quickly decided that the nerves could be a sign that she did not know Blinkem well enough to be alone with him.
She needed to divert the subject from dreams.
“You are very close to Tattypoo,” Alice said.
Blinkem smiled slightly. “She is a wonderful woman, but she can certainly be headstrong. I think the world of her, or worlds as it were, of which many are far more complicated than most realize. Tattypoo has always known that. Though she won’t tell you a thing.
” Blinkem laughed, and Alice felt relief.
So, it wasn’t just her that felt shielded.
“She seems to care for you a great deal,” Alice said, though it was his care for Tattypoo she had been observing.
“Yes, and I her. She is the only family I have known most of my life. But she carries guilt that makes her… difficult to get too close to.”
“Guilt?” Alice asked as Blinkem’s eyes softened in his reflected thoughts.
“The planned attack, when my parents went missing. What truly happened, neither Tattypoo, the staff, nor myself know. Tattypoo blames herself. She believes it was done by Mombi.”
“Because she transformed you that same day?” Alice asked.
“She believes it is some vengeance Mombi has had for her. I don’t really know…”
“Because you don’t ask questions,” Alice said with a small smirk. There was something refreshing in that his honesty was consistent over the fact. “And Tattypoo’s sister, Mombi, she was the witch that pursued me at the Ruby Palace?”
“The very one. She’s been in exile. Tattypoo had testified to the accounts of my parents in front of the Emerald Court, and Mombi was caged and transported to a prison off-realm.
” Blinkem’s sadness over his parents weighed on him.
“Tattypoo doesn’t speak of it, or of her sister.
Tries not to, at least. She holds a lot of secrets. One does when they see so much.”
The mysterious vanishing of Blinkem’s parents felt all too familiar to Alice.
There was a pain he carried, one she knew well, for she had never learned what had become of her parents after she was brought to Pastoria House.
But the fact that he had been so open with her brought the same comfort to her heart that Wendy had.
“I have dreamed of you,” she confessed, “but only once where you were a man.” Alice laughed a bit at the statement as Blinkem rolled toward her abruptly, and she just as quickly tried to divert him from the admission.
“I returned to dreams a number of times which included the Wonderland version of you, but you were always running from me!”
“In reality, I feel like I am always running after you,” he replied. “I would run after you anywhere.”
Alice wished she had asked Wendy how to behave when a gentleman flatters her.
She lowered her head as she believed Wendy would have, and Blinkem reached out to brush the red hair that fell on her cheek.
Perhaps it was the cucumber sandwiches that heightened her senses, but the feel of his hand on her face was so delicate and soothing that it sent energy racing through her, causing her to shiver.
“Are you cold?” he asked, sitting up and removing his jacket. He was either an exceptionally generous man or very skilled in the ways Bronte wrote of doting men.
“In the dream…” Alice said as he draped the velvet jacket over her shoulders. “This is going to be so improper to discuss. We were…”
“Intimate?” Blinkem interrupted, leaning his elbow on a propped knee and listening intently, hopefully.
“Yes!” Alice said, her cheeks burning. Thank goodness the flickering lantern cast a warm light upon her to temper the color.