She straightened. ‘Did he know?’
‘Does it matter?’ With a brusque laugh, Hatta swung his legs off the table and stood. ‘He came here meaning to take your heart, but it was clear from the night he brought you to the tea party that he was going to lose his, instead.’ His voice had a growl to it as he sauntered to the wall and pulled a hat off one of the shelves.
No – not a hat. A crown.
He tossed it on to the table. The tines of the crown were made of Jabberwock teeth, jagged and sharp, and strung together with purple velvet and gemstones in hideous mockery of the real crown she’d left at the castle.
‘That’s for you,’ he said. ‘Consider it a wedding gift, from your most humble servant. One mad hatter to his monarch.’
Her eyes stung. ‘You are not mad yet. You don’t have to be.’
He planted his cane on the ground and leaned into it. ‘It is in my blood, Lady Pinkerton. My father and his father and his father before him. Don’t you understand? I am always coming and I am always going, but Time is searching for me and he’s getting closer, always closer. You cursed me when you went back through that gate. You cursed us all.’
‘You didn’t have to follow me.’
He snarled. ‘I had to follow him.’ He took off strolling down the length of the table. ‘Did you come here to make a purchase, Your Majesty? A most marvellous hat, and all it will cost you is everything.’ He knocked the butt of the cane into the mannequins’ hats as he passed, tipping them on to the table. Many of the heads fell too, their foreheads cracking against the table’s edge. ‘A hat to give you wisdom, or maybe compassion as you embark on your queenly role? Perhaps a charm of forgetfulness, would you like that? Would you like to forget this entire tragedy ever happened? Or are you so vain, Lady Pinkerton, that you would like eternal youth? Endless beauty? I could make it happen, you know. Anything is possible when you know the way through the Looking Glass!’ He started swinging the cane like a battledore, hitting the hats so hard they soared against the room and crashed into the walls.
‘That is enough!’
The Hatter hesitated, the cane prepped for another swing.
‘Anything is not possible,’ she seethed. ‘If it were, you would have already brought him back.’
He recoiled. His eyes had gone crazed. The pocket watch on the table was growing louder, the tick-ticking a constant buzz.
Catherine snatched the cane away. He let it go without a struggle.
‘Whatever you say, these creations of yours are unnatural. I won’t allow them – not any more.’
‘I beg your pardon.’
‘Beginning this moment, all travel to and from the lands of Chess is strictly forbidden, by order of the Queen.’
His eyes narrowed.
‘You started this, playing with things you didn’t understand. You created a monster and it’s your fault Jest is dead. You brought him here and you brought the pumpkin and you gave Mary Ann that hat, and it’s all your fault!’
He inhaled sharply. ‘Yes. So it is.’
She jerked back, surprised at the levity of his admission.
‘I know it is, and I shall pay for it with my sanity, just as the Sisters said. I’ve seen the drawings too, Lady Pinkerton. I’ve seen them all.’
Her blood pulsed beneath her skin. ‘If you ever return to Chess, you had better intend to stay there, for I will not suffer a single grain of sand to cross through that maze again.’
A sneer twisted his once-handsome face. ‘You cannot stop me from coming and going. This is my business. My livelihood. And as soon as Time should find me—’
‘I am a queen, Hatta, and I can do as I like. I will imprison the Sisters. I will destroy the treacle well. I will burn the maze to the ground if I must. Do we have an understanding?’
She held his gaze, letting their wills battle silently between them.
His cheek started to twitch. Just slightly at first, but it continued to flutter until one side of his mouth lifted into a painful grin. ‘Why,’ he whispered, watching her with glossy eyes, ‘why is a raven like a writing desk?’
Shaking her head, Catherine tossed the cane on to the table, satisfied with the crash of porcelain and silver. ‘It’s a shame, Hatta. Truly it is. Madness does not suit you.’
‘Of course it does,’ he cackled. ‘Murderer, martyr, monarch, mad. It runs in my family. It’s a part of my blood. Don’t you remember? I know you remember.’
The watch was ticking so fast now she thought it would burst, crack wide open – gears shattering across the table.
‘Goodbye, Hatta.’ She swung towards the door, but his desperate laughter followed her. A shrill giggle. A sobbing gasp.
‘But why? Why is a raven like a writing desk?’
Her hand fell on the doorknob. ‘It’s not,’ she spat, ripping open the door. ‘It’s just a stupid riddle. It is nothing but stuff and nonsense!’
Suddenly, inexplicably, the pocket watch fell silent.
Hatta’s face slackened. His brow beaded with sweat.
‘Stuff and nonsense,’ he whispered, the words cracking. ‘Nonsense and stuff and much of a muchness and nonsense all over again. We are all mad here, don’t you know? And it runs in my family, it’s a part of my blood and he’s here, Time has finally found me and I—’ His voice shredded. His eyes burned. ‘I haven’t the slightest idea, Your Queenness. I find that I simply cannot recall why a raven is like a writing desk.’
CHAPTER 53