by ERIN BEDFORD
I gasped and jerked my hair from his hands. “I cannot decide if I should be offended or pleased. I do know that I am annoyed and quite through with this silliness. And of course, I’ve been here before. It’s my dream… but why in the world I would dream up someone like you, I will never know.” I huffed and turned on my heel marching to the clock. “Good day.”
“Good night.” The fox waved his fingers at me before transforming back into his original form and curling up on the chair. Before placing his head down, he angled it toward me. “And do be careful of the JubJub. She can be quite the little bitch when woken up.”
Ignoring his foul language, I pulled open the door to the grandfather clock and, careful of the pendulum, walked inside only to be surrounded by complete darkness.
WHEN MY FOOT HIT solid ground, I let out a relieved breath. I wasn’t sure my heart could take anymore falls, or my dress. Well, what was left of it.
Sadly, having a place to stand on was about the only good thing going for the JubJub lair. I’d never been to a lair, let alone even knew what one was. If I had to imagine a lair, there would be quite a bit more light and a lot less of a dead rat smell.
I inched further into the blackness, my hands reached out in front of me to search for anything I might run into. They first found the dirt wall next to me. I kept one hand on the wall to my right and followed it as I moved through the dark. The light I had barely caught sight of before was nowhere to be seen.
It came to my attention that I should have been terrified. This whole scenario was something straight out of a nightmare, walking in the dark in a strange world, not the Wonderland I remembered certainly. I remembered talking animals, musical tea parties, and mad queens, not sly foxes with a scent that still made me weak in the knees or dark lairs that had a hint of copper in the air.
The darkness was disconcerting. If it were really my dream, I could make a light, couldn’t I? I closed my eyes for a moment and concentrated on making a light. Either my prayers had been answered, or I’d died, because there was finally a break in the black abyss.
Blinking against the light, I started toward it. The surrounding walls tightened, and I no longer needed to keep my hand on it to find my way. Soon, I was crouching down to my hands and knees. If I wasn’t already wearing a corset, I would need one to suck in enough to get through the hole the pathway had turned into.
When the walls expanded again, giving me enough room to breathe, I moved to stand up. A low growl made me freeze. Stock still on my hands and knees, my hose ripped up from scuffing the floor and arms were covered in scrapes, I strained my ears. When silence met me, I began to move again. This time, the growl turned into a mighty squawk that shook the walls around me.
The light I had been following darted to the right around a large form. It snapped its beak at it, blood shot eyes barely visible in the light as it rushed to get away from the beast.
The JubJub.
My heart pounded in my chest at the sharp beak snapping at the light which was growing dimmer by the moment. It was only a dream, Alice. Remember, it can’t hurt you.
Still, I didn’t want to be in the dark alone with that monster. I climbed to my feet and raced after the light. I dodged left as a large bony wing slammed down where I had been standing before letting out a small squeal of fright. That one sound drew the JubJub’s attention away from the light to me. Its bony wing pounded the dirt as it shifted around to get to me.
I didn’t give the thing the chance.
Throwing myself in an opening between the JubJub’s wing and body, I barely escaped its snapping beak as I rolled onto the ground and back up to my feet. Not waiting to see if it followed me, I ran in the direction the light went. I could still see it, just a tiny ball in the distance and hurried to catch up to it, the JubJub squawking behind me.
My foot caught on what was left of the front of my dress and I tripped, falling face forward on the ground. My chin burned where it scraped the dirt. The JubJub was closer now, not giving me a chance to recover from my fall. I crawled to my feet, gathering my skirts into my arms.
Someone seeing my drawers was the least of my worries right now.
Lungs burning, I thought the tunnel would never end. The JubJub certainly wasn’t getting tired, but I had to keep moving. Even if this was a dream, I didn’t particular care to know what it feels like to be eaten alive.
Closing in on the light that had been leading me through the tunnel, it merged into a larger light. No, not a light. An opening. The exit!
The JubJub let out an annoyed squawk at the appearance of the exit and seemed to turn around, pounding the opposite way. Did it not like the light? Not waiting to see if it changed its mind, I rushed toward the opening.
Finally, I crawled out of the JubJub’s lair, the sound of its cries echoing behind me. I glanced back at the dark nothing I had come from and wondered how exactly the buildings surrounding it didn’t disappear into the darkness as well. It didn’t make much sense, but then again, this was a dream. Nothing had to make sense.
I backed away from the entrance of the JubJub lair and walked toward the sound of life. People. The brick walls of the buildings around me were rough against my fingertips as I trailed them against the surface. Finally, something I recognized. There was even a road beneath my feet. However, that was where the familiarities ended.
Tall men and women with pointed ears and hair every color of the rainbow walked the streets. Some of their hair even matched their skin. I tried not to gape and stare at one of the purple-skinned beauties. I would have been fine if the only things wrong were their skin and hair, but the clothing! They were showing more skin than I did when I came out of my mother’s womb.
I turned to stare at a beautiful woman. Taller than even my brother Fredrick who stood at six foot, her long black hair shined with blue streaks, her skin just as dark and covered in a gauze-like material over her breasts and nether regions. She might as well have been naked for all the good her clothing was doing. I couldn’t understand why no one stopped and stared at her. It seemed as if no one saw anything out of the ordinary, not that they should.
Glancing down at my ruined dress, the light blue material had been stained into a muddy gray. My mother would die of humiliation if she had the chance to see me now, even more so if she had a chance to see the gorgeous man with tan skin and a golden mane of hair cut to the scalp on one side. The golden-brown loin cloth clung to his manhood but left his butt bare.
Dear Lord Almighty, was he lovely.
A couple of large men dressed in shining golden armor patrolled the streets with gleaming swords at their waist. They passed by my alley way, and I jerked back into the shadows. They stood out like a sore thumb among the other tall, beautiful people, and the others moved out of their way as they came by, caution and worry on their faces. I didn’t need to be my sister Rhoda to know that it would not be a good idea to be caught by them.
I waited a few moments until the guards were gone and then took a tentative step out of the alley. A few eyes moved my way, lips curled in disgust at my attire, and one sniffed the air as if they could smell me from where they stood.
Well, they could just get over themselves. Did they think I wasn’t used to being stared at? I’d been at the wrong end of the gossip line more than a few times over the years. Lifting my chin, I kept my eyes forward and pretended to know exactly where I was going.
Out of the corner of my eye, I caught sight of several shops. A pastry shop displayed tarts shaped like hearts in the window. I stopped before a window where Fae, at least that’s what I assumed these strange folks were based on Tick’s words, were eating oysters on wooden tables and, when they paid their bill, took the table with them. I backed up to read the sign. The Walrus & the Carpenter. Guess you could go into business with a worse person.
My stomach grumbled at that moment. and I contemplated seeing if they would feed me. After one more look at my clothes, I figured I probably should find something else to wear
instead. Not that I had any money to pay with.
Before I could chance it, a hand clamped down on my arm. I let out a small squeak and pulled away, thinking the guards had found me. A hand wrapped around my mouth, cutting off my cries of alarm, and then next thing I knew, I was being pulled into a nearby shop.
The door shut behind us as I bit down on the hand over my mouth and jerked my arm hard enough that I felt something on the inside strain to the point of pain. Through my large skirt, I tried to kick at my assailant but couldn’t get much of hit in through all the fabric.
“Calm down, human,” a masculine voice with a rolling timber demanded.
I spun around, pulling my skirt up in preparation to kick the male in his most sensitive parts. A handsome dark-haired man with piercing green eyes backed away from me with his hands up. Tall and muscular, his sleeveless shirt stretched across his chest and a band with numbers and dashes wrapped around his arm. Deep brown pants covered his legs and calf-high boots tapped on the floor, clearly waiting for me to stop gawking at him.
“Who are you?” I placed my hands on my hips and hoped to sound commanding. “You cannot just abduct someone off the streets.”
“I’d hardly call it an abduction.” The man rolled his eyes and moved further into the shop. “More like a rescue from yourself. You were seconds away from being caught by the royal guard.”
“That still does not give you the right to manhandle me in such a manner, sir.” I waved a finger at him, my eyes taking in the surrounding room.
The shop I’d been dragged into belonged to a seamstress. A dais in front of several mirrors stood to one side along with several clothing racks. My abductor walked to a door in the back of the store and yelled, “Carban, she’s here.”
“You planned this?” I followed after him, my brow furrowed in confusion. “How did you even know I was coming?”
The person named Carban came barreling out of the back before the other one could answer. Glancing between the two of them, I realized they were twins. Not just any twins but the mouthwatering, please rescue me from myself kind of twins. The only difference between them was that Carban wore a jacket over his shirt, but he was no less attractive or in shape as his brother.
When the new set of green eyes settled on me, I clipped my mouth shut and forced my eyes to meet theirs.
“This is her?” Carban frowned and then looked at his twin. “Are you sure, Coby?” He glanced up and down my form, clearly finding me lacking.
“Of course, I am,” Coby argued, waving a hand at me. “It’s not hard to pick her out of a crowd. Blonde hair, blue eyes, a general lack of knowing what the hell is going on.”
“I beg your pardon,” I interjected.
Coby pushed past me and stopped at the counter where he began unwinding some lace. Only half paying me any mind, he picked up a blue corset and examined its ties. “You're the Alice, correct?”
It took me a moment to realize he was directing the question to me. “Yes, I'm Alice, but how did you know that?”
“Easy,” Carban said as he moved to his brother’s side and began looping lace through the corset. “The seer, Manciple, told us,” he said as if I should know who he was talking about.
“No, not Manciple. It’s Francis now, remember?” Coby reminded his brother, bumping him with his elbow. “And don't be saying their names.” He clucked his tongue and picked up a pair of scissors to cut into some pale blue fabric on the table, except instead of cutting, the scissors fused the fabric to the other cloth beside it.
I found myself moving closer to them, intrigued by their work. They worked in sync as if they knew what the other person needed without having to say it. Their mouths were talking about something else entirely.
“Do not gripe at me about saying their names when you just did,” Carban began.
“I did not,” Coby snipped, holding the dress he’d been making up to examine it before continuing to use the scissors on it. “And you know how fucking stupid I find this whole no name bit.”
“Excuse me.” I huffed, crossing my arms over my chest. “I'm a lady. You shouldn't say such words in front of me.”
“Which words?” Carban asked, a coy grin on his face as he paused in his lacing. “There were plenty of words just said. You have to be more specific.”
A snort came from Coby. “Oh, Carban, she means the fucking word.”
Carban arched a brow at me, coming around the table to face me. “Is it the word fucking itself or the act of fucking?” He tipped my chin up, his eyes darkening as he spoke. “Because anyone who doesn't like fucking hasn't ever been fucked by us.”
I gaped, my breath caught in my chest. I couldn’t decide if I was offended or aroused by their words. No one has ever spoken to me that way before. Certainly not Lewis.
“Come on now, take your dress off. We haven't got all day.” Carban gestured a hand toward me as he removed his jacket, revealing a sleeveless shirt that matched his brothers.
My eyes grew to saucer size at his command. “I'm not having sex with you.” My words came out a stutter and were only weakly filled with protest. I hated to admit how much the idea of these two gorgeous men fucking me actually appealed to me. Far more scandalous than anything I'd have ever dreamed up.
Carban and Coby exchanged a look, and then Coby replied, “That wasn't what we had in mind at all.”
“We need to fit you for your dress,” Carban licked his lips, his eyes trailing up and down, my form heating every inch of me with his gaze, “but we could always fuck afterward.”
Coby whipped the dress they had been working on off the counter and grinned. “Quite, quite. That's if the dressing is right.”
I CLOSED THE BATHROOM door with a snap, my arms full of the dress the twins had made for me. How they even knew I’d been coming was still a bit fuzzy to me, but since it was a dream, I hardly thought it implausible. It certainly made the fact that the dress was exactly the size I needed all the more palatable.
Dropping the dress onto the top of the sink counter, I took a moment to appraise their plumbing. It was far superior to many of the ones in the homes I’d been too. It even beat Lewis’s bathroom which was fitted with the most up-to-date toilets around. I wondered if they had hot water in their baths, as well, or one of those fancy showers?
A knock on the door followed by Carban’s voice jerked me out of my thoughts. “Do you need a hand? I have two that are more than willing to help.”
“No, I’m fine,” I called back, staring hard at the door. I half thought he might ignore my words and come barging in anyway, but when the handle didn’t turn, I sagged.
Once I was sure no one would be coming to ‘give me a hand,’ I reached to the back of my dress and came to my first obstacle. The buttons. If this had been any of my regular dresses, I would have easily been able to take it off within moments. However, wedding dresses weren’t meant to be put on or taken off by yourself. After a few moments struggling to get the buttons undone, I collapsed in defeat.
Sitting on the floor, I contemplated the likelihood the twins would help me without taking advantage. I didn’t want to keep wearing what had become of my wedding dress, but did that outweigh the possibilities of being at their mercy?
For a moment, my mind wandered to what it would be like to be kissed by either of the twins. My face heated, and I smiled to myself at the thought. My skin prickled with anticipation of how they would feel pressed against me, their muscles bunching beneath my hands. An aching sensation starting from the inside and settling in between my thighs confused me.
I might be innocent in many ways, but I still knew what happened between a man and a woman. I also knew despite my mother’s words of “Lie back and think of England,” the mentality that relations between a man and woman could be quite enjoyable. Otherwise, my sister Rhoda wouldn’t sneak out to spend so much time with the butcher’s older son.
She’d leave in the dead of night and come back with her hair mussed and her cheeks flushed. I c
onvinced her to tell me about her escapades with her lover, and while she kept the details pretty vague, I still was able to conclude that sexual relations might not be as horrible as my mother made them out to be.
Since I couldn’t get my clothes off, I worked on my shoes and stockings. My shoes weren’t practical by any means, but they were better than nothing. I sat the short-heeled shoes to the side and dragged my stockings down my legs, wincing as the material caught on the wound.
“Well, those don’t look good at all.”
My head jerked up to see Carban and Coby standing in the doorway. When had they opened the door? Ignoring his words, I hurried to cover my legs back up and forced a glare on my face.
“Do you mind?”
Coby smirked and knelt beside me. “Not at all. Carban, get the healing paste out of the cabinet up there.” He pointed behind me where my clothing sat on the counter.
Carban moved to do so, but I didn’t take my eyes off Coby who had taken hold of the bottom of my skirt. His eyes met mine, asking for silent permission, and I gave a cautious nod. My heart pounded in my chest, growing faster for each inch of flesh that appeared for their electric gaze.
Tutting as he shook his head, Coby drew my skirt up to mid-thigh and folded it over before going any further. The leg of my drawers was pushed up with it to reveal the extent of my injuries. The cuts were much worse than I had initially thought, and the longer I looked at them, the more they hurt.
“If I’m dreaming, I shouldn’t feel pain, right?” I wondered out loud.
That gained a curious look from the twins. “Dreaming or not, these need to be cleaned or risk infection.” Coby took the jar filled with a shiny white substance from Carban. Opening the top, a nice floral scent filled the air. “We can’t have you dying on us before you can do what you came to do.”