Villainess of Hearts

Chapter Fifteen: Give Chase

There were quite a few things that Nicholas Hatter loved to do.

One of them was drinking tea with his good friends, and they always threw the best of tea parties. Then there was the pleasure of asking and making riddles—nobody really got the answers. He was still finding answers for them too. And among those things was his love of making hats. If that wasn't very obvious right now. He was in his very own Hatter's shop for goodness sake, and he was working on some orders that were recently placed.

The Gathering of the Suits was good for business.

He and the rest of the people in the Kingdom of Hearts would benefit from this and especially when some trade agreement occurs between the kingdoms. The King of Hearts would surely do a splendid job during the meeting and bring about more success to the Kingdom. Everybody had been happy when the King had arrived and he also did a very good job at quelling the Queen of Hearts at that.

Wait one moment, hadn't he had been talking about the things he loved?

Or had it been something else?

Well, it surely wasn't the Queen of Hearts. He shuddered at the memory and looked down and saw the hat he was working on. The clover emblem design that he had to follow was also placed neatly on the side of his table.

Now just a couple of moments ago, or perhaps it had actually been awhile. Nicholas Hatter was always in bad terms with time. It always felt like it was the 18:00 hour for some reason. Moving on, there had been a representative from Clover Kingdom that just came and bought himself a hat and had also placed bulked orders.

Wait, he finally remembered!

Tea, Riddles and Hats weren't everything that he loved.

There was another thing that he enjoyed too.

He loved singing.

While working with hats and making his trade, he would often hum as he did now. And mind you, he was actually a great singer. He was a man of many talents. Some time ago, he had even been summoned to the Castle of Hearts to present to the King and Queen—the door's wind chimes sounded the arrival of a new person.

"Ah welcome to the Mad Hatter's shop~!"

He looked up and saw... The Queen of Hearts.

Nicholas Hatter dropped his craftsman tools. His hand would have been crushed hard by the brim tolliker if he hadn't been paying attention. What was she doing here?!

"Is this really the right shop?" The Queen of Hearts was clad in her usual red gown and was perusing his shop. Their eyes weren't on him and were instead on the available display of hats. "Hmm... they're actually fine workmanship." She was muttering to herself and even reached for one of the fascinators!

Nicholas Hatter wondered if he had gone mad.

Or madder than usual.

His hands dropped toward the bottom board, he wondered how much it would hurt if he threw the wood at the Queen of Hearts. She looked like she was alone, but who knew if her Knight was just around the corner with his sword waiting for his head.

He glanced behind him and began to make his slow steps backwards.

Hoping as hard as he could that the Queen would remain entranced with his hat.

Her blood-red eyes finally looked up and met his, "Ah, are you the Hatter? It's a pleasure to meet you, I'm—"

. . .

The Hatter made a breakneck speed towards the back door.

He flung it open and made his grand escape.

Rosalyn Lockhart blinked for a moment. Before a scowl would come across her entire features. She raised a hand to her forehead and dropped the fascinator and then chased after him. "Where are you going!" She grabbed her gown's edges and followed after the Hatter. "Do you not know who I am?!"

If only she had known—that was the exact reason he was running away.

He had escaped through one of the alleys in the town's square, the Hatter expertly navigated around the shops and the crowds of people. She would stop, push and did her best not to lose him out of her sight. Why was he even running? She hadn't even done anything yet!

It was only after a little while after while she was pursuing him did she remember. "You were the one at the castle!" She cried out. The Hatter ran even faster after that.

It was a silly, or perhaps a mad sight—a Queen hunting down after a Hatter all by herself.

But Rosalyn Lockhart was a determined young woman.

And she would not stop at anything to capture the man and make him her first friend. "Wait! I need to talk with you! Stop unless you want me to order your head cut off!"

The Hatter didn't slow down at all.

Perhaps that hadn't been the best choice of words.

Gritting her teeth, wondering about the choice of her footwear and overall her attire—the Queen of Hearts did not step down and continued forward.

.

.

.

They had been given strict orders and now was the perfect time to put their plan into action. It had been overwhelming news when they had heard that the Queen of Hearts had left the castle and at her own accord at that. The first few attempts had gone badly with both the chandelier fiasco and the snake attempt in the garden.

The Queen of Hearts had a loyal Knight at her side.

It was an ill-plan to try and separate the two of them and even more insane to try and battle the Knight themselves.

But this time?

They would get the job done.

One of their men finally saw her rush out of the Hatter's shop. She seemed to be in pursuit of the Hatter for some reason? It didn't matter to them. And it was there that they began to chase after the Queen of Hearts themselves.