He was head of the Hatter Family. He could just send a servant to the library to fetch a book, and then send the servant back to return it. So Alice figured he had other reasons for coming.
Still, his attitude and behavior baffled her. Even if the Blood in the other countries had liked her, she knew, all self-deprecation aside, that Diamonds Blood saw her as a friend at best.
“……”
Maybe there was some good to being in Diamonds, after all. She’d stopped constantly wishing she was back in the Country of Hearts.
I can never…make up my mind. Do I even want to go back now?
The memory of Blood in the other countries remained vivid in the back of her mind. He’d invited her to the tiny rose garden in so many night periods. He’d always pushed her to leave the castle and move in with him.
It had probably just been lip service at the time, but that had been his version of courtesy. After all, no member of the Mafia, let alone a boss, would be so welcoming of someone who was nothing more than an Outsider.
But Alice had always refused. She’d never felt that the Hatter Mansion was “her place” in the world, so she always answered the same way.
She watched the profile of the man reading a book nearby. Even if she’d accepted the invitation of the old Blood, that would have meant living with the old Blood. Not this Blood.
What kind of relationship did she want with this Blood? She pursed her lips and turned back to her bookshelves.
She lost her train of thought when she suddenly noticed the mess before her. She groaned aloud. “Not again.”
“Is something wrong?” Blood asked.
“I had this whole shelf perfectly arranged two time periods ago. But someone already messed it up!”
Blood walked up behind Alice and peered over her shoulder. She tried not to be self-conscious at the warm presence looming over her.
She swallowed and pointed toward a book’s spine. “See?” she asked. “This shelf’s supposed to be for books on construction materials. So what the heck is this?” She plucked the offending book from the shelf and furrowed her brow at the large image of a castle stamped on the red leather binding. “I guess the maid only looked at the cover when she put it away—”
“Wait,” Blood interjected. “I was just wondering where I put that. It was there?” To Alice’s surprise, a small, nostalgic smile flitted across Blood’s face.
She blinked at him. “This book is yours?”
“Yes. I own it—not the Family. I assume the maid accidentally added it to her stack when she was collecting reference books to return. I guess she stuck it here… Oh. That book over there is mine, too.”
His gloved hands gestured toward a bookshelf. About half the books were lined up on the shelf, but in seemingly random order. Alice’s eye twitched.
Her hand automatically went to pull the new book he pointed at, but then she stopped herself. “Wait. You mean this one?”
It had a familiar title; she even remembered the author’s name. She opened the cover and looked at a number of pages.
She did know this one. She’d borrowed this very same book in the Country of Clover from Blood.
“What’s wrong with it?” he asked.
“Nothing,” she answered quickly. “Uh…yeah. Do you want me to have your books delivered to your room?” She’d been to his bedroom in the other countries plenty of times and knew he had massive bookshelves in there.
Blood shot her a dubious expression, but it quickly vanished from his face. “Sure. You can bring them to my room later.”
“Uh… You want me to bring them?” She hadn’t been in his Diamonds room yet; she wasn’t sure she was allowed there. “Are you sure?”
He raised an eyebrow. “Yes, I’m sure.”
Alice opened her mouth, then closed it. “Okay, then.”
And with that, he turned to leave. “I imagine the maid will be back soon,” he called over his shoulder. “Bring those books I ordered with you when you deliver mine.”
Alice once again asked if he was sure, and Blood waved a confirming hand as he exited the room. No more than a few moments later, the maid returned through a different door.
“Sorry for the wait~!”
Alice took a long breath. She carefully finished collecting her research material, tucked it in a file, and piled it with Blood’s books. She clutched everything to her chest and stepped into the hallway.
This Hatter Mansion had the same general layout as in Hearts and Clover; she walked the familiar corridors, enduring wary gazes from the Diamonds mobsters. But none of them stopped her beeline for Blood’s room.
Two guards stood at the door. She cleared her throat.
“Blood asked me to deliver these… Can I come in?”
“Of course~. Step right in~.”
Alice’s hands were full, but one of the Family mobsters opened the door for her. He waved her in.
“……”
The room hadn’t changed much between countries; she felt a rush of feelings well up in her heart. Nostalgia, relief…even a little discomfort.
An uncharacteristically big mess of papers and books covered his desk, in front of a wall of bookshelves stuffed with tomes stacked sideways or perched precariously. She didn’t smell the familiar, soothing scent of roses and hot tea.
Now she saw why the disorganized reference library hadn’t really fazed him. He was a bit of a mess. Blood shuffled through papers at the desk and glanced up as she stepped in.
“That was quicker than I thought,” he murmured. “I’m glad you’re so dedicated.”
“Well, I don’t have much to do other than my job.” She gestured to her books. “Where should I put the reference stuff?”
“On the table over there is fine.”
He pointed his pen at a coffee table between two couches used for meetings. Alice placed the folder on the edge of the table and held up his personal books.
“And where should I put these?”
“Wherever. Up to you.”
“……”
Is he busy? I expected him to have more opinions.
She headed to the messy bookshelf. Since most people organized their bookshelves by author or genre or something, she assumed he had a system. She wouldn’t let the chaos of the reference library spread to his personal space…especially since this was a much smaller job.
She slid the first book onto the shelf in its apparent space, righting and correcting the books around it. Then she moved around to place the others.
“Um… This would be landscaping, and this is…”
Alice moved left and right across the bookshelves that lined the walls. As she tucked the final book—a detective novel—into its space, she puffed out a sigh and tilted her eyes up.
The shelf right above eyeline held a full row of children’s books. While she scanned the titles, her hands slowly dropped to her sides.
She recognized a series of five books in the corner bookshelf. But counting the volumes again, she found something puzzling.
“These books…”
Just like the book in the reference library, these were tomes that Blood had lent her in the Country of Clover. But in Alice’s memory, there were only three in the series. Alice had assumed Diamonds was a country stuck in the past, even if it wasn’t a completely perfect version of the past…so the two extra spines confused her.
“Is there something about those books that interests you?” Blood asked from behind her.
“I…guess you could say that.”
“Then take them.”
“Really?”
“Yes.” She heard his papers shuffling as his voice took on a hint of disgust. “No one loves reading more than I do, but I’m all tied up with the Survey Meeting right now.”
Alice brightened. “Thanks! Do you mind if I borrow all five books?”
“Go ahead.”
As Alice pulled the series from the shelf, she double-checked the titles and authors against what she remembered. Yeah, this is it.
She hugged the books to her chest, slightly irritated. She’d be leaving with as many books as she’d come with.
When she turned back to him, he was still buried in some document. “From what I hear,” he murmured, “you hardly ever leave the mansion. Would you be interested in some entertainment?”
“Well, it isn’t so much that I don’t leave, but that it’s hard to leave… Oh. Yeah, I would.”
Was he teasing her? Still, she instinctively slid one hand into her pocket to run her fingers over Jericho’s ticket. She figured that if any of the servants found it, she’d come under even more suspicion, so she always kept it on her.
She’d made a promise never to leave the mansion without Blood’s permission, but since she didn’t intend to run or spill the place’s secrets, she was getting a little sick of being suspected for no reason. She didn’t get to talk to Blood in private much, so she figured she’d take a chance. She cleared her throat.
“Say, Blood…the next time I have a day off, would you mind if I went to the art museum?”
“Hn. The art museum…?”
Maybe he didn’t expect the question, but he looked up from his documents with a wicked smile on his face. The nib of his pen tapped the paper over and over.
“You’ve already seduced the Gravekeeper?” he drawled. “Rumor has it that everyone loves an Outsider, but I think you also have a knack for using your charms.” Tap tap went the pen. “I can’t say I approve of your tastes, though. He’s already a dead man.”
Alice blinked. “A dead man?” she repeated, her stomach tightening in discomfort.
Blood leaned back in his chair. “If you really want to go, I won’t stop you. But if you manage to romance any good information out of the Gravekeeper, pass it on to your boss, will you?”
Alice furrowed her brow. “Please don’t make assumptions like that. And…I should get back to work.”
She didn’t like his answer, but it did seem like permission. I’ll take it, she thought.
Alice turned and left the room. Blood said nothing as the door shut behind her.