Mad Hatter's Alice Read Online Free Page B

body over the side and depend on the ropes to keep her from falling. Fear clogged her throat and stole her breath until a warm hand grasped her cold fingers and squeezed. Turning her head, she found Wayne watching her closely.
    “Don’t worry. I’ll be next to you the entire way.” His words infused her with enough courage to nod.
    Fifteen minutes later her courage disappeared as Hopps appointed Susan to be the one to hold her emergency rope. If she lost her footing, then she would be depending on ninety pound Susan to stop her fall. The man had to be stark raving mad!
    “Relax, Alice. She’s just a back-up. These ropes are connected to trees and can hold substantial weight.” Andrew’s grin seemed too wide and his tone a tad bit too domineering. She fought the impulse to slap the patronizing smile right off his handsome face.
    “He’s right. You’ll be safe.” Beside her, Wayne’s calm reassured her until Andrew moved away and she was left to gaze down the jagged face of the rocks below. The ledge they were to land on was only twenty feet down. It might as well have been a mile as far as her shaking knees were concerned.
    “I can’t do this.” She heard the hysteria in her voice and cringed.
    “I knew it. She’s freezing. You might as well get her out of the harness. She’s too much of a coward.” Susan’s taunt did it. Shooting the bloody big head a scathing look, she got down on her rear and quickly maneuvered herself over the ledge. The gloves on her hands protected her fingers as she held on for dear life.
    “Alice, wait!”
    “Hey, we aren’t ready yet.” Hobbs’ words scared the crap out of her and her fingers slipped. She felt the wind blow past her face and whistle in her ears as someone screamed above her. She stopped for all of a minute to grasp haphazardly at the rocks, but then she was falling again. Squeezing her eyes closed tightly, she prepared for the pain at the end of her fall.
    ♦♦♦
    Her first thoughts when she opened her eyes and blinked were about the absence of the pain she expected and if she’d taken the bloody big head over the side with her. Surely if she’d landed on the skinny bitch, then those bones would have stabbed her, fatally killing her if the fall didn’t. A giggle exploded from her mouth as she focused on a wooden ceiling. Pushing herself to her knees, she realized her feet were lighter. Instead of the heavy boots, a pair of blue slippers covered her feet. She reached down to touch them and then blinked at the blue material on her thighs. A dress? Where had she found a dress in the Adirondack Mountains?
    Moving her hands and legs, she decided she’d gotten off easy without breaking anything. “Okay, where am I?” Looking around, she found herself in a tiny room with black and white tile floors. A tiny table against the wall held a single plate with what appeared to be a bottle and a tiny key. It was doll sized, but when she reached up, she realized she had to be giant sized. Her head almost touched the ceiling and her body took up most of the room. “Wait a minute. Kitty! Nice joke! Let me in on it!” Beside her a popping sound made her jump. When she turned, she found herself staring eye to eye with Andrew’s face absent his body. Big blue eyes blinked closed as she screamed loudly.
    “Ouch! That hurts my ears, you know.” Two pointed ears appeared and then a cat’s body materialized to surround Andrew’s hairy face. He grinned as she scooted as far away from him as the tiny room would allow. “That’s better.” He said flipping around in the air. “I’m Cheshire Cat and you are Alice. Welcome back.”
    “I’m not that Alice.” She stuttered. “Man, I hit my head hard when I landed.”
    “Oh, you’re Alice and I will take you to the Hare and the Hatter, but that’s the end of it. Now, be quick.” He angled his head toward the table.
    “What?”
    “Drink it.”
    “No.”
    “You must. This body is far too big to fit through the