Everless nods.

"When you put it like that, it does appear to be a rather unfeasible number of coincidences," she agrees.

"Even if Marcella is Heartless, though, it does not necessarily follow that she is innocent. She may have given up her heart willingly if, as your theory suggests, it is related to her acquisition of the power to take the hearts of others."

Audrey sighs. 

"Desperate people..." 

She shakes her head. 

"Marcella has a lot to answer for, I agree. But I'm starting to wonder... What drove her to it? Why try to assassinate Sophia and Lionel? Did she just want power for power's sake, was that all there was to it?"

"That, unfortunately, is a question I cannot answer," Everless says. 

She looks at Faramund, who shakes his head, clearly equally at a loss.

"Maybe..." Jabberwock starts, then falls silent.

Something about the unfinished thought seems to be deeply unsettling to the small bird, who shivers and hops closer to Audrey.

Audrey brushes some of her hair out of the way to give Jabberwock their perch back if they want it. 

This appears to be the case; Audrey now has a bird on her shoulder again.

This seems to be enough of a confidence boost that Jabberwock can finish the thought: "I...hurt people be-cause, because I was scared. Maybe she is, was, the same?" 

"Maybe so. Maybe not. We don't know enough to be sure."

"Well," Faramund puts in.

"I may not know as much as you would like, but I do know one thing."

He pauses for effect.

"It is time," he enunciates, "to eat."

Audrey smiles.

"If Hatter would be so kind as to host us, I'd love to."

Right on cue, Hatter pokes his head into the room from the kitchen. 

"I needn't have bothered setting a timer," he jokes. "Not with His Majesty's finely-tuned nose around."

With an elaborate bow, he confirms, "Dinner is served."

Audrey turns towards the kitchen. "Well then, let's eat!"

And so they do. Hatter has even set out a plate of specially-prepared food for Jabberwock, as the jaybird is too small to trivially eat the same things as the rest of them, the way Everless does.

Throughout the meal, Hatter seems distant, lost in private thought. He remains a perfectly gracious and accommodating host, but seems to do so with only half of his mind. Fortunately, no accidents result from his distraction. 

Audrey also mostly focuses on food. Food is good, it's important that she eat food.

The Jabberwock eats rather messily, being unaccustomed to eating in this shape. However, like Audrey, they seem far more concerned with the food than with the consequences, not pausing to tidy up the crumbs until the plate is almost empty. 

All of the food is devoured, leaving Jabberwock with a noticeably distended stomach. They chirp happily. 

Audrey smiles. "Proper food's a lot better, isn't it? I don't know what you were surviving on before, but I doubt it was anything very complex."

Happy chirping that sounds vaguely agreement-y. Snuggling down in a poof of feathers to - sleep?

... Jabberwock did get the lecture about taking pairs of bites, right, should she be worrying?

Jabberwock, being a native Wonderlander, is presumably aware of the properties of Wonderland food. 

No-one else looks worried. In fact, Hatter is now openly smiling at the little bird, looking rather charmed. 

"That's kind of cute," he whispers so as not to wake Jabberwock. 

Audrey nods, and smiles at the little fluffball.

Moving carefully so as not to wake the sleeping bird, Hatter clears away the dishes, with some help from Everless.

Faramund rises ponderously from his seat and heads back through to the sitting room, also moving with surprising stealth for someone of his size. 

Audrey takes a notepad out of her dress, and writes a little note for Jabberwock: "You fell asleep and were too cute to disturb, if I'm not here when you wake up talk to Hatter, but I'll try very hard to be here."

Then she sneaks out of the room as well. 

Jabberwock sleeps on.

"Are you sure it can read?" Everless whispers as she lands on the back of a chair next to Audrey. 

Audrey shakes her head, and looks around at the various foodstuffs. Picking out one or two things that won't spoil, she leaves them next to the note. 

They go through to the sitting-room, where Faramund has reclaimed his armchair. Everless perches on the back of Hatter's chair, in a spot that looks well-worn and is covered in claw-marks from her talons. 

"Do you have any more questions that we might answer, before we begin planning in earnest?" she asks. 

Audrey shrugs. "One or two. In your honest opinion, what was the Red Queen like?"