For almost a year after that fateful night, Hatter continues to hope.
The King has fallen into an enchanted sleep, from which nothing seems able to wake him. A new Queen, blood staining the hem of her robes, has taken his place on Wonderland's throne. And the prince and princess are missing.
Missing, not dead. He clings to that as Queen Marcella begins her sweeping purge of the old king's most loyal servants, as one by one those who might have opposed her are turned to her side or forced into hiding. He holds it tight to his chest while the former Red Bishop - his friend, his mentor, the Resistance's hope - is paraded before the court, spouting nonsense, reduced to gaping, stumbling idiocy.
Lionel is not dead, cannot be dead. A world in which Lionel is dead is not a world Hatter can bear to live in. And so, he hopes.