Chapter 14.

Sarah arose before her friends, looked out at the lovely day dawning and took the opportunity to have the first shower of the day. Knowing the other two would sleep on for at least an hour, she would not be rushed. When she exited the bath, fully dressed and ready to face the day she was not surprised to find her friends still asleep. "Wake up you two," she said in much too chipper a tone. "Time's awaistin'!" Lizzie opened one eye and grumbled something under her breath, questioning Sarah legitimacy. Kristy was not much better, she flung a pillow blinding at Sarah, which Sarah easily deflected. "Come on!"

Lizzie sat upright, and glared at her, "What's the hurry," she asked.

Sarah cleared her throat and reminded them that Beau had promised to take them out to Lake Pontchartrain for the day. Lizzie nodded, remembering and wondering why it was she was so groggy. "Fine, fine, I'm up…I'm up."

Kristy was now lying on her back and staring up at the canopy. "I'm awake," she grumbled.

"This southern air is really doing a job on you two," Sarah quipped as she ducked another round of pillows coming her way.

--

Hattie was going over her morning paper when the girls joined her, "Good morning my darlings," she greeted them.

"Good morning," Sarah was the only one to answer in good spirits, and wide awake.

Lizzie mumbled good morning as did Kristy, and Hattie chuckled. "Well you two need to have some coffee," she signaled the servant to bring in the brew. "Beau," she looked at her son as he too entered the morning room. "Did you sleep well, bejou?"

"Very," he admitted taking his place. "I look forward to today's outing."

"Ah yes, the lake," Hattie said happily. "I believe I'll join you if you don't mind."

"Always a pleasure, Maman," Beau toasted her with his morning juice. "I shall be the envy of the entire parish!" He teased the matron gently, as only a son could. "And will you be getting out some outrageously vixens' outfit for this evening as well?"

"No," his mother teased back, "I thought I'd go like Lady Godiva."

Kristy woke up and gasped, "Hattie!" Both mother and son snickered at the girl. "Oh you two," she grumbled but smiled. "Alright you got me!"

"Tina-Bell you should know by now that Maman is not about to do anything so mundane," Beau teased. "She's got a much more twisted sense of humor." He blew a kiss to his mother. He looked slyly at Sarah, "Ever been to a yacht club, bebe?"

"No," Sarah admitted without hesitation. "Is it something that I should worry about?"

"No, not at all," Hattie said before Beau could play games with the girl. "What you're wearing is fine, all the young people dress very casually these days." She tapped her nails on the table, "Besides, Beau is taking us out on the yacht…."

"A yacht," Lizzie turned to look at him.

"The only way to get to where we're going today is by water, and I felt the yacht was more comfortable than a bayou airboat, not to mention far more stylish!" Beau teased.

Sarah wondered if she should speak up and say an airboat would be fine with her. She was enjoying the banter at the table.

"An airboat indeed," Hattie grouched. "You should see what you look like after a ride with this one, no" she shook her head, "A yacht is much safer."

--

On the pediment over the breakfast room window, Jingle turned to her companion, "The yacht club, eh?" She nodded, "I need to report this to the King, you keep a watchful eye on them while they eat, and I'll be back before they leave."

"How," asked the sprite, "The plantation is more than twenty minutes away from here," she complained. "They'll be gone before you get to your King!"

"I'm taking a short cut," Jingle whispered with a wink and then shimmied down the building before anyone could even notice. She knew the sprite was watching, no sooner did she slip through the bars of the fence she entered a portal the king had put at her disposal.

--

Jareth was reading the Times-Picayune, and sipping his after breakfast coffee while Artemis treated himself to a third pastry. "I shall have to go on a diet when we return," he quipped. "But by jingo the food here is delightfully sinful!"

Keeping his eyes on the story and not his Scholar, Jareth nodded, "My cook here is exceptional."

Artemis noticed a visual disturbance near the bayou, "Sire, are you expecting someone?" Wiping the crumbs from his lips he stood up. "That looks like Jingle coming this way."

Jareth laid the paper aside and awaited his spy, "Good morning Jingle girl," he greeted her. "You have something to report?"

"They are going to the Yacht club," she stated as she curtseyed to the king. "And then the peacock said something about showing them around the lake."

"Very good," he praised his spy.

"Blah!" a jeer came from the goblins gathered at the edge of the veranda. Squee sauntered up, dressed again in the now tattered Mardi Gras costume. "Anyone could have found that out."

"Without destroying the grounds of the Mansion," Jingle shot back bitterly. She softened her expression when she looked back at the King. "I made a connection with one of the sprites in the Lady's garden. Her name is Polygala, and she…she's a bit of a misfit, but sympathetic to our cause."

"Is she," Jareth seemed a bit disapproving.

"In fact she's asked for…" Jingle sought to find a word to convey the little sprite's plea. "Sanctuary."

Both Jareth and his Scholar, stunned were staring at the little female goblin with honest eyes. The other goblins, not sure they understood the word began to make fun of Jingle. "Stankuary?" Squee laughed louder than the rest. "I've got a one way ticket to the bog for her!"

Jingle, downcast and embarrassed lowered her head. It was only the king's light touch that raised her face to his. "Sanctuary," he questioned softly, she nodded and looked very sad. Jareth whispered, "She's unwanted?"

"They look down upon her," Jingle fidgeted. "She's not like the rest of them… she's… pale, not green…"

Jareth drew the compassionate kindhearted Jingle closer, "Tell your friend she is welcome in our kingdom when this has ended."

The rest of the goblins, upon hearing the King's declaration stopped laughing and cutting up. Squee narrowed bitter and jealous eyes toward the goblin who he took pleasure in taunting. "Why should her friend get to come?" For a moment he forgot he was speaking to the King. "Why does she get to watch the girl? We can watch~" he stomped his foot.

"She can do it without detection," Jareth stated. "Can you?"

Squee sniffled, pouted and screwed up his face, "I don't see that as much of a plus."

"You like creating strife," commented the king with dead calm. "Jingle has her uses, as do you."

"I'm better," Squee stated cockily. "I'm scarier, and better."

Jingle stared with wide eyes at her fellow goblin, when the King tightened his fingers on her shoulder she knew he wanted her to remain silent. She locked her lips, knowing Squee was sinking his own ship.

"I'm prettier too!" The goblin in the gaudy costume ran off the porch toward the bayou.

"He's going to try and ride another gator," Jingle lamented.

"He's going to get eaten one of these days," warned Artemis.

"If I was not worried about what that would do to the poor gators," Jareth stated coolly, "I'd allow it to happen. It might teach that idiot a well deserved lesson."

"A snake bite didn't," Jingle reminded the King lightly. "How's the snake doing?"

"We had to send it to a snake doctor," Artemis quipped with a snicker. "Poor thing is suffering with indigestion…"

Jareth listened to the banter with a raised brow, "Jingle, how long have you worked at the castle?"

"Long enough to know that Squee is a braggart;" She crossed her arms lightly. "Why are you thinking of replacing me?"

"Not at all," Jareth leaned back and smiled at her, it was a cold serious smile, "In fact little girl, I'm thinking of promoting you."

Once more the brow went up on the goblin girl, "Are you," she questioned just as seriously as the king, forgetting to pretend to be as foolish as Squee. "I don't think that wise, Sire. Squee would never get over it."

"He'll think you got demoted," Jareth assured the gentle goblin. "Besides, there are few enough goblins with your kind of~ wit."

"Wit," she repeated.

"It takes cunning to pretend to be as irrational as Squee and his followers," Jareth praised gently. "And to have lasted this long without detection… that's resourcefulness that can better serve me out of his ranks." He smiled at the confused goblin. "I've an opening in the ranks of the shadow-walkers. Would you be interested?"

"Shadow-walker," Jingle gulped and tried to stay calm. "Only Hobs are recruited…" her lower lip trembled. "Would I no longer serve in the castle," she was seeing tribulations with this elevation. "I like living in the castle, and serving you directly…" she fought the urge to cry like the babies that they were often accused of stealing. "No, I'll have to decline."

"Jingle girl," Jareth admonished more gently than he'd ever spoken to a goblin before. "Do you really think I'd allow you to be stationed anywhere but close to me? No, I'm offering you a new position, one none of your kind has ever served in before. You will however be the personal shadow-walker of the king."

Hearing the loud ruckus at the bayou Jingle cringed and looked over her shoulder, "I won't take it if it upsets Squee… he's my friend… not a great one, but my friend."

"I'll make it so he's not upset," Jareth promised, "Now be a good goblin and go back to watching Sarah. Stay with her," he urged.

"Unusual little creature," Artemis commented, "Such concern for her fellows."

"She comes from good stock," admitted Jareth recalling others in the Norwood line, all of whom had higher intelligence and better control of their emotions than most goblins. He was thinking of checking out others in that family, and placing them in positions that would give him more ability to keep a handle on goblins like Squee without causing the little idiot to lose face. At that moment he heard more clatter from the bayou and a goblin scream, 'Squee! That's not the end you ride!' Jareth was not certain but he thought he also heard a gator making a rather rude noise. "Artemis, do you like to go sailing?" He stood up and motioned the Scholar to follow, quickly.

--

Sarah looked at the historic building that housed the Southern Yacht Club. It was unmistakably southern in the design and the feel… something that seemed from a gentler age, a bit out of step with the modern world. Hattie dressed in a white nautical top and navy colored slacks placed a straw hat on her head as she alighted from the limo which she'd insisted they use. Sarah took a few steps toward the boardwalk and paused. Hattie came up behind her, "It's very lovely, isn't it?"

"It's different," Sarah agreed. "I feel as if I walked into a time warp… I half expect to see Gipson girls exiting the building."

"Not far from the truth," Hattie hugged the visitor.

Beau was handing out the provisions that had been packed in the trunk of the limo. "Maman, we're going out for the day, not a month." He complained and looked over at Lizzie, "I'm surprised she didn't pack the kitchen sink!" Lizzie and Kristy, already grabbing the hampers and baskets that Hattie had insisted upon, were laughing uncontrollably at Beau's antics. He handed a light basket to his mother, and motioned Sarah to help him grab up the remaining ones. Laden down with the supplies, the group walked over the board walk and toward the marina.

"Before we leave," Hattie promised Sarah, "I'll take you on a tour of the clubhouse." Rolling his eyes, without words Beau gave his opinion of such a tour. Hattie hissed at him and snickered. She then greeted other's who were out for the day, as she headed toward the slip where Beau kept their yacht, the La Vie en Rose. "My Jolie had this built," Hattie said as they neared the lovely yacht. She pointed to the ship beside it, a yacht with a mast and sail, "That's Beau's baby, the Vagabond. He sails that when he's not entertaining his mama."

"I'm too long away from home of late to do any proper sailing," Beau complained as he helped the ladies to board the La Vie en Rose. "And the weather is too changeable at this time of year, much better to take out the pride of our fleet." Hattie once aboard took control of the supplies, and stored them in the galley. Beau waited until she came topside and took a seat, had strapped her hat down so it wouldn't go flying into the drink, before he gunned the engines. Each of the girls was seated as the attractive vessel moved out of the marina and out into the lake proper.

An hour out Beau slowed the speed of the yacht and began to allow it to just drift on the waves of the lake. "Ah now this is what I like," he pointed to other ships, some with sails others with motors, "A quiet day on the lake with locals." He grabbed his cousin's arm and told her something in her ear that made her giggle. She rushed off to return topside with a huge pitcher of some red concoction in one hand and a clear bag with tall plastic drinking cups in the other. "Hurricane any one," Beau drawled as she placed them on a table by Beau's mother.

"You had that all ready to go," accused Hattie, then warned the two northern girls, "Take it easy on these, they will knock your bloomers off."

"Sure," scoffed Lizzie before she began to sputter and cough uncontrollably.

Sarah, more suspicious with good reasons, sipped very lightly at first, "This is good," she said in astonishment and disbelief. She took a longer deeper drink, just as something moving in her peripheral vision caught her attention; a dark yacht was meandering out from a bayou. Something about the yacht sent shock waves through her. "Who's that," she asked moving toward the rail.

"That's Mr. Pommeroi," Hattie supplied the answer, she watched the girls reaction to the name, and when there was none she continued. "His yacht is called the Flying Dutchman."

"Wasn't that the ship in the legend that could not land?" Lizzie asked still sputtering.

"Actually there are several tales of the Dutchman…" Beau said watching the dark ship pass theirs at a snail's pace. "In one the arrogant captain kills his crew and is cursed by a sea hag…cursed to sail with a dead man crew, condemned to bring death to all who see his ship…"

"Another is that he did battle with the devil, and the devil cursed him to sail forever the spectral seas," Sarah's voice became faraway and wistful, "The demon left him one shred of hope for redemption… he could land once every seven years…and if he found a woman who would love him in spite of the truth of who and what he was…."

"That's a long shot," Lizzie said hoarsely from the coughing fit. "I mean what woman could love a specter?"

Sarah sipped the hurricane, her eyes following the slowly meandering dark yacht. "Mr. Pommeroi you said?" she asked Hattie.

"Yes," she too watched the ship move off. "He's from a very old family here… very powerful."

Sarah looked over her shoulder as Hattie took a seat, and Beau sat beside her. They were telling Kristy something and she was laughing. Lizzie laughed even though her throat was raw. Sarah looked once more toward the dark ship moving slowly away. Just as she was about to turn away a man in a light blue shirt came on deck. He leaned over the rail and looked at the water; his body language was very easy to read. He was forlorn and solitary. The sun gave the fair hair on his hair a halo effect and Sarah felt the breath catch in her throat. She'd only seen hair that shade once in her life. The figure on the other ship moved from the rail toward the bow of his ship, with his back to Sarah she could only see that he was one of the most striking men she'd ever seen. Fingers trembling she lifted the hurricane glass up to her lips and drained it.

"Bebe," Beau called to her, "Come we are going to have a fresco lunch and then explore one of the abandoned old plantations…" He looked at her empty glass compared to the others that were more than half filled. Standing up he moved toward her quickly in case she keeled over. "Sarah."

She shoved her glass out, "Got any more of this," she demanded.

"Sarah," Beau pleaded. "Go easy, these are not girly drinks."

"More," Sarah shook her glass at him, "More." The young man took her glass and she moved to the rail staring after the dark ship. "Sail on," she murmured. "Sail on…"

--

Artemis, already on the bow turned to see the King, and noticed lighter colored yacht behind them. "I say, who is that?" he asked gently. "That's a right fine ship…"

Jareth took a seat, a sly smile on his lips, "That is the La Vie en Rose; it belongs to Hattie…" the smile stayed as the king closed his eyes and let the sun shine upon his face.

Artemis frowned, "What did you do," he demanded harshly. "Did you torment that poor girl again?"

Jareth looked up at him, "Artemis, the two ships didn't even pass within two hundred feet of each other…. How could I torment her… I'm surprised at you." Jareth admonished before he closed his eyes again. He didn't think he'd ever forget the look on dear Sarah's face when he came out to the deck. 'You remember me,' he thought to himself.

Artemis shook his head, and went up to where the captain had his hands on the wheel that directed the ship. "How close were you to the La Vie en Rose," he asked.

"Too close," the pale figure stated. "He's playing a dangerous game, and I should know."

"Captain Falkenburg," Jareth's voice below them carried without him raising it. "I'll thank you not to discuss my business."

Both the Captain and the Scholar, warned, silently parted. Artemis returned to where Jareth was basking in the sun. "Sire," his voice was contrite. "I am a faithful servant to you and to your causes." Jareth opened an eye, "However I cannot sanction this… mindless… persecution of the girl…"

"I'm not tormenting her, I'm not persecuting her," Jareth stated, "I'm just reminding her…"

"Of what," demanded the Scholar once more forgetting his place, "Of how vindictive and cruel you can be?"

"Of me," Jareth whispered very quietly. "I'm just reminding her of me."

--

Hattie insisted on feeding everyone, and she firmly took the hurricane glass out of Sarah's hand, "You can have more of that poison later," she maintained. She instructed Lizzie and Kristy on which of the hampers to bring up. "I always pack enough for at least two meals when we go out," she told Sarah whom she put to work setting up the foldout table. "The fresh air and water always gives one a good appetite, no?"

Her mind taken off the strange man and the dark yacht, Sarah's mood lightened up. "I think you're right." She looked at the shoreline of the lake. "This place is so… mysterious…and haunting."

Hattie looked at the shoreline as well, "It has a dark history, this part of my New Orleans." She admitted softly. "There are things here that no one wants to know about."

"You mean like voodoo and black magic?" Sarah placed the cutlery out on the table along with the picnic plates that Hattie had brought with.

"That and other things," Hattie said with sadness, before she changed the subject. "The plantation that Beau has arranged for you girls to explore is very old… and I suppose it will be torn down or fall down in some big blow."

Sarah finished her task, "Aren't you going to explore it with us?"

Hattie place a hand under the girl's chin. "No, bebe, I'm not." She snorted lightly. "I prefer to sit here on the deck and bask." She waved Lizzie and Kristy over with their baskets. "For now, let us have a fine meal… and then you children can go exploring to your heart's content."

Beau poured glasses of iced tea for each of them, "And perhaps we'll end this day at Papa Thibodeaux's."

"Are they open again," questioned Kristy. "I heard they closed for a bit."

"Nothing keeps Papa Thibodeaux down," Hattie said with a strange gleam in her eye. "His place is full of music, food and drinks…It's a one of a kind Cajun night spot, something you should not miss," her eye wandered over to Sarah. "I think you'll find it interesting, Char."

"We can dance the night away," Kristy crowed as she took her place at the table. "Dance until we melt our socks!"

Lizzie raised her tea, and toasted, "To Papa Thibodeaux's and a night to remember!"