oOo
"Well. Isn't this…homey."
Titania put her hand on her husband's arm. "Oberon. You promised," she murmured.
The High King turned to his wife, blonde eyebrows lifted and leaf-green eyes wide with exaggerated innocence. "What? I was merely commenting on fact that our son has chosen to serve his first formal dinner to present his intended in his sleeping chamber." He turned and bowed toward Sarah. "No doubt due to your delicate condition, my dear." He turned back to his wife and added: "After all, if our son truly wanted to insult us he'd have seated us in that disgusting throne room of his."
Well. Things were off to a grand start, was Sarah's sour thought as Jareth pulled out her chair and seated her before moving smoothly around the table to perform the same service for his mother and then his sister. Lysira hadn't said a word since entering the room, but the look she flashed Sarah as she took her seat was best described as wryly sympathetic.
"Chef certainly sets a nice table," Titania said by way of a conversation starter.
"For a goblin," her husband added blandly, stabbing doubtfully at the meat on his plate. "What are we eating, exactly?"
Sarah's fists clenched beneath the table cloth, and she felt Jareth's warning finger tapping against one knuckle before he, too, picked up his fork and took up a mouthful of the meat du jour. It smelled fantastic, and Sarah couldn't see what anyone could possibly find wrong with any of the food set out before them. "I believe it's a roast, Father. Most likely wild boar, perhaps a bit too gamey for your more refined tastes, but Chef knows it to be one of my favorites," Jareth replied to his father's implied criticism in tones equally as bland as those the High King employed.
Sarah shoved a forkful of meat and potatoes into her mouth before she said something she'd likely regret. Whether she decided to stay in the Underground or not, it wouldn't due to have the High King of the Fae pissed off at her. Just because Jareth couldn't force her into anything didn't mean his father couldn't. "It's delicious," she said, addressing her comment to Jareth as she swallowed the first bite. "Chef's gone above and beyond. I'll be sure to tell him that later."
She was sure that was an approving glance Titania flashed her way, and Lysira was opening grinning behind her napkin as she patted delicately at the corners of her lips. "It is indeed," she agreed. "Such a piquant blend of spices in the gravy, and the potatoes are perfect."
Oberon continued to look doubtful, but he was still eating, not pushing his plate away or demanding something else, so Sarah considered that a win for Chef.
"That's a lovely gown you're wearing this evening," Titania put in with a smile. "That color suits you, my dear."
"Yes, obviously my son has excellent taste," Oberon observed, and Sarah felt her smile stiffening her cheeks. Was the entire dinner going to go this way, with veiled insults and left-handed compliments designed to put her in her mortal place?
Apparently so. Oberon continued: "He's always had excellent taste in both clothing and the women who wear them. You're certainly no exception this time around."
"Sarah is exceptional at any time," Jareth put in smoothly, cutting off the heated reply he obviously sensed Sarah was about to make to his father's nasty little observation. His knee nudged against hers and she nudged back, harder, but kept her mouth shut. "And I doubt she wants to hear about the women in my past." He emphasized the last two words as if to reassure Sarah that she was the only woman he was interested in at the moment.
"Yes, it would make for a rather lengthy conversation," Oberon mused, not at all put out at his son's attempt to redirect the conversation.
"And a boring one," Lysira added, sounding impatient. "Honestly, Father, can't you find some other way to torture us than that?" She turned to her mother. "How was the Hunt Ball? I missed it this year."
"You miss it every year." Oberon sounded annoyed, and Sarah flashed Lysira a grateful look for drawing her father's attention, at least for the moment. She dug into her meal, only half-listening as the High King berated his daughter for joining her brother in dodging her family responsibilities.
"Only the social ones," she corrected him with a hint of a smile on her otherwise grave features.
"More wine?" Jareth interrupted, raising the bottle in one hand and looking around the table. Sarah was drinking water, of course, although she'd read somewhere that a glass of wine now and then during pregnancy wasn't that big a deal. She, however, had no desire to touch the stuff, at least, not usually. Tonight, however, she suspected a stiff belt might help mellow her mood. It had been a relaxing day, and it was a shame it had to be followed by such a stressful night.
She brooded on the inequity of life while Jareth refilled his parents' wine glasses. Lysira declined more, and the conversation thankfully settled into inconsequentials for the rest of the meal.
"So, Sarah," Oberon addressed her after taking the last bite from his now empty plate. She looked over at him politely, but felt her back stiffen. "Congratulations on producing my son's first heir."
"I haven't produced him or her yet, your majesty," she replied, keeping her tone as polite as her smile. "I'm still in the process, so to speak."
"Yes, well, the point is that Jareth has finally fathered a child, even if it's with a mortal, when his mother and I had despaired of him ever doing so. Of course you'll come to our palace to have the babe, you can't possibly depend on goblins to help in childbirth, and clean as this chamber is, we all know my son's tastes run to the more rustic, shall we say. Certainly not an environment in which to raise a child, I'm sure you'll agree."
That did it. Sarah's blood was boiling, and she could no longer contain herself. "As a matter of fact, Your Majesty, I haven't made up my mind whether or not I'll be raising my child in the Underground at all. Or whether I'll even let Jareth be part of its life."
Sarah heard Jareth's slight hiss of indrawn breath, but she was tired of sitting there trading pleasantries with someone who obviously disliked her, disapproved of her, whatever. She wasn't going to just knuckle under to a bully, whether human or Fae, and King Oberon the High and Mighty was obviously a bully. He'd made up his mind about her before ever setting foot in the Goblin King's castle, and she wasn't going to put up with it a second longer. She was tired, even after sleeping the day away, her back ached, and all she wanted to do was sink into a nice, hot tub, crawl into bed, and go back to sleep.
"I see," Oberon responded after a shocked silence. "However, I don't believe you fully understand the situation…"
"Oh, I understand it, all right," Sarah broke in with an impatient twitch of her shoulder. Jareth's hand was there, tightening slightly as he tried to warn her without words to back off, but she wasn't having any of it. "I may not get the mechanics of being Elevated or whatever, and I guess I'd have to live with the idea of my child someday coming back here, but it's my choice, Jareth said so, and no one's going to bully me into staying if I don't want to." She sounded childish even to her own ears, but kept speaking: "If I do decide to stay, and I emphasize the 'if', it'll be because I made that decision, not because someone forced me into it." That was for Jareth as well as his father, and she could tell he got the hint; his hand dropped from her shoulder and his expression turned inscrutable as she faced him. "It's something Jareth and I still have to discuss. Together," she added, softening her tone. Because Jareth deserved to be part of the process, even if the ultimate choice was hers.
His eyes warmed and a smile hovered around the corners of his mouth; good. He got the message. As for his father…She turned back to face Oberon. "So if I end up staying, it'll be because I think it's best for the baby, and not because you've decided it's my duty to be a good little mortal and suck it up whether I like being here or not."
From the corner of her eyes Sarah could tell the others were gazing at Oberon as if judging his reaction to her outburst. It wasn't long in coming; he took a deep breath, then burst out laughing, pounding one hand on the table. "By the Elder Gods, Jareth, you've found a lass with fire in her! Excellent, excellent! My dear," he added, turning to face Sarah, "it's not everyone who's willing to stand up for herself when faced with the Fae, certainly not Fae royalty. Well done. Well done, indeed."
Sarah, who'd been bracing herself for a royal temper tantrum or threats or even spellcasting, could only sit and stare, lips parted in surprise. Titania looked nonplussed and Lysira and Jareth held twin expressions of disbelief on their aristocratic features. "Come, my lady wife, we have held this child back from her rest long enough," Oberon decreed, rising to his feet. "Let us return home. Lysira, join us. We have your own future to discuss now that your brother has taken the first step toward his own."
Sarah rose to her feet automatically with the others, allowing Jareth to escort her to the other side of the table so she could make her good-byes. Lysira pressed a kiss to her cheek and murmured: "You've done splendidly. I've never seen my father so taken with a mortal."
Titania shook her hand and gravely congratulated her on her pregnancy, pointedly not saying anything about the child's future. Oberon shocked Sarah again by bowing low over her hand, pressing it between his own before wishing her a good evening. Then he and the others were gone, leaving her and Jareth alone to process everything that had passed.
