Sarah caught the morose expressions of her father and Howl and decided promptly that she'd had quite enough of that. If fate was going to ever upend her in situations beyond her control then she would have fun with those she could. She plumped herself down between Karen and Sophie.
"So!' she said brightly as Jareth almost nervously lounged at the kitchen door, "where and when are we having the wedding and who shall we invite?"
Robert turned around and gave Jareth an almost constipated look of gratitude and dismay.
"Sir," Jareth said calmly, "shall we allow the ladies to settle their delights and retire to more formal discussions?"
"Ah, yes," Robert said and stood.
"We'll need your witness Wizard," Jareth said to Howl as he conjured a crystal.
"You know, every time I convince myself that this is something I can get my head around you do something like that," Robert eyed the bauble.
"Do they fascinate you?" Jareth purred. "I could show you your dreams -"
"Jareth!" Sarah said warningly.
"Or not," he said easily with a cheeky smile in her direction.
"Howl, make sure he behaves, and if I hear one whisper of an Oubliette or the Bog, Jareth, your throne is going to sprout thorns for a month!"
"Precious thing, you wound me," Jareth put a hand over his heart.
Sarah just laughed and waved them away.
Jareth held out the crystal between the three of them and in a swirl of glitter, they all vanished.
Karen gasped.
"What happened?"
"Jareth probably took them to the Labyrinth," Sarah reasoned.
"It is his tradition that he shows Robert that he can support Sarah," Sophie explained, "The castle is not modern by any means, but will certainly house several families ten times over."
"A castle?" Karen said dreamily. "Do you think we can have the wedding there?"
"It will depend who we invite," Sarah said. "The less people who know about the Labyrinth the better."
Karen gave her a cool stare.
"Indeed."
"Look, I said I'm sorry," Sarah said wretchedly.
"Sarah, I understand," Karen said calmly, "It does not mean I forget or forgive you just yet. As far as I understand of the magical side of life is that a misspoken word can land you in the worst danger. That you had to carry that as a teenager is unfortunate, and now years later, you're still dealing with the outworking of that. It is only because you have a King as a benefactor and a cousin who is a Wizard that it is as painless as it currently is. By all rights, you should be dead and my son a goblin. Now be thankful that I love your father and he loves you, you are still welcome in this house. We have a wedding to plan, do we not? What do you know of his traditions?"
"I am not sure tradition would serve us well here, either way." Sophie interrupted smoothly. Sarah was grateful, she bit her tongue on her waspish retort, now was not the time.
"What did you have in mind?" Karen asked, not noticing.
"We could have two ceremonies. One a quiet one before the necessary witnesses and close family. The second a state wedding as is required for a king. His Majesty, I am sure, would like to invite the King of Ingary just to rub it in his face that Sarah is his and not a pawn to be played in his war games."
"You have that right," Sarah groaned.
"That's settled," she said, pleased. "We have today, which is Friday, then Saturday and Sunday. Howl has to report to the palace on Monday."
"Saturday afternoon for the ceremony," Sarah decided with a sigh, "That way I can find a dress at least, and any necessary paperwork and the like can be done, today or Sunday."
"Will you eliminate all religious ceremonies and stand before a magistrate?" Karen asked.
Sarah blinked.
"I was thinking that," then slumped back in her chair, "I don't even know what religion Jareth follows."
Karen had a scandalised expression and Sophie leaned around and patted her on the shoulder.
"If those books on the Fae that Howl has are any use they do have their own gods."
"Sarah," Karen breathed, "everything about this is the exact opposite to how we raised you, from religion to the rule of the land."
"And I loved a sovereign King, it does not mean I stop being an American or ditch God. Karen, just because that is one aspect of this relationship that you can understand and complain about, doesn't mean that there wouldn't be thousands more that you'd be vehemently against if you knew."
"And I am supposed to be happy for you?" Karen snapped.
"No, but don't make it any harder, please?"
"Robert has a friend who is a priest," Karen suggested tentatively and Sarah wrote a note for her father to contact him.
They sat in silence for a while.
"Want to go dress shopping in Kingsbury?" Sophie suggested. "They have a few dress shops that sell beautiful off the rack wear there."
"Oh yes!" Sarah exclaimed, relieved to find some distraction for her stepmother. "Karen, wear that outfit that you wore to the Halloween charity ball last year. I'll get my Edwardian dress. You'll love Kingsbury, I promise."
"What of Michael and Toby?" Karen asked.
"They will need page boy outfits," Sophie declared. "Let us call them in."
.
The boys raced to the house two streets away and Sarah gasped when they came around the corner. Toby and Michael were waiting for them on the veranda of a tiny white cottage with a red roof. It was only one floor, and took up the width of the original foundations, but only one fourth of the length. The rest of the foundations had been covered in smooth concrete and boxes of various herbs had been arranged in an elaborate kitchen garden. The burned grass in the back garden had been replaced by new turf and the fence repaired.
"Wow," Sarah declared. "Howl does know how to make a place pretty."
"He has an eye for beauty, but he's useless at maintenance," Sophie said with fond exasperation.
They all trooped in to greet Calcifer and Toby ran right over. Calcifer flared up at his approach.
"Another fae touched? Sophie!" he complained.
"Leave Calcifer be," Sophie summoned Toby back to them, we're headed to Kingsbury."
"Yeah! You wanted to see how the doors worked differently from Sarah's mirrors?" Michael showed him the switching mechanism and they were soon in the King's city.
"Upon my word," Karen breathed. "This is most extraordinary! And this is a completely different world?"
"Yes!" Sarah grinned. "We might even get a glimpse of the palace, it's beautiful."
Karen sniffed, clearly determined to dislike it as much as she disliked its warmongering King.
.
They took a steam taxi back to the residence of 'The Great Wizard Pendragon,' loaded with wrapped bundles of clothes, hat boxes and Michael and Toby who had fallen asleep on the drive back.
"I thought Howl's last name was Jenkins," Karen observed as the two sleepy boys helped lug their things indoors.
"This is his pseudonym, he needs to sound fancy for the upper class customers he gets through here," Sarah explained.
"Are all magic users so convoluted in their ways?"
Sophie chuckled as she shuffled passed expertly balancing three hatboxes.
"They like to think it makes them mysterious instead of crazy. We leave them their illusions."
"Hey!" Sarah realised the insult just as Sophie stepped indoors.
"Tell me that you're not doing the same thing, Queen of the Labyrinth."
Sarah rolled her eyes, then relieved her of the hat boxes and helped her up the stairs.
"Sophie!" Calcifer perked up. "Howl looked in here half an hour ago, they need you back at the cottage."
"I thought we were back at the cottage," Karen gestured to the room.
"Oh no," Michael laughed and turned the dial. "This is Howl's castle. Here, this is the cottage."
"But this is America." Karen said.
"He said to enter through the yard door!" Calcifer called.
"There we have it," Sophie waved them all out, parcels and all, and they trooped around the side of the house and up onto the broad veranda that was the kitchen garden.
The red back door was open and beside it in his usual grey trousers and loose silk shirt, the Goblin King waited, watching the skies with a distant expression in his eyes. Sarah could only smile in response to the way his whole face lit up at seeing her. Robert hurried out past them and took half of Karen's parcels and waved them all inside.
Their baggage was set on a low bench by the door and they filed in. Sarah hung back for a quick kiss.
"How did it go?" she asked nervously.
Jareth's face wrinkled into that happy mischievous smile that always set the butterflies dancing in her stomach.
"Wonderfully," he purred, "he loves the throne room." He cleared his throat and his eyes darted to the door. He whispered in her ear. "You're going to have to disengage your bedroom from my own; I had to cast an illusion of a fine chamber, while Howl distracted him. We were both sweating buckets for fear that he'd noticed."
Sarah gulped.
"We'll do that as soon as we get out of this," she cringed just imagining how badly that could have gone.
He gave a chuckle and slung an arm around her shoulders to draw her indoors.
It was very tiny. Most of the cottage was the large open room with a desk for studying and a preparation table against the wall facing the kitchen garden. The two small rooms off it held the tiny restroom and equally tiny bedroom.
Michael and Toby were inspecting the inside of the refrigerator while Karen and Sophie were telling Howl that the place needed a sitting room chair and curtains.
The wizard held up his hands.
"I know, but I thought the owner would like the chance to decorate." He reached over and closed the fridge door on the boys who now had a soda each. He then waved at Robert who approached him with a folder of papers. He took it and found one as silence settled in the room. He presented it to Sarah.
"Sarah Williams, on the occasion of officially accepting you as my apprentice, Your father, Jareth and I present you with this cottage as your own so that you might have a sanctuary where you can study and practice your magic."
Sarah took the paper, it was the title deed of the property, in her name. She couldn't find words. She gaped at Howl, then glanced at her father who nodded with a proud smile. She leaned into Jareth's side and mouthed 'thank you' as her voice seemed lost.
"Sarah gets a house?" Toby exclaimed in awe.
"It comes with several responsibilities, not in the least the maintenance of the castle doorway and the boundaries that link this plain with the Goblin Kingdom."
Sarah nodded, still overcome.
"Thank you!"
Howl smiled, then grimaced and handed over the thick file. "These are the forms you need to fill out for America, Ingary and the Goblin Kingdom."
Sarah gaped at the huge pile in dismay. There were notes in languages she could not read.
"This is going to take all night," she predicted.
"Two to three hours of solid work," Jareth said professionally eyeing the pile. "Four if we don't have the necessary information."
Sarah sighed.
"Let's go back home," Karen suggested. "That way I can ply everyone with food and drink when tempers start to fray. You can use the living room table, it should have enough room."