Chapter 36: You Have to Ask the Right Questions
About halfway through the meal, his fingers greasy and with bits of lobster shell stuck to his face and scattered around his plate, Jareth looked up at her with an exasperated expression, and shook his head in disgust.
Unable to contain herself any longer, Sarah burst out laughing.
He put down his fork and asked her, very quietly, to let him in on the joke.
"I'm sorry, but—you just look so funny!" Sarah told him through her giggles.
"You are mocking me again," he said, sounding peeved. He scowled.
Sarah, seeing that he was really bothered by her laughter, sobered. "I'm sorry, Jareth. I wasn't trying to be mean."
"Then why the laughter?"
"Well, I…I sort of played a trick on you. I knew lobster would be messy to eat; that's part of the reason I chose it."
"You wanted us to have a messy dinner? Why?" He was plainly mystified.
Once again, Sarah chose the most embarrassingly direct route, knowing that dissembling would only make him angrier. "Jareth, I've never seen you be anything but totally dignified. I thought it would be fun to see you make a mess of things for once."
"You wished to see me at a disadvantage, so that you could then mock me and enjoy a good chuckle at my expense. This seems to be at odds with your statement that we shall be friends, and well as with your confession that you may be starting to love me. Care to explain the dichotomy?" His demeanor changed as he spoke, until by the time he'd finished, Sarah knew she was in the presence of the Goblin King.
Even though he had spots of butter on his shirt and bits of lobster stuck to his chin, Sarah had no urge to laugh this time. She winced. Put like that, suddenly her joke didn't seem so funny.
"I am sorry, Your Majesty," she said, humbly bowing her head. "It is just that I've never seen you at a loss for anything before. You're so self-assured and capable that you're rather intimidating sometimes."
He frowned. "Why would you be intimidated by me, Sarah? You weren't when you were fifteen; why should you be, now? You know we are equals. I would not pay court to a lesser being." His lip curled disdainfully.
"When I was fifteen I was so incredibly self-centered that it never crossed my mind other people might have feelings, or that I might not actually be the center of the universe. And now that I've grown up and realized otherwise… well, you're powerful, and you know so much, and you can do magic. I don't feel like your equal. I'm just a non-traditional college student who had a weird adventure as a child. If you're so powerful, always in control of everything and all, then what…"
All at once Sarah realized what the root of the problem was, and blurted it out. "Then what do you need me for?"
And suddenly Jareth was back. The atmosphere in the room lightened considerably when he chuckled. "Let me make sure I understand you," he said. "You deliberately asked for a meal that would be messy and undignified for me to eat… all because you need some reassurance? Is that it?"
Sarah went red. "Well if you're going to put it that way…" she muttered. He laughed aloud, and it was so infectious that Sarah began to smile as well.
"My darling Sarah, how old are you?"
"Twenty-seven."
"And you've been studying leadership qualities… uh, business management for how long now?"
"In college? Four years, this May."
"My love, I am over two thousand years old. I've studied kingcraft, magic, the art of war, and leadership skills for centuries. It is true that I don't need you for very much of that.
"However, you provide a fresh viewpoint that hasn't been steeped in Underground politics for hundreds of years—that's something no other monarch here has at his disposal. I do need you for that, but really…" he rose and went over to her, offering his hand to help her up. He went on. "Being in love is the only thing I haven't studied before. That's why I need you."
Touched, Sarah took his other hand and kissed it. "We'll learn together," she promised.
He brushed a kiss to her mouth, and asked playfully, "Does that mean you'll accept me? Is that a 'yes'?"
Sarah pursed her lips. "You're not supposed to ask the question until King Daxon's wedding," she pointed out.
"True, true," he agreed with a disappointed sigh. "Very well. Why don't we sit down and finish dinner?"
Smiling, Sarah agreed and they finished the meal amicably. Jareth's eyes twinkled whenever he looked at her, and it wasn't until the meal was almost overthat she realized he was trying to stifle his laughter over the large piece of white lobster-shell that was stuck to the front of her shirt.
"Sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander I guess," she muttered in embarrassment as she picked it off and put it back on her plate.
"Though in this case, you must include the sauce for the lobster… which has made several dark stains down the front of your blouse," Jareth told her cheerfully.
The ridiculousness of the situation struck her then, and she broke down into giggles. "I might have known I wouldn't be able to get anything over on you!"
Jareth just smirked and waved his hand over the table. All the mess from the lobster disappeared, along with the butter-stains on both their shirts, and the bits of shell scattered all over the table. "Let's start over," he suggested, and a plate full of neatly de-shelled lobster meat appeared in front of each of them.
"Why didn't you tell me you could do this?" Sarah demanded, half exasperated and half delighted.
He shrugged, a tiny lifting of one shoulder. "You didn't ask."