Chapter 74: Ch ch ch ch ch changes
It was less than six months later, at the close of Court Day, when Sarah's father appeared before them with a petition.
Their Majesties exchanged puzzled glances. How had he gotten there? Neither one of them had transported him from Above.
"Father of the queen, you may approach us," the king announced.
Robert came forward and bowed, with very proper Underground manners. Some secret part of "Sarah," hidden deep inside the Goblin Queen, wondered how he had learned all that? Her own crystal-lessons had faded mere weeks after the wedding, and she'd had to learn everything the real way.
"Your Majesties," he began, but the king interrupted him.
"Robert, you are welcome here as you know… but tell us first how you came to be here."
Robert cleared his throat. "If I may crave Your Majesties' indulgence for a moment, my method of arrival is closely linked with my petition."
"Go ahead, father," the Goblin Queen directed.
He bowed, and went on, addressing them both formally. "At the event of Your Majesties' wedding, I was introduced to a rather striking fae woman. Unknown to you both, we became friends and began to see each other quite regularly. Because the lady in question is not part of the Goblin Kingdom, but rather remains in her homeland of the Fae, Your Majesties were unaware of our visits that continued after the wedding. We have grown to love each other. I come before you both now, to petition you for the lady's hand in marriage."
The Goblin Queen melted away, and Sarah sat open-mouthed in her place. Her father? In love with a fae woman? When had all this happened? Why hadn't he told her?
"If the lady is not one of our subjects, why petition us for permission to marry her?" the king asked. "Why not petition Oberon?"
"We have, Your Majesty, and for personal reasons, he has conceded the right of refusal to you and Sarah. To Her Majesty, I mean."
"Oh, it's okay, Dad," Sarah said. She had explained to him a long time ago about her new "public" face as opposed to her private one. The differences lay primarily in the formality of her demeanor, and in how self-assured she was. A small smile wormed its way across her stunned face. "I just never thought you'd want to risk marrying again! So who's the lady?"
The king nodded. "Bring her in, Robert, if she is with you."
"She is. She's waiting outside."
Too eager for her father to go, Sarah dispatched a goblin to go and fetch the lady. They could run much faster than humans.
The doors at the back of the room opened, and a tall, slender, brown-haired woman stepped in, smiling.
Sarah gasped. "Bev!" She glanced at her father. "You want to marry Bevelyn?"
"Now don't get all upset, Sarah, just because she's your friend," her father began, but Sarah started to laugh.
"Upset? Me? I think it's marvelous!" She laughed delightedly.
"Sarah," the king said her name quietly, as a reminder: there were others around. They could be "themselves" with Robert and Bevelyn, but not during Court and not in front of the Goblins, the last of whom were slowly making their way out the door.
Instantly, the Goblin Queen was back, raising her chin at a haughty angle as she sat back down. She glanced at the king. "Have you any reason not to grant my father's request?" she asked him formally.
He hesitated a moment, and then shook his head. "I have none. It pleases me that such a dear friend of mine and my queen's shall be united thus in marriage with my father-in-law. I merely ask you both to allow me to set the wedding date."
The queen protested. "My dear husband, surely that is overstepping your bounds. My father and our friend deserve the consideration of setting their own wedding date."
"If I may," Bevelyn began. The king and queen nodded, and she continued. "Robert and I have already made all the necessary arrangements, in hopes that Your Majesties would grant our request. For myself, though, I have an additional request to make."
"We shall give it every consideration," the queen assured her.
Bevelyn hid a grin; knowing how warm and friendly Sarah normally was, it amused her no end to see her friend firmly ensconced in her stiff andofficial royal personality. The situation right now, however, called for the utmost formality, as she couldn't remember the last time something like this had happened. She cleared her throat and went on. "You both are no doubt aware of the prejudice against humans that many still hold, here in the Underground. Unfortunately, this prejudice is most common among the fae; therefore, I ask that you allow us, after we are wed, to come and live here in the Goblin Kingdom. We are willing to become your subjects, and my king is willing to release us."
The king and queen exchanged glances again, but neither one needed to say anything to know what the other was thinking. The queen smiled. "We shall welcome you among us, Bevelyn. Congratulations, father. We wish you both the best."
"If you would like," Jareth put in mildly, stepping out of his own royal persona for a moment now that the goblins were gone, "I can arrange for your house to be brought here from the Fae kingdom, and put up somewhere outside the Goblin City."
"Thank you, Jareth! That would be marvelous!" Bev exclaimed.
That seemed to be the icebreaker; Sarah shed her queenly persona and flew down the stairs of the dais to hug her father and then her friend. "Oh, I'm so happy for you! I couldn't wish for a better mate for either of you—or for a better step-mother," she cried, laughing.
"Bit of a step up from the last one, eh Sarah," her father joked.
Sarah agreed, laughing, and then stopped short. "Does Toby know?"
"Not yet. We were planning to ask you if we could bring him down for a visit and tell him here, when he gets out of school."
"You're just full of requests today, aren't you, Dad?" Sarah teased.
"Why wait?" Jareth asked with a grin, and with a flick of a crystal, he was gone. He returned an instant later, holding the arm of a blond and bewildered teenager.
Toby looked around at his surroundings and brightened. "Whoa, Jareth! Way to rescue me from math class, man!"
"I do my best," Jareth said modestly.
"Hey!" Sarah protested. "I thought you promised to stop kidnapping my brother!"
xxxXXXxxx
By the end of the day, Bev's entire house had been relocated to the edge of the fiery forest beside a stream, and most of Robert's belongings had been moved there. Toby seemed to be taking the news remarkably well, and was making surprising efforts to get to know Bev.
Sarah asked him about it, remembering how betrayed she had felt when her father had remarried. She didn't want Toby going through all the anger and resentment that she had felt.
"Me? No, she seems great. And from what they told me, she's the one who's responsible for me coming to live down here. So I've got no problems with Bev. She's very cool, and she makes Dad happy." His grey eyes were shining. "And Sarah? Jareth says he's going to tutor me in some of my subjects himself!"
"Oh, no," Sarah groaned. She looked at her little brother with sympathy. "You're in for it now. And you thought your math class was bad! Just wait till Jareth gets you started on history!"
A/N: Just had to give Bowie a little nod there in the chapter title, as he wrote and sang "Ch-ch-changes." It seemed appropriate, and I just love the line, "Turn around and face the strange... ch-ch-changes!"