Chapter Fourteen

Garthan materialized in Jareth's solar, breathing a sigh of relief. While the idea of facing his King after a failure was daunting enough, facing his wife after that dressing down she gave them was infinitely worse. Thankfully, Sarah had graciously accepted their apologies and allowed them to complete their task of warding her home.

Lily was seated at the small dining table across from Jareth. Two pairs of eyes swung in his direction. He allowed a smile to appear on his face, letting them know that all was well as he walked over to the table. He reached down and took Lily's hand, bringing it to his lips and kissing her knuckles.

"You were absolutely right, my love. And we did indeed apologize to Lady Sarah. She was kind enough to forgive us for our blunder."

Jareth let out a sigh of relief. "Has her home been warded?"

"It has," Garthan replied. "Randel is finishing up as we speak."

Randel took that moment to appear to them, a broad grin on his face. "We were successful. Her home has been warded." He turned to Garthan, "You left too quickly. Sarah wished to apologize to the both of us for overreacting. She apparently had a rather bad day and felt that her behavior was a bit more extreme than the situation warranted."

Lily laughed, "Well, that was kind of her, to be sure." She squeezed Garthan's hand gently, letting him know that she forgave him, too. He smiled down at her tenderly.

Randel sat at the table, a smirk still on his face, "That's not all. Apparently, she will be returning to her hometown to visit her family for their Thanksgiving holiday." He looked over at Jareth. "She mentioned how nice it would be to relive pleasant memories." His smirk got broader.

Jareth's eyes narrowed. "What are you saying…?"

Randel looked smug. "To be exact, she made particular mention of going to the Park to relive pleasant memories and said that it would be nice to revisit them with you… that is, if you have some free time."

"If you didn't read that as an invitation, you're a fool. And we all know that you are not a fool. Not usually, anyway," Garthan said with a smirk.

Jareth looked at him blankly for a moment before a euphoric smile appeared on his face. "She wants to meet." He laughed aloud. "Finally…" He rose from the table, bowing absently to Lily before leaving the chamber with a spring to his step. Randel rose as well, also bowing to Lily and exiting the room, whistling.

Garthan pulled his wife up from the chair, wrapping his arms around her and burying his face in her neck.

"I don't suppose you want to apologize for overreacting too?" he whispered. She jerked her head back and glared at him, before catching the teasing glint in his eye. A responding twinkle appeared in her own.

"No," she said softly, smiling. "But I'll let you try and convince me to."

Jareth's sense of relief was immense. While he didn't exactly blame his lieutenants for taking his orders seriously, he was well aware that this blunder could have cost him dearly. What made him really nervous was that he couldn't even appear to Sarah to apologize personally. Not until Thanksgiving, anyway. He would however send her an apology note. He needed to make it clear to her that he understood her anger and that he was taking her wishes seriously. He headed to his study to dash off that quick note to Sarah before he had to attend the Monday session of local court.

As he did so, he reflected on her invitation to him to meet with her. While the invitation didn't extend to seeing her in her childhood home (which might have been hard for her to explain to her family) just the fact that he was going to lay eyes on her again, speak with her again, closely enough to catch her scent and not yards away, was enough to fill him with an optimistic spirit.

Sarah looked down at what was probably the scariest Ughlánas she had ever seen. Large round head, with a mouth that took up the entire lower half of it, full of razor-sharp teeth, glowing yellow eyes, mottled skin and long, pointed ears. It held in its long, pointed talons an envelope with her name on it.

"Thank you," she said as she took the envelope. "It's game night tonight, you are welcome to join us."

The Ughlánas smiled, "No thanks. Bye." And popped out of her sight.

Shivering a bit from that little interaction, Sarah opened the envelope, but not before bringing it to her nose and breathing in deeply. Something about the scent on these letters, Jareth's scent, just drove her wild. She wished that she could bottle it.

Sarah,

I heartily apologize for the misunderstanding earlier today. I am aware that Randel and Garthan have apologized to you and that you have graciously accepted. In truth, the fault is mine. I should have been clearer in my instructions to them. I'm afraid that they took my urgency on the matter a little more seriously than I had anticipated.

They sure as hell did.

The war proceeds well, at least as well as such things can. Ironically, it is because of our success that I wanted to ensure that you did not get caught in the "crossfire" as our opponent becomes increasingly desperate to turn their losing position around. I promise you that we of the Goblin Kingdom will do everything in our power to ensure that you are safe.

Why am I so important to you guys? I don't get it.

I am unfortunately on my way to attending local court and thus cannot write as much as I would wish. In addition, there is quite the feud building between an Othánas noble family and a contingent of Moon Elves that I will be trying to smooth over, probably with very little success.

Again, I sincerely apologize for the way your privacy was violated and promise never to repeat the offense.

Jareth

P.S. With regard to going to the park and revisiting pleasant memories, I would be delighted to.

Well, didn't that just make the butterflies in my stomach go into a frenzy…