Sarah stood at one of the kitchen tables kneading dough and chatting with the cooks. The first time she had come down here to make anything, she practically had to fight just to measure the ingredients herself. Now they were all used to the peculiar penchant their Queen had for cooking. It was not as though she did it all the time, after all, and they had come to appreciate the visits.

The kitchen door swung open and Sarah looked up. She watched her daughter come to the table, set the box containing the Goblins' tome down with a thud, turn a chair around, and straddle the back as she sat. "That is not particularly lady-like, dearest," she said good-naturedly.

Katrin grinned. "And having flour in one's hair is not befitting one of your station."

Sarah laughed. "Touché. What can I do for you, Kati?"

"I have a question." The cooks were all migrating to the other side of the massive kitchen to give mother and daughter more privacy. Katrin eyed what was in each bowl and on each plate, leaning closer when she spied chocolate chip cookie dough. Without a word, the cook handed her the spoon. "Thank you," Katrin said, beaming. The Goblin chuckled and shook her head, pulling another spoon from her apron as she joined the others.

Sarah raised an eyebrow as Katrin picked out all the chocolate chips and lined them up in a neat row on the table. Nibbling some of the dough off the spoon, she then rearranged the chocolate chips into a smiley face, grinning at her mother when she was done. Sarah laughed. "What are you doing?"

"Tactical delay?" she responded as she scooped up the chips and popped them in her mouth one by one.

Laughing even harder, Sarah said. "I doubt that. How are you getting on with the tome?"

Katrin rolled her eyes. "I'm not. There is nothing in here that we don't already know. The best it offers is an explanation of how to get out of some of the traps set for 'visitors'. But that is useless, really, considering it can change at any given moment. I suppose the silver lining of it is that it means it would be of no real help to said 'visitors', though I cannot see how that is at all beneficial to what the Goblins are trying to achieve with their Wizard."

"Your father is likely going to have the Kingdom reconstruct itself."

Katrin looked up in surprise. "That is pretty heavy magic... He's really concerned, isn't he?" Sarah nodded. "I guess it makes sense that he would be, but man..." There was a slight pause as Katrin nibbled on more dough and watched her mother continue to knead. "So that brings me to my question," she finally continued. "Since I'm not getting anywhere with it, do you think Dad would mind if I went back Aboveground tonight? I can take the tome with me, if he still wants me to look through it. But there's no point in me staying right now if all I need to do is look through it."

Sarah smiled. "So eager to be rid of the company of your family?"

"No, it's just..." she trailed off, trying to find a way to explain. "I have a contracted gig this weekend, and I've got to get ready for it. And... I know you all say this isn't my fault, but the whole thing makes me uncomfortable."

"I see. Well, I don't see why he would object. If you are needed it is not as though you cannot come back right away."

"Well, that's true."

There was another brief pause. "Kati..."

"Yeah?"

"Are you sure your returning Aboveground has nothing to do with the young man you're interested in?"

Katrin looked up, startled. "What? No! How did you... Did Dad say something??"

"Kati--"

"He said he wouldn't! Was it Chris?"

"Kati--"

"Oh, he is in SO much trouble if he said a word..."

"Katrin."

Her mother's dryly amused tone finally penetrated Katrin's outburst. "Huh?"

Sarah shook her head in amusement. "No one told me anything."

"Oh." Katrin regarded the spoon in her hand absentmindedly before abruptly looking up. "Then how did you know?"

"I'm your mother. It's my job to know these things." Sarah rose to get two loaf pans off a shelf.

"Why do parents answer questions with non-answers?" Katrin asked with a frown.

"To maintain the 'one step ahead' distance between themselves and their children."

Katrin snorted. "Seriously though, how did you know that I'm interested in someone?"

"Between your father being distracted and moping about something that has to do with you but refusing to tell me about it, Chris lording something over you whenever he thinks no one will notice, and you mooning about when you think no one will notice," Sarah shrugged as she divided the dough in two parts and placed one in each pan. "I just put the pieces together and had a guess."

"Oh." Katrin took a bite of cookie dough off her spoon.

Sarah covered the pans with a cloth and set them on the counter. "So?"

"So... what?"

"Are you going to tell me about him?"

"Well, I want to, kind of... but I sort of told Dad that I'd talk about him to both of you together."

"Whyever did you tell him that?"

Katrin grimaced. "He caught me off guard and threatened to tell you about him before I could do it."

"That's your father for you," she said, a grin playing at her lips. "Always playing dirty."

"I do not play dirty. I simply know more rules than anyone else."

Katrin tilted her head back and looked at Jareth where he leaned on another table. "Hah, Mr. I-Like-To-Eavesdrop-and-Butt-In-When-I-May-Get-Slandered. You mean you make new rules when the old ones don't suit your purposes."

He shrugged. "That too." He walked over and sat in a chair next to her, plucking the spoon from her hand.

She snatched it back. "Get your own."

"Children, children," interrupted Sarah. "Don't make me separate you."

"Yes, Mother," Katrin said contritely, even as she grinned mischievously. Jareth grinned as well, though his was bordering wicked.

"Oh, you two." Sarah chuckled and shook her head. "Normally, I would have cause to chastise you, dearest, for interrupting a woman to woman chat. However, since you most cruelly gave this topic designation as a dual parental one, I leave the chastisement for later and make the following suggestion to our daughter." She got up and took the other chair next to Katrin, across from Jareth. "Your father and I are both here. Now you can tell me about him."

Jareth raised an eyebrow. "Just you?"

Sarah went on as though he hadn't interrupted. "So, where did you meet? How long have you known each other?"

"Actually," she picked at the dough again. "I met him on Sunday at the Faire. He just happened across it while on holiday from England."

"England..." Sarah said with a slight grin. "So he has an accent, I take it?"

"Yeah," she said with a sheepish grin.

I certainly don't know the appeal of that particular attribute, thought Sarah. "I assume you did not just see him at your Faire?"

"No, we had lunch the next day at Alistair's."

Sarah had difficulty containing her surprise. "You went to Alistair's for your first date?"

"Well, sure. You know, Chris asked me practically the same thing."

"Chris knows more about him than I do?" This time, Jareth was surprised.

"Dad," Katrin rolled her eyes, "if you hadn't decided to spy on me, I probably wouldn't have told you anything about Bill until I decided you needed to meet him or something."

"What!" he indignantly exclaimed.

"Jareth, I thought you weren't going to spy on your children."

"I wasn't spying," he muttered, instantly sheepish. "I was looking for her and just happened upon the two of them."

"Oh, just ignore him. So his name is Bill?"

"Yep, apparently, his father chose the name based on a literary character he read about once."

"Oh? Which one?"

"Well," Katrin turned to her mother with another grin, "Bill is short for Fitzwilliam."

Sarah thought for a moment. "Fitzwilliam. The only Fitzwilliam I can think of is..." Suddenly her eyes widened and she turned to look at Katrin. She grabbed her daughter's hand. "Is couldn't be!"

"Yes it could!" Katrin clasped Sarah's arm excitedly.

Jareth looked suspiciously between the two. "Who?" he asked trepidly.

"Mr. Darcy!" Mother and daughter dissolved in giggles.

"Oh, not him again." Jareth sighed. "Alright, alright. I'll leave you to it. But," he pointed at Katrin, "I expect an update long before you decide I need to meet him or something." Shaking his head, he vanished.

This, of course, succeeded in heightening the hysterics of the two women dearest to him. "Do you think he's mad?" Katrin asked when she was able to speak again.

"No," Sarah answered. "And if he is, I'll explain to him later. He's just worried and trying not to show it."

"Worried? Why?"

"Why? You are his little girl, Kati. For all that you are twenty-three and living your own life, and Aboveground at that." Sarah stroked her daughter's hair with a smile. "But don't let that worry you right now. Instead, I'll make us some hot chocolate and you," she rose and raised her eyebrows, "tell me more about this Fitzwilliam." With a laugh, Katrin happily obliged.