The Heart of the Labyrinth Part 2

Chapter 4 The Wedding Song

            Lunch was survived by all and passed by with only the minimal discussion of common things and was not a dangerous as it had appeared to be beforehand. Like Calden had said, he took Juliet on a tour of the large gardens, including a small green house that held more tropical trees and flowers. Their walk was interrupted, though, when they exited the glass structure and were met by Jareth, standing just outside and looking rather pleased with himself.
            “Jules, you should go and get ready for tonight, you’ll be quite the talk of the party as my dear brother’s date.” ‘Crap!’ her mind yelled. Jareth had only called her by her nickname once before, and he had been teasing her, just as he was now. He had wanted her to drop her guard and forget about other things, like what was she going to do during the ball, who she would talk to and what she would even wear! ‘I’ve got literally nothing to wear for tonight.’ Fleeting through memories, her mind recalled a wardrobe somewhere on the third floor that had had some old dresses, perhaps one would fit and be suitable to show up in.
            “Yes.” came her quiet reply. Giving Calden a small clumsy curtsy, Juliet started up the path at a brisk pace.
            “I’ll walk you up.” came Jareth’s voice from behind. Her feet moved a little faster, but a second later the male was walking beside her at a steady pace. Away from Calden, she felt instantly annoyed, all the excited happiness and carefree sensations were gone. Now she was with Jareth and he made her guard rise up as fast as the hairs on the back of her neck. “Aren’t you just the little sociable butterfly?” Stopping abruptly, she turned to look at him in the eyes as she countered him with.
            “Aren’t you a nosy rosy?” He grinned.
            “You know I’m not going to just let this go by without a few jabs, right?”
            “Oh, I expect more than just a few jabs. Try more like every joke in the book and then a few more. Because we all know you never go subtle.” If she was going to make it through this she knew playing to Jareth’s sarcasm and childlike amusement would be the best route. In any case, whenever she was embarrassed she always tried to laugh it away; if she could laugh at it herself then it wouldn’t matter if anyone else was as well. This was especially true with Jareth. You had to be quick on your toes around him, ready to take a hit and dish it right back, that’s what the goblins had taught her the first few months of being at the Labyrinth. If she were to survive with her sanity she was to learn to love the insanity. It made little sense but that was kind of the point behind it.
            “Subtle is boring. It’s bland and why be bland when you can be exciting?” Rolling her eyes she started walking up to the castle again, now ignoring the Goblin King and instead recalling the mental map of the course she would take to get to the room with the dresses.
            In the room, after taking a few wrong turns, Juliet sorted through a wardrobe of ball gowns and other formal dresses. None of them really hit her as something to wear; many of them were full of moth holes in fact. The farther she dug through the closets and storage rooms, the older and frailer the frocks became.
            At last she settled for a pale blue dress that she thought would help her blend in a little better into the background if she could just stand by herself to the side and order the other servants where to go. The most important things that night was to not make a fool of herself and to make sure everything went according to plan. If some fun was managed to be acquired for herself, then she would gladly take it, but her best chance at knowing how to keep the party atmosphere light and joyous would be to be within it.
            Her feet moved quickly down the spiraling back stairs, down to the level where she was staying. Flinging the door open she tossed the dress on the bed and moved to the bathroom to draw herself a bath. It took her a while to get enough warm water, but after she did it was no time at all until she walked out to her room wrapped only in a towel.
            The faded blue dress was gone and in its place lay a white box with a folded card on top. She picked the note up then looked around before reading it.