AN: I'd like to say thank you to everyone who reviewed. If anybody has any questions please e-mail me, ladyjamie@fsmail.net. I will answer anything you ask. This chapter may not go down too well. There are things written here that will confuse some people, but please be patient with me. Things will even out eventually. A love story wouldn't be a love story id the couple didn't have a few hurdles to get past. Please remember this before you review.
A special thank you to my beta Scattered Logic, for making this story readable. It is not an easy job!
And loads of thanks to, Cormak, The Hooded Crow For all their help.
Too Much, Too Young
Dressed for success
Jareth waved Puggle away, dismissing her; he walked toward Sarah, backing her up against the wall. "You were saying."
Sarah bit at her bottom lip, thinking desperately of something, anything to tell him.
Jareth put his hands on the wall at either side of her head and leaned in close. "So, Sarah, you think I'm arrogant and self-centered?"
Sarah felt a bush creep up her cheeks. "I never said that."
Jareth gave a half smile and moved away. Adjusting his gloves, he glanced back at her. "Not in those exact words, no. But that was what you meant."
She said in an under breath, "Okay, Mr. Technical."
Jareth smiled at her sense of humor, she would need it in his world. "All right, Sarah, why don't you tell me what's wrong? I have some very important people waiting to meet you."
Sarah was incredulous, "Look at the state of me and you want to introduce me to important people?" Sarah crossed her arms preparing to fight for her right to a bath.
Jareth called Puggle back and whispered to her, turning back to Sarah he said, "Puggle will see to a bath for you, and a suitable change of clothes."
Fixing a look at Puggle, he added, "This should have been arranged already."
Puggle blushed slightly and curtsied to her king. Jareth nodded once and Puggle gestured for Sarah to follow. He watched them walk away. Smiling, he shook his head and rejoined his guests in the throne room.
Arron watched his brother cross the throne room, a slight smile playing about the corners of his mouth.
The goblins that were playing all over the room cleared a path as he strode through their midst. The stupider of the goblins, that didn't have the sense to move, were forced to by the toe of Jareth's boot.
Arron had been surprised when Jareth had suddenly left them in the middle of a conversation. His brother was arrogant, it was true, but he had never before been deliberately rude.
Jareth accepted a goblet of wine a dwarf offered him. He waited until the dwarf had gone away to answer his brother's questioning look. "Sarah asks that you be patient, she has a few urgent matters she needs to attend to." Jareth couldn't help a grin at the thought of Sarah's annoyance at her appearance.
"And the bizarre grin on your face is because of what?" asked Melise, slipping her arm around Arron.
Jareth gave her a look of cool amusement. "Melise, I never grin. And even if I did, I would never do it bizarrely"
Arron wasn't going to let the question go unanswered. "Okay, then what are you smiling about?"
"Sarah."
"So, she amuses you. Why?"
Jareth thought about the question. "It's not that she amuses me. I'm intrigued by her. The first question I ask myself is why her? I've always known a girl might solve the Labyrinth when I ruled and that, if it did happen, I would have to marry her. But why Sarah? What does she posses that thousands of girls before her did not? The second question is why did she agree to stay?"
Arron smiled. "Maybe she couldn't resist your charm."
"I don't think so. There was nothing about our encounter that would be considered charming. Except--." Jareth stopped, his mind replaying their time in the ballroom.
"Except?"
Jareth drained the last of his drink, "Nothing."
An hour later, Sarah was standing on a stool while Puggle measured her. Goblins of different shapes, sizes and colors hefted huge buckets of water into the room to fill a large tin tub.
Another pixie came into the room carrying two bolts of materiel, one a midnight blue and the other a pale sky blue. The pixie put the material down and whispered to Puggle who handed her the paper she had written Sarah's measurements on.
Puggle helped Sarah from the chair. She indicated the new Pixie. "This is Sukie, the castle's seamstress. It'll only take a few minutes, to make you a day dress."
Sarah looked the pixie over curiously. She looked almost the same as Puggle except she had bright orange hair and, where Puggle's dress was a dark orange, Sukie's dress was bright yellow. She watched as Sukie whispered to Puggle again. Puggle gave Sarah a smile.
"Sukie is very shy and she's asked me to say. Serving you has made her day. She thinks that you are very beautiful, and tall. And you will make a good queen for us all.
Sarah blushed. "Well, that's still something I have to talk to the king about."
Puggle cleared her throat and pulled Sarah behind a screen, telling her to undress.
When she'd finished, she saw a robe that had been hung on a peg behind her. It was far too long, obviously belonging to someone far taller than she was
Coming out from behind the screen, she saw Sukie had laid the cloth for her clothes over the bed and was staring at the measurements Puggle had given her. Sarah walked over to Puggle and asked what Sukie was doing.
"She's working out what style would suit you best. Our queen must look good, better than the rest."
"Okay." Sarah still didn't understand how the little pixie was supposed to make her a dress in a few minuets, but Puggle's constant rhyming was starting to give her a headache and the sight of the bath made her forget all her questions about Sukie.
At first a little hesitant about bathing in front of a stranger, Sarah lost all hint of shyness as she sank into the steaming water.
Puggle added oil from a blue bottle and the scent of jasmine filled the room. Sarah took the soap that Puggle handed to her and scrubbed the dirt until her skin tingled.
After washing her hair, Sarah stood up, and Puggle climbed on a stool and poured warm water over Sarah's head to rinse her. As she stepped out of the tub, a huge fluffy towel was draped around her.
Sarah looked toward Sukie to see how her clothes were coming along and was surprised to see a half-made dress draped on a dummy. Looking at the small seamstress, she watched amazed as Sukie cut out and stitched a sleeve to what was to be her dress in the space of a heartbeat. Sukie was almost a blur as she cut and attached the other sleeve. She stitched in pleats on the skirt and added a tuck here and there.
Sarah looked in wonder at Puggle, who was looking back at her, with a slight smile.
"How does she do that? Is it something all pixies can do?"
Puggle gave a little giggle. "Some pixies have special things they can do. Not a lot of us, just one or two. Even born with a gift, it's hard to master. It's not as easy as it looks, to make time go faster."
Sarah didn't think it looked easy at all. After a few minutes, Sukie had finished with the dress and waited while Sarah put it on.
Sarah was surprised to find the dress was in two parts. An almost skin tight sleeveless under-dress of light blue was slipped over her head first. The hem of the dress touched her toes. Sarah was glad that the skirt of the under-dress was not as tight as it looked; it hardy restricted her legs at all. The outer dress was from the deep blue material, and was not a dress at all. It looked like a very long jacket. Slipping her arms into it, Sukie came over and sewed the bodice of the jacket together. The stitching stopped just below her waist, leaving the rest of the jacket open to see the under-dress. The top of the jacket was open enough to see a small triangle of the light blue dress underneath.
Puggle took Sarah over to a stool and began brushing her hair.
Jareth was not pleased, twice now he had lost track of the conversation, his mind wandering to thoughts of Sarah. Luckily, no one seemed to have noticed.
Arron was telling Jareth what was happening in their father's kingdom when he saw the blank look on his brother's face again. He stopped speaking and gave Melise a questioning look. She shrugged her shoulders, a smile playing round the corners of her mouth. Arron decided to remain quiet and see how long it would be before Jareth noticed he had stopped talking.
Jareth became aware of the silence from his brother. "Sorry, what were you saying?"
Arron threw back his head and laughed. "I can't wait to meet this girl that has captured so much of your attention."
Jareth had the grace to look slightly sheepish.
Just then, a small pixie with green hair walked over to them and spoke quietly with the king.
Jareth smiled. "Well, it looks as if you won't have to wait much longer.
Sarah walked into the throne room; her steps hesitant. She would have preferred this meeting with Jareth to have been less public. The goblins were bad enough but Sarah did not feel comfortable in the dress, as lovely as it was. And to appear, wearing it for the first time in front of strangers, she felt awkward and uncomfortable. How she missed the anonymity that her jeans gave her.
Jareth met her halfway across the room. She gave him a shy smile, not sure what to say.
He smiled knowingly. She looked nervous and was trying to hide it. The dress she wore suited her, and her hair, loosely braided and threaded through with blue ribbons, made her look a little older but kept her air of innocence.
As he took her arm, he leaned down and whispered, "You look lovely." Before she had time to reply, he was introducing her to his guests.
"Sarah, this is Lord Arron and his wife, Lady Melise, of Blackthorn. Arron is my brother."
Sarah smiled nervously, what was she supposed to do now? Should she curtsey or shake their hands?
Melise saw Sarah's predicament and solved the problem by stepping forward and taking both of Sarah's hands in her own.
"We are so pleased to meet you, Sarah."
Sarah looked up at the tall woman, taking in how pretty she was. Not a raving beauty, she was good-looking, a girl next door look. The man, on the other hand, was extremely attractive. He was a lot like Jareth, but Sarah didn't feel the same almost irresistible pull toward him that Jareth made her feel. He was fair and his eyebrows swept up in the same manner as Jareth's. His eyes were different, a lightning blue that sparkled with amusement. Sarah hoped someone would say something and break the heavy silence.
Melise came to the rescue with, "It will be so nice having another sister- in-law." At Sarah's puzzled look, she exclaimed, "Didn't Jareth tell you about Darra and Emma?" Melise looked at Jareth in question.
"We really haven't had time to talk properly," Sarah said." In fact," she looked straight at Jareth now, "I didn't even know I was getting married until this morning."
If the situation had been less serious, Sarah might have laughed at the similar looks of astonishment on the three faces looking at her.
Jareth was the first to recover. "I thought you--"
He was interrupted by Arron, "I was just about to take Melise to our chambers to freshen up. If you will excuse us, Jareth, we will see you at dinner." He took Melise's arm and all but dragged her from the room.
As they left, Sarah distinctly heard Melise say, "But I wanted to stay and." Sarah couldn't hear the rest, the noise of the goblins drowned out whatever she said next.
After Arron and Melise had left the room, Sarah took a deep breath readying herself for a confrontation. But before she could say anything, Jareth had taken her arm and was guiding her through the room. "I think we should go somewhere a little quieter."
He took them to the Escher room.
Sarah swallowed nervously as she looked around the room. It seemed almost a lifetime ago that she had run up and down the stairs looking for Toby. Right now, yesterday seemed so long ago. And though this time she was in the room for completely different reasons, the room seemed to almost shout that she could never figure it out.
She waited 'til Jareth had shut the heavy oak door before she spoke. "I don't like this room."
Jareth gave her sly side look." There are only two rooms in the castle that we can have a little privacy. Here or my personal chambers."
As he expected, Sarah blushed and said a little too quickly, "Right here will be fine."
Jareth held back a chuckle. She was so easy to read.
Sarah walked over to the nearest set of steps, adjusted her dress and sat down. Resisting the urge to fidget, she waited for him to speak.
Jareth took his time before saying anything. Eventually, he sat beside her on the stone steps. He propped his chin in his hand looking thoughtful.
"What did you expect would happen to you when you agreed to stay?"
Sarah thought about it. What had she expected? She admitted, "I don't know what I expected. What I didn't expect was to be married."
"Why not?"
"Well, at home girls my age don't get married, we go to school, then university. Then, after we begin our careers, we can think about marriage and a family. Where I come from, it's against the law for a girl my age to get married."
Jareth took all this in. No wonder she was shocked by the idea of them marrying.
"As you will come to understand, we do things differently here. Here, girls who are not married by the age of sixteen are thought of as spinsters. My brother and Melise were betrothed when he was ten and she was two. They were married when she was thirteen." At Sarah's gasp of horror, Jareth smiled, "It seems strange to you now, but you will get used to it." He turned serious again. "Another thing you will have to get used to, Sarah, is that we are getting married." He gave her another sidelong look. "This is the way it must be done."
At his commanding tone, Sarah felt the strongest desire to rebel, but with his last words, all stubbornness left her and she remembered saying almost the exact same thing yesterday and she remembered Sir Didymus' reply.
Sarah's voice was almost a whisper when she gave Jareth her answer. "Well, if that is the way it must be done, then that is the way we should do it."
Jareth smiled and let out the breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. Taking her hand, he gave it a slight squeeze. "Think of it as an adventure. An adventure we'll face together."
After watching Sarah being escorted back to her chamber, Jareth sent for Arron to meet him in the throne room.
A short while later he appeared.
"You sent for me your majesty." Arron gave a mock bow with a deep flourish.
Jareth didn't appear to notice his brothers playfulness, so deep was he in thought.
Arron had to clear his throat a couple of times to gain his attention.
Jareth looked up eventually.
Arron began again. "You needed to see me?"
Jareth rose and whispered to a pixie who stood just off to the side of him.
Turning back to Arron, he spoke, "Yes, I need you to do something for me." Jareth paused when the pixie reappeared carrying two goblets taking both, he handed one to Arron.
Dismissing the pixie Jareth took a long swallow then sat back on his throne. And turned his attention back to Arron.
I need you to go to the great palace and tell father about Sarah."
Arron thought about it for a while.
"Why me?"
"Because, I think he should be told by either you or me. I don't think I should send a message. And I cannot go for obvious reasons."
Arron nodded. "I understand. Do you want me to ask if he will attend and officiate?'
"If you want, but he won't."
Arron looked at Jareth trying to read his expression, but Jareth had raised his goblet.
"When would you like me to leave."
"Tomorrow will be soon enough." Jareth decided to change the subject. "So tell me, what do you think of Sarah?"
Arron smiled, "I think she's very sweet. A beauty in the making. Melise likes her, she has offered to help with the wedding plans."
Jareth gave a long sigh of relief. "That would be excellent. I have very little time to organize the damned thing. I'm still working on the plans to rebuild the goblin city. I was going to ask the pixies to organize most of the wedding. It will be a relief to know the planning is in competent hands."
Jareth and Arron spoke for a few more hours, before each going their separate ways as they both had things to do before dinner.
As Jareth was getting ready for dinner, he paused in pulling on his long tailed frock coat. His mind replayed the words he said to Sarah; they were so unlike him. But, he'd had a sudden surge of protectiveness toward her. She was all alone in a strange world that she knew nothing about. The customs here were strange to her, as was the creatures that inhabited the Underground. As he stood there thinking about Sarah, he almost didn't feel the slender white arms of Pascal slide around his waist.
Seeing he was lost in thought, she moved to stand in front of him and pulled at a lock of his hair. "What has you so distracted? If I didn't know better, I would swear your mind has been elsewhere all afternoon." She pouted prettily and gave a deep sigh. "You'll forget all about me when you're married."
Jareth smiled down at her. "You know that's not true. So, you can stop your teasing."
Pascal smiled a wide smile, "Ah, Jareth, you know me so well, I will miss you when you no longer have need of me."
"What makes you think I'll no longer need you when I'm married?" Jareth was frowning now.
Pascal pulled a face at him. "Jareth, don't be silly. You think I don't know you've been thinking about her all afternoon? " She waked away from him to begin dressing. "Anyway, that's as it should be.
I'll tell you something I shall miss, my bedchamber. The chamber you have moved me to is so much smaller."
"Well, you did insist on having the queen's chambers. Moving out should hardly surprise you now that the girl has come."
Pascal didn't answer him, she just stuck out her tongue and searched for her clothes.
Jareth was not surprised that Pascal seemed not to mind his forthcoming marriage. Their relationship had never been a love match. They had been friends for more years than he cared to count. They had started sleeping together after they had both grown bored of all the back biting and gossiping at court--who was sleeping with and plotting against whom. They had made a pact that if either of them was at a loose end, they should turn to each other, and they had again and again. Jareth knew the only reason she was even staying at his castle was because she had been at the centre of a terrible row at court. She wouldn't tell him what it was about and he had given up asking. She had come to him to hide. Jareth didn't mind. She could stay with him as long as she wished and he had told her so.
Jareth broke himself out of his thoughts and watched her dress. She was a very beautiful woman, tall, almost as tall as himself. Her whole body reflected her joy of life.
"You're right! I have been thinking about her." He gave her a grin, "But not all afternoon. There were moments when I thought of only you."
Pascal smiled at him and batted her eyelashes. "So, come on then," she sat down on the side of the bed combing her fingers through her mussed hair. "Why does thinking about Sarah make you scowl so?"
Jareth sighed and said simply. "I don't think she's ready for marriage. I talked to her earlier and she seems very lost and alone."
Pascal thought carefully before giving her opinion. "She's very young, Jareth. What is she, fifteen or thereabouts?"
"Something like that, yes."
"Well, then maybe she just needs time. Why not postpone the wedding for a month or two?
At Jareth's thoughtful look, she added, "She still has to be trained to be a lady doesn't she?"
Jareth nodded.
"Well, then, if anyone says anything for delaying the wedding, tell them Sarah has to be trained to take her place as your queen before you marry."
Jareth smiled at her and pulled her to her feet, he traced the curve of her cheek. "Well, well, when did you get so old and wise?"
Pascal smiled mischievously, "The wisdom, my dear, has always been there. As to my age, you know what they say: you're only as old as the man you feel." To prove her point, she began caressing him before putting her hand to her mouth, her eyes sparkling with suppressed laughter. "Oh my god, I'm positively ancient."
She squealed with laughter as Jareth threw her on the bed growling, "I'll show you ancient."