Special thanks to my incredibly talented friend and beta, Scattered Logic.
Written by: Cormak
Chapter 26: What fairytales are made of...
Jacob walked casually up the stairs, a lantern in one hand and something else in the other. The dogs began to wag their tails when they saw him approach. He held out a piece of scrap meat and the dogs immediately left their post and followed him down the stairs.
Jareth stood in the shadows of the study and as soon as Jacob disappeared into the kitchen with the dogs, Jareth quickly and quietly went up the stairs. Without even knocking, he threw Sarah's door open and rushed into the room, closing the door quietly behind him.
Sarah was lying on her bed looking toward the window. She startled at the sound of the door opening and closing. She turned to see who had entered and then got to her feet.
"Jareth?"
"We don't have much time," he told her as he moved across the room toward her.
Sarah's brows furrowed. "Time for what? Time for you to ignore me some more?" She crossed her arms over her chest and looked away.
Jareth halted. "You're angry with me," he stated.
Sarah turned to glare at him. "You're damn right I am! You ignored me for days as if I didn't mean a thing to you! And you're just going to waltz in here and expect for things to be fine?"
Her words made Jareth's heart ache in his chest. "Keep your voice down or she will hear us. We don't have time to argue. We can discuss this later." He reached for her hand and she withdrew from him. "Sarah, please"
Sarah was angry and hurt, yet the moment that Jareth looked upset she felt her resolve begin to crack and give way. She raised her head defiantly, refusing to give in completely. "Where would we go?"
"Away from the house for just a short while. Jacob has bought us some time so that I may explain everything."
Sarah's eyes widened. "Jacob?"
Jareth nodded. "Yes. We don't have much time. Help me take the sheets and blankets off your bed and tie them together."
"What? Why?" Her brows furrowed in confusion.
Jareth moved to the bed and began to strip the bed of its dressing. "Because we can't just waltz out the front door."
Sarah gave an annoyed sigh and helped him create a 'rope' of sheets and blankets. They tied it to one of the bedposts and threw the loose end out the window. Jareth tested his weight on it and climbed down the side of the house. He made it to the bottom and Sarah began to climb down after him. She was halfway down when a loud ripping was heard.
Sarah looked up to see that one of the sheets was giving way.
"Jump, I'll catch you," Jareth told her.
Sarah hesitated when she saw how far down the ground was. She took a deep breath and then released the 'rope'. Jareth caught her effortlessly in his arms. He placed her on her feet and taking her hand; he tugged her after him into the woods.
They ran for some time before Jareth stopped, panting and out of breath.
"What the hell is going on?" Sarah asked.
Jareth glanced at her for a moment and then moved forward quickly. He captured Sarah in his arms. He kissed her neck and moved to kiss her mouth but she tore violently away from him. The expression of hurt that registered on Jareth's face made Sarah's heart twist painfully in her chest.
"Sarah, don't do this I can explain."
"Oh, sure. You're going to explain to me why you weren't man or Fae or whatever enough to deal with Mrs. Henry? You're going to explain to me why my letters went unanswered?"
He nodded, moving forward to touch her hair. "Yes. I will explain everything."
* * *
Mrs. Henry yawned and opened the door to her bedroom. She thought she had heard voices. She moved down the hallway. Everything was quiet now and she was about to turn back when she realized that something was wrong.
The dogs were not sleeping outside Sarah's door.
Her eyes narrowed in suspicion. She let out a low whistle, which the dogs normally responded to, and was rewarded with silence.
"Dogs?" She whistled again. Nothing. Not wasting any more time, she rushed to Sarah's door. She raised her hand to the door and knocked loudly. "Sarah, dear, are you in there? Sarah?" When she received no reply, she threw the door open and gasped.
The room was empty and the bed was stripped of its sheets and blankets. She noticed they had been tied together and that they went out the window across the room.
Mrs. Henry quickly rushed to the window and peered outside. She could feel herself flushing with anger.
She left the room and ran down the stairs. She saw Jacob sitting by the fire in the living room, reading the newspaper and the dogs were settled comfortably at his feet.
"You fool!" she cried out at him.
"Hmm?" he mumbled, not looking up at her.
"Jacob, the dogs were supposed to be guarding her room! Where's Jareth? He took Sarah, didn't he?" Her words came out hurriedly.
Jacob continued to read as if his mother had not said anything important. "I don't know where they are," he told her.
"You have to find them! It's not safe to be outside with the war stirring around us!"
Jacob set down his newspaper calmly on the table beside the chair. "Perhaps you should have thought of that before you acted so insensitively." He picked up his paper and resumed reading.
* * *
Jareth realized that he wasn't getting anywhere fast. Sarah couldn't seem to move on from her belief that he might not truly care for her. While it hurt Jareth for her to even think such thoughts, he had to realize that Sarah couldn't change her fears in the matter of a few days or a week. There would always be the fear within her that he might leave. He would need to show her it would not happen.
"You wouldn't look at meyou wouldn't even try to talk to me," she rambled on.
Jareth's hand shot out and grasped Sarah's chin. She didn't expect the movement and she froze. "Before you continue on about what I did and didn't do, perhaps you should let me get a few words in, hmm?" His tone dropped a few degrees.
Sarah nodded very slowly.
He released her and stepped away. He began pacing around her with his hands clasped behind his back.
"You have no idea what that woman has put me through. I trusted her, believed she had our best interests at heart but I was wrong." Jareth stopped pacing and looked into Sarah's eyes.
"I could not go to you as you and I wanted. To do such a thing would have angered Mrs. Henry to the point where she might have cast me from the house. The woman threatened me, Sarah. Repeatedly, to keep me in line."
Sarah opened her mouth to say something and Jareth shook his head.
He stepped closer, towering over her. "She promised me that if I made one wrong move, that I would be cast from the house without you. She was prepared to do whatever it took to separate us. I simply was not willing to risk confrontation with her. Losing you was not worth that risk."
Sarah's angry expression softened at his words. "She threatened me, too, Jareth. I lived with the fear each day that if you lost your temper that I'd wake up and you'd be gone."
Jareth's eyebrows rose. "She threatened you as well?"
Sarah nodded. "But I can't understand why. She's made lots of excuses that I didn't buy into. What I really don't understand is why would she try to pair us together and then separate us?"
"I don't believe that she was ever serious about pairing us. I do believe that the woman can't sit still for a moment and enjoys meddling. She used us for her own selfish purposes."
"What do you mean 'used us'?"
Jareth put his hands on his slender hips. "Remember when we were trying to figure out why she would pair us together in the first place?"
Sarah nodded.
"You were right about Jacob. Mrs. Henry didn't want her son to be attracted to you. So she pushed us toward each other. She thought that we would find an attraction and that her son would forget about you when he saw us together. That happened as she had hoped and I think she truly believed that nothing more would happen between us."
"But why? That's so cruel! Not only to us but to Jacob!" Sarah cried out.
"I'm not disagreeing. We've seen a side of Mrs. Henry that we didn't expect to see." Jareth sighed. "She thought nothing would happen between us and if Jacob had not told her otherwise, things might have been fine. Mrs. Henry didn't count on us actually falling in love and now that it's happened and out in the open, she's using every excuse to break us apart."
Tears clouded Sarah's eyes. "I trusted that woman. I poured my heart out to her when I was having nightmares. Why is she doing this to us?"
"I've come to two conclusions. One is that the death of her sister really did traumatize her and now she is trying to correct a wrong or she truly does not approve of me."
Sarah's brows furrowed. "What happened to her sister?"
Jareth leaned against a nearby tree and crossed his arms over his chest. "She fell in love with a man and they broke the traditional rules of courting. She became pregnant and he left her. She raised her son alone. The man grew to be wealthy and took a wife. He didn't want his reputation tarnished if anyone learned that he had an illegitimate child. So, he arranged for the murder of Mrs. Henry's sister and his own son."
Sarah gasped and her hands covered her mouth. "That's horrible. How could someone do something like that?"
"The same way that parents could abandon their children" Jareth looked deep into Sarah's eyes and she knew that he was referring to them both as well as all the children that had ever been wished away to him. "Because they are selfish and care for no one but themselves."
Jareth began to pace again. "Jacob believes that his mother wants to protect you from me. She fears I might do something similar to what happened to her sister. He believes that his mother feels guilty for not being able to protect her younger sister and that is why she's trying to pull you away from me."
"She doesn't want the past to repeat itself," Sarah said aloud.
Jareth laughed softly, though it was obvious that he wasn't amused. "I can almost understand her reasoning, but my thoughts won't allow me to."
Sarah frowned. "Why not?"
"It's obvious that the woman doesn't like me and she never has. She's probably still cursing me for using her daughter like I did. But I never hurt Elizabeth to the extent that Mrs. Henry has hurt us." He sighed.
"There are so many things to take into account," he continued. "The tragedy of her sister and nephew, her dislike of me and, of course, the fact that you and I purposely ignored the rules involved in courting. Perhaps it's all of them. We may never know."
Jareth stopped his pacing and moved toward Sarah. He reached out and brushed her hair behind her ears. "The pain she put me through As if threatening me with having to leave you wasn't enough, she threatened to marry you off to another man."
Sarah's eyes widened. "What?"
Jareth absentmindedly stroked Sarah's silky hair. "She told me that she wanted you to have a wealthy man take care of you for the rest of your life and that man would tend to the needs of you and your future children. Here I have no money, no land and affection doesn't seem to matter. She believes you'd learn to fall in love with another man." Jareth lowered his head.
"But I don't want another man! I want you."
Jareth looked up and Sarah could see the hurt shining in his eyes. Mrs. Henry had hurt him and so had she. She had actually let herself believe that he didn't love her when it was so far from the truth.
"We broke the rules of this world and we were reckless in our passion, Sarah," he told her. "We didn't think about the consequences of our actions."
Sarah's eyes widened as she put things together. "You think I'm pregnant, don't you? Or you're afraid that I could be." Sarah lowered her head as tears filled her eyes. If Jareth didn't want a pregnancy then perhaps he didn't love her after all.
Jareth reached for her chin and forced her to look at him. "Sarah, if you are carrying my child, I will be the happiest man alive. But I don't want you to believe that something I have to ask you would only occur because you might be carrying my child."
Sarah looked confused. "If I tell you that I'm not pregnant will it change anything?"
Jareth shook his head. "No. My feelings toward the matter will not change."
Sarah looked down at her hands clasped together in front of her and watched as they shook due to her nervousness. "Well, before you say anything further, I'm not pregnant."
Jareth's eyes widened. "How can you be so sure? Isn't it too soon to know whether you are or you are not?"
Sarah chanced a look at Jareth. "I may be naive and inexperienced in many things, but I know enough about myself to know that I'm not pregnant."
"How?" Jareth persisted. "Do you have magic that I don't know about?"
Sarah shook her head. "No. I don't need magic to know. Something happens each month to a woman. A cycle. If a woman continues to get that cycle each month then she's not pregnant. If she doesn't get it, then she is pregnant. I just had my cycle, so I can't be pregnant."
Jareth sighed. "I have mixed feelings about this," he told her honestly. He moved forward to pull her into his arms. Sarah didn't resist. "A part of me was hoping that you were carrying my child and another part of me is relieved that you are not." He frowned. "How can that happen?"
Sarah glanced away into the dark woods as she pressed her cheek against Jareth's chest. She could hear the pounding of his heart beneath her ear. "I can understand that, I guess. I mean, all week I was worried about if I was pregnant or not. I realized that I had slept with you twice and there was the possibility that I could be pregnant. That thrilled me and it frightened me."
She felt Jareth's arms tighten around her. "I didn't know how I was going to tell you if I turned out to be pregnant. We weren't allowed to speak to each other. We kept growing farther apart and it frightened me to think I might have to raise a baby alone."
Jareth pulled her closer to him. "You would never raise my child alone. Any children we create will receive nothing but love from us both." He began to stroke her hair again. "I was also concerned that you could be with child. Initially, I had not weighed the possibility of a child being conceived from our union. Human women are prolific. I had forgotten that."
Sarah sighed. "I guess we don't have to worry about it for now. We'll just have to be careful in the future."
Jareth nodded.
Sarah let out a soft chuckle. "Mrs. Henry is probably having a cow if she's discovered we're gone. She checks in on both of us constantly."
"A cow? How can a human woman give birth to livestock?" Jareth looked very confused.
Sarah pulled back and laughed at the expression on his face. "It's a figure of speech. It means that she is probably flipping out."
Jareth nodded. "I hope she is 'having a cow' as you said," Jareth told Sarah as he tilted his head and gazed down at her.
Stepping back just a little, he twisted his hand and a crystal appeared on his fingertips. He gazed into it. There was no sound, but the images of Jacob and Mrs. Henry appeared within the smooth glass. They were both very animated.
"They are arguing, and probably over us." Jareth told her.
"What should we do? If we go back to the house there's the risk that this happens all over again." Her expression was one of fear.
Jareth caressed her cheek with the backs of his fingers. "I don't doubt that Jacob would intervene if she tried anything. He doesn't agree what she is doing and she has no valid reason to cast me from the house. Especially when she realizes that you are not with child and that my intentions toward you have been nothing but honorable."
Sarah's brows drew together. "I don't understand."
Jareth twirled his hand and the crystal disappeared. With another flick of his wrist something appeared in his palm and he closed his fingers around it.
"I know it's not beautiful or magnificent as it should be, but I felt it would mean more if it wasn't created with magic. Or ruined by my unsteady magic," he teased.
Sarah smiled.
Jareth extended his hand toward Sarah and slowly opened his fingers.
Sarah gasped when she saw what was resting on the center of his palm.
A ring... A crude one made from copper wire that he had twisted together and a rose quartz stone he'd polished and set into the ring he had made.
Sarah felt tears sting her eyes and her hands went to cover her mouth. Was this what she thought it could be?
"I would ask for your hand in marriage, Sarah Williams. With the promise and agreement that I would see to your care and that of any children we may have for eternity."
Sarah looked into Jareth's mismatched eyes as he continued.
He moved closer to her and gazed deep into her eyes. "My kingdom is not prestigious or as beautiful as the lands you must believe fairytales are made of. Ruling the Labyrinth is a great effort. But I feel that ruling would be worth more if I had you by my side to share the responsibility."
Tears began to stream down Sarah's cheeks.
"Times will not always be easy and you will be bound within the walls of the Labyrinth for your own safety. It would be too much of a risk for you to ever leave its boundaries. But I will do my best to see that you are comfortable and happy if you choose to rule beside me. I will give you time to think over your answer if you require it," he finished softly.
Sarah lowered her head, breaking eye contact with Jareth. She knew if she agreed to marry him that life wouldn't be easy. They had the Labyrinth to rebuild and she would be trapped within it because she was mortal. That meant that she would never see her family again. She wouldn't be able to watch her baby brother grow up into the fine young man she knew he would become. She wouldn't finish high school or go to college and get a career or anything else that was considered normal.
She raised her head and gazed into Jareth's eyes. Her eyes left his and she looked him over. She trailed her eyes over his wild blond hair that spiked out in different directions and was short at the top and long at the bottom. Her eyes roamed over the pale skin of his face and the strange markings around his eyes that no one here had even noticed or made mention of. Her eyes finally met his again.
Could she give up everything she knew for one man?
"Yes." She reached her hand out and stroked his cheek, the tears still spilling down her face. She smiled at his confused expression. "I'll marry you."
Jareth felt his heart race in his chest, but he wouldn't give in to false hope so prematurely. "You must be certain that a life with me in the Labyrinth is what you want, Sarah. I will not see you unhappy beside me."
"I'm certain. Jareth, I love you and I want to be with you forever" It was the honest truth and it had surprisingly been an easy decision to make.
When times had been bad, she'd dreamed of her prince charming asking her to marry him. Fairytales had been an easy escape and a temporary solution to have the things her parents and friends never offered her. While Jareth looked like he belonged in a fairytale, she knew he wasn't one, because fairytales received the easy life. Jareth's life had been far from easy. Jareth offered Sarah the one thing she had wanted most in her life. Until meeting him, she had never received it. The feeling of being in love and more importantly, being loved in return.
Jareth reached for her hand and slipped the ring onto one of her fingers. It was slightly too big, but Sarah wasn't concerned with that.
"It's beautiful..." She smiled through her tears. "Did you really make it yourself?"
He nodded. "I crafted it while we were apart." He moved forward and pulled her into his arms.
"I love it just as I love you," she told him.
He smiled and then lowered his head, kissing her firmly on the lips. The kiss continued for a few moments, growing more intense with each passing second as tongues fought for dominance and hands moved blindly over flesh.
Regretfully, Jareth broke the kiss and moved back, smiling broadly. "We should return to the house to express the good news."
Sarah smiled and noticed that Jareth was positively beaming. She nodded eagerly and wrapped her arms around Jareth's waist as they began to walk.
The further they walked, the more Jareth's smile faded. He wondered what Mrs. Henry's reaction would be to the news of their engagement. He also half wondered if Mrs. Henry had some Fae blood in her. While it was highly unlikely, her knack for manipulation and cruelty nearly matched his. Jareth didn't enjoy being challenged and it was about time that the Goblin King made an appearance, even if it was a subtle one.
To be continued...
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