Sarah strolled around the garden of the Winter Palace. She had been living there since an attack on the Goblin City a few months before. She had not seen Jareth since then either. The impending peace talks between the Fae and the Ogres were keeping him in his city. He had pleaded with Sarah to go and stay at the Palace, hidden deep in the Forest of Shadows, within the Labyrinth. The idea had infuriated her; if she were to be Jareth's bride then surely she should be there for her future subjects too. An attack in the inner chambers of the castle had made her reconsider the idea.

She crouched by the lake, fingers playing in the cold water. Winter would indeed be upon them soon, and the Palace would be covered in snow, and Jareth assured her he would be with her by then. Several times a day she would receive presents from him, watching the glass bubbles float through the air to her, wherever she happened to be in the Palace. She had started to think of home less frequently these days, she missed them, but she had locked her past into the deepest recess of her brain, she didn't want those thoughts to destroy what she had with Jareth. She was so relaxed here. No one expected anything of her, no one pressuring her to do what they wanted. She was a free spirit. It had been almost a year, in the Goblin world that she had first come to the city and to Jareth. She knew, from one of their many post coital confessions that her free will and stubbornness was what Jareth had fallen for first.

She stood and gathered her skirts up, careful not to let them trail in the mud. Lately she had been using any excuse to talk to the people who worked at the Palace. Despite her happiness, she had begun to feel lonely. She had her old friends, Hoggle Sir Didymus and of course Ludo, but she wanted to play, to talk, to do anything with someone she could try and relate to. She had started talking to her handmaidens, Angelica and Arnica. They were daughters of the elf who kept the Palace in the months that Jareth left it unused and Sarah found them as different as chalk and cheese. Angelica was tall and slender, hair so blond it was almost white and had the sweetest spirit of anyone she had ever met. They could talk for hours about nothing in particular and Sarah enjoyed the mornings that brought Angelica with the breakfast tray. Arnica was entirely different, short, and almost stocky, with dirtier blond hair. Her eyes were harsh and cold whenever she greeted Sarah, and she had a nasty, venomous tongue. Sarah had been glad when Arnica had been relegated to cleaning the ground floor rooms and not the private chambers of the King and his lover.

Sarah shivered as a cold wind penetrated the trees that provided the privacy and safety the palace needed. She never ventured outside the palace grounds. She had been warned of what she might find, or what might find her. Jareth had been especially cautious.

"You've seen the dangers of the Labyrinth for yourself Sarah, and there are even worse things out there in the wood, things that are beyond even your wildest imagination…please, stay inside the Palace walls."

Sarah had discovered no need to leave the palace. Everything she lacked had been provided and the grounds and gardens were extensive enough to satisfy her curious nature.

She walked slowly along the path, and soon enough the palace came back into view, the wonderfully strange blue brickwork dominating the horizon, the many windows glinting in the fading evening sun. She mounted the countless steps up to the entrance and was greeted by Angelica, standing by the door with a heavy woollen robe held out for her.

"We don't want you becoming ill for his majesty's return" she smiled as Sarah stepped into the robe.

"Thank you Angelica, I keep forgetting how cold it becomes"

Arnica swooped passed them, acknowledging them both but walked on, unsmiling.

"I don't know how you two are sisters, you're so different!"

Angelica flushed and gathered her skirts, ready to leave.

"Will you want dinner in your room tonight?"

"Please Angelica, thank you. The dining room is just too big for one"

Angelica caught the sorrow in Sarah's voice.

"He'll be home soon"

She withdrew quickly and Sarah started up the staircase to the private rooms on the second floor.