Sarah sighed resignedly as she trudged up the stairs, clutching the bundle of rags in which she'd concealed the music box. She supposed she was lucky that Irene hadn't noticed the box, but she was sick of being ordered around nonetheless. She was used to her stepmother's cruel and callous treatment by now, but really, she hadn't done anything to deserve it. It wasn't fair.

Toby chose that moment to let out a loud wail, pulling Sarah back to reality. She sighed again and hastened her pace. For now, she'd put up with it, keep it down, take the music box as a small victory. Who knew? Maybe it meant things were starting to turn in her favour. Although, Sarah reflected as Toby screeched, that was a little hard to believe.


Lance jumped as a loud knock resounded through the house. He hurried to open the front door and was startled to see a goblin standing there. The goblin started to speak, and it was obvious he'd tried his best to rehearse the speech.

"Ladies and gentlegoblins, I am here to deliver informations to His Nibs'- uh, His Majesty the Goblin King's royal ball."

Lance blinked, confused. "Uh -"

"Is this the residence of the Duchess of Batons?" The goblin continued, interrupting.

"Yes, but -" Lance was cut off again. Another goblin had arrived, and began to berate the first.

"Did you give them the invitations yet?"

The first goblin laughed. "No, I haven't given him the informations yet."

"His Nibs said 'invitations'."

"No, His Nibs specifically said they was informations."

"Well, you're wrong."

"Are you calling His Nibs a liar?"

"No, I'm calling you a liar."

"You insult me!"

Lance looked from one goblin to the other, growing more bewildered with every sentence. Both goblins were dressed rather smartly in the royal colours, which meant that they'd come from the palace. But even a uniform couldn't hide the fact that they were, after all, goblins through and through, which this pointless fight seemed only to be proving.

"I'll tell you what you can do with your 'informations' and your -"

"You just wait until we get back to the castle. His Nibs will have you dipped in the bog for calling him a liar!"

"We've been through this. I'm not calling His Nibs a liar!"

The first goblin paused, a look of dawning comprehension disfiguring his already none-too-lovely face. "That's right, you was calling me a liar!"

"No, I'm calling you a bloody idiot!"

Lance shook his head.


Toby was screaming loud enough to wake the dead when Sarah walked into his and his mother's bedroom. "Oh, stop it," she told him, knowing that it would have no effect. When Toby decided he was going to put up a fuss, it took nothing short of hours to make him calm down again. "You're not a baby anymore, and it's not my fault that you still act like one, so why do you have to punish me for it?"

Setting the music box , still securely concealed in its wrappings, down on the bed, Sarah strode over to the crib and scooped Toby out of it, rocking him gently and gritting her teeth against the most piercing of his wails. "Oh, please stop," she begged him. She'd have to hide the music box somewhere in her room soon, or Irene might walk in and find it. The sooner she could get Toby to stop screaming, the sooner she could get the music box to her room. "What do you want, huh? A story? A song? Are you hungry, Toby?"

Toby just took a deep breath and let it out in one long siren howl.

"Did you just want someone to pay attention to you, huh?" Sarah asked, switching her grip on her half-brother so that he rested against her hip, supported by one arm. She bounced him gently, debating whether or not she could get away with carrying him all the way into her attic bedroom. Better not to, she finally decided.

She hadn't been expecting an answer to her query, and so was very surprised when Toby, tearfully, nodded his head.

"Don't we all," Sarah sighed. Walking over to the bed, she set her little brother down and flopped down beside him. "Well, I'm here now, so will you stop squalling? Please? For me?"

Toby shook his head and burst into a fury of fresh screams.

Somewhere inside Sarah, something went pop. This was her life from now on? She hadn't even meant for it to go on this long! And both Toby and Irene were so ungrateful, even though Sarah did everything they asked and more. She couldn't take any more of this, really she couldn't!

Squeezing her hands over her ears to block out Toby's ear-splitting wails, Sarah shouted at the listening walls, at the empty air, at the universe in general. "Somebody, please, save me! Somebody take me away from this awful place!"

Outside, the sun slipped silently under the cover of a protective cloud. The room darkened as quickly as Sarah's mood had. Taking a deep breath and resisting an urge to beat against the walls, the windows, the bedposts with clenched fists, Sarah picked Toby back up and lowered him, protesting loudly, back into the crib. But then she stopped. Just as it wasn't fair that she had to suffer for Irene's every whim, it wasn't fair that Toby should suffer for Sarah's bad mood. None of this was his fault. He was just a child.

Leaning down, Sarah placed a kiss on her little brother's forehead. Toby abruptly stopped shrieking, possibly from shock. Sarah never did that.

Seizing the moment, she tiptoed across to the bed, grabbed the music box in its cocoon, and hurried to the door, slipping it open as quietly as she could. Just before she left the room, though, Sarah stopped and looked back at her little brother. Still no screams.

Shaking her head at the apparent miracle that had taken place, Sarah stepped out and swung the door closed behind her. As she hurried towards her bedroom, however, she was stopped dead in her tracks by the sound of angry voices.

That's not Irene, Sarah thought worriedly. Or Cook. Or Lance. But we never get visitors. Who could it be?

Still moving as quietly as she could, Sarah snuck over to the top of the stairs and looked down towards the open front door, not wanting to miss anything.


Irene chose that moment to come to the door.

"What is going on here?" she asked tersely. The goblins continued to argue.

'That'll teach you to call me an idiot!" The goblins had launched themselves at each other as Irene and Lance watched in complete shock. Irene, as usual, came to her senses first.

"Just give me the damn invitations," she said coldly, glad for once that Toby'd been upset. Sarah would still be upstairs trying to calm him. She needn't have any idea there was a ball taking place at all.

The goblins froze, looking quite comical. Triumphant, the second goblin cackled, "See, I told you they was invitations!"

The other goblin grumbled something obscene and pulled from a delivery satchel an engraved white card, complete with gold embossing, holding it out to Irene. She looked it over with an expression that was less that delighted, and then nodded.

"Hmm. Thank you, I suppose," she said curtly, and shut the door on the goblins, who abruptly began to scuffle again.


Sarah waited until Irene had swept into the parlour before ducking into her room and placing the music box on her vanity, pausing to admire the way it looked before the little white-framed mirror. Sarah counted herself lucky that Irene preferred the heavy, expensive mahogany furniture that Sarah's father and mother had received as a wedding gift. The vanity had been Sarah's mother's before she'd met Robert. Irene, on seeing it, had consigned it to the attic, forgetting that she'd done the same to Sarah herself. Sarah had decided to take this to mean she could have the vanity.

Once she was satisfied with the position of the music box, she rushed back out, knowing that things would go badly for her if she were missing for too long. Rushing down the stairs, she looked about for Lance, determined to find out what all the fuss had been about.

She found him in the kitchen, scrubbing dishes while the cook dried. As Sarah entered the room, the cook started, then relaxed. "Oh, it's only you. Well, you can do this job," she ordered Sarah impatiently. "I haven't time for this. There's roasts that need preparing, jam that needs making, loaves that need baking…" The cook continued her litany as she bustled off to whatever she was planning, leaving Lance and Sarah alone.

Grabbing a towel and a wet plate, Sarah asked, "What did those goblins at the door want?"

Lance shrugged, then buried his arms to the elbows in the sudsy water. "I don't really know. Something about invitations or something. Irene took the invitations before I could find out what they were for, though."

"Hmm," Sarah muttered, setting the dry plate aside. She'd have to talk to her stepmother.


AN: OHGODIT'SBEENALONGTIME.

Insert the most sincere, longest apology you can imagine here, because I really can't apologise enough or thank you enough for sticking around, encouraging us, and leaving little comments telling us to get our butts in gear. It's been a long summer, long enough for a lot to happen and for both me and Chloe to get a little...shall we say distracted? Hopefully things will be back on track now, as I'm discovering I work well under pressure and she's discovering that it's nigh impossible for us to keep in constant enough contact to keep this up when we're not in school together. Hopefully we can finish the story before I graduate...

Thank you again a million times over for putting up with us.