I'm so sorry it's taken this long for me to update, I had a spell of writers block, I know where the story will end up but not how to get it there. Hope you enjoy, I wil update again as soon as possible. As always feedback is appreciated thank yous go out to the lovely people who've reveiwed my previous chapters.

Chapter 7

Jareth found it hard to plot revenge, the image of Sarah in his shirt kept popping into his head. The lace of her bra showing through the thin white cotton and glimpses of her d colletage from the low v of the shirts' collar. Her hand snaking round his waist had been torture. Even knowing what he could do to her and her little family she was playing with him.

No, he told himself. Sarah had to be punished after what she did. Smiling in her sleep when she heard his voice, less than a day ago, she had uttered Jareth's name for the first time within his hearing. How could she raise another man's child and still dream that he would come back to her? He was not a forgiving man, he told himself, or hadn't ever been before.

But what to do? How to deal with the one woman that had always confused him, had always been unpredictable and had refused him. Should he cut off all her ties to the underground to her 'friends'? That would annoy her certainly but was annoyance all he was after? What could he do that would leave her devastated and broken? He wanted her to suffer like he had for nine years. But she'd said she hadn't understood about what he was asking of her, human courtship rituals having moved on since the fae lived among mortals maybe she hadn't. Jareth's own mind was at war over how to proceed, a rare occurrence.

"At least the laughter has stopped." He muttered to himself.

"So what are your feelings for my stepson." Queen Titania asked, hoping that the answer was good news for the lonely king. She often worried about him.

"I don't know, honestly." Sarah picked up Jay to comfort herself. "Since I won Toby back all I could imagine was that Jareth would appear and be my knight in shining armour, save me from a world without magic. I waited for nine years and he never appeared. I thought about calling out to him so many times, but what if he laughed in my face, taunted me for being such a na ve little girl, told me it was all a trick. I'd rather have my perfect dream never come true than to see it shattered. So I had to save myself, I built a career, became a mother. Yet my heart still aches for him."

"You love him?" Titania wished that the answer could be and affirmative.

"I hardly even know him," Sarah looked into her little boys face avoiding Titania's eye trying to bury the feelings that were bringing tears to her eyes, "that's all my experiences in the underground have ever taught me."

"Yet you still wait for him?" The mortals thought process confused her.

"I don't know what else to do, I still want that dream."

"And do you know what his feelings for you are?"

"Contempt, anger, disappointment, attraction, lust. I don't think Jareth knows how to handle being near me, dealing with me, he never has. When I was here last time he said he was only "living up to my expectations of him". Maybe I had to refuse him so we could both grow up."

Titania couldn't help agreeing slightly, her stepson still had yet to mature. "I must go and finish my conversation with my stepson. Who knows what he might get up to if left alone to long."

"Please don't tell him about Jay, I will tell him myself, when the time is right."

"Sarah, if he does something... childish and you need me?" The High Queen left the question hanging.

"I'll call."

Having managed to sneak back into the castle, not a difficult task, Sir Didymus and Hoggle then had to find a goblin that would tell them where Sarah was, their King having locked himself in the throne room, which would be. Usually the public areas of the castle would be crawling with them but for some reason the castle was deserted.

The pair had been walking the ground floor of the castle for almost half an hour. As they came to a set of stairs they had walked past at least twice previously Hoggle couldn't take anymore.

"This is useless!" The dwarf exclaimed.

"Calm yourself, brother, we must proceed with our task."

"I is calm!" He shouted. "We just ain't getting nowhere."

"Let us think carefully," The little knight tried to think logically, "we would know if she had left the underground and she is not with our King. Would she have gone to be with the child?"

"That's just guessin'!"

"If that is what we must do..."

"Fine. That rat keeps the children this way." Hoggle began leading the fox up the stairs.

The Goblin King was still sat brooding, one leg thrown over the arm of his throne, when his stepmother reappeared.

"Jareth." She said simply to get his attention.

Feeling almost like a teenager again he looked up at his stepmother half preparing himself for a lecture.

"You cared about Sarah didn't you?" She asked bluntly.

"I see my lovely guest has been telling you stories."

"She said you once proposed to her yes. Do you still love her?" The High Queen watched him carefully

It wasn't a question he was expecting. "I did, until she betrayed me." Oddly he found he couldn't inject the needed venom into his voice to sound angry.

"And you are sure that she has done something so very terrible? A decade is a long time to a mortal, especially if you are spending it alone." Titania knew she had to try and get her son to see reason.

"I waited for someone like her for hundreds of years. She is unique and so wasted in that world, when I saw her..." His voice trailed off.

"You sought to keep her." Titania let her disappointment in that action show in her voice.

"She was too innocent to understand."

"Sarah cares for you though you have done nothing I can see to deserve her affection."

"It's too late for that. She had nine years to call for me."

Titania gave a short laugh. "It makes perfect sense that you would chose a woman who has more pride even than you. I warn you that if you hurt that glorious young woman, any more than you have already, there will be consequences." Jareth made no reply. "I bid you good day. Hail and farewell Jareth, King of the Goblins I will tell your father, Oberon, that you are well." And with that she transported herself home.

Sarah knew she was avoiding the inevitable, but she wasn't quite ready to go another round with Jareth not just yet. She enjoyed having little Jay in her arms, she often wondered what life would have been like if she had called out to the Goblin King. "Could you have been his child I wonder?" she mused out loud.

"He likes children." The old nurse spoke for the first time.

"I know."

"The fae find it hard to have little ones, it's why this kingdom is important, he brings children to those that want them, never keeps any for himself."

Sarah didn't feel so very confident any more, she felt fifteen again faced with the prospect of failure and a loss of faith in herself. She looked down into the face of her adopted son knowing that she had made a difference there. He seemed so very content to just sleep in her arms.

"I will always be there for you little one."

Hoggle had finally gotten his bearings and taken Sir Didymus to the nursery. Both were tired and weary only the knowledge that they had to talk to Sarah had kept them going.

They entered the nursery and were glad to see that Sarah was indeed inside. She was sitting in a rocking chair holding the sleeping babe, she had dozed off herself. The two friends rushed over, but couldn't wake her feeling the magic of an enchantment radiating off the slumbering woman.

They hovered around her hoping that they were not too late for the second time that day.