At least two of you have correctly figured out the inspiration for this story! It was the baskets wasn't it? Never trust baskets. Sit tight, because this chapter is long. I'm making up for how short the other ones have been.

When Sarah woke up the next morning, Turlach was gone. Even though her slumber had been restless and sporadic, she had not noticed when he left. It seemed the Fae could move with supernatural grace when needed. Even someone like her husband. Sarah frowned. She had taken to calling him her husband, but only because for the moment it seemed best not to upset the man she was dependent on. Even though he quite clearly did not want her for a wife any more than she wanted him for a husband, he seemed to have very… definite ideas about marriages. Sighing, she inspected her feet, and found that the wounds looked much better. Scabbing had formed on all the cuts, big and small alike, and the hideous tasting willow bark tea Turlach had been making for her seemed to be having some effect, because there was no sign of infection. For all his faults, at least he took care of her. Sarah suspected it had more to do with ensuring she would be up on her feet soon and thus useful to him, rather than any actual fondness.
After wrapping clean bandages around her feet, she filled her stomach with cold water again, and limped outside to sit on the chair by the door. It was early morning, and the rising sun was creating a swirling blanket of mist on the warming ground. Birds chirped on the trees and something rusted among the weeds choking the cottage garden. After a while, Sarah became aware of a jaunty whistling that seemed to be floating closer and closer in the stillness of the morning. She looked around, but could see no one, until someone strode into view on the road running past the house.

"Ah, there you are precious. Enjoying the married life?"

Sarah stared at the Goblin King, now leaning on the gatepost with his arms crossed and looking decidedly pleased with himself.

"What are you doing here."

"Sarah, I'm hurt!" Jareth said, pressing a hand to his chest theatrically, "Such a cold reception to an old friend! Naturally I have come to see how my favourite human is adjusting to life here in the Underground."

"You are not my friend, Jareth."

"No, I am not." He said, and fixed an intense gaze on her. "Such a pity, isn't it, that this is where you ended up in, rather than the castle in the city, precious?"

Sarah raised her head defiantly, "If you recall, I did not choose to be here anymore than I would have chosen to be at the castle."

"Always so sharp with your words, aren't you precious?" Jareth hissed, and stalked towards her making Sarah stiffen in her chair.

"You know, I could have made you my bride whether you wanted to or not. Those words of yours, "you have no power over me", they work only once. The moment you returned to the Aboveground I could have brought you back. But I didn't." He was leaning over her now, his face hovering only inches away. Sarah could feel her eyes widening in alarm and her heart beginning to hammer in her chest like it was attempting to escape. Blood was rushing through her veins and she knew, she just knew, that her cheeks were beginning to turn pink. Jareth smiled the same toothy smile that evoked images of sleek and powerful predators and whispered in her ear "You might like to consider why that is, precious." And just like that, he was gone.

Air escaped from Sarah's lungs in a loud burst. She hadn't even realised she had been holding her breath. Her cheeks still burning, she swore loudly, embarrassed at her own reaction. No matter how much she loathed and despised Jareth, her treacherous senses overwhelmed her whenever he came too close. It had been the same fifteen years ago, when he had almost kissed her at the ball. Angry at herself and at Jareth, Sarah stood up and limped back inside the house, where she found a cloth and began to furiously wipe away dust from everywhere she could reach. Cleaning had always helped her calm down, and she had prided herself on her tidy apartment. The mess in this cottage not only infuriated her, it offended her. It was as if someone had looked at her and thought "What would make her the most angry?" and chosen this.

After getting rid of as much dust as she could, she scrubbed the table and chairs and the big cauldron on the fire. She tried not to think whether it had ever been cleaned before, since this is what Turlach had been using for cooking their meals. Eventually her feet were hurting again and she sat heavily on the chair outside to rest them. Little dots of red had appeared on the bandages, suggesting that some of the scabbing had been torn. She pursed her lips and leaned her head back on the cottage wall.

"What on earth have I ever done to deserve this?" she muttered out loud.

You wished your brother away, whispered her inner voice as a reply. She shifted on the chair uneasily. Well, that was of course true, but she had been young then. Young and immature, and it seemed… unfair to keep punishing her for it this long. She smiled ruefully. Fair and unfair. She never seemed to be able to escape those two things, no matter how hard she tried.

"Well, at least I seem to be building a better basis for comparison now." She said mockingly, although she wasn't entirely sure whether she was mocking herself or Jareth or Turlach.

….

Someone was walking on the road passing the house again. She could hear the gravel crunching under their feet. She cracked open an eye to see who it was, and then her eyes flew open in surprise.

"Hoggle!" she screeched and leaped up on her chair. The squat figure passing the cottage yelped in surprise and fell over.

"What'd you go and yell like that for?" he demanded, getting up and grumbling all the while. When he eventually turned to look at her, his mouth dropped open.

"S-Sarah?!"

"That's right! It's me Hoggle!" Sarah couldn't contain her happiness, and smiled widely at him. Hoggle's expression darkened and her smile faded.

"Hoggle? What's wrong?"

"Nothin'! Nothin's wrong, except you went and forgot about us!" Hoggle accused, frowning at her.

"Oh Hoggle, I'm sorry." Sarah said sadly, "I didn't mean to. I just grew up."

"That ain't an excuse." Hoggle said offended "Just 'cos you grew up don't mean your memory suddenly stops working!" He turned away from her and started walking away, his back stiff with anger.

"No, Hoggle wait!" Sarah called desperately and tried to limp after him, before tripping on her own feet and falling with a loud thump. Hoggle turned to look at her and noticed her bandaged feet.

"Sarah, are you hurt?" A note of concern crept into his voice, despite himself.

Sarah hesitated before answering, thinking furiously.

"Yes, my feet are badly cut up. I don't think I can get back to the chair on my own." She said and looked at him pleadingly.

This time Hoggle hesitated, teetering between anger at being forgotten and his dislike of seeing his friend hurt. Eventually he let out a loud snort of derision and made his way to Sarah and helped her up. After depositing her into a chair inside the cottage, he looked around and then at her.

"What are you even doing here Sarah?" he asked, trying his best to keep frowning at her, even though his eyes kept wandering to the bandages on her feet which now had even more little red dots blossoming on them.

"It's a long story" Sarah answered.

Hoggle gave up. He was still angry, but he had missed her. Seeing her slowly forget about them had been hard on everyone. He sat down on a stool by the table and rubbed his face to calm down.

"Best tell me everything," he finally said.

As Sarah explained about her boyfriend and his wish, about Jareth and her marriage to Turlach, Hoggle's anger began to shift.

"That rat!" He exclaimed, "I knows he's an arrogant ass, but that's just the way the Fae are. I never would've thought he'd do something like this though!" He sat silently for a minute, frowning in concentration. "As a matter o' fact, I don't see no reason why he would do this…" he muttered more to himself.

"Because he enjoys seeing me suffer." Sarah said dryly.

Hoggle glanced at her from beneath his brows "Mebbe… well, anyway, you can't stay here! It's filthy!" he said in disgust and looked around.

"I don't want to stay here either, but I don't have any shoes, remember?" Hoggle looked at her feet thoughtfully.

"This Turlach fellow, he promised to bring you shoes, didn't he?"

"Yes, but I wouldn't count on him actually doing it."

"Well, don't you worry Sarah, I'll think of something! Let me go see Sir Didymus right now, and we'll be back before you know it!"

Sarah smiled at her friend, "Alright. I'm not going anywhere." Hoggle patted her hand and hurried out of the cottage, leaving her sitting by the table.

…

It had gotten dark when Turlach returned. There had been no sign of Hoggle, but Sarah didn't know how far it was to the Bog of Eternal Stench. Turlach was on a good mood. He was carrying a large sack on his back, which he thumped victoriously onto the table. From inside, he pulled a large loaf of bread, sausages, cheese, vegetables and a smaller sack of flour. Lastly he placed a small bundle in front of Sarah.

"Those are for you" he announced, flopped on a chair and began to stuff his mouth with chunks of bread and sausage. Sarah unwrapped the bundle and found a pair of black ankle boots, with lace fastenings on the front. They were worn, scuffed and old, but looked made to last. Off-white bundles of cloth stuffed inside of them turned out to be socks.

"Never can have too many socks" Turlach commented, his mouth full of food. Sarah glanced at him unimpressed. Fae were supposed to be elegant, weren't they?
She was about to put away the cloth the shoes were wrapped in, when she suddenly realised it was a piece of clothing as well. It was a dress that might have once been emerald green, but had faded into a patchy dull colour. It had been patched in several places, and the buttons on the front and in the tight fitting sleeves were all mismatched.

"What's this?" Sarah asked, lifting one brow at Turlach.

"A dress." He said, still eating. "I don't know how it is where you come from, but here women don't wear trousers. It's indecent." He said and looked at her legs pointedly.

"For someone who had no money yesterday, you sure bought a lot of things." Sarah shot back.

"I make good baskets, I will have you know! There are parts of the Goblin city where they appreciate fine craftsmanship!" Turlach said defensively and pulled a small bottle from somewhere on his person. Sarah eyed him suspiciously as he took a swig from the bottle and deposited it back inside his waistcoat. It smelled foul, but seemed to have absolutely no effect on him.

"I'm going to bed," he announced. "I've had a long day trying to get us these small comforts in life, and all I get in return is a wife with a bad attitude." With that, he dramatically swept to the bed, pulled off his boots and lay down with his back to her. She stared at him for a while, wondering whether all Fae were this theatrical. Although, she had to admit she may have been a little harsher than she had meant. He just seemed to push all the same buttons on her temper as Jareth…

"Thank you" she finally said to his back. "For the shoes. And the dress… and the food too." The only response from the bed was a snore.

…

The next morning, Turlach left for the market again, saying he had some money left over from the baskets and was going to find a way to make more. Sarah stared after him suspiciously. No matter how good his baskets were, it seemed highly unlikely he would have made such a profit. Suddenly her eyes narrowed, and she turned to look at the drunk he had deposited her dress in. It sat innocently by Turlach's bed, motes of dust dancing in the air around it, even though she had been trying her best to clean. Opening the lid, she lifted out the dress and inspected it. On first glance, nothing seemed to be wrong, but she had keen eyes and eventually she noticed that a part of the embroidery on the neckline seemed to be missing two small gems.

"That bastard!" She exclaimed furiously.

"Who?" came a voice from the doorway. Sarah turned to look, and saw a grinning Hoggle standing there, Sir Didymus behind him.

"My lady!" Sir Didymus crowed in delight "I am absolutely overjoyed to see you again!"

"Sir Didymus!" Sarah smiled and hugged the little knight.

"Hey! What're you hugging him for! You never hugged me yesterday!" Hoggle protested, making Sarah laugh and give him a hug too.

"Where's Ludo?" She asked and peeked outside.

"I fear we could not find our girthy friend, my lady. Sir Ludo disappears occasionally, and no one knows where he goes." Sir Didymus explained.

"I see. I would have liked to see him too."

"I am sure he will turn up, Lady Sarah!"

Hoggle and Sir Didymus sat at the table and looked at Sarah.

"We've come to take you away." Hoggle said. "Sir Didymus brought Ambrocious, so you can ride him if you still don't have no shoes."

"Surprisingly, I do have shoes. Turlach brought me a pair last night. He also brought me this dress." She waved at her outfit. "It's absolutely hideous, but my own clothes were starting to stink."

Hoggle stared at the dress, and nodded. "It really is an awful rag, ain't it. Still… " he shifted uncomfortably "I'm glad to see you in a dress though."

"Sarah furrowed her brow "...what?"

Sir Didymus coughed "What he means to say, Lady Sarah, is that we are not used to seeing ladies in trousers. It makes some people uncomfortable." He shot a look at Hoggle, who was avoiding looking at both of them.

"It's just not right for women to show their legs…" he muttered miserably. Sarah stared at him dumbfounded, before bursting into laughter.

"Is this really such a common sentiment here? Turlach was making snide comments about it too, when he brought me this awful thing!"

Sir Didymus smiled, "I fear you must think we are all very backwards."

"Well, it is a bit silly to get this worked up over trousers." Sarah said.

"Can we talk about something else?" Hoggle said desperately, "Like, our plans, right?"

Sarah nodded, and Hoggle and Sir Didymus explained the plan, which was quite simple honestly. Hoggle lived in a different part of the garden district, about half an hour's walk away. Turlach had never met him, and had no reason to suspect Sarah even knew him. They were going to take her to Hoggle's cottage, and she would stay there with him for the time being.

"We shall figure out how to proceed, once we get you to the safety of Sir Hoggle's abode, my lady!" Sir Didymus announced.

"I've told you, I ain't no sir!"

"You are to me, my friend."

Sarah watched the good natured bickering between her friends, before suddenly remembering the dress again. She pulled it back out of the trunk where she had dropped and spread it out.

"Turlach has been thieving the gems on this!" She announced.

"A most dishonourable knave!" Sir Didymus exclaimed. "One should never tamper with a lady's gowns!"

"Where'd you get that from?" Hoggle asked and peered at the dress.

"Jareth," Sarah admitted reluctantly. "He gave it to me as a wedding present."

"Jareth, eh? Hmm." Hoggle said.

"What?"

"It's just that, I see you've taken to calling 'im by his first name, Sarah."

"What?" Sarah asked surprised. "I supposed I have. It's just, I can't go around calling him "The Goblin King" all the time, now can I?"

"Rat's a good name for him, if you ask me." Hoggle offered making Sarah laugh.

"No, I don't think I'm going to start calling him a rat either."

Sarah carefully bundled up the dress and her other clothes into a spare sack she found stashed under Turlach's bed. There was nothing else for her to take from the cottage, so their exit was swift.
They walked towards Hoggle's home, chatting happily, their way only disrupted by Ambrocious deciding to start chasing a butterfly, throwing Sir Didymus off his back and lumbering after the fluttering little insect. Sir Didymus bellowed at his steed angrily and chased after him, joining the others a moment later, with a chastised Ambrocious in tow.

Hoggle's cottage was not much bigger than Turlach's, but it was neat and tidy. The garden was well kept, the hay on the roof looked weathered but still in good condition. Stepping inside, there was a cauldron bubbling on the fire, and there was a neat bed made in the corner behind a curtain.

"You can sleep over there, Sarah." Hoggle said. "I've got a bed up in the loft." Sarah took the whole room in, and noticed a ladder leading up to a small loft place up in the ceiling.

"Are you sure, Hoggle? I can sleep up in the loft too."

Hoggle waved the suggestion away. "You ain't gonna fit up there. It's alright, it's warmer up there anyway."

He bustled over to the cauldron on the fire, secretly glad to have company in his little cottage. Sarah and Sir Didymus sat by the table, as he laid out wooden bowls and spoons, and then ladled out fragrant and rich stew.

"Mutton." He said, "It's good for you. Eat up." Sticking his spoon in, he began to noisily slurp the thick broth. Sir Didymus sampled the food daintily

"Verily, Sir Hoggle! You are an accomplished cook!"

Hoggle turned slightly red and snorted gruffly. "'s nothin', just some stew."

They ate in silence and then sat by the fire for a while, discussing Sarah's predicament and everything that had been happening in the Labyrinth since she had been there last. She could not help but notice they kept skirting the subject of Jareth, talking about something else if the conversation even seemed to be going in that wondered whether they were doing it because of her current situation, or because of something else, but no matter how hard she tried she could not steer the conversation towards that subject.
Eventually, Sir Didymus got up and bid them a good night. The time had flown past so fast, that none of them had even noticed that darkness was beginning to fall outside. Hoggle bashfully told Sarah, that if she wanted to take a bath he could wait outside, but she declined saying they must both be exhausted from the day, and she would take a bath in the morning. With that, they both withdrew to their beds, and for the first time in days, Sarah fell happily asleep in a comfortable, deliciously soft bed.

…

In the morning, Sarah stretched in the bed sleepily, like a contented cat. Her arm hit something solid, and she was confused to find that whatever it was seemed to be warm. She cracked open her eye to see what it was.

"Good morning, wife." Turlach said, making her scream and fall off the bed. Confused she looked around at the dingy cottage she was in, and noticed her dress glittering on the table by the fireplace, neatly folded. She gaped at Turlach.

"Did you really think leaving would be that easy?" he asked with a sneer.

"You really don't know anything, do you."