| She led them through the forest, she walking quickly, but Michelle making slower progress through the thick undergrowth. Jareth wasn�t keen on patience, and she lost her balance many times due to his pulling of her arm. At one stage he just decided to pick her up and carry her, but she screamed, and wriggled and hit him, so he put her down again. Eventually they reached a small thatched cottage. It was painted pink, and had honey suckle growing up the walls and two small, leaded windows. It smelt beautiful, and warm. There was a small spindle of smoke floating out of a little chimney. �It�s lovely,� said Michelle. �Thank you, my dear,� said Lucretia. �Would you like to stop for a cup of tea?� �Just get the boy, Lucretia,� said Jareth, quite angrily. He still held Michelle�s arm in quite an uncomfortable position, so she kept quiet. �Suit yourself,� said Lucretia. She went into the cottage, leaving the other two outside to wait. She returned presently, holding Dominic�s hand. He had a stained face from where he had been crying. He also had what appeared to be chocolate round his mouth. �Dominic!� Michelle ran to him, arms outstretched, Jareth only just let her go. Dominic ran to her, and they locked themselves in an embrace they both wished would last forever and feared the end of. Jareth approached. �Dominic,� he said, in a friendly, kind way. The embrace ended, and mother and son lowered their arms. Dominic moved behind his mother, and took her hand. �Mummy, I want to go home.� Michelle looked at him sadly, then at Jareth. �I will take you. The goblins will have made some dinner.� He smiled at the boy. �It�s your favourite dessert. Chocolate cake.� �Mummy, I want to go to our home.� �Shhh, darling,� said Michelle, worried how Jareth would react. �Mummy, he can�t do that to you. We have to go home.� �What do you mean, Dominic?� asked Jareth, sternly now. �You can�t hit my Mummy!� Michelle was silent and looked at Jareth in anticipation. He breathed slowly for a moment, then turned on Lucretia. �This is your fault. You�ve poisoned him against me. You conniving�� �I didn�t even know he was your son!� Lucretia interrupted him. �He hasn�t said a word to me since I found him. He didn�t even tell me what he was doing here. So you can get off your almighty high horse and listen to what he has to say.� �You�� He started towards her, but she laughed, and literally in a puff of smoke she became a crow, and flew into the sky. She landed on the roof of her house and laughed a very human laugh. �You can�t fly forever!� shouted Jareth. She laughed even louder. �We�re going home,� he said to Michelle. She made no move, except holding Dominic to her. �Come on!� growled Jareth. She looked him in the eyes. �We want to go to our real home,� she said simply. �Well, you can�t!� The crow watched the scene with interest, its head on one side. The plan was fantastic. �You can�t go home,� Jareth repeated calmly. He paused for a second. �If you went home now, you�d have to explain where you�ve been. They think you�ve run away. You�d never keep Dominic now.� Michelle looked away. �At least here you�re together,� he said. He approached them slowly, and touched each of them on the shoulder gently. Michelle hoisted Dominic up onto her, and Jareth transported them back to the castle. Michelle kept Dominic with her, giving him piano lessons quietly, and playing games with him. They both said as little as possible to Jareth, who was now the enemy, and they weren�t even always polite. This sort of thing is of course very lonely. When there are only two people reachable, one of whom is only 6, ignoring the other results in no one to talk to. Michelle was very lonely. She had been lonely when she first moved out from her parent�s house, and had considered going back to her parents a lot, and probably would have if it weren�t for Jaden�s visits. At least it had been an option then. She had an overwhelming feeling of unfairness. She wanted to say that Jareth couldn�t do this, he couldn�t hold them against there will. The problem was that he could. There were no police, and Jareth was the highest authority Michelle was aware of. So this was how people who were abused by policemen felt. But he couldn�t take people who didn�t ask could he? He didn�t just take them, so there must be some one with more power than him, somewhere. She would never find them though, but at least there was some hope. Dom seemed to always have hope, though it seemed to be in her. Jareth was polite, always polite. He would get them anything he thought they wanted, and he could read minds. Michelle was working at clearing her mind in his presence. This always made him laugh, to her annoyance, and she tended to end up walking away from him, taking Dom. But this was silly. Michelle decided they couldn�t just carry on like this, what a way to bring up a child. They couldn�t run again. Jareth watched them like a hawk, though subtly, and she was worried that he could just carry out his threat of separating her from Dominic if pushed far enough. She decided after what was probably months that enough was enough. She would talk to him. He wasn�t completely unreasonable was he? |