Lucy Tanner and Nellie Smith were best friends. The two were inseparable, but as different as night from day. Lucy was a rather sickly child, but she was the beautiful one of the two. Slim and pale, with shining golden hair, her eyes as blue as a summer sky, Lucy had appreciative stares and looks from men of all ages from the time she was thirteen. Nellie was her polar opposite. She was tall and slim, but strong in heath and physique from her work in her parents' meat pie shop. She was dark complexioned, rather than fair-it usually looked as if she had just been to the shore. Her dark hair and eyes didn't contrast with her fairly drab clothes either. The Smith family wasn't rich; they couldn't pay for all the fancy, colorful clothes that Lucy often wore. Nellie was also the smart one. She loved Lucy, no mistake, but the girl was an idiot. Not that it mattered. She was beautiful and had an impressive dowry. Any man would give his right arm for her.
Nevertheless, the two were best friends, and like any two girls, both believed that it would last forever. Ah, such naivety.
It began on the day of Lucy's 17th birthday. She was courting a young man at the time, but had promised to spend the day with Nellie. In the morning, Nellie would be working, and she had promised a free pie or two for Lucy. Nellie's pies were something of a legend on Fleet street-she brought in better business than either of her parents ever had. It was when Lucy was sitting on a small table by the window eating her second succulent pie when she saw him. The young stranger was easily the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. He was tall and slim, muscular, and with curly brown hair that just brushed his eyebrows. Lucy felt a shock when he looked into the pie shop window and locked eyes with her. He crossed the street and entered the shop. For a second, there was silence. Then a clattering noise as Nellie dropped rolling pin.
"I am very sorry" the young man said with a gracious bow. "My name is Benjamin Barker, I am a barber. I have purchased the store next to yours mam'selle." Nellie giggled, and than remembered herself.
"Nellie Smith. That is my friend, Lucy Tanner. I run the shop, but it belongs to my father. Meat pie?" Benjamin accepted, and sat at the table with Lucy. The pie shop was fast filling up for breakfast hour.
For the next 60 minutes, Nellie was kept busy with customers, but closed the shop at 11. She told Lucy that she was done, and the rest of the day would be spent however she wanted it to be spent. Lucy decided that Benjamin would be included in the girls' wanderings for the day. It was an offer that he readily accepted.
It wasn't long before the young barber realized that Lucy was little more than a pretty face. He quickly understood that Nellie was quite brilliant. Their conversation that day was a bit more advanced than Lucy was used to-it was about politics mostly, and the situation in the colonies in America. Nellie thought it a bit unfair, some of the taxes that were being levied on the American Colonists. She was a firm believer in no taxation without representation, as their rallying cry seemed to be. Benjamin thought that they were being a bit ungrateful and should just pay the damn taxes and have done with it, they weren't even being taxed as much as those in England, and what did Nellie know about it anyway? She said that it was that kind of attitude that had the colonists in a tizzy, and, as a woman she understood how they felt, because she didn't have any representation in Parliament either. Benjamin would have replied to this, but Lucy suddenly broke into the conversation with an irrelevant comment about a rather pretty dress she was sure she was receiving for her birthday, because she had pointed it out to her mother in the dress shop a week ago, and only yesterday she'd seen her mother enter the same shop. The conversation had been going over Lucy's head, and she was a bit put out by this, after all, it WAS her birthday.
Unfortunately, not two weeks after her birthday, Lucy got the measles. As previously stated, she was a sickly girl, and the measles were going around Fleet Street. Benjamin went into Nellie's shop to meet with Lucy-as he had become used to doing (although he knew that Lucy wasn't smart, he was a young male. And young males don't really care about intelligence when their is beauty to be had)-and when he didn't find Lucy, asked Nellie (who was suffering from the measles too-by way of lack of customers) where she was.
"Measles, poor dear. I'd tell you to go see 'er, but they won't even let me anywhere near 'er 'ouse. Pie?" He nodded, and sat in his usual spot by the window. Nellie served him two steaming pies, and then sat down across from him.
"Might 'ave to close early today. You're the first customer I've 'ad all morning. Usually there's been at least ten by now." she sighed. It was this picture, Nellie slumped over in a quiet kind of despair, with blank eyes staring out the window, that made Benjamin fall a little bit in love with Nellie Smith. He smiled at her, and began to talk.
It was nothing talk, just about how his barber shop was going, about some of his customers-he'd shaved the face of the great Judge Turpin, can you imagine?-and a few of those he hated to look at (Beadle Bamford-an honor at first, but the man was disgusting). He had a boy to help him clean up shop. Everyday he came for pie and a talk. Benjamin found Nellie a wonderful listener, and she gave great advice. Within a week their talks were becoming more intense, and they began taking walks after they had closed their respective shops. With each talk, Nellie fell a little bit more in love with him. That all changed the day that Lucy got better.
Nellie was ecstatic at first. Lucy wasn't at all interested in what Nellie and Benjamin had discussed, not at all. She had news-big news. Judge Turpin had been to her house the day before and offered his courtship-wasn't it awful? A good match to be sure, but he was old-at least 35, and ugly too. A fate worse than death in Lucy's rather shallow eyes. She cut off her talk at once when Benjamin walked into the shop. Nellie looked up with a smile when the shop bells jingled, but he had stopped in the doorway. The illness had somehow left Lucy even more beautiful than before, and with the morning light shining gently on her golden hair, she looked like an angel. In that moment, Nellie was utterly forgotten to Benjamin Barker and Lucy Tanner. It was as though the sun had come out after a long night, and the moon faded into invisibility. She was there-to be a supportive and caring best friend, but nothing more than that. An invisible hanger on.
It went on like that for a while, Benjamin and Lucy courting, much to Lucy's parents' dismay, and Nellie watching from the sidelines. She often wondered what Benjamin saw in Lucy. Nellie loved her like a sister, but they had been friends their entire lives. It was different. She had been so sure that Benjamin loved her, not Lucy. They had so much in common, and they could talk for hours. He and Lucy seemed to mostly just stare at each other, or talk insipidly about Lucy herself. Nellie often found herself thinking that he deserved better, that he deserved…well…her. Then one day, Nellie's rich Aunt Nettie paid the Smith's a visit. She invited Nellie to spend the week with her at the shore. Nellie was relieved to get away honestly. She thought she might scream if she had to see Benjamin fawning over Lucy every day. Nettie told Nellie that she should tell Benjamin how she felt about him, and Nellie was resolved to do so. When she arrived home, she saw them, Ben and Lucy, at the front door of the pie shop.
"Ben, I have something I have to tell you."
"And we have something to tell you!" cried Lucy. "Oh Nellie, we're engaged to be married!"
"I…what?" Lucy was beaming, and Benjamin looked embarrassed, but happy.
"Yes, it's true. We are engaged."
"Your parents' gave their consent?"
"Yes! Isn't it exciting? I mean, I was surprised at first, but Benjamin's business has been going so well, and I love him, and my parents said they want me to be happy! Can you believe it?"
"No. No I really can't." Nellie was in a state of shock. She could literally feel her heart getting crushed.
"You had something to tell me?" asked Benjamin.
"Oh, no. Nothing. It's…it's not important. Congratulations! I wish you every happiness!" She gave each of them a broad smile, hugged Lucy tight, gave a small curtsey to Benjamin, and hurried inside, saying that she had to put her luggage away, and she wished she could celebrate with them that night, but she was just so tired! When she got to her room, she threw her suitcase on the ground, herself on the bed, and sobbed.
Her own marriage to Albert Lovett took place two months after the marriage of Lucy and Benjamin, and three days before the rather sudden death of her father. Albert was 45 years old, bald, and very fat. She had made up her mind to hate him, but couldn't. Imagine hating Santa Clause. She didn't love him, no, that was reserved for the barber next door, but she doted on him like a daughter to a father, and he adored her-and her cooking. For a while, it seemed things would be all right.
…One Year Later….
The pouring rain was a testament to Nellie Lovett's feelings. When Benjamin and Lucy had asked her to be godmother to baby Johanna, she had played the part of the ecstatic best friend flawlessly. Neither of the other two knew that in reality, behind the laughter and shining face, her heart was breaking in two. Again. It was that day, staring at the rain, remembering the look on Benjamin's face as he stared at his wife, Nellie gave up her dream that someday, the two would be together. Nothing could tear Benjamin away from Lucy, and he would certainly never touch Nellie. He was a bit dense in that he could never see her infatuation with him. Albert did though, and found it amusing. He knew nothing would come of it.
Lucy and Benjamin and Johanna would come to the pie shop everyday for a free breakfast, and Lucy and Ben told jokes, laughing about how the desperate Judge Turpin would come to the barbershop everyday, just for a glance at Lucy. They found it funny. Albert warned them. He told Nellie to warn them too. "A desperate man will do desperate things, Lu. Ben, please, see sense! He is a judge, if he wants Lucy, he'll do whatever it takes to get her. He is not a stupid man" but her warnings were laughed away. She didn't try again, although, she thought later, perhaps she should have. It all began when Benjamin was having a fight with Albert inside the store. Albert didn't think that it was fair that the Barkers got all these free breakfasts. It was losing them money. "It's not the free meals Albert love, it's the times! 'Ard times these are, 'ard times indeed." But her husband hadn't listened to her. He had said that it was the hard times that meant no one should get free breakfasts, not even her best friends.
He had said some coarse things to Benjamin, some crude things insinuating terrible things between Benjamin and Nellie, and Benjamin had taken a swing at him. He had hit Albert pretty hard, and both of them came to their senses, especially with both of their wives begging them to stop. Someone had heard the screams maybe, or seen Ben punch Albert, Nellie was never sure. In any case, someone reported the incident to the Beadle, who told the Judge. Actually, Nellie wondered afterward if it had been the Beadle himself skulking around the pie shop that awful morning. But even though Ben and Albert apologized to each other, and Ben more than made up for his side of the fight when he brought Albert two casks of wine, he was still carted off to prison three days later. Lucy was in shock. Nellie held her hand throughout the entire trial, with the honorable judge Turpin presiding. After the verdict was handed down-for the crimes of vandalism coupled with the assult and battery of a prominent business owner, and even attempted murder (at this Nellie shot from her seat, indignant-"I'll witness! Where's the witness for the defense I'd like to know? I was there, I know what 'appened!"-and was thus expelled from the court) Benjamin Barker was sentenced to lifetime banishment and hard labor in Australia.
Lucy and Nellie were both in shock. Johanna, being only a year old, didn't know what was wrong, but as astute as babies are, realized that something was amiss, never stopped crying. Albert, a bit blundering in an odd sort of way tried to help and comfort his young wife and neighbor. 19 was really too young to lose a husband.
The Judge continued his advances. But Lucy, disgusted with the mere thought of the man who had destroyed any hope of happiness in her life, refused to even look at him-even in church. If he spoke to her, she would reply with very thinly veiled hatred. Nellie advised her against this-it was dangerous ground, defying a judge, but Lucy was reckless with grief. Then one night, four months after the banishment of Benjamin Barker, the Beadle Bamford came to Lucy's door. "Please milady," he had said grandly, "the Judge Turpin requests your presence in his house tonight. If you will accompany me..." Lucy had refused, citing that her daughter was asleep. "Please milady. The Judge...he is most contrite. He blames himself entirely for your troubles."
"He should." But the Beadle could tell that her resolve was gone.
"Please milady, he simply wants to try to make amends. Perhaps you two can come to an... arrangement." Lucy had complied. First she got Nellie, asking her to come over and watch Johanna for a bit, just until she got back from the Judge's house. "You ought not go Lu," Nellie had said. "It doesn't sound right." Lucy had replied that Nellie herself had said that it was dangerous to refuse the judge.
Nellie tried to stay awake till Lucy came home, but the feat proved impossible. When she woke the next morning, Nellie saw Lucy, asleep on the couch in the room. Her best dress was torn and stained, circles bloomed under her eyes, and her face was puffy and red from crying. Nellie shook her friend awake. Sobbing, Lucy told her the whole story: how she had gone to the judges house planning her acceptance speech to his apology, how when she got there, there was a masked ball going on, and the Beadle had pushed her into the throng before leaving her side. She hadn't left, she said, because she thought maybe the Judge would humble himself to apologize in front of a lot of people-she didn't know any of them. She had some drinks-to steady herself-and asked people where the judge was. Then, he was there, he was over her...he had been terrible, Lucy had gasped out, wrenching sobs that shook her thin frame made talk nigh impossible. Lucy couldn't bring herself to speak of the rape-only that everyone had laughed-laughed at the daft, crazy woman who was part of the show-didn't her screams of pain and terror sound almost real? She had pushed him off her and ran-people grabbing at her every which way, and when she had gotten back to the house, locked the door, and collapsed on the couch.
Finally, Lucy stopped crying. Calmly, oh so calmly, she got up, and washed her face. She brushed her hair, and changed into her second best dress. "What are you doing Lu?" Nellie had asked. When she got no answer, Nellie had become scared. "Lu? Lucy?" Still no response. Lucy took her hat and swept out the door. After a moment of standing in shock, Nellie grabbed Johanna, waking her, and raced after her friend. Lucy went straight for the apothecary. By the time Nellie got there, Lucy was walking swiftly away in the opposite direction. "Wot she buy?" she had gasped at the seller. "Arsenic. Rats in 'er 'ouse." Nellie tore away again, looking very ungainly indeed. There were no rats in Lucy's house. When she got back to the barbershop, she thundered up the steps to the flat where Lucy lived. Lucy was about to drink it-the empty packet lay crumpled next to the cup on the table. Lucy finished stirring and raised the cup to her lips. "Lucy no! Think of Johanna!" Lucy glanced at Nellie to see if she would say anything else, but Nellie was stunned into silence by the look of utter desolation in Lucy's eyes. "I am," she said. "I am no good as a mother to her. I am dead." Then she raised the cup to her perfect lips, and drank.
"NO!" howled Nellie.
Lucy didn't die. For months, she lay in bed, moaning. The pie shop fell into a bit of a slump as Nellie had to take care of Johanna and Lucy. When she got up again, she was crazed, reliving the past, and was sent to Bedlam by a neighbor. Nellie was furious. She told Albert that Lucy should have been sent to the hospital. He had shrugged-his gout was so bad that he said he could hardly move for pain. Nellie had taken to sleeping in the Barker's house after Lucy had poisoned herself, to try and ensure it wouldn't happen again.
One late night, not long after Lucy had gotten sent off to Bedlam, Nellie hadn't even had time to bring all her things to her own own next door, Johanna had woken, and was crying for her mother. Nellie picked her up and walked over to the window. She squinted in the dim light, but...yes, there it was again! Several dark shapes moving stealthily towards the shop. 'What good could they be up to?' she had wondered, watching their progress. She caught a hint of steal as one ducked out of the way of a street light. A gun. And they were headed for this house; there was no doubt of that. Nellie glanced around the room frantically. At this point, she had decided that Lucy was never coming back. She placed the screaming baby in her cradle, and gathered the few things of value the Barker's had in the room. Benjamin's razors, a silver cross, and a few gold and silver rings, and placed them quickly under a loose floorboard that Lucy had complained about a few days before everything had gone all wrong. Nellie pulled the rug over it and was just picking up Johanna again when the men burst into the room. "The girl, give us the girl," one of them ordered her gruffly. 'no!' screamed Nellie silently. 'I'm the godmother! She's mine! You've no right!' Her mouth said nothing but she held tightly onto the baby. The man raised his gun, and Nellie's last coherent thought was of Benjamin.
When she woke, her head was bruised and bloody, and Johanna was gone, taken by the mysterious men. Nellie found out from a local vendor that 'due to the tragic losses of first her father to crime and then her mother to insanity' the judge had taken Johanna for himself, to raise as his ward. Nellie was indignant and furious. She couldn't believe that Turpin would be allowed to get away with the atrocities he had committed against the Barker family. But she was the only one, besides Albert, who knew what had really happened, but she also knew that if it was her word against the judge's, it was not hers that would be trusted.
Lucy was released from Bedlam-still half-crazed, but not crazy enough to stay there. Nellie saw her only once and knew her-but Lucy remembered nothing of her old life. Nothing coherent at any rate. Images maybe, and sounds. And emotions. But nothing that would make any sense. The one time Nellie saw her she was scared and heartbroken. Her best friend, her beautiful, sweet, stupid best friend was completely ruined. She didn't remember Nellie. Not at all. She didn't remember she had a baby or a husband somewhere. She looked at Nellie with not the slightest trace of recognition when Nellie met her at the gates of Bedlam, and the next time Nellie saw her, years later, Lucy was so changed that Nellie didn't even recognize her.
When Albert died, two years after Lucy's release from Bedlam, and three years after Johanna's kidnapping, Nellie didn't really care-he had gotten very annoying lately-eaten up with gout, gorging himself on her pies. She moved into the old barbershop-setting up shop as 'Mrs. Lovett's Meat Pie Emporium." She was smart, and did a good business She was only twenty-two, a widow, and not very rich. She had started wearing widow's weeds after Albert died, and even years later didn't give them up. She simply didn't have the money for many new clothes. It would be twelve years later that anything would change. Meat prices were going up, and Nellie's business dwindled. Mrs. Mooney, though, from across the street had a booming meat pie business. It took a while for Nellie to figure out why, until she realized that many of the neighborhood cats were gone-including her own. It had been a good mouser, and was quite fat. In fact, Nellie realized, that after her cat disappeared, Mrs. Mooney pumped out several more good pies. It didn't take long for Nellie to realize that every time a cat disappeared, the Mooney's business increased. The pies were good too, Nellie herself had eaten there several times before she found out the truth about Mrs. Mooney. The thought that she was maybe eating her own cat was somehow revolting. Nellie was a bit disgusted with Mrs. Mooney's tactic, but it did seem good for business, even though the one person she told—a fellow baker, though of pastries, not meat pies, told her that she was just being jealous and paranoid. She tried, once or twice, to catch a cat for a pie, but in all honestly, she didn't try very hard and those cats were fast anyway.
Her own pies, once so desired, where disgusting-the meat quality, she said, was to blame, not her cooking skills.
All that would change however, that fateful morning when, while Nellie was uselessly making inedible pies, Benjamin Barker walked through the door for the first time in 15 years.