"Trust me, it's gonna take a lot more than ale to wash that taste out. Come on, we'll give you a nice tumbler of gin."
Mr. Todd hesitated before slowly standing up as he was beckoned to follow Gerard into the living room. Mrs. Lovett smiled as she followed the barber and her son.
"Make yourself comfortable." Gerard told the older man as he searched through various cupboards for the bottle of gin.
"If times are so hard, why don't you rent the room above the shop?"
"Up there? Nah, no one'll go near it. People think it's haunted." Gerard replied.
"Haunted?" The barber repeated.
"Yeah. You see, years ago, something happened up there. Something not very nice."
"What happened? And what are you lookin' for love?" Mrs. Lovett asked as she entered the room.
"Oh, I was telling Mr. Todd here that nobody would go near the room upstairs because they think it's haunted. And I'm looking for the gin, I can't find it." Gerard replied.
"It's on the top shelf dearie."
"Thanks."
Mrs. Lovett sighed before turning to Mr. Todd who looked deeply lost in his thoughts as he stared down at the floor. She took a seat next to him and began singing;
"There was a barber and his wife, and he was beautiful. A proper artist with a knife, but they transported him for life, and he was beautiful!"
"Barker his name was. Benjamin Barker." She spoke.
"What was his crime?" The barber asked curiously.
"Foolishness..." Nellie sighed.
Gerard reached for a glass beside the cupboard but accidentally knocked it off watching it smash into pieces, startling both his mother and the already traumatised barber.
"Sorry, clumsy me."
Mr. Todd raised both his eyebrows in reaction, watching the boy pick up the shards of glass.
"He had this wife, you see. Pretty little thing, silly like nit, had her chance for the moon on a string. Poor thing! Poor thing!" Nellie continued. "There was this judge, you see. Wanted her like mad. Everyday he sent her a flower. But did she come down from her tower? Sat up there and sulked by the hour. Poor fool! Ah but there was worse yet to come, poor thing."
Gerard himself listened intently to his mother's story. He had heard it not so long ago.
"Well Beadle calls on her all polite. Poor thing! Poor thing! The judge, he tells her is all contrite, he blames himself for her dreadful plight. She must come straight to his house tonight! Poor thing! Poor thing! Of course when she goes there, poor thing, poor thing, they're having this ball all in masks. There's no one she knows there, poor dear, poor thing. She wanders tormented and drinks, poor thing. The judge has repented she thinks, poor thing. 'Oh where is Judge Turpin?' She asks. He was there alright, only not so contrite!" The baker sang in a tone of warning.
Before she could continue, Gerard cut in;
"She wasn't no match for such craft, you see, and everyone thought it so droll. They figured she had to be daft, you see, so all of them stood there and laughed, you see. Poor soul! Poor thing!"
"NO! Would no one...have mercy on her?" The barber whispered.
"So it is you." Mrs. Lovett whispered back.
"Benjamin Barker." Gerard quietly muttered.
"Where's Lucy? Where is my wife?"
"She poisoned herself. Arsenic from the apostle round the corner. Tried to stop her, I did. But she wouldn't listen to me." The baker explained. "And he's got your daughter."
"Adopted her like his own." Gerard added.
"He? Judge Turpin...Fifteen years, sweating in a living hell on a false charge." Todd threw his heavy leather jacket in the corner. "Fifteen years, dreaming I might come home to a wife and child..."
"Well I can't say the years have been particularly kind to you Mr. Barker." Mrs. Lovett muttered.
"No. Not Barker. It's Todd now. Sweeney Todd. And he will have his revenge." Sweeney said turning to face the baker.
The woman turned to look over at her son who was staring at Todd in astonishment. She slowly made her way towards him;
"Gerard, be a dearie and take Mr. T to the room upstairs. And don't forget to give him his razors back." She whispered.
"Right."
"Good lad." She patted his shoulder.
"Mr. Todd, mind following me?" Gerard asked.
Sweeney gazed over at Mrs. Lovett before looking over at Gerard who was already at the doorway. He nodded slightly before following the boy out of the living room and out the shop. The both of them walked up the stairs towards the room above the meat pie shop. Gerard slowly opened the door before walking in.
"Come in. There's nothing to be afraid of."
Sweeney hesitated slightly before stepping into the dusty old room quietly; He looked around, walking over to an old cot where his dear Johanna used to sleep. There was a dirty sheet covering it which he lifted to reveal Johanna's old dolly. While he explored the room, Gerard kneeled down searching for a loose floorboard which he soon lifted and placed aside. Hearing this, Sweeney turned around slowly before walking over to where Gerard was. He crouched down opposite of the young lad holding a dusty velvet red box.
"I believe these are yours." Gerard handed the box to the troubled barber.
Todd slowly and cautiously lifted the lid to reveal his shiny treasured possessions. He simply could not believe that he had once again laid eyes on utter perfection. Gerard watched the barber's pale hand reach for one of his silver perfections before carefully pulling one out, almost as if he were scared they would evaporate and vanish into the air under his touch.
"Those handles are chased silver ain't they?" Gerard stared at the razor in the other man's hand.
"Silver...yes..." Todd whispered back.
Sweeney set the box aside not looking away from his shiny friend.
"These are my friends..." He said softly, twirling the razor in his hand.
Gerard soon found himself in an awkward position, listening to the barber muttering about how beautiful his priceless razors were as they smiled in the light.