"Why're you bein' so nice to me, Mr. Todd?" Nellie whispered as he carried her up the stairs to her room. How many times had she dreamed he'd do this? Easily a hundred, but…
"Why not?" he replied, kicking her bedroom door open rather than try and work out a way of opening it without dropping her. He always did that in her fantasies too.
He placed her on her bed surprisingly gently. "Try and sleep. You've got one hell of a bump on the back of your head."
She nodded faintly.
"Are you awlright m'um?"
She sighed softly, and then felt those warm little hands clutching hers. "Aye Toby, just a nasty shock, that's all, you get along to bed now. Busy day tomorrow."
Sweeny didn't say goodnight when he left, but then she didn't expect him to. Toby stayed by her side though.
"M'um, you know Mr. Todd?"
"Yes love?"
Toby bit his lip. "You love him, don't you?"
Her eyelids fluttered, "…Yes Toby, I do. Shame that he only 'as eyes for what his wife was."
Toby smiled a little and pressed her hand to his cheek as he clutched it, "Do you love me an' all m'um?"
She smiled then, though she was so tired, "Of course I do Toby. Y'little sweetheart."
"I love you too m'um, an I reckon Mr. Todd does an' all, otherwise he wouldn't 'ave bovvered to carry y'up here."
Nellie Lovett felt a genuine flutter of her heart then, that much was true, Sweeny shouldn't have bothered to help her, he didn't do things like that.
"…Can I call you mother?"
Her eyes opened. "Pardon?"
Toby was blushing and shuffling his feet, "Only, I never 'ad no mother of me own, an you've been right nice to me…"
Nellie opened her arms and pulled the little boy to her breast, held him for a long time while the tears ran down her cheeks. It wasn't Gerry, she knew that, but here was a chance for her to have a little boy, and she was going to take it.
Time passed, because that is what time does. Business was steady and good, Toby was a fast learner, and though he turned a little queasy when entering the bake-house, he learned after a while not to fear it. And though his little eyes became darker and he had one or two fearful nightmares, his kindly manner did not change.
"Mum, we're running low on supplies!" He called from the bake house up to Nellie as she wandered among her happy customers like a queen bee.
She nodded and smiled, "No matter Toby, won't be the first time we've sold out." She turned to the nearest lady at a table, "My little boy, Toby, isn't he a treasure, doing all that hard work in the bake house for me?" she heard the unmistakable sound of the bell on the door of Sweeney's shop jingling and added, "And how lucky we are to have that nice Mr. Todd to make sure we're safe."
Without waiting for a reply she sailed off among the customers once more, serving and occasionally bragging about what a happy life she was leading now.
And soon enough, the last customer left, the shop was closed and She and Toby were nicely tucked up in the parlour by the fire.
"Mum," Toby said between sips of his ale, "D'you think Mr. Todd will ever let me call 'im father?"
Nellie shook her head to herself, "The most you'll get is him allowin you to call 'im Sweeney, love. Still, no matter, eh? Why don't we talk about something nice?"
Toby brightened up, "Like a trip to the seaside, mum? You promised we could go when the summer came and it's comin!"
Nellie smiled and nodded, "I suppose it is…" she sighed and glanced over at the till, it was practically bursting with money now. They could pack up and go tomorrow, if they so wished. "I'll have to ask Mr. Todd, you know we can't leave 'im here on his own."
Before Toby could reply they heard the sound of his heavy footsteps coming down into the bakery, and through the dark kitchen to their room.
He looked dreadful, like he was sickening.
"Mr. Todd?" both of them exclaimed at once and hurried to catch him as his feet failed him. As they stood there holding him up between them he started to chuckle. Faintly first, then at a maddening frequency.
Nellie gulped, had his mind finally snapped altogether?
"I've killed the beedle. Heh…"
Toby's eyes widened, "Wot, really? Why woz 'e here?"
Sweeny giggled faintly, still with his head half-buried in Mrs. Lovett's shoulder, "Hehe… someone saw Ashley here… and Joanna's gone missing… haha…Ashley's stolen my girl…"
Nellie grunted a little and managed to shove him into a chair, he was far too heavy, "Well I don't see what's so bloody funny." She snapped.
Sweeny grinned that horrible grin he got when something evil was dancing in his mind, "It is funny, my love, because our dear beedle told me before I killed him that our kind friend Judge Turpin shall be coming later, to investigate for traces of yellow hair." He burst out laughing once more.
Toby swallowed, "Shall I get him some ale mum?"
Nellie shook her head, "No, but you can get me some." She ordered, and once the boy was gone she brought Sweeney a ringing slap across the face.
That brought him back, his eyes were normal again, as normal as they ever got anyway. Nellie was eminently practical, and she would be in this situation too. "Right you, we are going to 'ave to be bloody careful this time, the judge can be traced. Whot we are going to do is pack what we need, send Toby to find transport, and leg it as soon as you've had your little revenge."
He blinked a few times, as though anything after the murder hadn't occurred to him. "…What?"
She groaned, "Forget it, I'll sort it out! Just get whatever you want to bring with you to the seaside together and put it down here, then go and wait upstairs for the bloody judge."
Sweeney scowled for a moment, angry at being ordered around like this, but then he seemed to sense there was another slap in his future if he didn't do as he was told, and retorted with a sulky glare.
"That's better." Nellie said calmly.
It didn't tale very long to pack, the furniture had to stay, of course, and Toby didn't have many possessions anyway, so the little trunk she threw together with their belongings within didn't weigh much at all. And as for Sweeney, all he brought down were two clean changes of clothing and his precious razors, one missing from the set. She knew it was in the holster.
Then Toby was off into the street with a great deal of money and instructions to find the nearest hansom cab and buy the cab and horse from him for at least three times what it was worth.
Even the final revenge was like a well-oiled machine. Nellie was waiting for the body to fall and when it did she dragged it to the oven and shoved it in as bast she could, reasoning that it would at least slow the police down if they could find no body.
She was waiting outside the bakery, for both of her boys. Sweeney was first to arrive, coat hastily pulled on over his bloodstained shirt.
She sighed, "Sweeney, love…" she pulled a handkerchief from her bosom and tenderly dabbed the blood from his lip. "Honestly, where would you be without me?"
He didn't reply, he'd spotted Toby leading the cab to them. The man driving stared at them, "The lad said you'd buy this 'ere cab an horse off me!"
Nellie nodded, "That's right, and there's an extra dozen shillings in it for yer if you just hop down from there and pretend you never saw us."
The man blinked, obviously working out there was something wrong here, but all the same, it was a lot of money he was being offered. He climbed down.
He even helped load up the single trunk onto the roof, though at one point he could have sworn he heard the woman muuter to the bloke, "Don't you bloody dare, I'm not draggin that one down to the oven."
As he wandered away down the streets, hearing the sound of his cab and horse rushing off into the night, he muttered to himself. "Probably just a family trying to get away from a landlord."
They rode through the night, Sweeney driving while his two passengers were jostled and bounced over the country roads. They only stopped as dawn began to break and Sweeney steered the horse and cab up a small hill and into a patch of woodland.
Nellie sighed sleepily and poked her head out the window, "Why're we stoppin?"
Sweeney glanced down at her, "Horse needs to rest. So do you and the bo- I mean, Toby."
Poor Toby, bless his hard-working heart, he'd nodded off almost the second the carriage stopped bouncing. Nellie smiled fondly at him and tucked her shawl around his shoulders as he leant on the window, dozing in the dawn light.
Sighing, she turned and looked up at Sweeny, he never seemed to tire, and though she badly wanted to sleep, she had to try and think rationally, for Toby and her beloved Sweeny.
"…How far to the seaside, do you suppose?" She asked.
Sweeny frowned, glancing at the horse. "Too far for it to take us. What do you suggest my dear?"
Nellie closed her eyes and tried to concentrate. Tried to think practically. She snapped her fingers, "If we can get to the next town with a station, we can get a train all the way to the sea!"
Sweeney folded his arms and frowned, how she hated it when he did that. "And how, pray tell, shall we get tickets without giving a name?"
Nellie rolled her eyes, "Sweeney Todd, don't tell me after all those murders you're shy about using a false name? Hmm? Or have you forgotten all about Benjamin Barker?"
He winced then, she supposed even the name was hard to hear now. Knowing he would never see Joanna or Lucy again. Benjamin had to mourn them, but Sweeney could get vengeance.
"…Mrs. Lovett, What a charming notion, eminently practical and yet appropriate as always."
She nodded smartly, "Why Mr. Todd, oh Mr. Todd, you know what I'd like to do, Mr. Todd? It's true, Mr. Todd…"
"In an hour or so… we'll be on a train heading down the mainline, won't you just love it? Shall we discuss our new name Mrs. Lovett?"
She blushed. "Well, it'd make sense to pose as a married pair." She nodded back towards the sleeping Toby, "Our son?"
To her surprise, he nodded. "Aye. Well, it's just you and me and our boy named Daniel, we're off on a trip down to the English Channel."
Nellie smiled, she'd never much liked her own name, it was fun to pick out a new one. "I think I'll be Rose, such a nice soft name, hmm?"
He moved in closer, close enough for her to feel his breath on her face, to make her feel overpowered. "I prefer Violet."
She nodded faintly, feeling very much like a shrinking violet at the moment. "A-and you?"
He considered it for a moment. "I always liked Benjamin."
She smiled faintly and patted his arm, "And a last name, my love?"
"Wyatt. It's a good, anonymous name. Hello there sir, the family Wyatt, just me, my son and my lovely Violot."
He leaned in as he hummed those words, and suddenly she couldn't bear it anymore and pushed her lips to his, not caring what he did to reprimand her for such an act.