"Oh thank 'eavens you're safe!" Mrs. Lovett gasped, rushing to the door and enveloping Lucy in a tight embrace. Lucy relaxed against the baker, feeling her muscles slacken. She had done it. She had survived the trauma of being raped without losing her honor. Relieved and exhausted, Lucy collapsed in Mrs. Lovett's arms, her eyes locked on Sweeney's solemn face swimming into nothingness.
Sweeney Todd leaned over and hefted Lucy's limp body into his arms. He carried her up the stairs and into her small bedroom. Laying her on the bed, he stepped back, watching her stomach rise and fall softly. A groan from the floorboards alerted him to Mrs. Lovett's presence. She came up softly behind him, resting her pale hand on his shoulder.
"Best we let 'er sleep Mr. T, come on." She slipped her hand into the crook of his elbow and led him out into the hallway. Before he could dash away from her, she blocked his way down the stairs. "So are you going to tell me what 'appened?" He looked at her with a blank face, his eyes more tired-looking than usual.
"The Judge and the Beadle are dead."
"What did you do with the bodies?" Sweeney avoided her penetrating glance as he released a sigh.
"Nothing."
"Mr. Todd! What 'as this 'ole business taught you? We'll 'ave to go back to Turpin's 'ouse and get rid of the bodies, then we need to -" Sweeney interrupted her.
"I'll take care of it. Stay with Lucy." He brushed past her and, not long after, Mrs. Lovett heard the shop bell ding. Her shoulders slumped and she leaned against the wall for support. It seemed he would never listen to her. The baker had been feeling rather invisible lately and this short conversation had not helped matters at all. Breathing deeply, she descended down the stairs and sat at the kitchen table to wait for the barber to return.
Sweeney arrived noiselessly at the Turpin house, prepared to dispose of the evidence of his crime. He stopped abruptly upon rounding the corner. Two dark forms stood just outside the doorway, talking to each other. Sweeney ducked further into the shadows, inching along the wall until he could hear their words.
" . . . Such a great lot of blood . . . had to be a madman"
" . . . Start the search . . . yes . . . send him . . . "
Police. Sweeney felt his stomach clench. He would rather die than go back to prison. Sweeney forced himself to creep slowly, slowly out of hearing distance of the men, and then he ran through the streets, seeking the comforts of his dreary barbershop.
Sweeney Todd walked through the doorway of the pie shop, ignoring Mrs. Lovett leaping from her spot at the table to welcome him, and stomped right up the stairs to his barbershop. Mr. Todd made a beeline for his weathered barber's chair. Sagging into it, he didn't move for hours.
The next morning, Mrs. Lovett brought breakfast to her beloved barber only to find the door locked. She retreated down the stairs and into the kitchen.
"That didn't take long at all," Lucy commented, noticing the still-full tray of food.
" 'e locked 'is door. I knocked, but . . . " the baker trailed off, shaking her head. Lucy noticed how her shoulders drooped and her lips were fixed in a heartbroken pout. Bringing breakfast to Mr. Todd truly was the highlight of Nellie Lovett's day. This information working its way through her brain, Lucy stopped kneading pie dough. Slamming her fists onto the floury countertop, she muttered, "This has got to stop." Lucy strode out of the pie shop and up to find Mr. Todd in his secluded darkness.
"Mr. Todd?" Lucy knocked on the door. No one answered. Sighing in exasperation, she pulled the pin she had brought as a last resort out of her apron pocket. With a few turns of the pin, the door swung open and Lucy marched right in. A still figure sat in the barber chair.
"Leave me," Sweeney Todd said in an emotionless tone.
"But - "
"Leave me."
Lucy's eyebrows knit together and she stood her ground, staring at him intensely. "When will you see that this needs to stop?! Mr. Todd, you need to let go of your previous life! You killed Judge Turpin; it's all over!" Lucy was practically yelling now. Sweeney Todd remained silent, unsure of what to say. Lucy took the opportunity to continue. "You act as if nobody loves you Mr. Todd, but deep down, very deep down where no one can see it, you know this isn't true, and you want to be loved- I know you do - and. . . and I love you!" Sweeney had prepared himself for a tangent, but those words he did not expect in the slightest. Three words, those three little words rendered him speechless. Sweeney's hands balled into tight fists full of anger. But try as he might, he couldn't muster up enough anger or energy to deny her claims. He knew she was right about it all.
Lucy had stopped looking so furious. Now a subtle sadness glowed in her eyes. "And I don't know if you can see it, Mr. Todd, but Mrs. Lovett loves you more than she loves her own miserable life. She has been waiting for you this whole time - even before you were sent to prison." Lucy stepped forward so she was merely centimeters from him. "She at least deserves an explanation so she can move on with her life." With that, Lucy turned on her heel and opened the door. Suddenly she stopped and turned back to face him. "You're the only person who can cheer yourself out of this bloody stupor, Mr. Todd."
The shadow of the door moved across the Barber's face as the door was shut. He sank to his knees and put his head in his hands. Sweeney cleared his mind and replaced the emptiness with the first image of Mrs. Lovett that came to him. There was an excited smile in her eyes at the sight of him, though her lips did not reflect the smile in the slightest. That was on the first day he came into her pie shop and interrupted her questionable baking. A new image came now - this one of her face full of concern as she would touch his shoulder and ask if he was all right.
More pictures of her sweet face flooded in, some beautiful, some sad, some full of desire, some fearful . . . the list went on. A spark caught somewhere in Sweeney's heart as he was truly able to realize how much she did love him. She was always there for him - before Lucy and after. Before he became a mad man and after. Of course he wouldn't be able to return her love so passionately all at once, but now that he had sorted through his long abandoned conscience and values, he could tell he had at least some feelings for this baker who wouldn't leave him alone. Sweeney Todd was filled with appreciation and admiration for her. In a way, Mrs. Lovett had been braver than he ever was by just keeping her feelings out of the way of her everyday life. Finally having organized this in his mind, Sweeney shot out the door and down the stairs.
