Woah! I got this sudden flow and my fingers wouldn't stop moving so here is the second chapter for today! :O ^.^'


Chapter 9

They were back on Love Lane by the time that Frida spoke again. The man was walking with more ease with every step they took but he was still leaning quite heavily onto Frida with his arm over her shoulder.

"You know, Johanna maybe isn't worth it. All this hurt and hardship I mean." She said softly.

"She is." He said and smiled at Frida.

Frida felt her rage building up. She stopped and shook his arm of her shoulder. "How can you know! You've only first seen her ten minutes ago!" Frida almost screamed.

The man now looked positively terrified and once again looked at her like she was Pandora's Box. Frida felt her heart wrench.

The whole world seemed to hate her today. First she got pulled out of bed an eternity too early early to scrub a table which was as clean as a whistle, second some stranger with a terrible grudge appeared out of nowhere and claimed to be her father and finally she tries to save a man from the claws of love only to find that he doesn't want to be saved. It all became too much and Frida suddenly felt tears dampen her cheeks. She looked down at her feet, ashamed of her outburst and of herself.

"I just know." He said softly, limping forward and putting his hand on her arm.

"Well aren't you simple." Frida said to her feet and rubbed the tears away from her eyes. "Come along then, we should get going." She looked up at him and realized that he still had blood on his face. Sighing Frida brought out her handkerchief and wiped the blood from his chin. "They went hard on you, didn't they." She said.

"They're murderers." He said angrily.

"Hush dear. What makes you say that? They certainly didn't murder you or your fighting spirit."

"They're murderers." He repeated more worked up now. "They murder Johanna's soul and spirit, keeping her locked up like that! It is my intention to free her." He said heatedly. "I thank you for your help miss, but I really must be going." He did a bow with his head, winced in pain and began limping of towards Hyde Park. Frida felt terrible once again seeing him leave.

"Wait!" Frida yelled after him and he stopped, looking at her questioningly.

"I told you my name and you haven't told me yours!" She shouted. He smiled at her. He had a nice smile, not in the leagues of Johanna's smile, but it was nice nonetheless.

"Anthony." He yelled back.

"Well what shall I call you by then? Mr. what? You haven't told me your last name!" Frida shouted. His smile spread across his face and turned into a grin.

"Neither did you Miss!" He yelled back before turning around the corner.

"It's Barker you Bastard." Frida said quietly with a smile on her face.

-::-

Frida recalled that her original purpose, before being sidetracked by foolish lovesick boy, had been to visit the marketplace and she hurriedly began walking towards Sankt Dunstan's Market. It didn't take too long time since it was only three blocks away.

She usually came here once every week, partly because she needed to buy ingredients to Mrs. Lovett and partly because it was a good opportunity to catch up on the latest gossip, meet new people and maybe see some sort of performance like someone juggling.

Frida was about to enter the crowd and try to find something to do when she suddenly felt a hand pull her from her place and in behind a market stall. Frida turned to look at her "abductor" and was forced to swallow her bitter words.

Because before her stood nobody less than Sweeney Todd aka Benjamin Barker aka Frida's Adoptive "Criminal" Father.


Sorry It's short, but it's my second today and I wanted it to end with a cliffie! ;)