September
As he made his way back to the house in the dunes, carrying one of the plates of glass that he just had bought with him, Sweeney Todd felt almost contended. It seemed that Mrs. Lovett had been right all this time; the fresh air and their quiet new way of living were doing him good. He had also found out that building a house was the most calming and satisfying thing he had ever done.
It had been a good thing for him to find out that the skill he had acquired when he had been forced to work in the colony was useful now, and that the hard work left his being exhausted at the end of each day, too tired to pace or even brood.
It hadn't been as hard as he had thought to leave the past behind. Mrs. Lovett had told him again and again that life was for the alive and now that he was slowly beginning to live again, he sensed more and more that she was right.
Even the weather was working in their favour. After months of rain and coldness, the sun was finally shining and had been doing so for quite some days already. This made possible for him to build the house and it helped clearing the fog in his mind that was still lingering there.
He hoped that he would once be able to let go off the past completely. He didn't dare take a razor in his hand now and begin working as a barber once more before he had totally forgotten about the euphoria that had followed after every murder that he had committed in the recent past.
Never again he wanted to kill a man – he had had his vengeance and he didn't want to ruin the life that Nellie and he were creating for themselves. The woman's condition visibly improved because of the gentle sun and salty breeze. She wasn't as thin and pale as she had been in London and sometimes she even smiled without an apparent reason.
It was not the cheerful, easy smile that he remembered, but one of a more thoughtful and considering nature that he found rather appealing. She was talking to him more and more often as well, and it wasn't the useless chatter that he had grown to hate, but calm and meaningful remarks or questions.
Sharing a house that wasn't even finished yet too turned out to be much easier and less unpleasant than he had thought. In retrospect, he was quite grateful that the baker had – quite literally – dragged him to the seaside.
He was becoming rather fond of the woman and usually noticed immediately when she wasn't around, mostly because she almost always was – to his approval. She hadn't felt the urge to slave in another bakery for many years to come and since they still had plenty of money, even after buying the 'cottage' and rebuilding it, she had remained at the home in progress, helping him as much as she could or wandering around on the beach or in the dunes.
He hadn't expect that he would ever share a home with the woman. A house was all that they had shared until recently, their relationship being nothing but an average one between a tenant and a landlady and although he had become a murderer and she had become his accomplice, there had never been more than that. He wondered what they were now. Friends, probably, no matter how strange it seemed.
Wiping the sweat off his brow and forcing himself to think of the work that had to be done instead of the auburn haired woman, he lifted the glass that he had bought earlier and intended to move it to the planks that were going to be part of the front door.
Strangely enough, there were only three planks – he was sure that there had been four when he had left in the morning to buy the glass in the nearby village. Four, exactly the amount that he needed.
Sighing, he wondered how this was possible. It seemed rather unlikely that the warmth was the cause of this inconvenience. After having lived in the colony for almost fifteen years, a bit of English sunshine was the last thing that could bother him.
Figuring that Mrs. Lovett might know where the fourth plank was, or whether it had ever been there to begin with, he left the partly finished house and headed for the beach, knowing with quite some certainty that she would be there.
It was only a short walk and half a minute later he arrived at the beach, kicking off his shoes so he could feel the warm sand beneath his feet. Almost simultaneously, he saw Mrs. Lovett.
She was in the sea, splashing around in the water, and somehow it seemed that she was floating in the water without moving her arms or legs. He walked into the water himself, wondering what the woman was doing.
Just before she became aware of him, she stood up in the water and he could see that she had been floating on some sort of piece of wood.
A big wave was approaching behind her and as he was watching her, she pushed the wood in front of her and quickly moved onto it, until her body was almost fully lying on top of it. Because she had done so right before the wave hit her, the powerful water made the wood and thus the woman on it surge forward, causing her to move along with the wave at an alarming speed.
While this was happening, she looked in his direction and, eyes widening almost comically when she saw him at last, she lost control over the plank, causing her to fall into the sea.
Not sure whether he should be shocked or amused, Sweeney walked further into the water, towards her.
But only a few seconds later, Mrs. Lovett emerged from the water, grinning as if something funny had just happened.
He stood still for a moment when he saw her properly. It was not the new bathing suit which she was wearing that surprised him – although she had chattered about it so often in the old days he had never thought that she would once actually buy one – but the fact that she was clearly genuinely enjoying whatever it was exactly that she was doing.
"Mr. Todd!" she said breathlessly, making her way towards him. He could take a better look at her that way and to his horror, he found himself thinking that the bathing suit didn't seem as silly as it had done in the old days now that the wet fabric was clinging to her curves.
"I didn't know you were back yet," she said, her cheeks reddening slightly. "If I would've known, I wouldn't have been..."
She chattered like the baker he remembered, not the grieving woman she had become, and even though she was rambling like he once had detested, he found that he didn't mind it now.
"How long have you been standing there?"she asked, the blush still visible on her face.
"Not long," he lied, forcing his mind to stop its musings, at least as long as the object of this thoughts was standing right before him, watching him intently in a soaking and pathetic excuse of clothing.
"Do you mind if I do this one more time before coming back to help you with the house? I know this seems very childish but it's quite... exciting."
Sweeney raised a sceptical eyebrow, but she just rolled her eyes and pulled the wood that she had used to float on out of the water. Only then he recognized the shape of it and realized why he hadn't been able to find the fourth plank of wood only minutes ago.
"Mrs. Lovett," he said, wondering if the woman had lost her mind after all, "that is supposed to be part of our front door."
She looked from him to the wood and back, obviously not sure whether she should take him seriously or not, until she studied the object with more attention.
"I'm sorry," she muttered, her cheeks reddening even more as it was clear to her that he wasn't trying to fool her. "I didn't know that. You were gone and I was looking for something that could help me float in the sea when I found out that I wasn't very good at swimming. This was just lying there and I thought that you didn't need it because it isn't very big."
Taking pity on her and deciding to spare her the technical reasons because of which he had sawn the wood in four pieces, one of them being the one she was currently holding, he gestured her to calm down.
"It doesn't matter," he said, "I'll make a new one."
It would take him a few more hours to do so, but the salt in the water had made the current one useless. The look of relief on Mrs. Lovett's face however was worth it.
"Would you like to try it once?"
His initial reaction was to reply with a firm 'no', but when she looked at him expectantly, he nodded. Trying one time wouldn't hurt and it seemed that it meant a lot to her if he would do it.
Smiling once more, she walked back into the sea, until the water reached to her waist. Sensing that that was what she expected him to do, he followed her.
"You have to wait until the wave is right behind you," she said, moving the wood in front of her once more. As she said this, another wave approached and just before it would smash against her, she moved on top of the wood and let the water drag her with it. Not distracted this time, she almost reached the beach before the wave was too weak to move her any longer and she remained floating on the wood before she stood up and walked back to him.
Mr. Todd couldn't help but be impressed; within seconds, the wave had made her cross the distance to the beach which was dozens of yards away. Now genuinely interested in trying this himself, he took the wood when Mrs. Lovett pushed it to him. When he had sawn the plank into the right shape, he had never thought that it would serve any other purpose than being one fourth of the front door of the cottage, but seeing how much she enjoyed this, he was rather glad that the wood was used in such a strange way.
Wanting to move exactly as he had seen Mrs. Lovett do a moment ago, he waited until a large wave was moving towards him. He moved forward as well, intending to move onto the wood before the wave hit him. He succeeded in doing so, but he had moved too early and instead of taking him with it, the wave rushed over him without mercy, soaking his hair and the working clothes he was still wearing.
Eager to try again, he simply stood up, somewhat relieved that the sea wasn't very deep where they were standing.
The second time however, he moved too late and the wave had passed already before he was on the wood, leaving him floating aimlessly on the surface of the sea that was calm once more.
Determined now to do just like Mrs. Lovett, he made another attempt. This time, he moved at the right moment. He hardly had the chance to appreciate this however; the wave dragged him away with a mesmerizing speed that was even more overwhelming now that he was actually in the water himself.
The wave was much more powerful than he had anticipated, but he managed to control the plank nonetheless. As he did so, water splashed in his face as it pushed him towards the rapidly approaching beach, and a jolt of excitement spread through his body. He understood now why she was so enthusiastic about this.
He didn't reach the beach, perhaps because he was heavier than Mrs. Lovett and didn't float as easily, but he was pleased nonetheless, especially when he saw that she was almost jumping with delight. Very eager now to try this again, not because he wanted to prove the woman something but because he actually wanted to experience it once more.
He made his way back into the sea, easily defying the waves rolling in the opposite direction. The sudden smile that appeared on his face when she was beaming at him was something that didn't bother him.
Another wave was there, larger and moving quicker than any he had seen before. Focused on it completely, he wasn't aware of the baker's shout of warning.
Just before the wave washed over him, he pushed the wood forward and moved on it, like he had done before. The first second was miraculous – he went fast, so incredibly fast. The speed that the baker had achieved – and the speed of basically all other things he had done in his life – was nothing compared to this.
Adrenaline rushed through his body and he felt more powerful than he had ever done, even with one of his beloved razors in his hand right before another kill.
But then the wave turned out too big and strong. The water tried to drag the wood into different directions and he couldn't force the plank any longer to keep moving in just one direction.
The board was suddenly pulled powerfully to the left and it was impossible for Sweeney to remain in control. He was thrown off the wood, into the water, a very short moment before the wave rushed over him.
The sea wasn't deep at that point, but even as the wave had passed, the water sucked him down, towards the bottom, and for a moment he found himself incapable of swimming back to the surface.
But before he could fully realize this, before he could even panic, there were two small and surprisingly strong hands that pulled him out of the water and helped him get to the beach.
The barber and the baker collapsed in the sand, both breathing heavily after the unexpected accident, and Mrs. Lovett's hands moved frantically over his arms and chest to make sure that he wasn't hurt. While doing so, she muttered words of apology and comfort.
Sweeney felt better quickly now that he was out of the water and could breath freely again. He was a little shocked by the unexpected splash, that was all; in the past fifteen years, he had been in much, much worse situations. He had survived and back then, there hadn't been the baker's gentle hands and voice, which were strangely soothing.
In spite of what just had happened, he wanted to go back into the water and try again, if only to prove to himself – and to her - that the one successful attempt he had made wasn't a lucky accident.
But for the time being, he remained where he was, and didn't try to break out of the baker's embrace. He felt perfectly at ease lying in the warm sand and feeling the baker's hands caress his face tenderly. And besides, the world was a more pleasant place when it was seen from Eleanor's lap.
