Chapter 29: "Friends"
A/N: Okay, so I skipped ahead by six years in this. Nancy is now 21...Bill is now 33. I know that sounds scarily older then her (and yes when I gave the run down of the characters' age a few chapters back I mis-typed his.) but I am going by what our script from our school's production of Oliver! Had as their ages. I don't think the exact ages really matter seeing as I'm basing these characters off the 1968 version and those are the characters I envision when writing this. Anyways, a lot going on in this chapter, only a few more before I bring Oliver into the story. For the record, forgive me the cliché of the last line, I know it's really cheesy.
Note: I am going to be working with a local theater department/acting program for seven and a half hours every day with softball every other evening. Forgive me if updates are a little irregular. I beg of you all to be patient.
Warning: Contains romance.
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"Nancy!" Bet called giggling. She had just come up the stairs from the tavern below to her room where Nancy was eagerly preparing for the evening of work ahead of her. Nancy often came here to get ready for the evening now. It made her feel a little better that the boys didn't have to see her this way. Besides that, she and Bet had become the very best of friends in the six years since they'd first met. All the while, both girls had become more and more beautiful. It was no wonder that the both of them had began to attract the attention of males that had no intention of becoming their customers. Which was, in fact, what Bet was hollering about currently. "He's down there!" Nancy whipped around and dropped the tube of lipstick that she hated wearing so much.
"He is not!" she cried in shock.
"He is," Bet insisted. "Lord Nance, what is this, the third night in a row?" The girl was smiling, that beautiful, innocent smile that she had worn when Nancy first met her. Unlike Nancy, the job hadn't broken Bet. In one sick way or another it had given the girl a place to belong amongst the girls. Nancy had found out through the years that Bet had never had a home life. She had been cast into the streets as a child and never looked back. The girls were her friends, and sick as it was, her job was the first kind of "love" she had ever experienced. If anything Bet looked up to Nancy, she was an older sister, a motherly figure, a friend. Bet fit in fantastically around Nancy too, she came to visit Fagin sometimes during the day, and the boys all made her feel right at home. All in all she had been a merry addition to Nancy's circle of friends.
"Yes," Nancy said smiling coyly "this week."
"He's sweet on you Nance," Bet said smiling.
"Stop," Nancy scolded, smirking at her friend's wickedly mischievous teasing. "We're friends is all," she said firmly.
"Oh yes," Bet said with a sarcastic roll of her eyes. "You're just friends wiv 'im the same way Fagin's a noble knight of 'er majesty's royal court!" Nancy gave her hair one last fluff before she turned and stood with Bet in the doorway. Bet gave her a knowing smirk and in response Nancy put both hands on her hips.
"What?" Bet's smirk broadened and Nancy countered with a highly skeptical look. "What?" she demanded. Bet laughed merrily as her smirk became a smile and she made a move to head downstairs.
"Nevermind," she said smiling. Nancy laughed and followed her downstairs.
Bet floated down the stairs at a startling pace, looking graceful all the while. Nancy had always envied the young girl her flowing, sprightly movements. It was due to Bet's fluid grace that she managed to be down and off the stairs before Nancy had even started down them. The young girl smoothed out her red skirts, made one more nervous pull at her curls, and descended the stair case. Bet had not lied to her just to tease her about her frequent visitor. He was indeed there, sitting at a table with a bowl of stew before him. She smiled as she rushed to the bar and grabbed a bottle and two mugs. Nancy could feel her smile growing as she set down the mugs and poured a healthy amount of gin.
"'Ello Bill," she said smiling. He smirked at the lovely young woman before him.
"Alrigh' there Nance?"
"Yeah, oh yeah," she replied. "In for your usual drink I see," she added with a sassy smile. He nodded and was already drinking from the mug she'd poured for him.
"One of the many reasons I visit the establishment," he grunted with a smile. Nancy had noticed something increasingly odd about Bill's behavior. As of late, he was smiling. Or at least, he was smiling around her. So, it would seem, that he was smiling a lot seeing as he was around her for an hour almost every night. He would come in for a drink and dinner, but insist that she be the one who served him. It had been going on for a month now, easily, and Nancy couldn't help but wonder what was going on with her old friend.
"How's the job been Bill?" she asked smiling. A smirk played at Bill's lips as he took another drink of his gin.
"Last night," Bill said smiling. "I went to a 'ouse over in Bloomsbury," he said proudly. Nancy's eyes widened in shock at this news. Bloomsbury had some really expensive homes, but it was one of the most well guarded neighborhoods there was.
"Bloomsbury!" she cried in awe. Nancy's sharp cry made Bulls-Eye stir by Bill's feet before the thing wearily laid it's head back down on it's paws. Bill nodded smiling and continued talking.
"Yeah, real toff this one was. It was a 'ard job, me an' Toby 'ad to sneak in through the tiniest back door I've ever seen." Bill neglected to mention to the charming woman that it had been far too tiny for his bulky frame and Toby had slid in and admitted him entrance through the front. "Anyway, we was in there grabbin' the stuff an' wot not when Toby turns to me an' says 'Bill, reckon there's a jewel box upstairs.' I says there probably was but it would be dangerous. Toby, 'e was scared to go, but not me." Nancy resisted the urge to roll her eyes at Bill's self bragging. Still, she thought it was very funny indeed the way he told her of his little housebreaking excursions so it wasn't as though she wasn't enjoying herself. "An' so I sneak upstairs an' sure enough, this old woman's got a jewel box. An' as I'm grabbin' the stuff and puttin' it in my pockets I saw a hair comb. One of those really fancy ones made of silver, wiv emeralds laid in. An' I looked at that hair comb an' I thinks to myself 'wouldn't that look pretty in a mop of red hair.' Then I think, 'now who's got the prettiest red hair of any girl I know'." Nancy couldn't contain a smile as she piped up.
"Oh Bill you didn't!" she cried in shock. Bill nodded smiling and reached into one of the pockets of his shockingly large coat before producing the hair comb of which he spoke. Nancy gasped at the sight of it. It was shaped like a butterfly with tiny emeralds set all over the wings. Instantly she pushed it into where she had part of her hair pulled back in the back of her head. Bill smiled at the girl's apparent amusement.
"There now I was right," Bill said smiling. "It looks great Nance," he added quietly. Nancy laughed at his awkwardness, and the two proceeded to chat until the hour had passed. As darkness fell over the streets of London, Bill informed Nancy he had to be off. Which, in reality, was all for the best seeing as Nancy actually had to start getting to work.
That didn't mean she wasn't sad to see him go.
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As Nancy expected, Fagin took notice of the comb in her hair the moment she got up in the morning. Sense would've told her to leave it out of her hair. The beauty of it beckoned her to the point where she couldn't resist.
"Wherever did you get it from my dear?" Fagin said as he twirled it delicately between his fingers.
"A friend," Nancy snapped defensively. She was really getting far to old to be living with Fagin and the gang. Far too old indeed. Almost all her old friends had moved on to bigger and better things. Edward and Benjamin had both attempted to go on to housebreaking, and were now rotting away in the clink. James ran a rather shady business trading things about with other men just like Fagin, though he and Nancy no longer got on well at all. The boy had offered Nancy money for her services the one night at which point she had slapped him harshly and thanked the child not to speak to her again. It disgusted her what such a rotten life could do to a boy. He was certainly not the same wide eyed child she had first met, not the same child at all. She hadn't heard much from Marshall or Morice since they'd left the gang. Only not seeing their names in the paper was her shaky reassurance that they were still alive. She didn't know well the new boys Fagin had taken in. There were at least eight of them now, but the only two she knew were Dodger and Charley. They were her boys, they were her friends. She couldn't help but feel like she didn't belong amongst the gang anymore. If it weren't for lack of other place to go, she wouldn't still be there.
"A friend from the tavern?" Fagin inquired handing the thing back to her. Nancy slid it into her hair wearily.
"Yes a friend from the tavern Fagin." Fagin gave her no more guff about it but he couldn't help but smirk. He knew just exactly which 'friend' she spoke of. He had not been incorrect in his assumptions of what Sikes felt for Nancy. And he was not so stupid as to think it had been any other but the notorious housebreaker that had given the girl her gift.
Indeed, it seemed, that in the time since Nancy had first met Bet, a lot had changed in the gang. Little did any of them know that the next three months would bring more changes still. One could indeed say that in three months time, things would become just a bit...twisted.
