A/N Had to go see the new Indiana Jones, so.. late update. If you go see it, make sure you have no expectations. It'll be good after that. Not to say it was awful, just not on par with the old ones.
29
Love was an ideal for Johanna. It was a beautiful thing in her mind, and the hopes one young sailor gave her seemed to prove love was amazing. Hearing a young boy tell her that love could be sick and disgusting confused her. So Johanna thought on all she knew about Mrs. Lovett and her apparent murderous love interest.
Mr. Todd seemed a strange type of man, beyond killing too, and she wondered, if as Toby speculated, he didn't love Mrs. Lovett back. He had to know she loved him, right?
Johanna hadn't realized it, but she hadn't spoken to Mrs. Lovett about her 'tenant' (as she put it) for too long, and she had only known Mr. Todd for a total of five minutes, which was spent yelling and accusing.
She briefly hoped the man's condition wasn't so far gone that he wouldn't recover. He had been in terrible shape.
"Toby.." The girl asked slowly. "Could you. .tell me about them?"
"About mu-Mrs. Lovett an' Mr. T?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"I'm just curious. Mr. Todd was supposed to be helping Anthony, a boy I know, to help me escape. Hearing this is.. a little strange."
The boy snorted, as if to say 'you're telling me'. She stared at him a moment longer before he slowly nodded his head. "Alright."
Sweeney didn't know if the silence came from his mind suddenly blanking, or Mrs. Lovett actually not responding. She hadn't said anything, but it didn't matter much to Sweeney as he was way too confused to really hear her anyway.
Lucy being.. insane.. Albert, murdered. Mrs. Lovett getting married.. (again). It all seemed such a strange thing to be talking about, especially since the barber had never seen the man before, or even heard of him.
"'Ow could ya expect me to say 'yes' to a marriage proposal after ya poisoned my tenant's wife?"
After he poisoned Lucy? Sweeney' eyes slowly came open. They were standing on either side of the table he had been placed on, and where looking so intently at one another they didn't notice his consciousness.
"I brought that bottle over, she poisoned herself and you just watched her do it!" Mayhew hissed back at her.
"Brought it over? You placed it on her nightstand for God's sake!"
"All I see is a pit you're digging yourself into Eleanor, you aren't even claiming to have moved the bottle once you knew it was there."
"I knew you brought it over, I thought it was medicine, not poison!"
"Oh yes," the sarcasm was back in his voice. "Just like you didn't know what I was giving Albert?"
"I can't believe you're bringing this up now." Mrs. Lovett snarled.
"I'm sorry if I'm not in a hurry to wait another eleven years for some closure to this mess."
"Mess?"
Instead of dwelling on the fact he had never seen Mrs. Lovett looked so incredibly angry before, Sweeney decided to take some action. He had had quite enough of listening to the two bicker, and they were straying from the topic he wanted to hear about most. His wife.
James's mouth was just opening to retort when Sweeney's hands shot up and grabbed the front of Mrs. Lovett's dress, dragging her down so that her face was an inch from his.
"What happened to Lucy?" He snarled into her frightened face.
Toby was sketchy and unsure of what to say or where to start, so Johanna prompted him to start from the beginning. A frown of concentration appeared on his face as he thought. The tale he pieced together was an interesting one for Johanna to hear. Mr. Todd was a quiet man, kept to himself, while Mrs. Lovett bustled around her shop and chatted non-stop. Toby smiled fondly as he spoke of her, then seemed to remember she was supposed to disgust him and frowned.
Something close to a sneer appeared on Toby's face as he groused out 'she melted every time he was in a room'.
Johanna tried to picture an image of Mrs. Lovett mooning after Mr. Todd. From what she saw and knew of the woman, it was a very difficult thing to conjure.
She took care of Mr. Todd, Toby, the shop, and; the boy muttered darkly, she took care of the murders.
The girl frowned, trying to understand the baker. This was surely the definite proof of her insanity, but as the boy's story continued she oddly found herself believing less and less in that theory.
"It was jus' another day 'fore everyone went crazy." Toby concluded. "Mr. Todd started actin' a bt different though."
"What do you mean?"
"More⦠human."
"He wasn't human before?"
"'E wasn' nothing', 'e was jus' there. Mum always said he did well for us, but I never thought he did anything."
Johanna smiled, waiting for Toby to realize he referred to Mrs. Lovett as 'mum' once again. She didn't know if the boy noticed, as all he did was continue scowling.
"Mr. T-" Mrs. Lovett gasped.
"Don't play games with me woman, what happened?"
"Let her go!" James snapped, finally bringing himself out of shock. How long had the barber been awake?
"What happened to Lucy?" Sweeney snarled, pulling Mrs. Lovett even closer.
Unable to maintain her balance, she landed on top of him. He immediately lost his grip as spots danced before his eyes, and he gasped desperately for air which only caused him further pain. Mrs. Lovett pushed herself up and stumbled away from the table.
"What is wrong with you?" The apothecary shouted, glaring at the man on the table.
"What is wrong with me?" Sweeney snapped. "What did you do to Lucy, what did you do to these people?!"
"What do you care what happened to some nit fifteen years ago?"
"My wife you ignorant son of a-" He reached up for Mayhew's throat, intent on throttling him.
The man had jumped away from the table though, and had returned his attention to Mrs. Lovett.
"You said he was dead!"
"He was!" She snapped back.
"I'm right here!" The barber growled, extremely annoyed at not having the strength to sit up. "What did you do to her?" He demanded once more.
"Mr. T, we didn'-"
"Don't sugar coat it for him, Eleanor. The man should know what a lost cause his wife was before she poisoned herself. She was draining money from your pocket more quickly than Albert was."
"You poisoned her." Sweeney admonished. "You did."
"I may have brought something over, but she did it herself!
"My wife would never do such a thing!"
"She did, just as surely as she gave her body and child to Turpin!"
Sweeney and James both wiped their heads to the side, shocked at Mrs. Lovett's outburst. The woman looked livid, and was staring directly at the barber.
