Chapter Three
Bill disentagled the girl from his neck
"Alright alright d'yer wanna strangle me the moment I walk in?"
"Oh no of course I don't!" The girl hastily removed herself from Bill and cast a glance over at me then back to him. "You've been gone 3 months! I didn't think you were ever coming back!"
"Well I'm here now ain't I?!" Bill was looking at me all the while as he was talking to her
Who the hell was she? And why did she seem even more at ease with Bill then I did? And why was he looking as gulity as sin?
I was dying to ask these questions but didn't get a chance to-well this is what I told my self-in truth I didn't want to know the answers.
"Well" said the young girl "You have been in the wars!" then turning to Bill"Do you know who did this? How can anyone be so cruel? Even Da wouldn't go this far"
I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. What did she think Bill was? An angel? At that moment Fagin pulled away from the man known as Thenardier and walked up to me "Well my dear, I see you have met Azelma. Alzelma this is Nancy....Alzelma..Nancy my dear is...well she's-"
"My wife"
Theose words were uttered so quietly that I wasn't sure I head them but one look at Bill's face told me I had.
I often read penny romances from the market when the day is over and venders want to shift their goods. They are full of sayings like "At that moment her world stopped" or "It didn't seem true time stopped for her" And I had always wondered whether they had any truth in them. Now I know they do. The sickness I had held down since the boat journey wouldn't be held any more and I made my escape to th door in which we had entered, out onto the street and released into the gutter.
I sat down giving into my legs demand that thy could no longer hold my weight. 3 months she said he had been gone. 3 months ago Fagin had come and told me Bill had been shopped by the scuffers and was up at Newgate in solitude. Fagin! He had lied too! How many more did Dodger know? Damn Bill Sikes to Hell! He knew how I felt about him! God knows I'd told him enough and he had told me too in the early hours of the morning. Did he truely have no heart?
I was so busy in my thoughts I didn't hear him open the door. I only knew he was there when he sat down next to me.
"Nance if it helps I didn't know either"
"It doesn't Dodge but thanks all the same"
"You know good can come of this-now Bill knows you know you could get away from him, start again you could go anyway and he wouldn't care!"
"That's just it you see he wouldn't but I want him to. You said I could be anywhere- yopu know where I'd be? I'd be in that gloomy room called home still laying on that floor-dead I should be dead you know."
"He met her three years ago when she was 15"
15? so she was 17 same age as me...she looked young for her age...maybe I just looked old. I didn't tell Dodger to continue but I hadn't told him to stop so he carried on.
"They wed last year you know when you were taken ill and Bill had us tll you that he had a spell of six months"
Ill. Yes I remember. I had miscarried and told Dodger to get word to Bill that I couldn't see him 'cause I was "ill" So there was me half dead and he was geting married! I felt the tars spill over my eyes and on to my bruised cheeks and brushd them away for far of Dodger seing them.
"Poor Nance" he said,voice full of pity "He didn't tell ya well coz he is truely fond of ya-that's why he brought you with us he said you didn't deserve to lay rotting in that room coz you had been good to him no matter what he did to ya"
Yes damn right I had! I had taken the drunkedness, the orders, the dirty looks and the beatings! Beatings I took for disobeying or for food being too cold or too hot. Beatings for getting him a drink or not getting him a drink. Beatings for saying somthing or breathing too loadly. Beatings for just simpley being in the same place as he was.
"Some repayment" I muttered the statement under my breath but Dodger had heard it
"He never meant to hurt ya Nance but it were agreed that if Bill took 'Zelma off of Thenardier's hands then he wouldn't shop us all to the french scuffers. Fagin did some dodgy business 'ere last year and well Thenardir used it to his advantage. So it's a sham marriage really you see?"
"Not a sham to her though is it? Or me."
If all this was true why hadn't Bill just told me too clear of last year? I would hav left-returned to me old trade, sure I would have been hurt but nothing to what I was feeling now.
"So what you gonna do?"Dodger asked me the question as if I had lost a job not my life.
"I ...I dunno I'm not staying here thats for sure I think I'll-"
"You ain't going anywhere." Bill's voice was harsh and menacing "You are gonna get off your backside go in there and tell 'em you will earn you can earn your keep by picking pockets and the like"
This was the last straw did he think I was gonna take that from him now after what I had just been through?!
"I shall not" I said shaking my head defiantly and stayed wher I am.Dodger looked at Bill shrugged his shoulders and headed inside.
"Get up and get in there d'ya hear?"
I stood up and looked Bill in the eye and said in a calm controlled voice "If you think I'm gonna walk in there and pretend everything is fine you got another thing coming. Fagin warned me that you had no heart and now I know it's true. I'm gonna do somthing I never dared do before I'm going to walk away from you Bill Sikes and you will never lay a hand on me again"
Well I turned away from him almost walked, but not quite. Needless to say he he didn't comply to the last bit of my galant speech.....
Bill disentagled the girl from his neck
"Alright alright d'yer wanna strangle me the moment I walk in?"
"Oh no of course I don't!" The girl hastily removed herself from Bill and cast a glance over at me then back to him. "You've been gone 3 months! I didn't think you were ever coming back!"
"Well I'm here now ain't I?!" Bill was looking at me all the while as he was talking to her
Who the hell was she? And why did she seem even more at ease with Bill then I did? And why was he looking as gulity as sin?
I was dying to ask these questions but didn't get a chance to-well this is what I told my self-in truth I didn't want to know the answers.
"Well" said the young girl "You have been in the wars!" then turning to Bill"Do you know who did this? How can anyone be so cruel? Even Da wouldn't go this far"
I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. What did she think Bill was? An angel? At that moment Fagin pulled away from the man known as Thenardier and walked up to me "Well my dear, I see you have met Azelma. Alzelma this is Nancy....Alzelma..Nancy my dear is...well she's-"
"My wife"
Theose words were uttered so quietly that I wasn't sure I head them but one look at Bill's face told me I had.
I often read penny romances from the market when the day is over and venders want to shift their goods. They are full of sayings like "At that moment her world stopped" or "It didn't seem true time stopped for her" And I had always wondered whether they had any truth in them. Now I know they do. The sickness I had held down since the boat journey wouldn't be held any more and I made my escape to th door in which we had entered, out onto the street and released into the gutter.
I sat down giving into my legs demand that thy could no longer hold my weight. 3 months she said he had been gone. 3 months ago Fagin had come and told me Bill had been shopped by the scuffers and was up at Newgate in solitude. Fagin! He had lied too! How many more did Dodger know? Damn Bill Sikes to Hell! He knew how I felt about him! God knows I'd told him enough and he had told me too in the early hours of the morning. Did he truely have no heart?
I was so busy in my thoughts I didn't hear him open the door. I only knew he was there when he sat down next to me.
"Nance if it helps I didn't know either"
"It doesn't Dodge but thanks all the same"
"You know good can come of this-now Bill knows you know you could get away from him, start again you could go anyway and he wouldn't care!"
"That's just it you see he wouldn't but I want him to. You said I could be anywhere- yopu know where I'd be? I'd be in that gloomy room called home still laying on that floor-dead I should be dead you know."
"He met her three years ago when she was 15"
15? so she was 17 same age as me...she looked young for her age...maybe I just looked old. I didn't tell Dodger to continue but I hadn't told him to stop so he carried on.
"They wed last year you know when you were taken ill and Bill had us tll you that he had a spell of six months"
Ill. Yes I remember. I had miscarried and told Dodger to get word to Bill that I couldn't see him 'cause I was "ill" So there was me half dead and he was geting married! I felt the tars spill over my eyes and on to my bruised cheeks and brushd them away for far of Dodger seing them.
"Poor Nance" he said,voice full of pity "He didn't tell ya well coz he is truely fond of ya-that's why he brought you with us he said you didn't deserve to lay rotting in that room coz you had been good to him no matter what he did to ya"
Yes damn right I had! I had taken the drunkedness, the orders, the dirty looks and the beatings! Beatings I took for disobeying or for food being too cold or too hot. Beatings for getting him a drink or not getting him a drink. Beatings for saying somthing or breathing too loadly. Beatings for just simpley being in the same place as he was.
"Some repayment" I muttered the statement under my breath but Dodger had heard it
"He never meant to hurt ya Nance but it were agreed that if Bill took 'Zelma off of Thenardier's hands then he wouldn't shop us all to the french scuffers. Fagin did some dodgy business 'ere last year and well Thenardir used it to his advantage. So it's a sham marriage really you see?"
"Not a sham to her though is it? Or me."
If all this was true why hadn't Bill just told me too clear of last year? I would hav left-returned to me old trade, sure I would have been hurt but nothing to what I was feeling now.
"So what you gonna do?"Dodger asked me the question as if I had lost a job not my life.
"I ...I dunno I'm not staying here thats for sure I think I'll-"
"You ain't going anywhere." Bill's voice was harsh and menacing "You are gonna get off your backside go in there and tell 'em you will earn you can earn your keep by picking pockets and the like"
This was the last straw did he think I was gonna take that from him now after what I had just been through?!
"I shall not" I said shaking my head defiantly and stayed wher I am.Dodger looked at Bill shrugged his shoulders and headed inside.
"Get up and get in there d'ya hear?"
I stood up and looked Bill in the eye and said in a calm controlled voice "If you think I'm gonna walk in there and pretend everything is fine you got another thing coming. Fagin warned me that you had no heart and now I know it's true. I'm gonna do somthing I never dared do before I'm going to walk away from you Bill Sikes and you will never lay a hand on me again"
Well I turned away from him almost walked, but not quite. Needless to say he he didn't comply to the last bit of my galant speech.....