The place smelled of burnt wood. Had they discovered the fire any later it would have climbed the roof and into Mr. Todd's parlor. The wall only turned black in the corner, where the bags of flour and burlap were stored for her use or disuse. Mrs. Lovett had always meant to clean that old corner out, especially now that business was back and having a clean environment was always a necessity. Nellie stood back, letting Mr. Todd shuffle through the remains, seeing if there was anything amongst the pile undamaged. As Sweeney caught his breath, Nellie ran to the window and pushed it open with a loud screech. Bits of paint chipped off the edge and fell into her eyes as she dropped her arms and turned to him. She closed her robe and set a strand of her curly red hair behind her ear. Sweeney moved towards the singed corner, his eye fixed upon something.
"Don't bother dear," She said under her breath.
"Look." He replied, lifting up a dismembered corpse of a burned animal. He held it up to Nellie, her face twitching, making those lines on her cheeks sink. It was bigger than a rat. Sweeney took it in both hands, pushing through the blackened corpse with his fingertips, coming across the jaw bone, the yellow teeth. He removed his fingers and wiped the blood across his nightshirt.
"Nothing but a desperate alley cat," He said. "Must have come into the shop through that window." Stepping closer to Nellie and moving the tiny corpse on the cutting board. They stood silent, staring, somehow comparing the corpse of a cat to their nightly dissections.
"You'll have a new flavor in the shop tomorrow."
"Don't be silly, Mr. T, we've still got two bodies left down below." She added, "Not to mention we still haven't cleaned up this mess up 'ere."
"Now whose fault is that?" He said, creeping up to her and opening the closure of her robe just enough to touch her. She shuddered; thinking that no matter what she did his hands will always be cold.
"It was your idea wasn't it?" Nellie teased, thinking back and forgetting the fact that her pie shop still smoldered, but the fire in the pie shop could never compare to her own; which could not be extinguished by any power. Just as she thought him ready to continue, he receded from her arms, heading back towards the stairs. Nellie turned, he was staring at the charred corner, searching through the ashes. She could never grow weary of looking at his eyes, the way they stared, so concentrated, and so focused, over nothing it seemed. She had never known Benjamin Barker to look at the world with eyes like that. All he saw then was his little wife barely seeing the door leading out of his shop, or the entrance to her pie shop. If she had asked him before, yes, those fifteen years before, if he had even recalled her first name he would have shrugged, walked away and gone back upstairs to his Lucy. Not that he calls her Nellie now, but she was close. So close to getting him to call her name but the smoke of real fire soaked his. Nellie looked at the remains of the cat and began stroking the remaining fur patches with her fingertips, all the while waiting. Sweeney came up behind her, taking her waist in his hands.
"Someday, burning down this old shop may not be a bad idea." He whispered.