Despite how heavily Nellie Lovett slept, she always seemed to be the first one rise. Morning may have been the only time during the day when she looked upon the world kindly. She always lingered for a few minutes, stroking Mr. Todd's cheeks with the backs of her fingers. It was softer than any skin she had ever known before. Less often, she would tempt him to remain. But Sweeney always pushed her away, insisting that she open up shop else she would have more work when he received customers.
Always she started by looking in the mirror. Peering into the void of the glass she always wondered if perhaps, one day, some truth would be revealed. Not this morning, not today. She looked in the mirror and all she saw was impatience. But it wasn't written across her face, but buried deep in her eyes. Sometimes, if she kept a candle by her mirror at night, the light could make orbs in the pupils of her eyes and cast gold circles in the mirror that resembled fire. Fire in her eyes. That was the idea; even if it was just an illusion. Even if it wasn't an illusion, or Nellie could manage to convince herself it was, it continued to her hair. If it was one thing she liked about her person it was her hair, everything else did not live up to her expectations. So often she used to catch Albert staring at it, between times when he wasn't too furious or drunk to even notice her presence. She's not young anymore, it's true, but now every time she let down her hair in front of Mr. Todd she felt like a girl again; tempting the fire in his soul to emerge from across the room.
Nellie wandered down to her shop, shuffling her skirts along the stairs to hear their swish as she moved. She approached the counter and found the remains of the cat on her cutting board.
"You poor thing…" She whispered, lifting a half burned paw with her fingers. She tilted her head to get a closer look. "Life's unfair, ain't it not? Fish gotta swim, that's what they say isn't it?" She chuckled to herself as she lifted up the tiny corpse and placed it in the corner of the oven. Nellie lifted a match and struck the tip against the wall. A spark ignited and she held it straight as the gray smoke disappeared, leaving nothing but an undisturbed, steady flame.
"You'll not want that smell from the oven during the day, Mrs. Lovett" A voice said from behind. Nellie turned and there he was. Mr. Todd had awakened from his sleep, his silver eyes drowsy with fatigue. She smiled from the side of her mouth subtly.
"Well, look who's up dearie." Nellie said. She lifted the match and puffed out the flame with one breath, keeping her eyes on him as she tossed it to the floor. Sweeney pushed a chair out from under the table and sat down with his elbows in the flour. Nellie sauntered up to him, putting her hands on his shoulder and closing her fingers around them.
"What are we going to do about this wall?" She said, leaning her head close to his ear. "Can't keep it charred like this, can we?"
"That wouldn't be practical, Mrs. Lovett." He said coolly. "I'll take a look this morning before I open the parlor."
"I could help, you know." She whispered. "We can close shop for today, I'm sure you'll be wanting some time off, and if this becomes a problem how can we keep the shop up?"
"Have you roused Toby?" Sweeney replied.
True, it hadn't even occurred to Nellie that Tobias could still be asleep upstairs. He didn't even wake when the smoke came up the stairs. He came downstairs after Mr. Todd went back to sleep. The poor boy looked so pale Nellie brought him back upstairs humming a lullaby under her breath, patting his head in the most affectionate way she could think of. This was uncomforting for her. She had tried to tell Mr. Todd about the boy's strange quirks, but he would have none of it. Nellie never had that kind of attention lavished upon her, loving affection that was born out of gratitude. Not even her husband had ever been so unhinged, so devoted to her.