Tobias POV
I follow the girl, Ravinia, into her home, warm and happy. I don't remember ever having a home like this, I was never lucky enough. I was a slave, which was always my path in life, until now. But before I let the nice feeling of the burning fire under the stovetop with a pot of amazing smelling soup bubbling, I think of the events that transpired earlier this evening.
Guilt fills my stomach and suddenly the fire is less appealing as the vision of Mrs Lovett being thrown into the fire and me slinking out of the sewer appears in my head. I think of the sickening feeling of killing Mr Todd with his own knife. I just feel terrified that someone may trace it back to me. I'll have to change my name. I like my name. But I liked Mrs Lovett better.
Ravinia is so pretty, even prettier than Mrs Lovett was, if that's even possible. I think she may even be more beautiful than the girl in Mr Todd's photos. The girl with the long yellow hair.
Ravinia introduces me to her charming little brother, Todd. He looks nothing at all like Mr Todd but the name makes anger bubble in my insides.
"It's nice to meet you Todd." I say, holding out my hand to the boy, who takes it and gives it a light shake.
"I do believe I seen you before! Selling some elixir." He smiles up at me. "Does it actually work?"
"Of course not! It's nothing but an arrant fraud concocted from piss and ink." I laugh, but remember that Mr Todd said those very words to me, which dissipates my smile.
"Why would you sell such a thing to the innocent people of London?" Todd asks me. Ravinia shoots him a look, but I kneel to his level and hold out my knuckles, pulling up my sleeves to the wrists, only revealing half of the scars I received on a daily basis from Pirelli.
"These are why." His eyes widen and he nods. "Also, not everyone in London is innocent…"
"Enough questions for Tobias, Todd." Ravinia stops the boy from continuing. She takes my hand and leads me down the hall. She opens a door to a bedroom and sits on the bed, and pats the mattress next to her. I sit and watch her.
"Tobias.."
"Toby." I smile. Most people in my life have called me Toby.
"Oh, Toby. Why did this all happen to you? Your masters."
"Oh." I begin. I tell her the story, the long version. I realize I must be boring her but I keep speaking, looking away from her. I don't want to see her expression. "I ate those filthy things! Can you believe? I snuck into the sewer, of course vomiting the rancid pies, and they came looking for me. I bet to kill me. I watched them through the grates, and I figured it all out. Mr Todd was married, and had a daughter. That was the girl in his picture. But the judge, he sent him away and took his wife. Then his wife killed herself, and he took the daughter and held her captive I s'pose. I guess Mr Todd's wife didn't die. She went crazy. That made Mr Todd mad and he… he… Mrs Lovett was thrown into an oven. Mrs Lovett was crazy in love with Mr Todd and I suspected! I knew! He was a filthy murderer and I never saved her."
"So…The pies…were his victims?" Ravinia looks sick.
I nod.
"If Mrs Lovett was baking them, don't you think she knew about Mr Todd?" Ravinia asks. Her warm hand slides over mine.
"I guess so.." I say. I think about it for a few moments, when I realize she was just as sick and twisted as he was. She lied to me.
But that doesn't stop the longing I still have for her to be back, acting as my mother, holding me tight. I wish she was alive and well, and that Mr Todd was normal.
I wish I was never an orphan.
Ravinia POV
I approach my father's bedroom slowly, and open the door. He lies in is large bed, staring up at the ceiling. My father was never a nice man. He never took fondly to me - or Todd for that matter, but especially me. I don't mind though, I just miss my mother.
"Father…" I say as I step into the room. He turns to me, sadness flashing on his face before it's replaced with anger.
"What are you doing here? Have you fed Todd?" He growls.
"Yes father, but there's something I desperately need to ask of you." I whisper. He's sick, feeble even, but he still scares me. Perhaps because of my haunting childhood with him beating us and my mother. I hated him for that. Now I feel pity for the man he must have been for my mother to marry him, only to lay his hands on his own children. "You see, there was an orphan, Tobias, Tobias …" I glance to the hallway, where Toby mouths Ragg to me. "Tobias Ragg. And he was in a tragic accident, with nowhere to stay but the workhouse. So I invited him here. Todd loves him too, Father."
"You did no such thing." My Father sits up In bed, though it must pain him severely.
"I did, Father." I say, with new found strength now that Toby is only a few feet away.
"Why would you invite a filthy scoundrel into our home!?" My Father exclaims.
"He's not filthy! He lived over with the baker, and he was fed and clothed but she's suffered a death and he is now without a guardian!" I reply.
"Well…"
"Please, Father, can he stay?" I beg and fall to my knees at his bedside. He gives it a moment of thought before saying:
"Okay, Ravinia. But he must have his own cot. And he mustn't know where we keep the valuables." I almost roll my eyes but nod quickly and flee the room.
Toby waits for me in the hallway and I close the door and fall into his arms, excited that he can stay, though I am cautious of him. Who knows- he could have murdered his masters. I just don't know. So that night, I lock my bedroom door, along with Todd's.
But not once does my doorknob tremble throughout the night.