title Girl Anachronism
author pinkeop
summary Behold the world's worst accident, I am the girl anachronism. - AU
authors note Again, I'd like to thank you all for your sweet reviews! Andaere - You and your booklet! -shakes fist- Of course, I change some of the lyrics around because I don't want them to be rhymning when they're having a nice casual conversation about chopping up a man and putting him into a meat pie. -snickers- Also, thanks for your kind compliments! I always enjoy getting your review, and getting two in one night just made my day! Thank you so much!
And thanks to everyone else who reviews Girl Anachronism. I know I don't have Anon. Reviews available, but I'll get those up ASAP! So even you leechers can tell me if you like it, hate it, want me to change it? Just no flames, plzkandthankyou.
I had such trouble thinking of what to do for this chapter! Because at the moment there's only been Nellie's obviously noticable one-sided romance with Mr. Todd and I've had a lot of people asking me to make it SweeneyOC, or I guess you can say SweeneyAna. Some even said it should stick to SweeneyLovett, but I just don't know! I guess you'll have to read to find out, wont you? ;
I've been lazy finding lyrics to put on each chapter ( and I've forgotten, too... ) so I'll start having those up on every chapter now rather than every OTHER chapter ( so lazylazy, I know! ).
This chapter is really... well, intense. It shows the darker side of Ana, and of Mr. Todd, and what twisted relationship they have together.
Withouth MUCH further ado, haha, here's chapter six!
Love!
Pink Elephants on Parade
--
chapter sixJohanna
I am the tower around which you orbited
I am not proud i am just taking orders
I fall to the groud within moments of impact
I hit back if hit
And attack if attacked
Toby really was a joy. Ana had never had a younger sibling and with the way the child bound behind her all through the palor and shop she would have thought he'd taken a liking to her! Toby had followed her since the moment she stepped out of the bedroom after Nellie had dragged her out of the bed, claiming there was work to be done. Always work to be done. Toby was very childlike in his nature, talking for the sake of talking as Ana sat with him in the shop, eating at some biscuits that Nellie made for breakfest while said baker retreated upstairs to rouse Mr. Todd with a tray of breakfest for him. He told her of Pirelli and how he'd gotten him from the work house- she cringed at the thought that when she was his age she was still a spoiled little brat -and how just that morning, while Ana had still been in bed, Nellie had offered him a place there and wasn't that just wonderful? Trying to appease the child, but not knowing how, Ana told him that they would have to find another place for him to sleep rather than the couch. To her delight, the boy's face lit up warmly at the thought. But really, the boy was delightful company.
As it were, Mr. Todd, who had stayed up very late into the night after Ana had retreated with her cold feet back to bed, had found a way to rig the floor behind the barber's chair to drop to the bakehouse below. Nellie had sent Toby away to get some toffees from the sweet shop around the corner and to spread the word of the grand reopening of Mrs. Lovett's Meat Pie Emporium. "Business is gonna be good," Nellie had said to Ana after the boy had run off elatedly. "What with the new meat that's gonna be coming." Not long after, Mr. Todd had come almsot running down the stairs in excitement- of course, a dull, dark sort of excitement -and bade the two of them to follow him up the stairs. How Mr. Todd had gotten the trap door to get down to the basement was beyond Ana, but it wouldn't be until later that she figured out it was just a stroke of luck he didn't make the door go straight through the shop or parlor! The barber had proudly shown off his chair before his first customer had come knocking and he sent Ana and Nellie away quite moodily.
Ana had watched the stairs anxiously as she helped Nellie make the pie crusts, but the man hadn't come back down. She knew he wouldn't. But something ached inside of her- that damn conscience.
It was midmorning when Toby returned bearing treaties and a batch of pie crusts were ready to be filled and cooked. "Take these down to the bakehouse, love," Nellie crooned. "Fill 'em and pop in the oven for me, would yeh?"
Mind, pulsing, Ana glanced to the ceiling. Mr. Todd paced up there, the sound of his foot falls heavy on the floor. She stood from her stool and took the tray. Toby had already captured Nellie's attention again by the time Ana made it to the side door, her stomach churning at the thought of going down into the bakehouse by herself. She was halfway down the cellar stairs when the heat hit her- it seeped out from under the large bake house doors, looking like a high security vault to a bank rather than a place to cook some pies. He stomach flipped over itself, trying to force the biscuits back up her throat. She would never understand how Nellie and Mr. Todd could be so enthusiastic about this little plan of theirs. It did a wonder for the guilt Ana never thought she could feel. She wondered how many times she would end up getting sick in the middle of the night? Of course, never would back out, for warm, motherly Nellie made this seem not so bad. How could it if she, warm motherly Nellie, went along with it? Mr. Todd, dark and brooding, had without a doubt captured poor Nellie's heart, and if warm, motherly Nellie trusted him, trusted this crime, this business... who was Ana to listen to her common sense?
Pushing these thoughts away, Ana opened the bakehouse door and stepped inside, balancing the tray against her hip. A crumpled body lay under the closed trap door in the corner. Her heart jumped into her throat at the sight of a pool of blood oozing from the back of the skull, twisted at an odd angle, the wide, open eyes staring right past Ana at the grinder in the middle of the room. The man was portly, Ana could see in the dim light, with shaving cream still lathered all over his face. Ana winced at the thought.
She'd have to cut him up, then. Get the pies in the oven and quickly cut him up and put him through the grinder. Take the valuables. She hoped she would remember how to take the bones out just as Nellie had showed her. Maybe she could get the woman down to help. Ana stepped towards the large bin below the grinder and set the tray down on the table beside it. Her heart was in her throat and her stomach felt even more sick than before. Out of the mouth of the grinder were strings of meat, wet and bloody. Closing her eyes, she felt her way to the crank, turning the heavy lever a good three spins, listening to the squelching sounds and the plopping of the meat into the basin below the mouth.
Ana pushed the mesh lace sleeves that hung around her wrists up around her elbows and pulled the small table closer to the basin. The meat smelt rank and it was then she realize that this was a person. A horrible person, but a person nontheless. And over there, in the corner. A person, with hopes and dreams and a family. A person with a name and a laugh and a bad habit. A person with an eye color and a curious quirk in their smile. Ana's hand raised to her mouth and she turned away from the basin of meat, crouching down on the balls of her feet, pushing the layered skirt of her dress out of the way as she leaned over her knees. Sweat beaded her forehead and her mouth filled with saliva.
"A person," she gasped out just before the biscuits came up in a delicious pastey form, splattering the edge of her dress and into a small puddle of liquid- what it was, she didn't want to know. A few dry gags later, Ana took a deep breath and tried to calm herself. She could do this, she reasoned. For Nellie. Those pies needed to be cooked. Always work to be done, always work to be done. Ignore the face, always ignore the face. But it was there, burned in her mind. A person. A person. A person.
She held her hair back out of her face as bile spilled from her lips onto the floor, her eyes twisted shut. For the first time, she felt so afraid and so alone and oh how she just wanted to go home. She didn't want to be here anymore, slicing up bodies and cooking them into pies. She wanted to be where things made sense- when you made sense, you didn't chop people up and serve them as dinner to all of London! That wasn't sense! Ana moaned pitifully as a few more dry heaves resulted in a little speckle of bile dripping from her lips. She gripped the sides of her head, her fingers twisted in her hair, eyes screwed shit, stomach churning. She needed something that made sense. She needed to be in a situation that she could control.
Ana couldn't remember the last time she cried- really cried, out of emotion and not pain. It had been years, because her mother never allowed her to cry. Strong young women knew how to control their emotions. She could remember that when she was younger, her mother used to lock her in the closet when she broke a dish, for an hour. A ten cent dish. And if she cried? Another hour. Until she learned not to cry. No, she knew how to take care of herself. So when her eyes glazed over with tears and an odd, shaking sob escaped her, she was so surprised and angry at herself, that she sobbed harder, and she could feel the mans dead eyes watching her from the corner, and she cried harder until she was sitting on her haunches with her knees pulled up to her chest, her face burried into them with her arms around her calves, rocking back and forth and sobbing so hard her body shook. Loud, shaking, paintful, drawn out sobs that hurt her throat with each noise. She cried for herself, stuck there in that world, so scared, so alone, pining for a home that not even Nellie could provide for her, because a home where she wasn't getting screamed at wasn't a home she could control. She cried for her mother, lost without her, and for her father, always much kinder and loving. She cried for the man who's meat was to be used to make the last dozen pies before the second man was put in to join him. And she cried for that man there in the corner. She cried for Nellie, who was so obviously pining after a man with no pity in his heart. She cried for young Toby, so innocent and broken at such an age. And she cried for Mr. Todd, up there, pacing away his wrongs, longing for his Johanna, for revenge, for his dead wife, Lucy was her name? She cried for him. Her nose was running and snot was on her lip, tears staining her cheeks. Ana wasn't sure how long she sat there, sobbing so hard like that, curling further into herself, holding tighter, rocking in more sharp, jerking movements. Sobbing.
Suddenly, rough hands grabbed her shoulders and shook her violently. She could hear, faintly in the background of her sobs, someone calling her name. She kept her head bowed into her knees as the rough hands gripped her and shook her sharply. Hard fingers dug into the skin under the sleeves of her dress. They were calling her name, over and over. Shouting it at her. Her sobs quivered in her throat.
Stop, she thought venomously as the grip on her arms got tighter, the shaking getting hard. Ana! the gruff voice shouted at her. Ana, stop this NOW!
Stop! she thought again.
ANA! The voice screamed.
"DON'T TOUCH ME!" Ana screamed, throwing her head up to come face to face with a pale, vicious Mr. Todd. His face was screwed up into a look of unsure anger, his eyes wide with fury and rage and yet there was a quiver in his brow- worry? Her cheeks were stained with tears, and her face probably blotchy and red from her crying. Snot was dried to her lip. Bruises were forming on her legs from where her hands gripped her legs so tightly. His nose was so close that it was almost brushing hers, and his face didn't change from the anger- in fact it grew more furious when she had screamed at him. They were panting in time with each others angry breath. His eyes were brown, she noticed. Dark brown, almost black, but she could see the warm flecks of golden honey that had once resided in there, alight with the anger and fury that she had inflicted in him. The power she got from causing that in him- that anger -was the same reason she acted out so much to her mother. To cause such a refined woman to break and hit her- hit her! -was such a powerful feeling.
"Let go of me," Ana whispered softly, afraid of what she looked like to him. Wild? Crazy? But he didn't release her. In fact, his hands tightened and his lip curled back in a snarl, ready to deliver some stinging barbed verbal blow.
"LET GO OF ME!" She screamed again, causing him to pull his face back in the smallest bit of surprise.
"Get up," he hissed, forcing her to her shakey feet. He hoisted her by her shoulders and she slumped against him for a half a second, unable to stable her feet. Ana's anger flared and she jerked and twisted and faught and suddenly she was crying again, sobbing and jerking against him. How must she look to him, now? Wild? Crazy? Ready to throw herself, or better yet him, into the furnace over there?
He handled her roughly, not at all like a woman, forcing her forward towards the door of the bakehouse that was closed from his entry. He released one hand to open the door, and the one that held her arm tightened. Ana realized she was no longer fighting him, but instead just whimpering with each movement, trying to catch her breath, airless sobs shaking her body. He forced her up the stairs. Out of her teary eyes she could see Nellie at the top of the bakehouse stairs, holding Toby to her side, the boy peering around the side of her skirt.
"Ana?" Nellie squeaked as Mr. Todd forced her up each step, waiting almost patiently for her to get her footing. The ascent to the top seemed to take forever. "Mr. T! Be gentle with 'er, she's jus' a child! Wha' the bloody's goin' on? Ana, darlin'---"
"She's fine," Mr. Todd snarled, shoving Nellie out of his way, Toby stumbling back. Ana wanted to scream at him not to touch Nellie, not to touch her, or anyone, ever ever again, but she was being marched through the empty shop by one very unhappy barber. Through the parlor, she finally realized he was taking her to the bedroom. He slammed the door shut behind them, and placed both hands on her shoulders and buckled her knees until her butt hit the old matress.
He released her for the first time since he entered the backhouse then, holding his hands aloft daintily, staring at her with his eyes with a slight squint, quirky and dangerous. Ana looked up at him, her brows tugging together in an expression she knew looked pitiful. She raised one shaking hand to her lips and a soft sob escaped.
"Stay 'ere until you can..." Mr. Todd looked uncomfortable through her blurry eyes. "Don't want you givin' Mrs. Lovett a fright, now, do we?" He motioned to the bed. "Lay down, there... "
Ana didn't move to lay. Her eyes twisted shut again and she drew her legs up to her chest, arms tight around them. Suddenly, those strong hands, much more gentle than before, untwisted her arms and slapped her knees under her legs straigtened out. She looked up at him, her eyes watery, Mr. Todd leaning over her. "Don't do that," he said quietly. "It makes you feel alone." He looked down, away from her, face still looking angry, but the crinkle in his brow- worry? -deepened. "You're not alone. Now lay down, there. Yeh didn't get a wink of sleep last night." He pushed on her shoulders until she was laying. Ana jerked away from him, to the wall side of the bed, and turned her back to him, face burried into the pillow. She didn't get time to whimper before she listened to the door slam with an angry vigor as the man left the room.
Ana didn't awake too much later. No, it had to just be high afternoon when Ana jerked out of her fitful nightmares. Her face was beaded and wet and she felt stiff and noticed she was still in her dress, shoes and everything. Her mind reeled back, and a sudden guilt weighed on her- how innappropriate she'd been acting, letting herself subcome to the emotions that dared plague her. She must've come off as so instable! She remembered yelling at Mr. Todd, screaming at him, forbidding him to touch her. She could remember the rage at his stupidity of doing just that. She hadn't been truely furious since she got here- Nellie numbed everything, like a good mother should, and her relationship with the woman and the man above hadn't been anything deeper than a friendship, and for the latter more of a partnership, a silent agreement of sorts.
Ana rolled out of the bed, standing and straighening herself. The small mirror the corner showed her that her hair looked like a haystack, and she tried to smooth it by jerking her fingers through the tangled mess, but of course a few strands broke off in her hands. She hadn't time to wash it properly in a while- the hot water in the bath didn't last long and she didn't have time to induldge, just enough time to scrub the dirt and flour and oils from her skin. Peering closer, she noticed her cheeks were bright red, one slightly more than the other as it had been the cheek she had been sleeping on. Her eyes were red and puffy and dark circles were beginning to form hollow bruises around the bright green orbs. Salty tear tracks were crusted on her cheeks, but that was remedied with her tongue, her thumb, and some gentle scrubbing away.
Decided that once the last strand was hanging ratherly limply in place, Ana turned and opened the parlor door, peering out into the bright sunlight that pooled in through the windows. She could hear Nellie talking loudly from the shop around the corner, and the quiet murmur of other people. Customers?!
Ana walked as quickly as she could without making herself look any more flustered, the guilt returning and a sheepish look fell across her face as she rounded the corner of the shop. Nellie was talking to a young man with his wife and their young girl, who was peering at Toby, swinging from side to side. Toby peeked out from around the counter, one hand clutching the skirt of Nellie's dress.
Nellie suddenly looked up and slapped a hand into the flour. "There yeh are, darlin'!" She crooned, turning half way to wave goodbye to the man and his wafe, who pulled their daughter away from watching Toby mischeviously. The boy in question finally came out from around the counter and plopped himself into the booth.
Nellie smoothed Ana's cheeks and hair, pulling her close to her. Suddenly, her boney, thin arms were wrapped around her and Ana found herself hugging her back. "I was so worried about yeh," Nellie murmured, holding her back by her shoulders. "I should'a known betteh..." She bite her lip and glanced at Toby, who was staring at the table top absently, then back to her. "Well... I just should'a known betteh."
"It's fine, Nellie," Ana said quietly, touching the older woman's cheek. "Really. I just..."
Nellie smiled and shook her head. "Yeh'll be workin' up 'ere from now on, love. No questions about it." She called over her shoulder. "Would yeh like that, Toby, if Ana worked up 'ere with yeh?"
The boy raised his head and a bright smile came over his face. "Yeah! Are you ok, Ana?" He had a cautious, worried look masking that smile.
"Just fine, Toby," Ana assured him, looking back to Nellie. "Is he angry with me?" she questioned. An angry Mr. Todd was not a good Mr. Todd. The fresh bruised skin on her arms was proof of that. Nellie glanced upward at the ceiling. She bit her lip lightly.
"Angry? With you? No, I don't think so. 'E 'eard you down there, screamin' yeh head off. Came runnin' down an' said, 'Somethin's wrong with Ana' and went runnin' down to the bakehouse." Nellie pressed a hand to her forehead, sighing. "Thought yeh caught yeh death down there. Gave me such a fright..."
Ana grabbed her hands and squeezed them. "I'm sorry, Nells. I'm ok. I swear."
Nellie nodded softly, pulling her arm around her shoulder. What a lady, her Nellie was. "We'll talk about it later, you and I." She said sternly. Ana smiled weakly.
"I need to go apologise to Mr. Todd," she said, pulling away from the warm baker. Nellie shook her head.
"He never said 'e was angry with you," she said softly. "But yeh'd never know if yeh didn't ask. Go on up, but then come right down an' 'elp Toby clean up, I 'ave a feeling the dinn'a rush is gonna be big." Ana nodded before she turned and started up the stairs out of the court door. Her ascent was slow, her steps heavy. She felt that she was walking that final mile. her stomach felt sicka ll over agian and she was thankful that nothing was left in her stomach. T he door at the top of the stairs seemed so foreboding and dangerous because behind it was a man she was certain was very upset with her. She could remember the rage brunign in his eyes, the black, the flecks of warm gold. He hadn't been happy. Each step brought her closer to her maker as she climbed the stairs. She needed to apologise for yelling at him. For screaming and for breaking down in the bakehouse. She felt angry at herself, a rush of rage warming her core by the time she reached the landing. If she had cried like that back home she had no doubt her mother would have gone the nostaligic route and thrown her in the closet again. It had been the safest place to be, that closet. Learned a lot from that closet, she did. Taught her how to be strong, that closet did. Ana peered at the door before rapping her knuckles against the glass. There was no response, but Ana was familiar with that. So, without daring to think of the consequences, she pushed open the door, letting it swing open, peering into the tiny flat.
Mr. Todd was sitting in his chair, polishing one of his beautiful, silver razors. He didn't look up at her, but his eyes shifted just slight before focusing on his work. The tension rose with each shaky step she took into the shop. Swallowing thickly, Ana stopped a good half a yard away from the man, peering at him in silence.
"Mr. Todd," Ana finally spoke up. "I---"
"---should have known your limits, Ana," Mr. Todd cut her off and spoke over her appology. "You haven't felt the bitter weight of the world just yet, Ana. You still have your conscience, today proved it. You still have your guilt. You're angry, but not filled with rage, Ana. Mrs. Lovett and I, we have nothing. Nothing to lose, you see. Our place in Hell is reserved for us when our day comes. But you- you're still so young. You're not weak for what happened this morning, Ana. You're not meant to be quicked, or evil. You are innocent, Ana. Stay that way. In a world where there is so much sickness and hate and death, where nobody, not even I, can live in peace, then maybe you are better off. Responsiblites are what makes meanness, what makes bitterness, Ana. Bitterness changes you. Meanness changes you. Sitting down there in the bakehouse doing what you do will take away that innocence you have and replace it with feelings no one should ever know. It'll be years before you even see a slimmer of light again. You do not want to feel like that. You don't know what such feelings would do to you. Stay the way you are, Ana, stay innocent, and be happy that's what God made you."
Silence.
Ana's mouth dropped open just slight. Those had been the most words she'd ever heard him say in a row towards her with out having to force conversation. She watched him, never looking at her, but instead cleaning his razor, rubbing the cloth raw against the silver. She wasn't sure how to feel. Angry, perhaps, but she couldn't work up the rage. Mostly she felt hurt and abandoned and weak. Mr. Todd didn't even bother to look at her. He wasn't insulting her, no, but then why did it feel like it? She looked off to the side, her brows pulling together. Her mouth felt too dry, but she finally managed to choke out what she'd come up there to do.
"I didn't... ask for your opinion, Mr Todd... I came up here to appologise, for my behavior. For screaming at you. I didn't mean to---"
"---to react as expected?" Mr. Todd spoke oever he again. Ana's lip pulled back in an annoyed grimace. "This life isn't for you, Ana. Do yourself a favor. Forget our faces and---"
"And do what?" Ana asked loudly, feeling herself getting angry at him- or maybe just more hurt. "Go away? Mr. Todd!" Ana found herself infront of him, her hands on the arms of the cahir,s taring down at him. He looked up at her with a calm expression. She wanted to wipe it off his face. "I have no where to go! I have no way to get home, I don't even know where home is! I don't belong here but here is all I have. Forget your face, Mr. Todd? Is that what you want me to do? Forget Nellie, and everything she's done for me? What, Mr. Todd, what do you want me to do?"
There was another lengthy silence as he surveyed Ana, his eyes dark and calm. For a while, enither said anything more. The way he just let her sit and brew. He pushed away from the chair and clenched her fists tight, pressing them into her stomach.
"Mr. Todd," she whispered. "I have nothing left."
The barber raised from his chair, slowly, and moved towards the window. Ana watched him from where she stood. He gazed through the grass, his eyes tight, body tense. Why was she even fighting so hard against him? It would do no difference. Finally, he turned to look at her and his face was ahrd and almost vicious looking. He stalked towards her, raising one gnarled hand, as if to grab her arm as he had so many times before. Instead, he gripped her shoulder in a touch that wasnt gentle, for him. His brows quivered slightly before he turne dher by the shoulders gently towards the door. He gave her a little shove in the back.
"Then I suggest, Ana, that you kill the conscience that caused today's scene." He almost whispered. "Because you don't know what such feelings would do to you." ANother shove in the back caused Ana to stumple through the door, onto the landing where the sunlight, out for the moment, kissed her cheeks. She took a deep breath, smoothed her hair, and stepped down the stairs, feeling a whole new weight on her chest. When she reached the bottom stair, she could see Nellie int he shop, talking with young Toby. They both looked up when she entered the shop.
"Well?" Nellie questioned lightly. Ana shrugged her shoulders.
"He didn't really say much," she answered in a quiet voice. "Never really says much."
"Mr. Todd!"
"What now?" Nellie snapped under her breath as Antony swung very clumsily into the meat shop, looking flustered and upset.
"Is 'e free?" the body asked gaspingly. Nellie nodded.
"Go on up, son."
"Thank you, m'am! Thank you!" he said as he ran around the side, his footsteps pounding on the stairs. Ana sighed and excused herself from the house completely, claiming she needed to walk and clear her head.
"Be back by supper time, love!" Nellie called after her. So loving, so mother. It really was a shame she was a willing accomplice to a devious murder scheme. And then again, so was she... Ana wasn't sure where she was going, for she had only been out a handful of times to the market with Nellie. But she made mental notes to help her find her way back should she really wander too far. People were crawling the streets. But all people with faces and names and jobs and places to go. Why it bothered her so much, she didn't know. But as Mr. Todd had said, it was best that the little voice that told her right from wrong met a gruesome, untimely demise. Never again would Ana find comfort int he shaking, shuddery sobs. It seemed a lifetime away now, even if it hadn't even been a few hours before.
The surroundings began to get less and less familar to the girl as she walked further and further away from Fleet Street. Clouds moved over the sun and everything seemed much darker now. She wondered idly if Mr. Todd saw the world like that all the time? Or was he always seeing red? She couldn't picture him with a vision for much else.
When the first drop of rain touched her nose, she tried to ignore it. Her eyes focused on her feet, watching the cobblestones begin to darken in speckled spots as the rain started coming down in dollops, wetting her ecposed skin and dress. There weren't many people walking the streets when she looked back up and the few who were, held their jackets over their heads, to keep dry. She sighed quite heavily and gave up on her walk- the afternoon shower had forced her to find a small alcove to stand under, shivering like a half-wet puppy. She wasn't sure how long had stood there, peering into the wet world, contemplating hitching up her skirt and making a run in the direciton she had come, before an angel came out of the mouth of an alley way. With his shoulders hunched and his hair plastered to his cheeks, Antony spotted her where she stood under an over hang. First, surprised coated his features before he came sprinting across the cobblestones, already shrugging out of his jacket.
"Miss Ana?" he questioned. "What are you doing 'ere?" He looked genuinely concerned! He held his jacket as an umbrella over the two of them. Ana couldn't help but smile.
"I came out for a walk, got caught in the rain, and now it seems I can't seem to find my way back." Ana said lightly, stepping closer to the boy as he spread the jacket over their heads.
"I'll escort you home, then, Miss Ana," he said. "The least I could do for a friend of Mr. Todd's."
Ana snorted as they began walking, close together, with Antony holding the jacket over their heads. "We aren't what you would call friends, sir." She told him. When she saw he was about to respond, she talked boistriously over him. "Have you any news of the girl? Johanna?"
This was a topic he was obviously well educated on. "Yes!" He said excitedly. "The Judge put 'er away... 'e somehow found about our eloping... She's in Fogg's Asylum." His voice dropped. "Mr. Todd 'as come up with a plan- genious man 'e is. 'E's 'aving me set meself up 'as a wig makers apprentice. They get their hair from the mad houses, you know. I'll take 'er away, and bring 'er 'ere, an' then we'll be free from this place."
Ana nodded softly. "I can hide her in my and Nellie's room," she said, trying to be helpful. "It'll be safer than in the shop. Just until you can find a way to get the two of you safely away."
Antony forgot that he was keeping them dry with his jacket, and dropped his arms, wrapping them around Ana and squishing her to his frame, still walking awkwardly forward. "Oh, Miss Ana, you're a real lady!"
Ana squeaked and clawed him off her as they came around a corner, in sight of the shop. "Off, off!" She hissed, shoving him away. The boy looked at her sheepishly, before giving a clumsy bow.
"A thousand times thanks!" He said excitedly. "I will return here to discuss things tomorrow, yes? Around midday? Good!" He didn't give her a chance and just crushed her in another hug, before bounding away. Ana, disoriented, nodded after him before wandering into the shop just as the ran began to lighten up. Nellie peeked around from the parlor door.
"There you are!" She said brightly, obviously having a list of chores that needed to be done.
The dinner rush came around seven in the evening. It wasn't as bad as Ana anticipated. Men went up to Mr. Todd's shop and every third man didn't come back down- but no one noticed, why would they? People were coming and going, in and our, sitting and eating, meandering up to get a shave and coming down- except for every third man. When it was all done and over with, Ana washed dishes with Mrs. Lovett late into the night until they were finished cleaning. They peeled off the many layered dresses and crawled sleepily into bed. Ana again let the woman wrap her arm around her shoulders and hold her to her.
For the first time, Ana let the sound of Mr. Todd's pacing lull her to sleep.