Chapter 8: Tomorrow
A/N: The first time we see Nancy's sort of affection towards Bill. And we discover just how it is Bill Sikes comes to be in his more hyped up version of these children's trade. R&R!!
Warning: Little foul language, nothing too bad in this one.
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It was late that night, long after everybody had gone to bed that Nancy was awoke by the slamming of a fist on a table. Gradually her lashes fluttered against her pale cheeks as her crystal blue eyes pried themselves open. Slowly the young girl, making no attempt to move, strained her ears to catch strands of the hushed conversation filling the flat.
"I don't mean it in any mockery Bill," Fagin was saying. Nancy heard a low, gruff, angry growl that was unmistakably coming from Sikes.
"The hell you don't!" he snapped back.
"Bill, m'boy, I'm simply stating the facts. And the facts is that the girl is whippin' yer tail end at what you do best. Are you going to let that continue or do somethin' about it?" It was quiet for a moment, the sound of a mug clinking, and then Bill spoke again.
"And just what is it," he groveled slowly "that you propose I do?"
"Housebreaking my dear. There's a particularly posh residence on the other side of town wot doesn't do so much as lock the front door at night. Should be easy enough to get in to, to be sure."
"An' I go to the clink filching things for your scraggly ol' neck, is tha' it? You get the cash an' I take the risk hm?"
"No no my dear," Fagin was reassuring him steadily. "I'll split it even with you, fifty fifty. You can 'ave 'alf of everythin' you earn m'dear, 'alf." All was quiet for a moment and Nancy supposed that Sikes was deliberating on the old man's offer. For some unimaginable reason she found herself holding her breath, the idea of Sikes risking his neck breaking into someone's home both thrilled and terrified her. Suppose he got caught? The little one had grown strangely attached to the boy and the clink was the last place she wanted to see him. But still, the idea of it was so bold, so daring, so handsomely brave that....
"Alrigh'," came the voice interrupting her silent concentration. "You got yerself a deal." There was the sound of mugs clinking as Nancy rolled from her side to her stomach, facing the wall. She kept her breathing as even as she could but there was hardly any use to it. Bill, the one boy she really looked up to, was going housebreaking...housebreaking! She knew their line of work was dangerous but the thought was almost unimaginable. Her heart thundered so fantastically against her rib cage that she feared it would give her away to the two men at the table. Silently Nancy let her lashes clamp down once more as she focused soully on steadying her breath. Slowly, the ragged and sharp breaths she'd been heaving evened out. The less she thought on the idea, the easier it became. Nancy began focusing instead on her weeks earnings, counting up how much she should get tomorrow in her head. The anxiety and intense excitement that had originally seized her at the thought of Fagin's proposal was all but an echo when something else was picked up by her young ears. "When Fagin?"
"Tomorrow night my dear, tomorrow night." So Bill would do this tomorrow, risk being caught and jailed or transported or hung tomorrow. The boy she was so oddly attached to may never see her again after tomorrow. Bill, her Bill Sikes, was going housebreaking tomorrow.
Nancy's anxious breathing was still ragged with worry when the dawn broke on the ever impending tomorrow.