The Artful Dodger

Chapter 21

"Later." she replied, feeling her heart seem to skip a beat. His voice made her nervous, and she did not know whether he had something good or bad to say. It couldn't be bad! She hadn't done anything wrong, after all!

Fagin served the sausages to the delighted cheers of the boys. Paul elbowed Dodger in the ribs in his excitement to grab a sausage, and was swatted immediately.

"Since you're such a medical expert, Paul, you'll have to bandage these sore ribs up for me! Can't you be a little careful?" asked Dodger, rubbing his chest with an irritated expression on his face.

"I will if you want! I can bandage, I'm really good, you know. My Uncle Birling once taught me exactly how to  bandage so you can't feel anything! Want to try?" said Paul.

"Sarcasm goes right over your head, boy!" Dodger said with a quick grin at Rose.

He fidgeted with his hat before speaking again.

"You want anything?"

Rose shook her head. The nerves had taken over now. She had never felt like this before.

"Follow me?" he said. He rose from the table of yelling boys, and held out a hand politely. Rose smiled awkwardly and took it.

"Come, fine lady!" he said, laughing.

He led her to the door, opened it and stepped onto the bridge. It was sunset and St Paul's cathedral was beautifully highlighted by the swirls of clouds in the London sky. Ignoring the horrible houses closer by, he sat and looked at it with his legs hanging from the edge.
He beckoned her, and she sat too, her dress arranged around her.

"Well, I've got a lot to say." he began.

"Uh..." said Rose in the pause in between his words, not knowing what he wanted her to reply. After taking another glance at the multicoloured sky, he looked back at her. His hat shadowed his face, but his blue coat and striped trousers were the same as always.

"Rose, at first when I met you, I just wanted to play with you, mess about, y'know. In fact, I even had a thing for Nancy for a while." he said, turning red. Rose raised her eyebrows, not entirely surprised but amused. The nervousness began to drain away.

"Got over that though, after a while. Then I got locked up in that cell room by Fagin. What was that for? Oh yeah. I was tryin' to protect Oliver and you from gettin' caught by Fagin. Didn't work out, did it?"

"Fagin's not that bad!" Rose said.

"He is. He locked me up, he don't care about anyone but his own damn self, sure he gives us a roof and food... but what do we get, really?" he burst out. This was the first time he had related these feelings out loud.

"Anyway, back to the point." he muttered, going red again, "then Nancy rescued me. We saw Mike the landlord... your father... being..."

"Killed." Rose finished. She sat up straight and blinked rapidly as she stared at the sky.

"Yes... then Peter got caught... and I'm not gonna talk about that..." followed Jack Dawkins. This was not what he originally intended to say, at all.

"You broke up with me, your place got ransacked, Nancy brought you back some things, she turned out to be your long-lost aunt... a lot has changed," he said, laughing slightly, "who would have thought of any of that?"

"I don't know. Everything's changed so much. Some things are good, like meeting certain people, and some things were horrible. I still see Peter sometimes.."

Jack shuffled closer and placed his arms around her.

"S'okay, Rose, I'm always 'ere, y'know?"

She smiled, but the tears had fallen at last. Her happiness with the Dodger was bitter-sweet, since he was a leading factor in the death of her family, but conversely, the only person who had made her feel so loved and happy.