Thorns And Roses

Chapter Four

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"Arthur!" Cried an elderly woman dressed in a thick coat and hat. Rushing towards Arthur on the bed she threw herself over him and cried into his shoulder. "Oh Arthur..."

"Father?" Another woman, a bit older than Eleanore with blonde hair and blue eyes followed behind her, a woman whom Eleanore presumed was the woman's daughter.

"Oh my..." She covered her hands over her mouth and tears clouded her eyes as she surveyed the beaten figure of her father. The hurt and sadness soon turned to anger, and her face hardened. "What did they do to you!?"

The baker felt her heart chip a little, the poor women needed to be alone with him, so she silently excused herself from the hospital room and Arthur's side. The pair didn't even seem to notice she was there, Arthur's wife was too busy crying on his shoulder and the daughter was arguing with the doctor about why they weren't notified sooner about her father's condition and that he had been missing for almost a day now.

She shut the door behind her. She wouldn't intrude on such a personal moment, she'd already got far too involved in the situation anyway. Walking around the corner, Eleanore rested her head against one of the white marble walls and sighed. Wot a day...

"Mrs Lovett?" said a voice.

Her eyes snapped open in fright, but she soon relaxed when she looked into the kind eyes of Officer Brown stood in his police uniform with two glasses in his hand.

"Oh...sir. Ya gave me a fright."

"Sorry, it wasn't my intention. And please - call me George." He held out one of the glasses to her "Thought you might need a drink."

Eleanore smiled and accepted the water gratefully, gulping down almost the whole glass in a couple of mouthfuls.

George sipped his water and surveyed her tired eyes with a frown "You should rest Mrs Lovett. Mr Sykes is in good hands now and with his family."

Eleanore nodded. Then she remembered something. "What 'appened to tha' crook who beat 'im up?"

"Ah." Georges tone had darkened somewhat. "Well, he put up an awfully good fight for someone with a shard of glass in his eye. Once we'd bandaged him up and stopped the bleeding we threw him straight into a cell where he still is now. Couldn't save that eye of his though."

"An' the other bloke that got away?"

"We have yet to track him down." George said gravely. "I'm sorry."

Eleanore nodded, understanding how hard it must be to hunt a man down in a place like London. Especially when she could only give little information to help them match a description.

"So what's gonna 'appen to 'im, the one in jail?"

George shrugged. "He'll go to court, the jury will call you to testify and he'll be found guilty I'm sure. They'll likely hang him for it."

Eleanore swallowed the lump in her throat. She didn't regret her decision, the men would have killed her if she hadn't fought back. But did she intend to sentence a man to death? No, not really. He was a human after all, someone's son in the world. Even if he was a crook.

Noting her stony expression, George raised an eyebrow "You're not happy about this?"

"I don't know 'ow to feel." She said truthfully. "I don't like condemnin' someone ta death. Life in prison woulda made me feel betta."

"He would have killed you, Mrs Lovett. If you hadn't disabled him we would have had to deal with two bodies. Yourself and Mr Sykes."

Eleanore reconsidered this. With her gone who would look after Mr T? And Toby, sweet little Toby. He'd be heartbroken. Sniffing she raised her eyes back to his and decided to change the subject. "So er, 'ow long will these court things take to 'appen?"