Thorns And Roses

Chapter Fourteen

The sound of a voice brought Sweeney awake. Laying against the couch, he remembered everything that had happened and his head ached partially from his hangover and the hits to his head by the arsehole who'd attacked Eleanore the night before.

Recognising the bakers soft voice he cracked his eyes open and tried not to wince at the pain in his body. It hurt everywhere. His face, head, back and his neck was tender too from the man's chokehold. Biting back the pain he glanced to his left where he could see Eleanore sat on her armchair. She was looking into the crackling fire and reciting a passage from a book that was familiar to him.

"...mankind was my business," she said quietly yet passionately "the common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance and benevolence, were all my business. The dealings of my trade were–

"–were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business..." Sweeney finished.

Eleanore turned to look at him, surprised he was awake so early and even more surprised that he knew the book so well.

"Sweeney, you're awake." Was all she could think of saying. The barber simply looked at her softly, his eyes taking in the slight bruising by her eye and the little cut from the man's ring. An awkward but not entirely unpleasant silence passed between the pair.

Before she could help herself, Eleanore blurted; "You like Charles Dickens?"

Sweeney chortled "You could say that. I was a fanatic reader when I was younger. Also in Australia they only had two of his books. The rest were Shakespeare and the Bible."

Eleanore swallowed, rather shocked that he was talking about Australia when he had never once mentioned his banishment to her since his return. "Actually," she began quietly "A Christmas Carol is my favourite...I read it every year. And Romeo and Juliet is one o'my favourites too."

"Ugh." Sweeney groaned in disgust at the mere mention of the nauseating play "There's a big surprise..."

Eleanore looked insulted but snorted with laughter, realising that he was teasing her again. The silence was back and this time she didn't know what to do with it. She could feel Sweeney's eyes on her but she did not meet them, she was still hurting from his comments to her yesterday, but grateful that he had saved her from those men last night. She was so conflicted about everything. This was the effect he had on her, all the time.

"I'm sorry I called you a whore." Came Sweeney's voice, like he knew what she was thinking. "You're not. Not that it would matter if you were any way..." He added sheepishly "I shouldn't 'ave spoken to you like that..."

Eleanore finally raised her eyes, and this time Sweeney looked away. Her lips parted and she debated whether to tell him the truth. When the silence became too much and Sweeney said no more, then she decided she would speak.

"To answer yer question..." She began hesitatingly "I was never a whore. Well, not really..." She avoided Sweeney's gaze and continued "When you were taken...an' Lucy died...I 'ad ta hide Joanna. I voiced my defence of you, that ye were wrongfully convicted an' Turpin was a rapist. Loads of people didn't believe me, and no more came to me shop. I couldn't afford ta feed meself and little Joanna. Milk was too expensive and I could barely keep us off the streets..."

Sweeney merely listened with attention. He had no idea that she had cared for his baby daughter when Lucy had died. He'd simply thought that Turpin had used her death as an excuse to come in and take her away. The revelation that she had tried to hide her and cared for her made him have a newfound respect for her but also heightened his guilt for how he'd treated her in the past.