Silver and Rubies: His Face...

She knew. She knew the moment he walked into the shop.

His hair was different, the way he carried himself was new. His face was gaunt, his skin pale, and his eyes spoke of untold suffering. But his face… She’d know that face anywhere.

But she had to make sure. After all, it was a horrible thing to get your hopes up and watch them die…

She made jokes about the quality of her pies, to lighten his obvious sorrows. Eventually, she invited him to the back to wash down the horrible taste. Seeing as he was the only customer she’s had in a while, it seemed fitting. But that wasn’t really why she invited him back.

“You’ve a room over the shop, have you? Times is so hard, why don’t you rent it out?”

Her heart leapt at his words. That voice. That beautiful, unmistakable voice… And he had asked the question she’d been longing for. With a little baiting about the room above, she launched into the tale – the unfortunately true tale – of Lucy Barker.

Just as she saw in his face he could no longer take it, he quieted her with an outburst. After his scream, she knew it to be true. “…Benjamin Barker,” she whispered.

He asked about his wife and daughter.

“She poisoned herself. Arsenic, from the apothecary around the corner. I tried to stop her, but she wouldn’t listen to me,” she trailed off, her tongue burning with the words left unsaid. “And he’s got your daughter,” she added, to soothe the pain in her mouth.

By the way he spoke the judge’s name, she knew it wasn’t quite over. She could tell he would seek revenge. She knew his love for his wife and daughter had not passed in the fifteen years he’d been away, not yet.

She knew she would stand by him along his vengeful journey. Just as she knew it was him who had walked into her desolate shop.

For you never forget the face of the one you love.

Wordlessly, she led him upstairs, to the precious tools he made his trade with – the tools she kept because they reminded her of him.