Innocent, and all but orphaned. No family to turn to. Finley went looking for a victim. That is why he chose her.

“She blamed herself. She tried to please him. She became quiet and fearful, shrinking away like a dog that’s been kicked. Nothing would stop him though. I would go to her and find her all bruised, weeping. Then one day she stopped crying, like that part of her had died. She told me she believed he liked to see her crying and pleading. That he enjoyed it, and she would not give him that satisfaction. He only got worse after that, but she didn’t seem to care.”

His mind recoiled at what she described. His jaw clenched so hard he couldn’t speak. If Finley were not already dead, he’d—

“She grew up fast,” Beth said. “It changed her, not all to the good. Then the miracle happened.”

“Miracle?”

“One night when we were in London—he rarely brought her up here, and even then never let her go out. We were up here and he got drunk and took after her. I feared he would kill her. The next day, after he’d left the house, a boy come to it, asking for the woman of the house. She was in no condition to be seen, but she went to the threshold and this boy hands her a box, then left. It contained money. Gold coins. We neither of us could imagine who sent it. We waited for someone to arrive and say there’d been a mistake, but no one ever did. If that weren’t a miracle I don’t know what one is.”

“And so she left?”

“As did I and my boy, as soon as we returned to Dorset. We lived in one chamber together at first, while she found a way to get a separation. She bought a pistol and learned how to use it and took it everywhere, even to bed, in case he tried to come and get her and force her back. Fortunately he died soon after he was made to agree to her living apart, so she was safe then.

“I thought you should hear some of this,” Beth said. “She told me some of what happened with you. She doesn’t trust men much anymore. Especially ones that can hurt her. She is better off left alone by such as you.”

Beth’s expression turned belligerent when she warned him off. He could hardly blame her. He could hurt Minerva with this inquiry. He had broken into her house to see if he could, hadn’t he?