“Boys die here sometimes from causes other than illness—from a beating or another punishment like not being given water for three days or getting locked in the coal shed, and . . . well, she always lists them as dead of consumption, so as to make it more palatable for the patrons’ report. She don’t want to be distressing great ladies and gentlemen.”

“How can you be part of this establishment, knowing that Poole uses it to cover up her attacks on these boys? Why have you not gone to the patrons, to the law, and demanded she be held to account for her evils?” Charlotte demanded.

“Because isn’t it just the way of the world?” Mrs. Seed said.

Anne surged forward, but Charlotte caught her sister’s arm, shaking her head slightly.

“What can you tell us about the monster the boys speak of?” Charlotte asked, wondering exactly what it would have been that Anne would have done if she’d let her reach Mrs. Seed.

“Well, it’s nonsense, all stirred up by another troublemaker. A fortnight since one of them turns up just before dawn, all cut up and beaten. He said he’d been taken out of his bed by the monster. I ask you. He’d more than likely got himself into trouble in the town, and now he wanted a way back. He got a beating, but he wouldn’t change his story. He said he could prove it, and that just made Poole beat him all the more, even though the boys in his dormitory reckoned they’d all heard it too.

“It was Miss Goddard who believed him. She’s a soft one, too gentle for her own good, and she stepped in between the lad and Poole. There was quite a tussle until Markham threatened to go to the patrons. Miss Goddard took Tom to the constable, but the constable saw Tom’s ‘proof’ for what it was: nonsense. Tom Hawthorne is a born liar; he’d swear night were day soon as look at you. The constable gave him a whipping for his lies, and Poole put him out on the street. She didn’t account for Miss Goddard going with the boy, taking Tom into her care that very same night. If you ask me, I think she hoped Mr. Markham would go with her, but I heard them talking, and he told her he couldn’t leave these boys alone here unprotected.”

“Do you know what happened to Miss Goddard and Tom?” Charlotte asked. “We need to speak to them urgently.”

“What, have they been left the money, then?” Mrs. Seed asked dryly before sighing again. “I heard she is a ladies’ companion now, to some old maids out on Scar Top Lane, past Stanbury. The boy is with her. I don’t know more than that, but I will tell you one thing more, and you will never say you heard it from me.”