Rose wrinkled her nose and looked at her sister. Was it true then, what she had heard: that Alice had some kind of illness of the mind these days? What was she talking about? "'E's my old boss," she told Lory. "And a real nasty piece of work. I'm glad somebody finally give 'im what 'e deserves."

To be fair, her father looked ready to murder Mr. Meijer, so she was a little relieved when she saw Elijah and Tobias pull him away. She didn't want him to go after Simon.

Tobias was a strong man. But so was Ben Ward. He needed all his strength to restrain the enraged man. And then he nearly let go when Elijah spoke of this being bad for Ben's health.

Really?

Ben broke free from his loosened grip, but Tobias managed to grab his arm and pull it back towards the one Elijah was holding on his back. "Control yerself, Ben! 'E's not worth it!"

"Mr. Meijer..." Tristan spoke, gentle but loud enough to be audible over the yelling behind him. He couldn't help but pity the lawyer while he lay there curled up on the ground like a frightened child. "They're holding him back. Let me look at your face."

[CW: homophobic language]

Almost! He had almost been able to launch at the devil again, but Tobias pulled him back and held him tighter. He gave a pull on the side Elijah was holding instead. "Let go! Let go!"

He spat in his victim's direction (alas, the doctor was in between). "'E's a predator!" he shouted. "'E's predator and a sodomite!"

Elijah knew not to be surprised by the words, but it still shook him so much he almost let go. He stared wide eyed and frowned trying to pull him away. "You can't just say things like that, Ben. And you certainly can't attack someone out of the blue!" He hated to do it, but he reached into his back pocket for his handcuffs. "Help me.." He said to Tobias. "I've warned you about your violent tendencies before, Ben." He said. The disappointment was very clear.

He looked down to Zech and Tristan and wanted to apologize or say something but he didn't have the words. Instead, he focused on arresting the man who had been such a big part of his life.

They were both her cousins. He had treated Rose terribly, terribly enough for pious Rose to enjoy this.

But he had protected Alice when no one else could. Another Noah? A braver Noah? She built him up in her mind because he was being beaten by Uncle Ben, and then promptly felt guilt for that. Had her uncle not turned on her … she’d still be living a miserable life of having to hide it all.

She covered her eyes, but parted her fingers so she could peep in a womanly way. Wrinkled her nose behind them when he [apparently] spat on the African man just for intervening.

Zechariah had half a damned mind to agree with Alice’s scummy husband, just for the chance of getting away alive.

In the adrenaline of the moment, he responded pathetically to the soothing, paternal voice of a doctor (that doctor), and lowered bloodied, bejeweled hands from his face. His eyes were wide with panic, and his face was flecked with blood … but his nose was not bleeding. He unbuttoned the sleeve of his more sore arm. It had been a deep enough beating for a bruise to already rapidly form, but to the eye it didn’t look especially bad [yet].

He flinched at Benjamin’s accusations. Kept his eyes off the other known sodomites in the crowd, instead raising his chin in defiance at his attacker. Was this how Zechariah went to prison?

“Thank you,” he whispered to Wells, gaze cautious. “You should – go. You should go.”

He may not have liked Wells, but no one deserved the fate of a trialed sodomite.

His gaze flickered up at the sound of handcuffs, then closed in disappointment at Elijah’s reluctance.

Mehmet frowned and looked to Maddock. From a bunch of yelling, to people who sounded like they wanted this fellow dead prying the attacker off him, and now … was that what sodomites looked like here? Rather subtle lot. How did they find each other?

Oh. Right. That was persecuted here.

“Which one’s the good one?”

Murphy seemed in thought watching the crowd and the fight breaking out. He didn't have to think hard on the bad one before pointing at Ben. "That's the bad one. Attacking an unarmed man who was unaware. If you want to prove your case with fists, you tell them to face you. Right?"

It was different in war and stuff. But this wasn't even a real fight. It was one guy attacking another suddenly. He thought it was cowardly.

Rose's eyebrows drew together as she heard the words her father shouted, words like a piece of a puzzle that she turned and turned until...

She drew in a sharp breath and her face lit up, for suddenly she could see the pattern she had been looking at all this time but could not understand. Him?

She looked at the bloodied curled up bundle that was her former employer and for the first time, she did not feel fear or hatred, but compassion.