[CW: reference to domestic violence]

Alice's eyes darted up at Mr. Meijer. Was he helping her?

Would Tobias harm her? She feared it. He had grabbed her to restrain her or put her in her room, but he hadn't hit her before. She wasn't so sure he wouldn't now. He could if he wanted to. She was miles from friends and family with no money or belongings of her own, invisible and irrelevant. The law that Mr. Meijer appealed to might give women in his circles protection. The only thing the law had ever given her lot was the back of its hand.

Still, she shifted ever so lightly, to be hidden completely behind him.