A/N: Once again thanks for your support and patience. You are all fantastic! Sorry for not getting back to all the PMs, but my life is super stressful. But rest assured that I appreciate every comment and PM and will get back to them as soon as things have settled down.

Trigger Warning: This chapter deals with the subject/aftermath of rape. There is nothing graphic, though.

Thank you again to ML to proofread this chapter and making it better.

Vox Populi, Vox Dei

Stars, hide your fires;

Let not light see my black and deep desires.

The eye wink at the hand, yet let that be

Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see. – Macbeth

Cambridge 2002

It was the sort of thing that one saw on TV and read about; the sort that happened to other people, not to those one knew. Not one's best friend. But it had happened. It was real. Too real.

Molly's best friend Abby Grange had been raped, and not by some random stranger who grabbed her in a dark alley on her way home. No, it had been by someone she knew and had trusted - Professor Eustace Brackenstall. He was married, had two children and was very influential.

Thus it had taken Molly hours of persuasion to convince her best friend to go to the doctor and to the police to press charges.

Molly did not leave her side once, although there were moments when she wanted nothing more than to get up and leave the room; to flee, run away from it all. She could hardly stand listening to the police interview, Abby telling them what had happened.

Molly admired her best friend for her bravery. She was not sure if she would have been able to go through all of this if their roles were reversed. She doubted it.

So when Abby cried herself to sleep in her best friend's arms again, Molly rocked her gently and put on a brave face. But there were nights, when Molly was on her own, that she cried herself to sleep too, feeling exhausted and utterly helpless.

After months of investigation and sleepless nights, a trial that had been eagerly awaited by the local press started. Professor Brackenstall was a well-known and respected man, therefore it was not surprising that the Cambridge Magistrates' Court was crowded with reporters, university staff and students.

There had been rumours preceding the trial, and everyone in the small town was curious. Of course that added additional pressure on Abby and her family.

Although the case seemed clear, Molly was worried. The Brackenstall family was influential and although the medical examination had proven that Abby had been raped, the shower she had taken had washed away possible evidence.

When the trial started, Molly sat in the first row behind Abby and let her eyes roam over the man who had done all of those horrible things to her best friend. And for the first time in her life, Molly Hooper discovered that evil had many faces, some of which looked like a trustworthy elderly man with white hair. Professor Brackenstall sat there with cold eyes, unmoving, as if he was not bothered at all by what he was accused of. Behind him sat his wife, Mary Brackenstall, who had suffered a great deal because of the media storm.

Mary Brackenstall was no ordinary person. Seldom had Molly seen so graceful a figure, so womanly a presence, and so beautiful a face. She was a blonde, golden-haired, blue-eyed, and would no doubt have had the perfect complexion which goes with such colouring, had not her recent experience left her drawn and haggard. Her sufferings were physical as well as mental, for over one eye rose a hideous, plum-coloured swelling. But neither her wits not her courage had been shaken by what she had gone through over the last few months, as would the trial show.

A trial that was supposed to bring Molly's best friend justice, but turned out to make her life even more miserable.

Molly had to watch Abby suffer through the trial, as she was portrayed as a tart by the defense as if she had been after the Brackenstall's money. They tried to paint her as mentally unstable. But the worst of all was Mrs. Brackenstall providing an alibi for her husband.

Molly was furious at the injustice of it and told Abby after another devastating day in court, "It will be alright, Abby. He will pay for what he's done to you, I promise."

Abby just looked at her with sad eyes, too exhausted to pretend to be alright anymore, squeezed her friend's hand and said, "Never promise anything, you may have to keep it."

And somehow that made Molly even more determined to do something. So she started to study Eustace Brackenstall. He limped on his right foot and his left eye twitched slightly when he lied. She easily recognised the signs of drinking and that he preferred red wine was common knowledge. He spent most of his evenings alone in his study with a bottle at hand and read books on ornithology. Even the signs of domestic abuse on his wife were almost cliché. Molly had a hard time believing that no one else seemed to notice it, or that everyone else chose to ignore it; to look away. She was surrounded by hypocrites, and it became clear to her that Abby would not get justice.

And Molly would be proven right. After a highly emotional trial, the jury found Eustace Brackenstall not guilty.

The night after the end of the trial, Abby's parents called Molly. Abby was in hospital after trying to kill herself. And while Molly sat in the fluorescent light of the hospital room, holding Abby's hand and listening to the steady beeping of the heart monitor, she made the decision to keep her promise and help her friend find justice.

A/N: The translation of the chapter title (also a quote from The Adventures of the Abbey Grange) is: The people's voice is God's voice.