"A failed elopement? Ravished?" Patience said, much more horrified to hear there were rumours about her virtue than that she might have been stabbed. A stabbing was hardly fatal to ones social standing, only ones life. "Whoever could have come up with such a story? I'm so sorry my dear for calling you a gossip. You were right to tell them the truth of the tale. I wouldn’t want anyone to think I’d tried to elope!"