Felix Thorne and his wife, Phoebe Huxley, joined forces, each more ruthless than the other. The Golding family stood no chance of fighting back. The other villagers just watched the show, unwilling to meddle. No one wanted to provoke the Thorne family.
Besides, it was a fact that Phoenix Golding had been eating their food and trying to seduce Phoebe's man, so it wasn't exactly excessive for Phoebe to slap her around and curse her out. If it were their own husbands being seduced by some slut, they would have beaten her even more mercilessly.
Most of the onlookers were women, and their relationship with Phoenix Golding was far from harmonious. Some even loathed her—after all, their own husbands were constantly showering her with praise. Consequently, they completely understood how Phoebe Huxley felt and could only gloat over Phoenix Golding's miserable state. There was no way they were going to help her out of this jam.
