As they went through the village she kept looking up at him in an affectionate fashion and smiling.
The village was, indeed, taken aback.

It had made up its mind that James Hutchings was a pariah to be shunned.

It was not only taken aback, it was annoyed.

It had no wish that its belief that James Hutchings had murdered Lord Loudwater should be in any way unsettled.
Mrs.Roper, the mother of William Roper and a lifelong enemy of the Hutchings family, summed up the feeling of her neighbours about the behaviour of James Hutchings and Elizabeth.
"Brazen, I call it," she said bitterly.
Before they reached the Castle, Elizabeth had come to feel that during the last three days James Hutchings had changed greatly, and for the better.

She had an odd fancy that murdering his master had improved his character; the fear of the police had softened him.