If people decided they thought Elizabeth had run away, that doesn't mean they'd automatically think it was her father she ran away from. Anyone who has ever had teenagers--or been a teenager--knows that they can be very unreasonable. Sometimes--it's almost a cliche--they think they live under the most horrible conditions imaginable, only to find (when they are out from under mean old Mom and Dad) that they actually had a really good thing. Most people know this about teenagers, and would not automatically blame a parent b/c his/her teenager ran away. Teenagers have a variety of reasons for doing such a thing; being a victim of a father's abuse is only one of many reasons they might do this, and the public knows this, and I believe Ed is smart enough to KNOW that the public knows this.