"No!"
Madelyn jerked at the sound of the voice, instinctively backing away, but like before at the dockyard, Mr Brand followed.
"What is happening, sir?" She asked, tension spiralling impossibly.
He did not answer immediately. His glare was dark and blazing and wholly unlike the look she had come to know. The last she had beheld such was when he had yelled at Guy after his dangerous jump in the sea. Now, it stayed on her.
"Have you chosen to be unfaithful?" He asked slowly.
Madelyn stared at him.
"What?"
The word fell from her lips in disbelief. Unfaithful? What could he possibly mean?
There was something chilling and uncivilised in his voice and it unsettled her more deeply than the accusation itself.
Something was positively wrong.
He continued towards her, his strides, alarmingly indolent. "Receiving notes from other men," he waved the piece of paper, "while you stand engaged to me?"
Madelyn blinked. "From men? I have not received such a note."
