The letters continue to come and she now dreads the sighting of an approaching ship or hearing a hawk's cry, knowing what they might carry.
With most of the missives are letters from him as well and as she reads them in the quiet of the night, the incidents are too closely tangled for her to dismiss.
"…the affair lasted well into the night but I begged out early…"
"…we left the affair together, the need to be alone too great. As he took me in his arms, his warm lips…"
The poisonous words eat holes in her doubting heart.