Quentin gave pause and considered it for a moment. He'd heard the same of Lady Hargrave. She was a fierce woman even to Quentin and especially to her husband and he suspected that the aggression he saw when dealing with her was the tip of the iceberg. There were rumors of her former slaves being set loose as broken and distraught creatures; Zoey was - or would be, at least - an obedient and controllable little thing, but this was different. If said rumors were true - though the world had a habit of inflating such words - those that left Katherine's service were trembling, nervous wrecks of people with a deep seated fear of near enough everything so potent that they were known to lock themselves away and drift perilously close to insanity. For Quentin's part he considered this an exaggeration... But that didn't mean he wanted even the scaled down version inflicted on his pet-in-training.<br/><br/>Regardless of whether or not he wanted to expose Zoey to the Lady's full wrath, though, there was the altogether more simple matter of whether Zoey should have broken from the tried and tested, approved formula of her other letters. To Quentin's mind that was a sure no. Her position was not to make decisions for herself, and certainly not to try to trick her Master. And then she tried to talk her way out of it... Quentin didn't let it make him angry, but he certainly meant to put her in her place, which in turn gave his eye that dangerous little flicker of life that Zoey recognised all too well. He meant to punish her - hurt her, most likely - and his former good graces were unlikely to protect her.<br/><br/>He pushed the tray with the array of gadgetry away a little, and kept his eyes fixed hard against hers. "How many times must I drill this lesson into your thick skull? You do not make decisions. You do as I tell you, when I tell you, and simply because I tell you. If you catch yourself thinking anything other than how to please me then you can ask me to consider your thoughts; I will not be unduly unreasonable. Take it onto yourself to think anything - from picking your own clothes or going to eat to disobeying my *fucking* orders - and you deserve everything I can dish out." With the exception of his rather emphasised use of the word 'fucking', he sounded cool. Which meant he was more than likely lining up for a very calculated and particularly harsh punishment, designed to make an example as much as anything. "Bend across my knee, and show me your backside. How many slaps do you think you deserve, hm?"<div class="messageTextEndMarker"> </div>