Oh fuck that guy!!! (Except that hadn't worked out, had it?)

Mr. Meijer was attracted to other people's misery like a fly to shit, of course. Sadistic bastard. The claim was outrageous and Tristan didn't believe it. Nothing about this marriage had felt right from the moment he had heard about it - and it was becoming undeniable just how wrong it was. Yet for all his rough exterior and lack of subtlety, he could not believe that someone as sensitive and gentle as Tobias would be violent, least of all to a woman, to his own wife, a fragile thing barely past girlhood and half his volume. And of course, Tobias denied it. It was preposterous.

And then Mr. Meijer raised his arm to demonstrate whatever scene he had witnessed. Once again Tobias denied striking Alice. But Tristan felt his stomach churn when he realized his friend did not deny Alice lifting her arm in self-defense. Turned his gaze towards the frightened woman - no, child - in the boat. He was a doctor. Not just a doctor. He was a bloody alienist! Had he overlooked what should not have been overlooked? What had he participated in?