An Improper Courtship

Improper Guest

Edited

That evening, Alyssa woke with a start, trying to process what she could remember and yet refused to eat. The doctor explained the repercussions of her decision and despite her lack of energy, she still managed to stick by her decision. The doctor's scientific mind and rigid logic ordered the maids to bind the girl to the bed. It had been a permission Sir Micheal had given him reluctantly,

"I cannot understand why my daughter would add a layer on the inside of her dress if she is trying to lose this so-called weight,"

The Doctor gave the man a sympathetic look through his spectacles, "In all honesty, Sir Michael this condition is incomprehensible, we have a few cases that resemble it but it has not yet been classified." There was a pause as the Doctor tried to find the most pleasant words to convey the next message, "This condition is to do with the way the person views themselves, their state distorts reality. It could very well be one part knows that what it's doing is wrong but the other overpowers it and it only manages to conceal, we assume it must also be something to do with the brain, but we have no definitive proof, "

" Yet although it is speculation, My Lord, there is much we do begin to understand regarding the brain " Blake added.

Sir Michaels headache from the conversation, the words spun endlessly around his head, without really settling.

"What cure is there?"

There was a silence as Blake and the Doctor turned to the doomed man.

"Surely there is a cure, ?" Sir Michael urged weakly,

"There is no tangible cure, Sir," the Doctor hadn't wanted to say the words, he'd hope the man would accept the reality through inference.

"But there is a path to the cure," Sir Michael urged slightly more emphatically. It seemed he was trying to convince himself more than anyone else in the room.

Blake coughed uncomfortably, "Uncle, this issue is too complex for a liquid to solve."

"Don't treat me like an idiot, son." Sir Michael's emotions were heightening, verging on anger. "Are you telling me in this age of Science, there is nothing!"

Blake raised his hands to appease his uncle, "There Is a letter that I gave to my Aunt, I was intending to contact my colleague who runs an experimentative Rehabilitation centre in Inverness"

Sir Michael heard the location but he was too fixated with the chance at curing his daughter, "Will it be able to cure her?" He couldn't bear the weight on his conscience that his daughter would not make it.

Blake couldn't lie regardless of Sir Michael's desperateness, "It's the best chance she has but it is not certain,"

Evaluating the situation Sir Michael saw no other options, he saw no need to speak about it with his wife since she had been already moving ahead with her own decisions before the catastrophe that had befallen the house. The doctor established that if she didn't eat when she awoke he would have to force the patient to intake the necessary nutrition. The implications of what the doctor explained pained Alyssa's father but with his little understanding, he gave the permission for force-feeding. By the end of their meeting, the desperate call for help had been sent to Blake's colleague.

The next couple of days saw Lady Kate regain normality, the family made the arrangements to postpone their return to London and she urged her youngest daughter to not abandon her ball preparations. Lady Kate aided Honey with sorting out the guest list and they hired extra help from the nearest town for the day. Rosalie barely involved herself, she thought it insensitive to proceed with the ball when there was a sick Alyssa who always put up a fight when it came time to eat. Alyssa was under careful supervision, still refusing to eat and refusing to speak to anyone.