Henry had guessed that it would take Ellie at least a week or two to be out and about. He knew that she was quite a restless one who would be hard to keep confined to the walls of the manor. But even this estimate was inaccurate. When Henry came to check on her a couple of hours later, her room was being cleaned. In the middle of the mess of people sweeping and straightening, Ellie sat by the vanity mirror brushing her hair. A maid next to her had opened the wardrobe and was trying to get her to wear something more than the light wool cardigan she had chosen to pull over her pajamas."Ellie?" He asked in shock, "Why are you not in bed?"
The maid bowed and explained quickly, "After the lady ate her breakfast, she said she wanted to freshen up after lying in bed so many days. She was quite determined to make this happen so we a.s.sisted her in her choice to move over to here. We did try to dissuade her, sir."
This was something his harebrained brother-in-law would be upto. Henry thought thinly. They were definitely brother and sister--two peas in a pod. He was a bit conflicted between clapping for her, raising his voice, or simply laughing at her efforts. "I"m sure that Dr Wu will be in horror if you extend yourself too much. Do not forget that it was not even a day ago that we were considering the best funeral arrangements for yourself and the admirable Nolan."
She set the hairbrush down with a fake smile. "We should be less formal with each other now that we have know each other for a while." Her mouth was tight lipped and Henry for a moment wondered if she was feeling faint.
Jumping towards her, he started to peer down her back at the incision site, "Has it reopened? I wasn"t so sure when I saw those st.i.tches the first time. I can get the family doctor to take a look at them."
She pushed his hand away abruptly and looked a bit nervous at his sudden closeness. "It"s not the wound site. I"m not sick. Wu told me I would start to feel this way when I stopped the morphine drip. These are the start of the withdrawal symptoms."
Henry"s forehead creased. "I would prefer it if you continued with the morphine until you are more on your feet and about. I can have you in detox or some type of rehab where they can have professionals look after you. Can"t you just focus on healing your body before you turn to your mind? This stuff is no joke."
"No, I don"t want that. I can do this cold turkey. I haven"t taken it for that long already. I would prefer to deal with the reaction now than a stronger reaction later. I don"t want it to get any more worse than it already is. I need to do things my way, Henry."