Chapter Text
So many words for this state of mind, which will always remain impossible to describe. Except for those who know it. Clinical depression, nervous breakdown, exhaustion. My favorite: collapse. The philosophical would say that I had lost my way. The faithful would hope that I was looking for it. But all my dear friends and colleagues simply asserted that I had lost my mind. My poor husband, poor boy. I had committed the worst sin of my kind: I had embarrassed my husband.
A slow steady decline, and then bam! One night I took a broomstick and flew off in the middle of a tremendous storm. They found me a week later, sitting in the boughs of a pine tree, wearing only my under-robes as protection from the frigid Highland air, and laughing like a hyena. It was really one hell of a storm.
Naturally, once they found me, he sent me away. It was obviously what any man of his class would have done. So after a lengthy stay, I was once again deemed fit for society, and I returned home to Edward, who waited for me with open arms. He wanted to reward me for my good behavior, so something wonderful was on its way. Was it a present? A trip? A ring? No. It was a mother's helper. A companion. A girl.