He was very pale. Of course, being an Irishman, he was paler than snow on a good day without a farmer’s tan to make up for it, but this was the sickly, greyish pale of someone who frankly should not be up out of bed. Rings hung under his eyes so deeply that it only emphasised his growing exhaustion. His cheekbones had started to stick out, signifying a level of malnutrition that alarmed him. Up until now, he had been attributing his drastic weight loss to much more comfortable causes. Now he was faced with the unpleasant reality of having to carefully manage what he ate from now on.