Adventure of the Copper Beeches, What is Holmes Thinking?

 

So, Violet Hunter has taken a job as a governess for Jephro Rucastle at his isolated country house, Copper Beeches, with his second wife and cockroach-killing son, aged six.  Rucastle shows not particular interest in what Miss Hunter can teach his son, but offers an unheard-of salary for her to cut her hair and wear whatever dresses his wife gives her, including an electric blue dress belonging to Rucastle's daughter Alice, now in Philadelphia.  Miss Hunter soon sends an alarming telegram summoning Holmes and Watson, asking them to meet her at the train station.  Watson asks what this can mean, and Holmes says he has devised seven possible explanations, but lacks sufficient information to settle on any one.  What could those seven explanations be?

Miss Hunter has suggested one -- that Mrs. Rucastle is mad, and her husband is indulging her.  I have suggested another -- that Mr. Rucastle hired Miss Hunter for her looks because he has lecherous designs on her.  That leaves five more.

The request not just to wear any dress Mrs. Rucastle may choose, but to wear daughter Alice's dress raises another possibility.  Mr. Rucastle has chosen Miss Hunter for her looks, not because of lecherous designs, but because she resembles his daughter, Alice and wants to increase the resemblance by having Miss Hunter wear Alice's clothes and copy her hairstyle.  (Spoiler alert: True).  But why?

The simplest and most innocent explanation is that he misses his daughter and wants to be reminded of her.  But that would hardly account for the extraordinary salary, or the alarming telegram.

Alternately, maybe Alice left on bad terms.  Mr. Rucastle wants to do some roleplaying games.  He thinks he can play the role most effectively with someone who physically resembles his daughter.  He will react to Miss Hunter as if she were his daughter and Miss Hunter, though she has not special insight into Alice, might at least explain how a young lady would react.  Mr. Rucastle hopes this will help him understand what went wrong and maybe to reconcile with Alice.  This type of psychotherapy might be very important to Mr. Rucastle, but also extremely stressful to the role-player.

Third explanation.  Alice isn't in Philadelphia.  Don't be ridiculous, did you think she'd leave without her clothes?  She's dead.  Her hair was cut in her final illness.  (It was assumed that the time that if a woman or girl was seriously ill it would be necessary to cut her hair to let her cool off).  Mr. Rucastle hired the governess to remind him of his daughter. That could be either endearing or morbid, depending on how it turns out.

The most horrible explanation combines the daughter and the lecherous design -- there was incest going on.  That's why Alice ran off without packing her clothes, or maybe committed suicide.  Mr. Rucastle wants to continue with the governess standing in for Alice.  As for the short hair, maybe Alice cut her hair in hopes it would make her less attractive to her father.  It didn't work.  Or maybe her father cut her hair in hopes she would be ashamed to go out, and to make her unattractive to potential suitors.

Does this last one count as two explanations (alternate accounts of why Alice is missing and why her hair is short), or as one.  If it is two, I now have seven possible explanations.  If it counts as one, I only have six.  

Spoiler alert: None of them is correct.