Free Her Own Devices by Shelley Adina Page B

Christmas. I believe she had just made a grand presentation to the Royal Society of Engineers, so it was a very merry holiday for all of us.”
    Snouts gazed at her in admiration for this feat of storytelling. Claire ignored him and fixed a pleasant expression on her face as she waited for the doctor to speak.
    “So it has been some years, then. Well, let me tell you briefly of her condition, which I hope will not cause you too much distress.” He tugged on his pant legs and seated himself. “Her affect is disconcerting. Be prepared for that at first. She cannot look anyone in the eye, and her replies to questions make no sense. She persists in believing her family are the mad ones, and she is perfectly sane, so I beg you, do not let your natural compassion and feminine sympathy overcome good sense.” He paused, as if gathering himself for the worst. “The presence of your secretary is fraught with danger, I am afraid. She has an intense dislike of men, even those who, like myself, are acting in her best interests. At the same time, she has a history of violence, so the presence of this young man with you is a positive. All I can do is post an orderly within calling distance, who will be ready to intervene at the slightest sign from you.”
    Claire was sure she had gone pale, and indeed, the doctor searched her face.
    “You may well be shocked. Miss Craig is not the same woman you remember from happier times in the bosom of the family, I am very sorry to say.”
    She nodded, and rose on unsteady knees. “May I see her now?”
     
     

Chapter 9
     
    Dr. Longmont led them out. “The incurables are housed in their own wing, with their own airing garden. It would not do to mix them with the patients undergoing more successful methods of treatment.”
    Claire felt Snouts close beside her, and indeed, felt no embarrassment at all in taking his arm and gripping it. They proceeded down a long gallery lined with doors. This was clearly the women’s side, and female patients in various states of dress and dishevelment walked up and down ... or sat, drooping, by the windows. Or, in one case, lay on the floor in a corner, sobbing uncontrollably. From inside a room came that same throbbing scream that had so frightened Tigg, and Claire distinctly felt Snouts flinch.
    They turned right and proceeded past a pair of double doors marked COLD BATHS and another marked ELECTRICK THERAPY.
    Claire looked away.
    The doctor unlocked a set of doors with the key that hung in a small cabinet bearing a combination lock, and they were in the incurables wing. This corridor was much shorter, and every door was closed and locked. Claire could see people’s heads through small windows in the doors—people in constant motion, it seemed, flying at the walls, walking in circles, gawking at the visitors, mouths open.
    They passed through another door and moved through the ward, with beds against the walls, presumably for less dangerous incurables. An orderly in a clean white uniform joined them. Claire glanced at the beds. At top and bottom were leather straps, the kind that might wrap around ankle or wrist. Another set of locked doors, and then they were outside.
    A deep breath did nothing to clear the miasma of fear and distress flowing out the door behind them.
    The airing garden was a square of lawn with a couple of stone benches. At the far end, a woman in a white dressing gown sat, staring fixedly at a stone wall the height of two men. No one else appeared to be taking the air today, though the afternoon was fine.
    “Remember,” Dr. Longmont said, “at the slightest sign of agitation, Mr. Wellburn here will be at hand to help.”
    “Thank you,” Claire whispered.
    “Would you like me to go with you?”
    She would like him to take her back through all those locked doors to the main entrance, so she could escape this place. “No, thank you. She will remember me, I am sure.”
    He nodded, and left them. Claire took a deep breath and she and