The Warden Read Online Free PDF Page B

the basement and toward the staircase leading up.
    â€œYes. Naturally.”
    â€œYou saw how she reacted to the mere suggestion of a bath,” he replied, taking another mint from his tin and eating it before starting up the stairs. He walked with his hands tucked behind his back. It struck her as indecently casual, given what they had just witnessed.
    But that was a doctor’s life, she reminded herself. If every wound or tantrum or spot of blood knocked them off their post, nothing would ever get done.
    â€œI think she reacted to you, or to her name,” Jocelyn replied. “I’m sorry if it’s offensive to say so.”
    Warden Crawford shrugged. “Not at all. Lucy is a strange case. Her parents swear up and down that she has no history of abuse. That one day she simply stopped speaking. They took her to specialists—speech therapists, hypnotists, you name it, they tried it. Then the outbursts began. Silent, furious storms not unlike what you just observed.”
    â€œThat was anything but silent,” Jocelyn murmured, hugging herself.
    â€œThe screaming didn’t begin until she came here. Her muteness persists between episodes, then something causes the hysterical fits. Men, usually. She is mostly docile if only nurses see to her. Bathing and clothing her remain . . . challenging.”
    Jocelyn paused on the landing, feeling the dread atmosphere of the basement slip off her like chilled silk. “Then why did yougo into that room? You deliberately wanted to frighten her?”
    He stared back at her evenly, one eyebrow cocked in amusement or irritation. “Perhaps. Perhaps I wanted you to see just what you’re up against.”
    â€œAnd this is all part of your . . . your program ?”
    â€œLucy and the others in basement confinement are difficult cases. Traditional methods have proven ineffective, counterproductive, even. Medicine must march forward, Nurse Ash. Surely you understand that.” He turned, assuming she would follow. He continued, “We could sedate Lucy, true. She could live out a long, wasted life in a stupor, or we could do what others will not.”
    A hard shiver raced down Jocelyn’s spine. “You want to experiment on her.”
    â€œYou make it sound so dreadfully Frankensteinian,” he said with a chuckle. They had reached the lobby level and he held the door for her. Jocelyn flinched, afraid even to get too near to him. “Most leaps forward happen by pure accident. What I’m suggesting is far more methodical. Hypnotism, surgery, drug therapy . . . These techniques are often used independently of one another, but I foresee a future in which we can control and guide these patients back to productive living through an aggressive combination of all three.”
    He led her swiftly back to his office, and again she ducked past him into the room, curious and listening despite herself. “Why hasn’t this been done before?”
    â€œCowardice?” Warden Crawford suggested, sauntering behind his desk and dropping down into his chair. “Lack of vision? Fear of failure? Take your pick, I suppose. We stand onthe cusp, Nurse Ash, and to be the vanguard we must be bold.”
    â€œI . . . I don’t know.”
    â€œWould it help if I asked Nurse Fullerton to participate, too?” he asked gently. “She seems capable enough. Perhaps between the two of you, you can keep me in check. Two heads are better than one, and three is certainly better still.”
    His smile was wide, movie-star white. For a moment he almost looked boyish. His face defied the look of a true age, as if he was hovering always between adolescence and adulthood. Timeless, her mother would say. Madge would probably say it, too.
    Something gnawed at the edge of her subconscious. Jocelyn cleared her throat softly and asked, “What was she saying? Lucy, I mean. That word she kept saying . . . What does it mean?”
    His smile