Readjusting her veils so they covered her face again, even though Nurse Grady had insisted she lift them over her head upon arriving at the asylum, Eunice followed the nurse into the room, finding the doctor sitting behind a desk, watching her as she sat down in the chair Nurse Grady shoved her toward.
“This is Dr. Franklin. He’s to give you an examination. After that, you’ll join the women you’ll be sharing a floor with.” Nurse Grady bent closer to Eunice’s ear. “Do what the doctor tells you, or you’ll suffer the consequences from me.” With that, she straightened and marched out of the room.
“Remove your veils” were the first words out of Dr. Franklin’s mouth after Nurse Grady shut the door.
Eunice squared her shoulders. “I’d prefer to keep them on.”
“That’s not an option, nor will it be an option for you to remain in your widow’s weeds. All the patients are given the same skirt and blouse, and Nurse Grady will see to that later today.” Dr. Franklin rose to his feet, moved directly next to her, and yanked the veils from her head, not bothering to take out the pins thatsecured them to her hair, which resulted in a bit of her hair being pulled out.
“That was hardly necessary,” she snapped, a complaint the doctor ignored as he tilted her head back.
“I thought you’d be older,” he said slowly.
“I hear that a lot.”
His eyes narrowed on her face. “The doctors who initially examined you wrote that you’re suffering from acute melancholy as well as female hysteria. They also mentioned that you rarely speak, but that doesn’t appear to be the case now.”
For the briefest of seconds, Eunice considered feigning a bout of weeping but reconsidered that as curiosity got the better of her. From what she’d gathered through things Nurse Grady had said, it was next to impossible to get released from the asylum after one was committed. With that in mind, she decided she was going to behave as she normally did—sane and without a whiff of female hysteria about her, if only to see if that made any difference with the doctor’s diagnosis.
“I’m afraid the physicians who examined me didn’t allow me the opportunity to speak, but I assure you, Dr. Franklin, I’m rarely without words.”
“I’m sure that’ll change after you’ve been here for a week or two.”
The sheer arrogance of his tone made Eunice’s hands clench, but before she could contemplate wiping the man’s smile from his face with her fist, he bent closer to her.
“Stick out your tongue.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“Your tongue. I need to examine it.”
“What possible reason could you have for examining my tongue?”
“That’s not for you to question.”
“It is when it’s my tongue and I see no plausible reason for you to examine it. My mental state is at issue, not my tongue.”
When Dr. Franklin took hold of her face in a grip that was certainto leave a bruise, Eunice forced a hand that was completely clenched to relax, telling herself that she would be no help to Mrs. Mills if she punched the doctor and found herself carted off to a place in the asylum called the Lodge.
That section, according to one of the policemen who’d been on the boat, and whom Ann had decided to chat up to gather information, housed the most violent of patients, or those predisposed to suicide. The policeman had also mentioned that those unfortunate patients, when allowed outside to get fresh air, were tethered together with a rope, quite like one would do when taking a dog for a walk.
Having no desire to end up in that ward, which definitely would impede her search for Mrs. Mills, Eunice stuck out her tongue, earning a nod from Dr. Franklin before he looked at her tongue and wrote something down on a notepad.
“It’s just as I feared,” he muttered.
“What is?”
“You’re demented.”
“You can tell that from my tongue?”
He didn’t bother to answer as he began probing her head with his fingers before he stepped back, picked up a gas lamp that was on a table beside him, then told her to look directly into the flame.
Her curiosity about the exam had her looking into the flame, trying hard not to blink at the bright light that was all but blinding her as Dr. Franklin peered into one eye and then the other. Shaking his head and clucking his tongue, he then pulled out a measuring tape and started taking measurements of her head.
He set the tape aside as Nurse Grady reentered the room.
“Your verdict on this one?” Nurse Grady asked.
