Contrite & Convicted

An Unthinkable Fate Part III

An Unthinkable Fate Part III

-NOTE AT END-

"I've conducted all the necessary tests to confirm my suspicions, Sir. Your son is in fact deaf."

"There is no question, your son is retarded. He cannot hear."

"Why there is a need for three physicians and opinions is your own Viscount Bridgerton, but that will not change I could tell from the moment I read your files, your son is deaf. There is no treatment I can prescribe aside from asylum."

It had been running in Ester's mind all evening. They had been to the physicians, then they went to a hospital in London and he referred them to another physician and they all claimed the same thing.

Her son was deaf.

She had not heard the term before...retarded...yes but it was very very few and far between. She heard it mentioned once as a child and usually it was in reference to someone who lived way out in the country and no one mentioned them other than 'they lived in the country'.

What was she to do?

Was she ashamed of what people would think? No. Never. Was she ashamed that this was her fault? Maybe.

This was her punishment, for not speaking to Anthony, not repairing their marriage when she should have. For getting angry....her anger must have...it must have.

She sat all night, holding her precious child. Who looked no different than his brother, aside from hair color, eyes and nose. She should have never said anything to Anthony...never brought up her concerns until she had a plan to help.

Now here he was, away from her. Both of them hiding from the other. Feeling the shame of their own thoughts running rampant in their minds. Ester tried to think of things that could help her son. But she had not heard of anything to help Jacob. No school. No cure..nothing..

It was as if there was her own silence in her mind, body and soul. Her little baby. She felt her stomach twist.

Her hand covered her abdomen where she felt the small butterflies within her womb.

How foolish of her, to have another child when she had one that needed her desperately. What kind of life would he live? Would he end up in the streets? He couldn't be Viscount when he married and run Bridgerton Manor and Estates....could he?

Anthony and Ester did make one problem on the carriage ride home...they were not going to tell anyone until they knew an answer. Ester had been sitting in bed all day, watching her baby sleep. Telling Mar that she wasn't feeling well and Jacob had the same thing–hence the doctor's–Mar looked skeptical but it was, what it was.

"Mar!?" Ester called out, as to not wake Jacob as he curled into the covers beside her.

Within a few minutes, the connecting door from the nursery opened and Mar came in with Edmund on her hips.

"Yes Ma'am?" Ester looked at Edmund and tried not to compare her sons–she did. But it's all she could think about.

How could one be so normal and the other son....not?

"Can you send a request to speak to Viscount Lawrence Bane, immediately." Mar nodded and left to do as Ester bid. Feeling the tension in the room, Mar was quick to leave.

Edmund bounced on her hip and she made her way out towards the stables where she knew that the new stable boy would be eager to deliver a message. Finding him near his horse, brushing the tail she quickly whistled to the boy.