Did you know that Jane Austen had a brother who was disabled? Modern scholars believe George Austen suffered from epilepsy, cerebral palsy, and intellectual impairment. He was given into the care of another family who were paid to look after him, and he lived with them for most of his life.
He was probably very happy with them, and there is nothing wrong with giving someone vulnerable into the care of people who are better equipped to care for them. The Austen family seem to have done as much as they could to ensure his comfort, safety and wellbeing.
Others were not so lucky. They were shut away in institutions. For those from wealthy families, that might be a privately run asylum where they, hopefully, had a decent standard of living. For many, it would be somewhere like the infamous Bethlehem Hospital in London, which was known as Bedlam.
These places were cruel and insensitive. They even charged the public to come in and be “entertained” by the behaviour and suffering of the residents.
Still more disabled children were the victims of infanticide, a convenient way of getting rid of someone seen as a financial burden, and a blight on the family, who, Society believed, must have done something to bring such a judgement upon themselves.
Is it any wonder then, that the Countess of Barwell was frightened for her newborn son in “The Earl Pretender”? Benedict was born with what we now call Down’s Syndrome, a condition named after Dr. Down (pictured left.) The Countess would have known the way Society viewed and treated those with developmental disabilities in general, and the fact that this child was the oldest son and, therefore, heir to the earldom, can only have increased her fears for him.
Ill, weak, knowing she could not protect him, she secretly sent him to a trusted friend, who could care for him until she was able to do so herself. When she died a few weeks later, the child was lost.
Thirty years later, Benedict's half-brother, Robert, learns he has an older brother and feels duty bound to find him. This brings him into the lives of Jane and her disabled brother, Ben. Robert is convinced that Ben is actually his brother, Benedict, but Jane, fiercely protective of Ben, is not about to hand over the brother she loves so easily. Besides which, it seems someone is trying to kill Robert, and she is not prepared to put Ben into the killer’s line of fire…
The Earl Pretender is available here.
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