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THE ANATOMY OF THE
SECRET BABY
By
Carol J. Stephenson
copyright 1999 by Carol J. Stephenson
The Isis myth birthed the first secret baby, though baby Horus was
hell-bent on revenging his father's death. Since its early Egyptian
conception, the secret baby has transmuted from an instrument of retribution to
a beloved theme of the category romance. Are you a Doubting Thomasina?
Drop into a bookstore and count how many secret baby books come out each
month for the category houses, such as Silhouette's Intimate Moments/Special
Editions used in the examples below.
As Kate Ryan noted in her 'Theme Spotlight' article appearing in the October
1996 issue of Romantic Times, the popularity of this story stems from the
reader's love for second chances. Man and woman are lovers, usually very
young, who are driven apart; they reunite and conquer the obstacles that drove
them apart the first time to find love again. But this time the couple
experiences an adult LOVE relationship, which is richer, more transcendental.
A multitude of variations exist for this theme. The straight secret baby
story is: Hero leaves Heroine, she has his child, he returns but does not
know about the child. The child may not physically resemble him, but there
are the CLUES. Father and child like horses, hamburgers, and Mary Chapin
Carpenter. They exhibit the same behavior like restless movements.
The reason Hero doesn't see himself in the child is not because he's stupid
[definitely not heroic], but because he has been served a RED HERRING by the
Heroine or someone else [H/Hine's parent, interfering friend], such as: 1)
Heroine did marry another man, who is now deceased [Barbara Ankrum's To Love
a Cowboy, SIM #834] or 2) Heroine broke off relationship, originally telling
Hero that there was another man-a lie to make him jealous which backfires [used
by Margaret Watson in Rodeo Man, SIM #873], or to set him free over her
own self interest-a sacrifice that backfires.
If the child doesn't resemble Dad, the two can meet early on. If child
does resemble Dad, then MISSED OPPORTUNITIES for them to meet are built up until
THE DISCOVERY. For example, Hero unexpectedly stops by, but child is
asleep. Hero and Heroine fight so he doesn't walk her to the car where
child waits for Mom.
One plot twist is the DISCOVERY occurring immediately because the Heroine needs
the Hero's protection for the child, who is threatened by a bad guy [Rebecca
Daniels's Yuletide Bride, SIM #827].
Another possible spin is child's biological father is no good, so the Heroine
conceals child from him, but a family member/friend, a/k/a Hero, comes into her
life [or as Judith Yates did in Brother of the Groom, SSE #1152, father
dies after jilting Heroine at the altar, but his brother appears on the scene
after five years.] The emotional/internal conflict revolves around
unresolved feelings and differences which first drove Hero and Heroine apart.
Anger and bitterness from the original experience color the initial
meeting. Emotions thought by the couple to be dead and buried come surging
to life again, driving them off their equilibrium.
If this is a tale where the paternity of the child is not immediately revealed
to the Hero, then the heroine has another layer of emotion because she feels
GUILT. She struggles with her conscience, but her love for the child
outweighs honesty-initially. As the story evolves, just when it's on the
tip of her tongue to tell THE TRUTH, voila! A friend barges in, the house
burns down; a MISSED OPPORTUNITY occurs. Lots of them. With the
increasing weight of GUILT, does the Heroine own up to the Hero? Nah.
The TRUTH comes crashing down on her head-Hero stops in, child's awake,
and oops, child's the mirror image of dear ol' Dad..
If the DISCOVERY occurs early because Heroine needs the Protector Hero, the
Heroine has to tell the TRUTH. Her concern over her child's safety overrides her
reluctance for the messy emotional scene, yet she'll still wear her pesky cloak
of GUILT because she didn't tell him originally.
With the DISCOVERY comes the Hero's sense of BETRAYAL. How could the
Heroine have lied to him, or how she could have hidden the pregnancy from him?
Didn't she TRUST him? Bad, bad Heroine. She's wronged the
Hero, both in the past and in the present. How can he TRUST her in the
future?
But...he sees her love for the child, he can't control his physical desire for
her, and when he's not looking, his desire evolves to concern. His mantle
of protection not only covers the child but also, however grudgingly, extends to
Heroine.
On the flip side, Heroine sees the Hero unveil all his wonderful qualities as a
result of his interaction with the child. He reads to the child, he kisses
her cut finger. He...grrr, does things for the child that he never did for
the Heroine. Uh, oh. JEALOUSY may rear its ugly, complicated head.
Does he love her, or does he love her because of the child? Only the
Hero knows for sure, and he's crossing all the communication wires, leading to
more miscommunications and MISSED OPPORTUNITIES.
Yet, through the plot's twists and turns, the two realize they both have changed
and matured, and are in love. Is it possible, gasp, to become a family?
But no, wait! In one final calamitous explosion of misunderstanding,
the couple are torn asunder. Can they, will they, be able to find the way
to be together?
Only your secret baby story will tell us, but curtain call will have Mom, Dad
and Child on the stage, taking their final bow together. Of course, in
some secret baby books, the second curtain call will reveal the happy couple
sharing the pregnancy of a new child, the joyful experience they missed out on
the first go-round.
The End. Until the next secret baby story you'll weave with twists and
turns, keeping the reader tearful yet happy and all the while sighing with a
heartspun tale of missed opportunities and second chances at love.
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