Wanted: Young Man with Red Hair

At last the face. Those lips he had kissed so many times were a deep rose pink, the cheeks tinged with the same hue. Sarah's eyes, her one feature about which he knew nothing, were wide and expressive, pure gray in color.

They stared at each other in silence. Then he heard her lilting voice. "Hello, Adam. You are even more handsome than I remember."

Adam looked at her in wonder, thinking, Have my hands caressed the body of this elegant lady before me? Have I tasted her kisses? Held her as she cried out in the extremes of passion?

No, it is not possible. A man like me could never have the pleasure of a woman this lovely, this refined. I surely must have dreamed it.

"And I?" Sarah asked after a space of silence.

Adam swallowed, still in awe of the beauty before him. "Norris once called you exquisite. But even that word doesn't do justice to you, Sarah."

They approached, now within a foot of each other. "Why are you here?" Adam asked.

"My sister-in-law Margaret and I are traveling to St. Louis to meet our husbands, who are returning from a business trip in the west. She wanted to visit a friend here in Louisville who is deathly ill. I could not bear the thought of being this close to you, Adam, and not seeing you just once more."

Then came a sound, a faint cry close by; Adam realized that Sarah had with her a baby carriage. Both glanced over, then stepped to it. Gesturing to what lay within, Sarah said, "Adam, this is my son, Charles Junior."

Adam looked into the carriage. The child appeared to be about a year old. His head was covered in rich red curls, of an intense hue even in the soft morning light. When Adam leaned forward, the child gazed up at him curiously. His eyes were hazel; they were not different in the least way from the eyes Adam saw whenever he looked into a mirror.

The young man shuddered as at last he understood the full import of what he was seeing. He looked at Sarah, who now had a faint blush on her cheeks. She gave an almost imperceptible nod, murmuring, "Yes, Adam."

The young man took a deep breath, saying, "He is a handsome child."

Sarah could not resist reaching down and taking the babe. Cradling him in her arms, she said, "Oh, isn't he? My husband Charles and I tried to have children for so many years without success. Then, just as hope was fading, we were blessed with this miracle."

Her voice deep with emotion, she went on, "Charles was so surprised, so happy to learn I was at last with child. He too has bright red hair, something he takes pride in. He considers it his signal feature. When the baby came, a boy who also has his father's fine red hair, Charles was utterly thrilled. He dotes on the babe. We both do."

"A very lucky child, then," Adam said. "Born into a wealthy family, with parents that adore him."

"The luck runs both ways. Charles' family is one of the richest in New England. Textile mills, railroads. His father made it a condition that his two sons would inherit their full share of the family fortune only when they had produced a male heir. But now we have this wonderful babe here. He has assured us our future."

"Life seems to have blessed us all," Adam said with a trace of bitterness. "A fine son for you; a fortune for your husband. And me, the pleasure of briefly knowing you."

She gazed at him in silence, her look a mix of melancholy and anger. "You cannot know what it's like for a woman, Adam! It is our worst fate to be called barren. And they always blame the woman, never the man! I seemed destined to go through life childless, with Charles and I drifting apart, his love for me turning to pity and regret. Everyone blaming me for being unable to give him what he so wanted."

"I was desperate to do something. To give fate some .. assistance. And I did so. Now I have a child that I love more than life itself. And a husband who is so happy, with a healthy son, the family fortune now in his hands."

Adam gazed at the woman. Even now she was utterly beautiful in his eyes, yet resentment welled up in him. "Sarah, or whatever your name is, you're playing with people's lives here. A husband who thinks he fathered that child. And you just using me like a horse at stud without telling me why!"

The woman shook her head. "How could I have told you? Did you not ever guess?"

"Well, I know that's how womenfolk get pregnant," Adam said with some asperity. "But I always thought they had to be married to a fellow before they could have his baby."

"You what?"

"Well, I did!"

Sarah managed a quick laugh. "Adam, what earthly difference could a marriage ceremony make?"

"I don't know. But ever woman I know in Nelson County gets married 'n then right away has a baby. I figured that's the only way it worked."

Still holding their child, Sarah came to him and placed a gloved hand on his cheek. "Ah, my dear Adam. Yours is such a simple innocent life. How I envy you! For me, life has been unfair, and now I must bear the burden of a terrible secret. But it had to be done. It was the only way." She placed Charles Junior into the carriage and tucked him under his blankets.

She again came to Adam and spoke evenly. "But I swear this to you. Not telling you my design was my only deceit. Those terms of affection for you, the passion you aroused in me, all were true and from the heart."

"I willingly gave you my body, my all. In that bed you were as much a husband as any man could be. You will always have a part of me, just as I've now a part of you. But I felt compelled to share with you the truth. Can you not forgive me, and let us remember those wonderful hours we shared at Willow Place?"

"You always get your way, don't you, Sarah?"

Now she was almost touching him. "Lillian," she said in a steely voice. "My name is Lillian."

She spoke again as the first tear trickled down her cheek. "Yes, perhaps I do. But Adam, for years I cried every night and prayed to God: please, please bless me with a child. I was willing to risk my marriage, my reputation. With you I had that child; and through good fortune, a boy. Have I not earned the right to be happy?"

Adam realized that the passion and anguish now written on her face had made her more beautiful than ever. Nothing melts away a man's anger like a woman's tears, especially a woman this lovely. He was now disarmed, once again under her spell.

He put his hands on her shoulders, and in a softer tone said, "Yes, of course, Sarah ... Lillian. I should be happy for you. Just make sure you give our son a good life, a life I could never give him. Always love him."

Lillian wiped away a tear, still gazing intensely at him. "Adam .. "

"Yes?"

"I will love him all the more because he is yours." She hesitated, then spoke again. "Please kiss me. Oh do not keep me waiting! We have so few kisses left!"

Now they were in each other's arms. Once again came the taste and feel of Sarah's lips. Yes, Adam now thought, it is her. This is the woman I knew so very well at Willow Place.

For long moments the young man and the woman melded into each other's bodies, one kiss followed by another. Then Lillian paused, looking wistfully into Adam's eyes. "Yes, my love. Your kisses are still sweet. But I must go; Margaret will be waiting."

"One last kiss, Sarah. One for a lifetime."

They joined together again for one final passionate kiss. Then she drew away, murmuring, "I took a grave risk meeting you, Adam. I pray you care enough for me to keep our secret. Tell me you do."

"You don't even have to ask."

Lillian wiped away one tear, even as she smiled. Then she looked past Adam and nodded to someone. The young man turned and saw the dim shape of a man waiting in the fog. Turning back to the woman, he said, "Sarah, tell me, who is Norris?"

"He was the valet to my father, who died when I was ten. Norris was so much loved by our family that we could not bear have him leave our service. Since then he has been like a father to me. Honest and wise, absolutely loyal and discreet. He will do literally anything I ask of him. Anything."

The man and woman embraced once more. Even now, each was reluctant to give up the other. Then, with a soft cry, Lillian turned and took the baby carriage. She pushed the carriage past Norris, and soon vanished into the mist.

Norris stood watching her, then looked back to Adam as he approached the older man. Adam smiled at him, then said, "Norris, I'm surprised you let the lady meet me like this."

"I strongly opposed it, sir. Just as I will do everything in my power to destroy you if you try to use what you have learned this morning to your advantage."

"No need for that, Norris. Tell me, how did you do it?"

"She and I decided that the father of her child should be someone who lived far from New York. Preferably a healthy young farm boy, of good pioneer stock. I hired a lawyer to contact, at random, ten small town lawyers from the Midwest, to do the search. All responded; from those, my mistress selected you."

"And the house at Willow Place?"

"It had just passed into the hands of her family, and lay empty as it was being renovated. With the lady's husband on a long business trip to South America, it was our one chance to carry out our plan."

Norris paused, then added, "It was your photograph that did it, sir. You bear a remarkable resemblance to the lady's husband. When I saw you that day at the rail station, I felt I was looking at his younger twin. Your looks were your good fortune."

"My good fortune?"

"Yes." Norris gazed at the young man thoughtfully. "Tell me, Mr. Wylie, if you had known that day at the station what you know now, would you do differently?"

Adam paused, recalling those nights of passion with the woman; the taste of her kisses, the feel of her superb body; the gamble Lillian had taken, and its outcome.

"No, I guess not. Any man would be lucky to be with a woman like her, if only for a little while."

"Yes sir. I neither condone nor condemn what she chose to do. Like all of us, Mr. Wylie, she is only human; yet at the same time she is a remarkable lady. I have always felt honored to be in her service."

"That makes two of us, I reckon. We've both served her well, haven't we?"