The Magician's Blood

by Linda G. Hill

  “Wait. Stand back,” Doreen said, holding her by both hands.

  “What’s wrong?”

  Doreen directed an accusing look at Stephen. “You didn’t tell me you’d gotten my baby with child.”

  Stephen glanced in Herman’s direction to see if she was going to say something, but she stood with her mouth hanging open.

  “We wanted to tell you in person,” Stephen said evenly, calmly. “We are proud and happy to bring your first grandchild into the world.”

  At that, Doreen’s face lit up, and she turned back to her daughter. “Come here, baby,” she said, arms outstretched for Herman.

  “You’re not angry, Mama?” Herman asked quietly.

  “Of course not. I’m happy that you’re going to have Mr. Dagmar’s baby. You’ve done well, Herman.”

  Herman stood straight and looked at her boyfriend. “I think so,” she agreed. “So, who is Skye?”

  “You don’t know?” Doreen looked at Stephen.

  “Your mother and I have spent quite a bit of time on the phone over the past week,” he explained to Herman. “I told her about Skye, my daughter.”

  “Oh shit,” Herman said under her breath. “I’m sorry. I’ve been so self-absorbed.”

  “It’s okay.” Stephen reached out to put his arm around her waist. “I know you’ve had a lot on your mind, and Skye is the last person you want to think about.”

  “Still …”

  “Still, nothing.” It was her mother who spoke. “You are having Mr. Dagmar’s baby. That should be the most important thing to you right now.”

  “It’s my baby too, Mama,” Herman said.

  “I know, but you need to remember who fathered it, and be grateful.”

  Herman pinched her lips shut, itching to say something in retaliation.

  “I’ll call the limo to come and get us, shall I?” Stephen said, taking his phone out of his pocket.

  “Chad is so happy you’re here,” he heard Herman say to her mother while he waited for the driver to pick up. He turned his attention to his phone and spoke to the man briefly.

  “Didn’t you know he was here?” Herman was asking her mother as he hung up.

  Doreen shook her head. Stephen hadn’t told her that her husband was in Edmonton.

  “George is looking forward to seeing you again,” Stephen said to her, nodding to the nurse who stood behind the wheelchair to start pushing. The nurse, in fact all three of them, stared at him in awe. Herman barely seemed to notice, he was pleased to realize.

  “He’s sober, Mama,” Herman said.

  “This should be interesting, then,” her mother commented as they moved toward the door, the porter trailing after them.

  CHAPTER 39

  Herman was amazed at how her parents eased back into behaving the way she remembered them from her childhood: content, as though alcoholism and sickness had never come between them. George had kissed Doreen hello when she came in, and he remained beside her on the couch, even holding her hand at times, while they opened the rest of their presents. Chad was almost bouncing off the walls, happy to see their mother again. Whatever magic Stephen had conjured to create such harmony, Herman was grateful for it.

  When it came time for Stephen to open his gift from Herman, she wasn’t nearly as nervous as she had anticipated she would be. It was wrapped in a gold box with a ribbon around it. He opened it gently, savoring it. He smiled as he lifted the lid, knowing right away that what the box contained wasn’t strictly for him. He plucked the garment out and held it up. It was a little white dress, decorated with pink lace with a tiny replica of the Dagmar insignia. She had designed it herself—a feminine version of the dagger slicing through a crescent moon, with a teddy-bear face instead of a gargoyle. She’d had the dressmaker sew it onto the front of the bodice. Stephen thanked Herman with a kiss. Aunt Beryl caught on first, followed by Chad who got up, and rushed to hug his big sister. Her parents, though they already knew, congratulated them on the happy news that they were going to have a little daughter of their own. Herman was surprised to see a tear in her father’s eye.

  “I am happy that you’re happy,” he told her.

  “Thank you, Dad,” she said.

  “I’d like to propose a toast,” George announced, lifting his glass of eggnog. They all raised their cups. “To Stephen Dagmar, for bringing our family together, and for making Herman so happy. Thank you, Stephen.”

  “I appreciate that, George. It’s my pleasure.”

  They drank, and Herman’s head swam with a combination of joy and the overwhelming fullness of being loved.

  “Thank you very much for my present, and for my daughter,” Stephen said taking her hand.

  Chad took the last two presents from under the tree and handed one to Herman and the other to their mother. Both were from Stephen. Herman sat hers in her lap and watched her mom open hers. When Doreen protested, Stephen assured her it was something small that they had wanted her to have. He had told Herman in the car what it was.

  With Chad sitting on the arm of the chair beside her, Doreen tore the red and green paper. When she saw what it was, she gasped, her hand over her mouth. “It’s beautiful,” she whispered. She held the framed picture up for everyone to see. In the photo—one of the ones from the photo shoot—Herman wore the long, silver-sequined gown. She was standing beside a seated Stephen, who was in a black tux and top hat. Herman got up to have a good look at it. It was the first picture she had seen from the shoot without advertising all over it. She barely recognized herself.

  “Thank you, both,” Doreen said.

  “You’re welcome, Mama. But it was Stephen who thought of it. It was all his doing.”

  “Thank you, Mr. Dagmar,” she said. “I will put this picture of you and Herman in a place of honor, and I will cherish it.”

  “You’re welcome, Doreen.”

  Herman turned her attention to the small box in her hand. “Another one?” she asked Stephen. “You’ve already given me so much.”

  “I wanted to give you something you could keep with you,” he said.

  She opened the small box to find a heart-shaped gold locket with their birthstones alternating around the outside—hers the diamond of April, and Stephen’s a January garnet. Inside the locket was a miniature boudoir picture. She felt herself blushing. Though it was only a shot of them kissing, she remembered the sensations she had felt as it was being taken.

  Herman handed it to Chad so he could show their parents while she leaned in to kiss Stephen. “I feel bad,” she said when their lips parted. “I only gave you one present, and it’s not even for you.”

  “I have everything I need. And as long as you’re beside me, I have everything I want,” he said. He gazed at her warmly, and she melted like wax in the heat of a candle’s flame.

  “Would you like some crackers with that cheese?” George asked. When Herman turned to him she saw he was smiling. The change in him was incredible.

  Her mother, sitting on the couch beside him, slapped his arm. “They’re in love,” she said. “Leave Mr. Dagmar alone.”

  * * *

  Later that night, sprawled out on the bed, exhausted and full of turkey, Herman asked Stephen why he didn’t insist that her mother call him by his given name.

  He sat at the end of the bed, rubbing her left foot. “She’ll call me Stephen when she’s ready,” he said.

  “How do you know so much about people?” she snapped without meaning to. She had become increasingly irritated as the day went on. “Is it instinctual, or did you learn it all in school?”

  “I’ve always been able to read people. Up until I met you, that is. You were a tough nut to crack. You still are, sometimes. That’s why I’m so happy that you’re always up-front with me. You don’t make me guess.” He lifted her foot to his lips to kiss each of her toes before turning his attention to the right foot.

  Herman snorted.

  “What’s wro
ng?”

  “Some things you should just be able to figure out for yourself.” She yanked her foot away and slid it under the covers.

  “I know you’ve been in a bad mood since this afternoon, but I didn’t want to ask you about it with everyone in the room. Can we talk now?” He shifted around to his side of the bed to get in.

  “We have a show tomorrow.” She rolled away from him. “Let’s get some sleep.”

  He clicked off the lamp and leaned over her to whisper in her ear, “I love you, Herman.” He kissed her cheek. She moved farther away from him.

  “Good night,” he said, rolling over the other way.

  “Night,” she mumbled.

  She wouldn’t cry. She refused. She grasped her left ring finger, bare as it had been the day they’d met. Her father’s words from three weeks ago echoed in her mind like she was being hit over the head with them.

  Has he proposed to you yet?

  So sure that today would be the day, she had anticipated Stephen dropping to one knee each time he approached her. What better time with everyone here to witness it? And on such a special occasion—their first Christmas together. It took her hours to fall asleep, unsure whether he really wanted a commitment.

  CHAPTER 40

  Herman peered out at the audience through a slit in the curtain for the umpteenth time before they were scheduled to go on. Normally, she’d sit in their dressing room, waiting for Stephen to come and get her, but she was agitated beyond anything he’d observed since she appeared on stage for the first time. He couldn’t really blame her. Just that morning during rehearsal, he and George had sprung on her that they’d be performing a new trick. Some of the props had arrived by plane with Ron, the still-sheepish stage crew manager, but without the ladder, they needed a new grand finale. Stephen and George had invented a disappearing act during one of Herman’s many pregnancy-induced naps the week before Christmas. In it, she would not only vanish, she would do so while standing in a levitated box which was designed by her father. George played the part of Stephen’s assistant so Herman could see it performed a few times before she tried it herself.

  On top of her anxiety over performing a new trick, she was worried because Margaret and Mark still hadn’t arrived. She was also confused that five seats remained empty in the front row rather than two. Stephen wished he could ease her mind by telling her that everyone she expected—as well as both of his parents and his sister, Daphne—would be seated when the lights came up, but he didn’t want to spoil the surprise.

  “I’m tempted to touch my dad to find out what you’re up to,” she mumbled. She wasn’t aware of how close he was standing. When she turned, she jumped.

  “Are you trying to make me nervous? Because you’re doing a damned good job of it.”

  Stephen smiled in reassurance, as he had many times throughout the morning. “Please, sit down with me and let me help you relax.”

  “You’re not going to hypnotize me,” she snapped. “I’m starting to wonder what you did to my dad already. You two have been all buddy-buddy all week …”

  “You know as well as anyone that the lack of booze in his system is responsible for the change, not me. I only hypnotized him to help with the addiction. His demeanor changed because of the sobriety.”

  She looked back out into the audience, and he peered over her shoulder. George and Doreen sat together in the front row off to stage left with Doreen’s trio of nurses sitting directly behind her. On Doreen’s other side, toward the middle of the row, were Chad and Aunt Beryl. There was a five-seat gap between them and the next group of people who had been lucky enough to get front-row tickets.

  “I guess there are three more people who haven’t shown up yet,” Stephen whispered in her ear.

  Herman looked out for a moment longer. “You’re right, I need to sit,” she said as she headed backstage.

  He followed her to the dressing room and slipped into the chair beside her, in front of the mirror. She avoided his gaze until he swiveled her chair to face him, then she looked him in the eye.

  “What?” she asked sharply.

  “Trust me.” He exhaled, gazing into her eyes. The tension dropped from her shoulders; it had worked, if only for a minute. He knew she would wind herself up again shortly, and she’d stay that way until they reached the front of the stage together. “Everything will be okay, just like it always is,” he said. “Concentrate on me, and we’ll be fine.”

  “You’re always fine,” she said. “Why wouldn’t you be?”

  “It’s the first time I’ve relied on your father to help me with a trick,” he said with a rueful laugh, hoping she believed it was the only reason. To his relief, she smiled back at him.

  “Who knew it was possible?”

  He shook his head but said nothing.

  “I hope this means you guys will get along from here on in.”

  “So do I,” he said. It was the wrong time to mention that he still didn’t completely trust the man.

  “Do you really think there’s any hope?”

  “That depends on whether or not he gets proper help with his addiction. But let’s not worry about that now.” He took both her hands in his and brushed her knuckles with his thumbs. “We’re going to go out there and have the best show yet. Your family is all here, and we have a new trick, and you’re going to be spectacular.”

  “What if …” she started, but he put his finger up to her lips.

  “I’m going out to see if they’re ready for us. Wait here.” He kissed the back of her hand and left briefly to speak to Ron. As the house lights dimmed, Stephen returned to the dressing room to retrieve Herman. He took his time, knowing an usher was helping his final guests to their seats.

  He watched Herman as he led her onto the stage. She smiled when she spied Margaret and Mark; she gaped when she recognized Tarmien, Stella, and Daphne from pictures she’d seen.

  “Ladies and Gentlemen,” Stephen said, after the applause died down. “My lovely assistant, Herman, and I, have our families here for this special after-Christmas show.”

  He held his hand out to the front row, and the audience strained to see.

  “I hope you all enjoy!”

  As the lights cut out, Stephen’s nerves sparked; he couldn’t remember ever having been so anxious on stage. He hoped Herman wouldn’t pick up on it. Yet everything went as they had performed it so many times in the past. The crowd seemed relaxed despite the edge he felt. When he pulled up a stool for his intimate chat with the audience, he glanced occasionally to the side of the stage to see that Herman hadn’t run backstage to throw up. That worry allayed, the second took its place.

  His hands shook as Herman stepped into the newly designed box. He stood back and, with his cane held aloft, raised the structure high above the stage, his glittering assistant posing and smiling in the door frame. The moment the front door of the box closed, Ron ran out onto the stage carrying a large white board. Stephen took it with a nod and placed one finger on his lips in a gesture of quiet, ensuring everyone in the audience saw him before he turned the sign around. On it, read: I’M GOING TO ASK HER TO MARRY ME!

  Conspiring whispers filled the hall. Stephen held up one thumb and most of the audience did too. He turned his attention briefly to the women in the front row. Each of them: his mother, his sister, Doreen, and her sister each wore a shocked expression. Only George and Margaret knew ahead of time what was to happen. Before Herman began to panic—she expected to exit the back door of the box, but Ron was holding it closed—Stephen lowered the box to the stage and lowered himself to one knee. He pulled a simple diamond solitaire ring from his pocket and knocked twice on the door so Herman would turn to face it. The door swung gently open with a squeak as the audience held their collective breath.

  “What happened?” Herman whispered.

  He allowed her time to get her bearings and let her eyes adjust to the spotlights she hadn’t expected to have shining in her e
yes. When she looked down at him, she gasped.

  “Herman,” he started. She heard his voice amplified and looked up at the audience, knowing then for certain that they weren’t alone backstage as she expected to be.

  “My love,” Stephen began again. “Although I knew from the moment I first saw you that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you, this has been a long time coming. I can’t imagine a life without you. My love for you could encompass the universe, and still, that doesn’t begin to describe the enormity of what I feel in my heart. My love for you is timeless, endless, boundless, and eternal.

  “Herman Anderson, would you grant me the great honor of becoming my wife?”

  Herman choked out something between a sob and a laugh from behind her hands. She paused so long, holding her breath, he thought she might faint. Then, all at once, her hands flew away from her face and she yelled, “YES!”

  Overjoyed, and with his heart in his throat, Stephen stood and slipped the ring onto her finger. Somewhere in the background he knew the audience was applauding, but Herman was gazing down at the ring on her finger and nothing else mattered. She looked up at him, her face shining with happiness, and flung her arms around his neck.

  “I thought you’d never ask,” she whispered into his ear, and he laughed. He kissed her then, uncaring that hundreds of eyes were on them, nor that everyone in the hall was standing, and whistling, and applauding.

  He released her from his embrace with a smile, and together they faced the audience, her hand shaking in his as they walked to the front of the stage. He held onto her as he bent to talk to his mother.

  “Mom, I’m pleased to present your new daughter.”

  Stella Dagmar smiled. “Welcome to the family, Herman.” Herman took her hand and curtsied, and Stephen silently mouthed, “Thank you.”

  Next, he moved to crouch at the edge of the stage before Herman’s mother. He placed his right hand on his heart, and the audience went quiet.

  “Doreen, I hope, humbly, that you will accept me into your beautiful family.”