“Herman, you don’t even trust him.”
“Just because I don’t trust him not to do everything in his power to protect me, does that make him a bad guy? If I’m going to spend my life with you, why shouldn’t he know everything there is to know? It’s my life too.”
“Because he doesn’t need to know everything there is to know about me, and I’d rather he didn’t, okay?”
Margaret looked at him sharply, as shocked as Herman that he had raised his voice to her. He sat back in his seat and stared at the top of the windshield for a while before he spoke again.
“I’m sorry. I’ll talk to him again about having Chad come to visit. But if he won’t be reasonable about not coming as well, then Chad won’t be coming either.”
Herman slumped in her seat, huffing out a breath as she did. She crossed her arms. “Are we almost there?”
“Five minutes,” Margaret said, glancing at her in the rear-view mirror. “Are you okay, Herman?”
“Only car sick. I should make it.”
Stephen turned and looked at her, concern darkening his expression.
“I’m fine,” she snapped.
* * *
Herman made it to their room a few seconds before she threw up. Margaret was speaking to Stephen when she came out of the bathroom. He turned and smiled at her, ready to tell Margaret the news if she was; she smiled back.
“Feeling better?” Margaret asked.
“Much, thanks.”
“Actually, it’s my fault that she’s sick.” Stephen grinned. Margaret stared at him, her eyes widening with realization.
“You’re pregnant?”
Herman’s smile answered the question.
“Congratulations!” Margaret hugged Herman and then Stephen. “How far along are you?” she asked, placing her hand on Herman’s belly.
“Eleven weeks.” She thought she saw Margaret squint a little at that, possibly thinking that that was precisely when she had made the decision to leave.
“That means a June baby, then. I’m so happy for the two of you!”
“Thank you,” Herman said.
Margaret stepped back and wiped her eye. “Look at me. I’m getting all emotional.” She excused herself and popped into the bathroom for a tissue.
When she returned, Herman asked, “Will you be sticking around for a while?”
“A couple of days. Your dad’s not the only reason I’m here. I was hoping for a little masculine advice,” she said, turning to Stephen. “Mark’s meeting me in Barrie, and I’m not sure what to tell him about Charlie. How would you feel if your estranged girlfriend had been seeing someone else while you were separated?”
“He’s not likely to feel the same as if you’d been with another guy,” Stephen said.
Herman frowned. “But you have been with another guy.” They both stared at her like she’d sprouted a new head. She waited for the penny to drop, but it didn’t.
“Each other?” she said, cocking her head.
“We don’t talk about what we do together to anyone else,” Stephen said, as though that was a given.
Herman was confused. She turned to Margaret. “But you told me the day after we met that you and Stephen had slept together.”
“That was because the second Stephen walked into the room after he met you, he told me you were the one he was meant to spend his life with,” she said. “There were never going to be any secrets kept from you.”
“How about Charlie? You told her about our night together.”
“She’s seen Stephen and I together before. It’s different with the coven members. And besides, I was worried about you.”
“What were you worried about me for?” she asked, her voice rising in pitch. “I’m fine,” she lied, forcing her voice down.
Stephen and Margaret frowned at her with expressions so identical, it was almost funny.
“Okay fine, I’ll tell you now that we’re all together.” She took some time to think about how she wanted to phrase what had been going through her head for months.
“I don’t think we’ll ever know for sure whether or not what happened between you two in Edmonton saved my life, but what I saw that night in my head didn’t match what the two of you did in reality. What I envisioned was much more loving.” She stopped speaking and scratched her forehead. “The only way I can know if you’re going to be together again is to try to read one of your minds.”
“Or you can take our word for it that it will never happen again,” Stephen said quietly.
Margaret shook her head. “I never want to come between you.”
Stephen held his hand out to touch Herman’s cheek. “I promise you. Even if you died and I lived … I couldn’t ever be with anyone else.”
“I won’t let you promise me that. If anything ever happened to me, you two belong together.”
“Don’t say that, Herman,” Margaret breathed.
“I don’t know what’s worse. Knowing or not knowing.”
Stephen took her hand. “Just believe us.”
“I want to. But it’s not what I witnessed in reality, it’s what I saw you do in my head that’s been haunting me all this time. I’m more afraid of dying than I am of the two of you loving each other when I’m gone.”
“Is it possible your vision was … not quite right?” Margaret asked.
“I don’t know!”
“I’m not going to let anything happen to you.” Stephen squeezed her hand. “I’ll have Nina put away if she so much as threatens you. I’m not going to lose you, Herman.”
He turned to Margaret. “Do you know where to find George? Last time Herman tried to get in touch with him, he’d changed his number again.”
“I can figure it out,” she said.
“Good. I have to talk to him.”
Margaret took out her cell phone. She was speaking to George’s agent within a minute. When she hung up, she said, “He’ll call me. You have to be at the venue in three hours. Where do you want me to tell him to meet you?”
“Tell him to come here. I’ve had enough of playing games,” Stephen said.
* * *
Twenty minutes later, the four of them met in Stephen and Herman’s room. Margaret and Herman sat on the edge of the bed, George and Stephen in the room’s two armchairs with the obligatory small round table between them. Only a brief hello passed between Herman and her father, even though they hadn’t seen each other in months.
“I’m honored to be invited into your personal space,” George said sarcastically.
“Cut the bullshit, Anderson.” Stephen shifted to the edge of his seat. “I’m fed up with it. You have Herman scared for her life, and I’m through fucking around. I’ve decided if it’s the only way you’re going to tell me anything about what might happen to her, you can go through me to see what Nina is going to do.”
“Stephen!” Herman said. “You can’t.”
George wore a smugness that Stephen wished he could wipe off with a backhand to the mouth. He did it instead with words. “But you’re not getting off quite that easy,” he went on. “Before you get into my head, I’m going to get into yours.”
“Like fuck you are,” George said, starting to get up.
Stephen slammed his hand on the table, making everyone jump. “You’re not serious about keeping Herman from harm?”
“Of course I want to keep her safe,” George said.
“And how do you intend to do that if, as you say, it’s inevitable? ‘Cause you see, George, I don’t believe it’s inevitable. I think there’s a way around it, and so do you. Look at me, George.”
The man across the table from him forced his gaze to the floor. “Look at me, George,” Stephen repeated. George glanced up into his eyes and looked away again. “Look at me, George,” he said one more time. He looked Stephen directly in the eye. He was hooked.
“You can’t lie to me, George. I need the truth from you. Might the
re be a way for Herman to avoid getting hurt?”
He swallowed hard. “Yes.”
“If I let you into my head to see Nina, I need your word you won’t look for anything that has nothing to do with Herman’s well-being.”
“You have my word.”
“Because you don’t want to fuck with me, George. I’ll make you wish you’d never been born.” Without moving, Stephen redirected his words. “Herman, touch your father’s hand for a second.”
The moment she did, her father gasped and his eyes grew wide, though they never left Stephen’s.
“Are we clear, George?”
“Yes.”
“Blink,” Stephen ordered.
He did, then he shook his head slightly.
“What do you want to do?” Stephen asked.
George cleared his throat. “I’m going to touch you and look into Nina’s thoughts. I need to see how bent on revenge she is. That’s all. If she’s determined to hurt Herman no matter what, then I might see it as inevitable. If hurting Herman is only a means to an end, then it might be avoided.”
“Good,” Stephen said. “No more than that, right, George?” He looked the man in the eye again and George nodded.
Stephen placed his hand on the middle of the table. George touched him and closed his eyes. A moment later he opened them and smiled.
“She wants you,” he said, removing his hand. “All she wants is Herman out of the way and you all to herself. If Herman is gone, the girl’s not a threat. Let me take Herman with me, Dagmar. You’ll never have to deal with me again, and she’ll be safe and sound.”
“Get out,” Herman croaked, trying to keep the panic out of her voice. “Get out,” she repeated. He regarded her without moving. It was no good. “Get out!” she yelled. Margaret put a hand on her shoulder, and both George and Stephen stood. George left without a word.
Herman went to Stephen’s outstretched arms, and she cried against his chest.
“I’ll come back for you in a couple of hours,” Margaret said quietly.
“Okay,” Stephen said, and Margaret left.
“Are you going to send me away?” Herman asked him, hiccuping between words.
“No. We’ll figure something out, don’t worry.”
CHAPTER 25
As Stephen dressed for the show that evening, he thought about the revelation that Nina wanted him for herself: he’d known it all along. Just as Herman had known things from his past that matched her vision of him on the dance floor, none of what George had said was news. Was George telling the truth when he said Nina wouldn’t hurt Herman if she was out of the way? Or was he using the information, once again, to suit his own wishes?
When he mentioned this theory to Herman, she reminded him that her father had seen the two of them together years before they met.
“Not even that is really surprising,” Stephen mused as he pulled his lacy white shirt cuffs through the sleeves of his coat. “George and I are, after all, in the same business. Once he told you what he did for a living, it’s not unfathomable that you and I would have come across each other eventually.”
Herman paused with her eye-liner stick an inch from her lower lid and looked at his reflection in the mirror. “So, what are you saying? That he doesn’t really have any powers at all, and that he’s just telling you what you already know?”
Stephen thought about Herman’s vision of him having sex with Margaret, and he knew he needed to tread carefully.
“No, I don’t doubt his powers. I’m only wondering if he’s using them to manipulate us.”
“Despite the threat you made to him about being honest?”
“He did seem to take that seriously,” Stephen said with a frown.
“Anyway, what was the point of letting him into your head if you weren’t going to believe him?”
“I don’t know. I guess I’m just thinking out loud.”
She huffed. “Well even though I’m glad you’re not taking what he said as the absolute truth, he might be right. The real question is whether or not it’s inevitable if we stay together.”
She blinked quickly as though she was going to start crying again. He crouched beside her and twirled her chair to face him.
“We are going to stay together. Even if we have to make a few compromises along the way.”
“I’m tired of compromising.”
He took her hands in both of his. “Herman, I want you to stop thinking about what you don’t want, and focus on what you do want.”
There was a knock at the door. Stephen got up to answer it. Margaret stood on the other side.
“Come in,” he said, standing back. She looked up at him, assessing his state of mind. He swallowed and blinked: he was scared but doing all right. Margaret nodded, getting the message.
She approached Herman and looked at her in the mirror. “How are you doing?”
“Okay, I guess. Is my dad out there?”
“Yeah. Do you want me to have him removed?”
“Where is he sitting?”
“Front row, stage left, about six seats from the end.”
“He’s fine there. If anything, he’ll keep me concentrating on Stephen.” She shifted her gaze to him. “I really need you tonight.”
“I’ll be with you through everything,” he promised.
She squinted, and Margaret rubbed her shoulder. “You’re going to be okay. Just focus on Stephen and the show. I’ll be backstage. I’ll let you guys finish getting ready.” She reached out and patted Stephen’s arm on her way out the door.
A few minutes later Stephen went out to see if they were ready to start the show. When he came back in, he smiled at her. “My love, it’s time,” he said, holding out his hand for her.
* * *
After they took their final bows and the curtain closed on another successful performance, Margaret came to say George wanted to speak to them. Stephen deferred to Herman.
“I guess so. Maybe he’s coming to apologize,” she said sarcastically. “I don’t want him to know I’m pregnant yet.”
Stephen squeezed her waist in support.
“I’ll go get him,” Margaret said as she walked away.
“Trust me, okay?” Stephen said. “I’m going to buy us some time.” He held out his arms and she kissed him, uncaring that her lipstick was surely smearing all over his lips. They were still locked in their embrace when Margaret returned with her father.
“Herman,” her dad said in a low voice.
She turned to face him, Stephen’s body against her back, his arms around her.
“What do you want?”
“I have to insist you come with me. It’s for your own good.”
“What is for my own good is Stephen,” she said through clenched teeth. “Don’t you understand we love each other?”
“I do,” he said with sadness in his eyes. It pained her to believe him. “But you have to trust me that staying with him is going to get you hurt.”
“How is that possible?” Herman asked him. “Nina’s not even in the country.”
“I don’t know. But if you stay with him, it’s going to happen, Herman.”
She felt Stephen take a breath. He spoke from behind her. “Nina is being watched. She’s not going anywhere for the time being. I’m not letting Herman go, at least until I hire another assistant.”
George looked up at Stephen. “You have two weeks until your last show in Toronto. I’ll be there to pick you up,” he said, dropping his gaze to Herman.
“I’m not going with you,” she said. “I’ll go back to Edmonton, but I’m not going anywhere with you.”
“Fine, I’ll make the arrangements with Beryl. I’ll take you there myself.”
“That won’t be necessary. I’ll take her there,” Stephen said.
“Won’t you be busy training a new assistant?”
Stephen paused. “I’ll work something out.”
Georg
e nodded. “I’ll see you in Toronto.” He started to walk away, but he stopped and turned. “By the way, Dagmar, what the hell is wrong with Nina anyway? She thinks of you as her master? Is she having a baby, or a litter of puppies?”
Herman shivered from crown to toe as the gooseflesh rose on her arms, and she felt Stephen stiffen. “Get the fuck out of my sight,” he said. The pitch of his voice was so deep that had she not felt the vibration of his speech behind her, she would have believed it was someone else. Her father turned and left without another word.
CHAPTER 26
Herman glanced at the bed with longing for the umpteenth time since Stephen and Margaret had started talking. They were hashing out details over how Margaret could return to Kingston to gather the resumes she had kept from March, when Herman was hired, and still make it to the next venue. Realistically, even though Stephen had no intention of letting Herman go, he would need a new assistant as a stand-in if Herman was too sick to go on. Besides that, when she was obviously pregnant, being split in half on the ladder would be too much for any audience.
That her replacement would share Stephen’s energy was Herman’s first concern. He’d explained to her many times that the energy was what attracted him, both sexually and magically, to all his assistants. The memory of the bevy of beautiful women sitting in the foyer of the Dagmar house waiting to be interviewed when she’d first arrived made her push past her exhaustion and mention it.
“There is no one else I share the same kind of energy with as I do with you,” Stephen assured her. “That comes from love, and all of mine is focused entirely on you.”
“Anyway,” said Margaret, “the stand-in will be for you, not him. It’s you she’ll be taking her cues from when she’s needed. The only thing Stephen will have to do is train her.”
“Unless ….” Stephen started. “There’s another way, but it will be up to Herman.”
“What’s that?” Herman murmured, dragging her gaze from the bed.
“I won’t be able to spend most of Christmastime with you in Edmonton if I have to be in Kingston to train someone new. But if I can get Charlotte to work with me again …”
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