Night's Pleasure by Amanda Ashley, now you can read online.
Prologue
The magician billed as the Remarkable Renaldo stood alone in the center of a large, well-lit stage. A pair of tight black trousers clung to his long, muscular legs. His feet were shod in a pair of supple black leather boots. A long black cloak hung from a pair of broad shoulders and swirled around his ankles when he moved. Posed against the blood red curtains behind him, he was a formidable sight, one to make nine-year-old Savanah Gentry press closer to her father. Savanah didn’t know what the devil looked like, but she had always imagined him as being ugly and wearing a long black cloak. The Remarkable Renaldo had the cloak, but he definitely wasn’t ugly, and as far as she could see, he didn’t have horns or a tail.
The magician looked out over the audience. “For my final illusion of the evening, I will need several volunteers.”
Savanah Gentry nudged her father. “Raise your hand.”
“What?”
“Raise your hand!” She was eager to know how the magician did his tricks. Perhaps, if her father got on stage, he could find out. “Hurry, Daddy!”
William Gentry looked at his only child. As always, he could deny her nothing that was in his power to give, and so, with a shake of his head, he raised his hand.
“You, there in the fourth row,” the magician said, gesturing for Savanah’s father to come forward.
“Is it all right if my daughter comes with me?”
The Remarkable Renaldo turned his attention to Savanah. The touch of his gaze on her face sent a shiver down her spine. It wasn’t fear; it was more like the feeling she had on Christmas morning when she knew the present she had hoped for all year was waiting for her under the tree. Hardly daring to breathe, she waited for the magician’s decision.
“If you wish,” Renaldo decided at last.
Savanah felt as if her heart were trying to jump out of her chest as she followed her father up the stairs and onto the stage, which was empty of props or scenery save for an ordinary-looking white door that was mounted on wheels and stood in the middle of the floorboards.
The magician quickly selected three other men. Then, with a flourish, he moved across the stage to stand beside the door. He opened it, stepped through, and then turned toward the men.
“Gentlemen. And little lady,” he added, sketching a bow in Savanah’s direction, “please examine the door and see that it is quite ordinary.”
Savanah’s father was the first to step forward. He ran his hands over both sides of the door, inspected the frame from top to bottom, and then stepped through the opening.
The other men did likewise.
Feeling self-conscious, Savanah stepped through the opening, then hurried to her father’s side.
“And now, if you will examine the floor,” the magician requested. “All of it. I wish you to assure the audience that there are no hidden trapdoors.”
Amid some laughter from the audience, all the men got down on their hands and knees and crawled around the stage, running their hands over the floorboards. One by one, they gained their feet.
“Are you all quite satisfied?” Renaldo asked.
The men nodded in the affirmative.
“Very well.” The magician turned to face the audience once more. “May I please have four more volunteers?”
Hands went up all around the room, along with shouts of “Over here” and “Pick me.”
When the new volunteers had been chosen and were onstage, the magician pointed to one of the men and said, “I would like you to move the door to a place of your choosing. Anywhere at all. On the stage, of course,” he added with a smile.
The man looked thoughtful a moment. After closing the door, he pushed it toward the middle of the stage, as close to the footlights as possible.
“Very good,” the Remarkable Renaldo said. He turned to the other volunteers. “If you will all follow me, I would like you to form a circle around the door so that you will be able to see me clearly from every angle.”
Savanah looked at the magician, wondering if he meant her, as well, but afraid to ask.
As though reading her mind, he turned toward her and smiled. “You, too, my little lady,” he said with a courtly bow.
Everyone on the stage moved toward the door’s new location, making a loose circle around it.
Savanah felt her cheeks flush with heat as she took a place in the circle, with her father on her right and another man on her left.