"I might be a witch," she said, "taking you to a hilltop rendezvous. Our own private Sabbat."
She was smiling impishly. She had changed to a light white sports dress. She looked like one of his students.
Again he felt the craziness of the situation. The line between reality and pretense was become harder to distinguish. He must keep carefully in mind that when she said things like that, she was making a courageous mockery of her previous behavior. He must on no account let her see the other half of his thoughts. Or was that what she wanted?
The lights of the town dropped behind. Half a mile out, he turned off sharply onto the road that wound up the hill. It was bumpier than he remembered from the last time—was it as much as ten years ago? And the trees were thicker, brushing the windshield.
When they emerged into the half acre of clearing on the top, the moon, two days after full, was rising redly.
Tansy pointed to it and said, "Check! I timed it perfectly. But where are the others? There always used to be two or three cars up here. And on a night like this!"
He stopped the car close to the edge. "Fashions in lovers' lanes change like anything else," he told her. "We're traveling a disused folkway."
"Always the sociologist!"
"I guess so. Maybe Mrs. Carr found out about this place. And I suppose the students range farther afield nowadays, or did until this year."
She rested her head on his shoulder. He switched off the headlights, and the moon cast soft shadows.