He fumbled the silk handkerchief out of his pocket and gave it to her. As she wiped her face, he noticed the dampness on his own cheeks. He saw Mr. Patrise watching them.
Patrise said, 'Why don't you take the lady home, Hallow? This has hardly been a quiet night off for either of you.'
Ginny nodded and looked into her empty coffee cup. Danny wobbled his chair back, went to stand by Ginny's. She took his hand and stood up.
Patrise said, 'Ginevra, you're not on duty tomorrow, are you?''
'No, sir. I would have been working tonight, but…'
'That's fine, then. Hallow, we will be working, but not until quite late.'
'Yes, sir.'
'Then good night.'
Pavel brought their coats, lifted his topper as he opened the door.
'It's cold,' Danny said. The sky was mostly low pink clouds, with a few holes. Mist drifted across the street.
'It's almost Halloween,' she said. 'Is that why you're called Hallownight? 'Cause you got here on Halloween?'
'It's my birthday. Halloween is, I mean.'
'Oh. I had a friend whose birthday was the Fourth of July. They always had her parrs' a couple of days early, nobody wanted to have two parties at once.'
'Yeah, that's a good idea. Down this way.' They turned into the alley. Danny heard a scuffling, then feet running away. He looked up and down the street, into the darkness past the car, but didn't see anyone. He thought about taking Ginny's hand, but just put her between himself and the nice solid wall. He pointed to the Triumph. 'Here it is.'
'Oh, it's cute! I haven't seen one like this.'
'It's mine. I brought it with me from home.'
'A guy with his own car,' she said, faraway. 'My grandma used to talk about when all the guys had their own cars, you know, before Elfland and stuff.' She walked around the TR3, looked at the rear plate. 'Iowa, huh.'
He opened the door. 'Where you from?'
'Ohio. Since my mom and dad broke up. But I was born in Italy. My dad was Navy, with the Med Fleet.'
'That sounds neat. I mean, well-was it?'
'Sometimes. Dad took me around Europe, when he could. We went to Paris four or five times. The Shadow there's called the Rc c Gauche. Do you get that?'
'Sorry.'
'It's… I'll tell you another time. I think mv favorite cit is Florence, though. Florence is beautiful. The art, and the buildings .
Elfland didn't come back there. They say they don't need it.'
He helped her get into the car, then got in himself. 'So then your name's really-'
'Oh, no. My name-my dad's name-was Artensteen. Ginevra da Benci is a woman in a painting by Leonardo da Vinci. I don't look anything like her, though. Mr. Patrise called me that.' She gave him a small, nervous grin. 'He said, 'You can't be the Gio-conda. You smile too much.' '
'The Jo-I'm sorry, I'm stupid.'
'The heck you are. You know the Mona Lisa?'
'Sure.'
'Same painting. She's also called La Gioconda'
He started the car. 'So, where do you live?'
'Aren't you going to take me home?'
'Well, yeah, as soon as I find out where it is. Oh.' He banged his knuckles on the steering wheel.
'I mean, I think you're a nice guy. And Mr. Patrise has always been really good to me.'
'Oh.' He heard something clatter down the alley, turned to see what it was. Nothing. His heart was so loud he had to check that the car was still running. 'Which way do I go from here? To get to your place?'
She pulled the shoulder belt across her breasts, cinched it. Danny looked away. She said, 'Back out of the alley, then right.'
After a few blocks, she said, 'It wouldn't be the first time for me. I'm not scared.' She tugged at her coat. 'Do you want to?'
'Yeah. Yeah, I do. But not because somebody told you to.'
'Turn right here.'
'You're not-you won't lose your job, or anything, if-'
'I'm not one of Chloe's girls. Left, you can't get through down there. Did Mr. Patrise ask you to-well, heck, do anything with me, except drive me home?'
'No.'
'Stop the car.'
He did, expecting her to get out. Instead she turned to look directly at him. 'This is important. Listen. I came out here a year ago last summer. I didn't have a car, I hitched. I thought I was gonna have to go work on the street, or-I don't want to tell you what I thought about doing. You ever been crazy, I mean, just crazy over the way things were, so anything else looked good?' Her voice was rising. Danny knew why.
'McCain picked me up. I knew who Mr. Patrise was; everybody on the Levee does. So I thought, yeah, sure, one night on clean sheets. But Mr. Patrise gave me a job. And Shaker taught me how to tend bar. So if he told me, to lie down for you, I'd do it, okay, Doc?' She breathed in hard, clenched her hands. 'He's taken me to dinner a couple of times, and I mean dinner. Everybody who works for him gets things like that. But this is the first time-do you want to know what he said?'
'I guess I do.'
'He said, 'Hallow's new, and he's alone, and that's not right. No more right than that you should be alone. See what happens.' '
'You said you'd-'
'That was a long time ago,' she said. 'I guess we'd better move on, huh?'
Danny started the car again. Ginevra said, 'Up here, on the right.'
He pulled to the curb in front of a brownstone apartment block, torch-shaped lamps flanking the door. She sat there, buckled in tight. 'So I guess nothing happens tonight, huh?'
'Not tonight.'
'I could make you some tea, or something.'
If he went up there, he surely would not come down until morning. He didn't dare even touch his seat belt, and he surely could not touch hers.
She unfastened herself, turned as much as the little car would allow, her face just inches from his. 'You're really sweet. And you want to be nice, and I like that. I appreciate that. But you're on the Levee now, in the Shadow. You have to know nobody cares one way or another. Nobody but us.' She kissed him. 'Hey, redhead. you're hot.'
He didn't move.
'You wanna safeword out, Doc?'
'What do you mean?'
'Have you got a word that means 'really stop it, ri, t; ht now*?'
'I never heard o(that.'
'Oh,' she said, and Danny understood that he was missing something important. 'And I haven't seen any reason to use mine. Well. Let me tell you how to get back to Mr. Patrise's house. You really don't want to get lost around here.' She spelled out the directions; he tried to remember them. Then she got out of the car.
His body made him call out, 'I'll see you again?'
'Oh, jeez, Doc. Sure.'
He waited until she had gone up the steps and entered the building before starting the car. You could have, he kept thinking all the way back, you could have. Nobody. Would. Have. Cared.
'She wasn't afraid' he said out loud, as he passed a cluster of people warming themselves around an oil-drum
