Shades of Grey

She consented easily to this without looking at Jane, and I asked Tommo to be my witness, to which he readily agreed.

“You are a dear!” said Violet. “I declare our marriage firmly back on—Mummy and Daddy will be delighted.”

“I won’t be marrying you, Violet.”

“I’m only pretending you have a choice to be polite,” she said in a more forceful tone. “In fact, there isn’t a choice at all.”

“I could be on a promise.”

She gave out a short gale of laughter. “No one in the village would dare to offer you a promise while I’m the front-ru

There was a pause in which she stared at me, and I stared back with an unconcerned look. Then she frowned and glanced at Jane, then at me, and then the pe

“Oh, no. That is so sad. Please tell me you’re joking.”

“I’m not joking, Violet.”

“I withdraw my pledge of seven hundred merits. Ci

“I most certainly did,” he replied, their argument—whatever it was—still firmly in his mind.

“Listen here, Russett,” said Violet. “If you’re after a bit of youknow on the side, I don’t mind. In fact, you could definitely do with the practice. I’ll even give you the two merits it’ll cost you.” She winced, expecting to be punched—no doubt her intention—but Jane ignored her and just continued to negotiate the turns of the road as we thundered on toward East Carmine.

“I aim to lead a blameless life from now on,” Jane remarked evenly, “tending to my Civil Obligation and my husband.”

Violet made a face.

“Even the thought makes me want to vomit. Jane Russett sitting at High Table with the rest of the prefects? Have you any idea how shabby and nouveau couleur that is?”

Even Tommo was begi

“Listen,” he said to me, “I’m all for this a

“Don’t see me as you, Tommo. I don’t want to marry Violet, I want to marry Jane. I think we should marry who we want. It’s as simple as that.”

“And what about my marriage fantasy league?” he asked. “Do you have any idea how hard I’ve worked on that?”

“Dangles to your stupid league,” interrupted Violet. “What about our baby? Could you really see it growing up to be Doug’s?”

“You tricked me. And if you go public, the deMauves are finished as head prefects. Your family would have to go to Grey and back before they’d be reinstated.”

She fell silent, deep in thought. There was truth in what I said. Although my father and I would also get it in the neck for our involvement, the deMauves had far more to lose.

The sun dipped below the horizon as we reached the first of the dams, and with only ten minutes or so of navigable light left, we weren’t going to make it home. Or at least, not tonight. It would be a cold and lonely night, huddled in the cab, and not helped by Violet, who would doubtless complain volubly until dawn.

“Hey,” said Violet, suddenly changing tack and addressing Jane directly, “would you like to be my friend? I have lots of friends. Some say, in fact, that I have more friends than anyone else in the village.”

“I think I can live quite happily without your friendship, Miss Violet.”

“Then I’ll buy him off you,” said Violet impatiently. “How much do you want?”

“He’s not for sale. Not at any price.”

“I can get you a cushy job at the linoleum factory.”

“I’ll be the Red prefect’s wife,” replied Jane coolly. “Why would I want to work there?”

“You’re getting above yourself,” she remarked, her voice rising. “You are horribly arrogant. This is because you think you’ve got a better nose than me, isn’t it?”

Jane turned to look at her.

“I don’t think I’ve got a better nose than you. I know I have a better nose than you. If the arbitrary division by which the Collective is split were set by nose quality rather than color vision, I’d be head prefect.”

“And,” I added, eager to back her up, “if it were run on the basis of who was best at manipulative dishonesty, it would be Tommo.”

“If it were run on those who demonstrated the most smug, pompous, and self-satisfied attitude,” continued Tommo, eager not to be left out, “you’d both run it jointly.”

We traveled on in silence, and as we approached the marshy area where we had seen the flamingos earlier, the light fell abruptly within the valley walls, and Jane slowed to a stop as a wall of impenetrable darkness loomed up in front of us. We could still see the sky, but everything below the line of the ridge was a muddy gloom that seemed to dance and ripple as our eyes attempted to give it some sort of form.

I heard Violet swear, then make some comment on how her parents would be sick with worry. But this was as far as we could go without artificial light. Or at least, as far as we were willing to admit we could go.

“Tommo,” I said, “did you steal one of the lightglobes from the flak tower?”

“I got kicked in the ribs,” came a sour voice from the darkness. “My mind was on other matters.”

“I think we should sing,” said Violet after a pause.

“If you do, I’m taking my chances with the night,” retorted Tommo.

And they started to bicker.

“Yewberry gave me three hand flares,” I a

We drew level as my hand flare gave out, and we could see that the Daylighter had not long to burn, so we carried on to the next flare, and the next. It was in this ma