I Am Margaret (14 page)

“I have one pair of boxers and no socks. I have no warm things at all. I have…”

“Perhaps we can find you some clothes from somewhere…”

Thinking about Major Everington’s dress suggestion? Jonathan clearly feared so, though he couldn’t see her face.

“
If I don’t have anything
suitable
to wear I’ll have to write and ask my parents to send me some new clothes. I’ll have to explain why. Obviously I can’t guarantee who’ll get to hear about it. Especially if there’s any trouble about me receiving the parcel.”

“
I suppose your parents might be a bit upset to hear you’ve been put in the girls’ block. Especially
why
,” I put in thoughtfully.

“
You listen to me,” snarled the Menace, grabbing the neck of Jonathan’s shirt and yanking him towards her, finding she was looking up at him and shoving him away again. “If anyone, anyone at all, outside these walls finds out you’re in with the girls, let alone
why
, I am going to make your life pure, one hundred percent hell, do you understand me?”

“Captain,” said Jonathan blandly. “Obviously I’d rather not mention to my parents anything that would distress them the way this would. So can I just have my clothes, please?”

Actually, the rumors would surely get out and the most the warden’s threats could ensure was that Jonathan assured his parents all was well and made sure they didn’t contact the RWB. The censors certainly couldn’t work overtime on the Facility’s letters for the next two whole years!

“You’ll have to speak to the Major yourself,” snapped the Captain. More scared of the Major than the RWB?

“When will we be able to see him?” asked Jonathan politely.

A rather sly look, a plain nasty look, crossed the Captain’s face.

“I expect you want to see him right now, eh?”

“Well, it would be best,” said Jonathan warily. The Captain smiled, barked an order into her wristCell, spun on her heel and strode to the door.

“Come on, then.”

Jonathan took my arm again and we followed her. Was this a good idea? But the boys would surely rip the name tags out, if given very long.

A guard arrived at the cafeteria door as we came out. Captain Wallis led us all through into the guard block and up to a door that must lead into the little courtyard garden.

“
Captain?” blurted the guard, as the Menace scanned her card and began to open the door. “You’re not taking them in
there?”

“
What did you just say?”
The Captain attempted to skewer the man to the wall with her gaze. He gulped.

“Ah… nothing. Nothing, Captain.”

“
Good. Wait here. In you go,
girls.”

I glanced at Jonathan, but... bit late to back out now—I led him through the door. And stopped, staring. The garden looked lovely from above; from ground level it was utterly spellbinding. Two little paths wound their way among the bushes and shrubs, with a gorgeous little tree in the center and in three of the four corners. Jonathan’s nostrils flared in appreciation. Even this early in the season it was a riot of color and the scent of flowers was strong.

“
Get that boy out of here right now!”
My eyes jerked from the garden to the Major, visible through the central bushes, his eyes narrowed with fury and his voice an enraged hiss. “
Get him out right now!”

“Too bad, you’d better go,” said the Menace, with an unpleasant smile. She thrust Jonathan back through the door with a rough hand, pushed it shut behind him, then advanced several paces, shoving me ahead of her.

“
Sorry to intrude, sir, but these two
girls
demanded to see you at once.”

The Major’s gaze shifted to me. That strange, white-hot fury had departed with Jonathan, but he still looked pretty irate.

“Threatened to contact the RWB if I wouldn’t bring them to you immediately,” lied the Captain smoothly.

“
We did not!” I said indignantly. “We just asked
when
we could see…” Her open-handed blow rocked me back on my heels and I grabbed the nearest sturdy bush for balance.
Ouch
. Nobody had ever hit me before, not like that.

“
Get out,” snapped the Major. The Captain reached for my arm... “
Just
you. Leave the girl.”

The Menace shot me a murderous look. As though I
wanted
to remain alone here with a man
she
feared! But she stamped back to the door and slammed it behind her.

“Telling tales on the bitch-queen? That wasn’t smart, young lady. She’ll hate you now.”

“Too late,” I muttered, letting go of the bush and straightening, trying not to wince. “Hates me already.”

“Really? That was quick work. Now, come here.”

I advanced slowly, at first reluctant to get closer to him, then caught up in the garden’s beauty. The paths were mossy stones and it had the look of a wild place stumbled into, yet every plant was chosen to complement those around it. Beyond the central tree and its loose ring of bushes was an open grassy space, a miniature glade. Flowerpots encircled it; young plants being reared?

A huge wickerwork hanging seat stood in the treeless corner—like a domed cage with a cushioned bench inside, running around an integral central table. The horizontal wickerwork had been removed from the sides so someone sitting in it would be able to see just the garden, not the buildings towering above it—the windows of the gym corridor were blacked out inside and covered out here with winding creepers.

A plate stood on the table, with a half eaten slice of pie on it, but from the way the knife and fork were placed neatly together, and the plate pushed to one side to make room for a row of flowerpots, the Major was not nearly so fond of his food as the Captain.

He watched my slow approach.

“Do you like flowers?” he asked, when I stopped several prudent meters from him.

“
I’d only say well enough, usually, but this is
beautiful.”

“Yes.” Major Everington spoke matter-of-factly. “No one is allowed to come here. The bitch-queen was trying to get you in trouble.”

“I noticed.” I resisted the urge to rub my bruised face.

“So you did. Now, what do you want?”

“Jonathan needs the rest of his clothes and stuff. The guards only brought what was in his chest but the other boys had taken most of it. But it’s all labeled, so could you get the guards to go and find it?”

The Major turned away as I spoke, gazing at his garden. His gloves lay on the table, soil-stained, but he was as immaculate as ever.

“Which plant do you like best?”

“Uh…” What did that have to do with Jonathan’s stuff? Still, better humor him. He scared me. I looked around the glade, trying to give the question proper consideration. My gaze stopped on an explosion of drooping purple flowers. No contest.

“That one. I’ve never seen a purple one like that.”

The Major smiled, not the cruel smile I’d seen before, but a soft, sad smile that made him look as though his thoughts were a long way away.

“My purple fuchsia. It is the most beautiful thing in the whole world, never mind the garden. Nothing to match it. You have an eye for beauty.” He wandered to the wickerwork hut and leaned in to take a pot from the table. “I can’t seem to stop taking cuttings. I’ve far too many. Have one…” He held the pot out to me. A beautiful miniature of the magnificent bush grew from it.

Hands behind my back, I made no move to approach.

“What?” His expression grew sardonic, that cruel curve starting at the corner of his mouth. “Did you lie to keep the Commandant happy? Do you not like it?”

“
There’s nothing wrong with the plant. That’s beautiful. But you’d have to put a gun to my head before I’d accept a gift from
you.”

His face went unreadable, as though invisible shutters had dropped across it. He stepped up into the wickerwork hut and placed the plant back on the table. Stretched out on the seat, booted feet crossed comfortably. The hut swung gently, creak, creak.

“Clear off, then.”

“Jonathan’s things? Sir?” I tried to speak more politely. Had I just lost Jonathan all his stuff?

He nodded without turning his head towards me. Raised a hand and flipped it at me. “Go.”

I moved to obey.

“Wait. What is your name?”

I turned back again. Stared at the man who sat in his comfortable cage, not looking at me.

“One, seven, six, four, five, eight, four,” I said coldly.

His head snapped around and he rose on one elbow, staring at me. When he spoke it was in that soft, murderous voice which had so terrified the Captain earlier. The hairs stood up on the back of my neck.

“
I said. What. Is. Your.
Name
.”

“Margaret Verrall.”

“
Margaret Verrall.
Get out
.”

I fled. I refused to run, but all the beauty of that place couldn’t make me slow my rapid steps. I banged on the door, not a frantic hammering, honest, just deliberate taps, until the guard let me out.

***+***

9

THE PURSUIT OF THE MALE OF THE SPECIES

The nod had indeed meant yes and my final bit of defiance hadn’t changed that, for we’d barely got back from our yard exercise—which Jonathan was also excused from—when a guard entered with a black bag.

“
There’s your stuff,
Jonathina,”
he laughed, chucking the bag on Jonathan’s bed and walking out again.

“Are they really going to call me that?” Jonathan sounded revolted—judging that a rhetorical question, I let it go. He pulled the bag to him and began to unpack it.

“Is it everything?”

“Near enough. I’m not complaining. And I got this back.” He sounded genuinely pleased, holding up a little audioPlayer. “Though…” he searched the bottom of the black bag. “Bother, no headphones.” His fingers ran over the player’s case and he frowned. “Don’t like the feel of these cracks, either.”

I scrambled down from my bunk and went to borrow Sarah’s headphones, dropping them into his lap.

“Here. See if it’s working.”

“Thanks.”

He plugged them in and pushed buttons for a while, finally pulling out the earphones and tossing the player onto the bed.

“Kaput,” he said heavily. “Well, it is going to be a long two years.”

Imagine if my bookReader was broken... I’d be pretty glum too. There were a few audioPlayers in the room, but the stuff on them probably wouldn’t be his thing. Sarah’s old one was full of
My Prancing Pony
and
Shaggy the Sheep
audioBooks.

“I’ve got quite a good range of books on my reader,” I told him. “I can read them aloud, if you like.”

He brightened.

“Not all the time,” he said firmly. “It’s not the same for you. But if you could, now and then, that would be great.”

The post-exercise change back into our own clothes complete, Jonathan’s new dormmates proceeded to mob him for the rest of the afternoon. Some, like Sarah and Bethan, were just friendly, some were curious, others, like Jane and Rebecca and Annie, were obviously determined to get him in bed with them. He was friendly to everyone, in that rather cool, polite way of his.

Jane was undeterred. When everyone was getting ready for bed and Jonathan emerged from his bunk to go to the washroom, she grabbed him by the front of his pajama bottoms and tried to pull him towards her. When he didn’t deign to be pulled, she plastered her leggy self against him instead.

“Well, Jonathan, would you care for me to join you in your lovely private bunk tonight?”

Jonathan found her shoulders and put her firmly to one side. She resisted, but his muscles didn’t appear to notice.

“No, thank you, Jane. I’m still taking stock of just what’s on offer. There doesn’t seem to be any need for me to rush in and accept anything but the very best, does there?”

Jane flushed crimson and a lot of people giggled. Jane’s tongue was always stinging someone.

“So what do you like?” Annie and Caroline bounced up to Jonathan as he tried again to reach the door. “Tell us what you like in a girl and we’ll rank everyone in order, how’s that!”