Free Inverted World by Christopher Priest

beyond which no actions were possible—that frustration would continue.
    But surely this was no new problem in the city? Victoria and I were not the first to be married in this way. Before us there must have been others who had encountered the same rift. Had they simply taken the system as it appeared to them?
    Victoria didn’t move as I left the room and went towards the crèche.
    Away from her, away from the inescapable syndrome of reaction and counter-reaction by talking to her, the concerns she expressed faded and I became more worried about my own situation. If the oath were to be taken at all seriously I could be killed if word were to reach one of the guildsmen.
    Could breaching the oath be that dreadful a thing to do?
    Would Victoria tell anyone else what I had said? On thinking this my first impulse was to go back to see her, and plead for her silence … but that would have made both the breach and her own resentment more serious.
    I wasted the rest of the day, lying on my bunk and fretting about the entire situation. Later late in one of the dining-rooms of the city, and was thankful not to see Victoria.
    In the middle of the night, Victoria came to my cabin. My first awareness was of the sound of the door closing, and as I opened my eyes I saw her as a tall shape standing beside the bed.
    “Wha—?”
    “Ssh. It’s me.”
    “What do you want?” I reached out to find the light-switch, but her hand came across and took my wrist.
    “Don’t turn on the light.”
    She sat down on the edge of the bed, and I sat up.
    “I’m sorry, Helward. That’s all I’ve come to say.”
    “O.K.”
    She laughed. “You’re still asleep, aren’t you?”
    “Not sure. Might be.”
    She leaned forward, and I felt her hands press lightly against my chest and then move up until they were behind my neck. She kissed me.
    “Don’t say anything,” she said. “I’m just very sorry.”
    We kissed again, and her hands moved until her arms were tight around me.
    “You wear a night-shirt in bed.”
    “What else?”
    “Take it off.”
    She stood up suddenly, and I heard her undoing the coat she was wearing.
    When she sat down again, much closer, she was naked. I fumbled with my night-shirt, getting it caught as it came over my head. Victoria pulled back the covers, and squeezed in beside me.
    “You came down here like that?” I said.
    “There’s no one about.” Her face was very close to mine. We kissed again, and as I pulled away my head banged against the cabin wall. Victoria cuddled up close to me, pressing her body against mine. Suddenly she laughed loudly.
    “Christ! Shut up!”
    “What’s up?” she said.
    “Someone will hear.”
    “They’re all asleep.”
    “They won’t be if you keep laughing.”
    “I said don’t talk.” She kissed me again.
    In spite of the fact that my body was already responding eagerly to her, I was stricken with alarm. We were making too much noise. The walls in the crèche were thin, and I knew from long experience that sounds transmitted readily. With her laughter and our voices, the fact that of necessity we were squeezed in the bunk against the wall, I was certain we’d awaken the whole crèche. I pushed her away and told her this.
    “It doesn’t matter,” she said.
    “It does.”
    I flung back the bed-covers, and scrambled over her. I turned on the light. Victoria shielded her eyes against the glare, and I tossed her coat to her.
    “Come on … we’ll go to your room.”
    “No.”
    “Yes.” I was pulling on my uniform.
    “Don’t put that on,” she said. “It smells.”
    “Does it?”
    “Abominably.”
    She sat up and as she did so I stared at her, admiring the neatness of her naked body. She pulled the coat around her shoulders, then got out of the bed.
    “O.K.,” she said. “But let’s be quick.”
    We left my cabin and let ourselves out of the crèche. We hurried along the corridors. As Victoria had said, this late at night there was no one about, and the