Chapter 3

• This garden is the domain of the Commander's Wife.
• From a distance it looks like peace.
• 'Maybe it's just something to keep the Wives busy, to give them a sense of purpose' ... 'It's good to have small goals that can be easily attained.'
• I am a reproach to her; and a necessity.
• in her long powder-blue robe, unmistakeable.
• Things haven't settled down, It's too soon, everyone is still unsure about our exact status.
• She wanted me to feel that I could not come into the house unless she said so. There is such push and shove, these days, over such toeholds.
• Try to think of it from their point of view, she said, her hands clasped and wrung together, her nervous pleading smile. It isn't easy for them.
• Her knitting was on the floor beside the chair, the needles stuck through it.'
• There's always a black market, there's always something that can be exchanged.
• 'the flat hostile blue of a midsummers sky in bright sunlight, a blue that shuts you out'
• I want to see as little of you as possible, she said. I expect you feel the same way about me.
• They can hit us, there's a scriptural precedent. But not with any implement. Only with their hands.