To be fair, I always took it in context. To a British analog culture, which they seem to start out in based on their celebration of Beltain, a Mediterranean analog culture would be dark. I suppose if I read the book new for the first time now I'd probably picture the same. It is like there is a Overton window for inserting race into uncertain descriptions of race. For instance a character described as dark in a book I read as a kid, I'm talking if that's the only clue given to the character and the setting is some kind of sci-fi or fantasy world, I'd picture as dark haired and maybe olive skin tone or very tan. Nowadays I will probably think more black if I just read that. Over-saturation of darker people in media, even if they aren't taking white roles, is shifting perceptions.