The Legacy Read Online Free PDF Page B

would,’ Jude said, warming to his theme and taking his cup back. ‘You would have been hopeless.’
    ‘You ran in here pret y quickly,’ Sheila said airily. ‘And I’m sure I heard screaming just before you arrived.’
    ‘No you didn’t,’ Jude said gruffly, his sense of humour evaporating suddenly. If Pip thought he was weak, that was bad enough. But Sheila? That he couldn’t bear.
    Sheila looked at him archly. ‘Wel , you were scared.’
    ‘I wasn’t,’ Jude said, turning away angrily. ‘I wasn’t scared, OK?’
    Sheila didn’t say anything for a few seconds, then slowly she walked over to Jude and sat down on the arm of his chair. ‘I would have been terrified,’ she said in a quiet voice.
    ‘Would you?’ Jude asked searchingly. ‘Real y?’
    ‘Real y,’ Sheila said. ‘Unless you were there. Then I wouldn’t have been scared at al .’
    Jude felt himself get ing warm. ‘You . . . you wouldn’t?’
    ‘No,’ Sheila said firmly. ‘You saved me from Pincent Pharma.’ She turned to look at him, and Jude saw a flicker of real emotion in her eyes. ‘I know that you’d protect me,’ she whispered. ‘You always protect me.’
    ‘And I always wil ,’ he said, wrapping his arm around her and hugging her tightly into him. He wasn’t a hero, he knew that, but he could be Sheila’s hero if she’d let him.
    ‘So do you think it was Richard Pincent who kil ed that woman?’ Sheila continued, the anxiety audible in her voice. ‘Like he was going to kil me?’
    Jude tightened his grip around her. ‘I don’t know,’ he said grimly. ‘But don’t worry, he’s not going to get away with it.’
    ‘He wil though,’ Sheila said, biting her lip. ‘I mean, he always does. The Underground is never going to win, is it? So what’s the point?’
    ‘The point is,’ Jude said gently, reminding himself that Sheila’s life had been tough, that it wasn’t her fault she said the things she did, ‘we have to keep fighting. The more young people there are, the more opposition there wil be to the Authorities and Pincent Pharma.’
    ‘But the Declaration makes sense,’ Sheila said, her brow furrowing. ‘There are too many people as it is. We don’t have enough water. You told me that the rivers are drying up in Africa. We don’t have enough energy, or food, or anything. I don’t want more people. I want fewer people.’
    Jude shook his head firmly. ‘It’s not that simple,’ he said.
    ‘Isn’t it?’ Sheila asked searchingly.
    ‘No,’ Jude said, his brow furrowing. ‘The world needs young people. It’s not fair to stop new people just so that old people can keep on living. It’s not . . .’ He trailed off; he couldn’t think straight. Al he could think about was Sheila’s proximity to him, and the strange sensations shooting around his body – like fear, only . . . different.
    She turned to look at him, and he reddened. ‘Don’t you . . . have chores to be get ing on with?’ he asked, his voice breaking awkwardly as he spoke.
    He regret ed the words as soon as they’d left his mouth, but it was too late. Sheila raised her eyebrows, stole a final sip of tea from Jude’s cup, then flounced out, leaving him on his own. Sighing inwardly he looked up, al owing his eyes to travel around the room.
    It was a smal space, one of a handful of rooms that made up the Underground headquarters. Today’s headquarters, at any rate. Rumour had it they were moving again soon. And by rumour, Jude meant Sheila had told him, which meant it had approximately a fifty per cent chance of being true. Sheila liked to know everything, and if she didn’t know something she’d make it up rather than admit her lack of knowledge. According to Sheila, Pip told someone just the other day that they’d be somewhere else by the end of the week, and since today was Thursday, that didn’t leave many more days to up sticks and leave.
    He pul ed himself up and walked over to the table that he used as a desk, then sat