The UnTied Kingdom Read Online Free PDF Page B

steaming bowl of slop that might have been porridge.
    She refused to answer any questions Eve directed at her, including why she was dressed like an extra from Oh! What A Lovely War .
    Finally, yesterday’s doctor with the cartoon mouth appeared, clipboard in hand.
    ‘How are you feeling?’
    ‘Pissed off,’ Eve said.
    He continued to consult his chart. ‘Any pain in your ankle?’
    ‘Yes, but it’s not as annoying as the pain in the arse standing in front of me.’
    ‘Any nausea?’
    Eve glared at him, irritated that he wasn’t responding. ‘No.’
    ‘Do you think you can walk?’
    ‘I don’t know. But without any clothes, I’m not about to –’ she broke off as the doctor held up a bundle she recognised as yesterday’s clothes. ‘Oh God, I love you.’
    He grinned, the first reaction he’d given her. ‘Sure, that’s what they all say. There’s a shower,’ he pointed to a door on the far side of the room, ‘or if you don’t think you can stand, I’ll get one of the nurses to give you a sponge bath.’
    ‘I think I can manage,’ Eve said in horror. ‘Is there any shampoo?’ she asked hopefully, tugging at the strawlike mop that had once been her hair.
    ‘Of a sort,’ he said, and Eve nearly swooned.
    The shower was rudimentary, and gave her flashbacks to school changing-rooms, and the shampoo was little more than a large bottle of liquid soap, but she felt immeasurably better for having scrubbed the river dirt away. Drying her hair with a threadbare towel, she got dressed in her own clothes, which mercifully had been cleaned, if not ironed, and hobbled out to have her ankle rebound in bandages.
    ‘I’m sorry,’ she said as she went back into the ward, where the doctor was talking to someone whose back was to Eve, ‘I don’t think I know your name, Doctor …?’
    ‘Haran,’ the doctor said, smiling that cartoon smile.
    ‘And it’s Captain Haran, actually,’ said the other guy, turning, and it was Will.
    ‘Captain,’ Eve said, nodding, smiling at Will, feeling better for just seeing him. A friend. Someone who was nice to her. He smiled back, but he looked tense. ‘I see you were allowed out,’ she said.
    ‘I don’t have a dodgy ankle,’ he said. ‘How is it, by the way?’
    ‘Oh, it’s fine. Well, not fine, but you know.’
    Any minute now, you’re going to start blushing , Eve thought. He wasn’t even that good-looking. Clearly, things had got even worse than she’d realised.
    How long had it been since she’d even flirted with someone?
    ‘Major Harker wants to see you,’ Captain Haran said, as Eve perched on the edge of the bed to have her ankle re-strapped.
    ‘Does he, now?’
    ‘Yes. But his office is on the other side of the courtyard, and up some steps. Do you think you can manage it?’
    Eve flexed her ankle, and winced. Wordlessly, Will fetched a pair of wooden crutches.
    ‘You guys really need to modernise,’ Eve said, but she took the crutches and made a few experimental hops. ‘So, what’s this Harker guy like? Do you know what he wants?’
    Will and the doctor looked at each other. ‘He wants to talk to you,’ the doctor repeated.
    ‘Wants to know why you were flying over the Thames with that parachute thingy,’ Will supplied.
    ‘I told you, it was a TV thing.’
    ‘Why,’ Will sounded uninterested, ‘were you on TV?’
    Eve chewed her lip, thumping the wooden crutches on the lino floor. ‘Uh,’ she said. ‘I … Okay, remember I said I was in a band? Well, they used to be kind of famous. I … used to be kind of famous.’
    This elicited no reaction. Eve wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not.
    ‘Thought you said you were a temp,’ Will said. ‘Other people’s lives.’
    ‘Yes,’ Eve said shortly. ‘I had a disagreement with the taxman.’
    ‘What kind of disagreement?’ Will asked.
    ‘You’re not very curious, are you?’ she snapped. ‘The kind where he said I hadn’t paid any taxes and I said I had, and then we both