"Yes. I suppose I oughtn't grumble though. After all, I still have the old leg in one piece which is more than a lot of chaps can say. Really I'm quite lucky." The forced cheeriness felt uncomfortably sour in his mouth even as it was all too familiar. How often had he gone through the same routine back in England? Though, at least then it had served some purpose as everyone tried to stave off the general desperation of 1940.

Laurie had little doubt that on Tabula Rasa he could be as unrepentantly miserable about his leg as he pleased without anyone accusing him of spreading gloom and despondency.

Yet that didn't mean he intended to.