A method of loading an unaligned word from a specified unaligned word address in a memory, said unaligned word comprising a plurality of indexed portions crossing a word boundary, the method comprising: loading a first aligned word commencing at an aligned word address rounded from said specified unaligned word address; identifying an index representing the location of the unaligned word address relative to the aligned word address; loading a second aligned word commencing at an aligned word address rounded from a second unaligned word address; and combining indexed portions of the first and second aligned words using the identified index to construct the unaligned word.