When Ruth woke it was already light outside and she looked around the room to find out where she was. She immediately remembered everything and looked around for Harry. He was lying next to her breathing quietly and sleeping with his mouth open. She leaned over and kissed him on his forehead before getting out of bed to go to the toilet. When she came back he was awake.
"Good morning," she said and got into bed next to him and started kissing him.
A few minutes later he broke off and said: "And a good morning to you too." He drew her closer and held her in a tight embrace.
"I love you," he said and looked into her eyes.
"I love you too," she said and sighed. "I never thought we'd be able to do this, you know."
"I know. Neither did I. But I'm thrilled we did."
"Me too. But what happens now?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, is this a new beginning or a new end?"
Since starting to think of setting up a meeting with Harry there was one thing that had made her want to scrap her plans many times. When leaving Harry and her life in London behind, Ruth had taken a long time to recover. It was hard to set up a new life in a new country and city, but she managed and kept herself busy with practicalities the first few months. She managed so well that the pain of saying goodbye to Harry diminished, and she realised that going ahead with a rendez-vous in Paris could be a set-back. Especially if it could only be a one-off thing. So the one question she was dying to know the answer to, but couldn't get herself to ask, because she was terrified of the answer, was if they could see each other again.
"A new beginning, I hope. I'm not sure I could stand saying goodbye to you again," he said and kissed her intensely.
She broke away from him and looked into his eyes. She loved looking into them and couldn't get herself to look away.
"What are you saying?" she asked and held back her breath.
"I'm saying that if you want my opinion we need to find a way of continuing to see each other. Without it compromising either of us, of course."
"Really," she said "do you think we can pull that off?"
"If anybody can, it must be us," he said and tightened his grip on her body.
"I suppose you're right, but how will we do it?" she asked with her heart in her throat.
"Well, first of all I have an open return with the Eurostar, so I don't have to return to London till Monday morning. That leaves us a good two days to find out what to do."
"Oh Harry, you're the best," she said and kissed him intensely.
Later that Saturday they were strolling side by side in Le jardin des Tuileries when Harry took up the subject from earlier on. By now Ruth had told most of her story and explained her set-up in Paris, which did open up some possibilities, Harry had to amid.
Ruth had initially stayed in a small B&B, but after a few weeks she'd found a flat of her own. She had been able to get by without working for a while, because of some cash that Adam had given her before she left. Harry shouldn't really hear this, but he was pleased to know that his second in command had behaved in a manner he personally if not professionally could approve of.
The flat Ruth had found was fantastic. Due to sheer luck she'd managed to find a flat with a very low rent, because she had to look after another flat in an adjacent building. It was a Swedish couple who had advertised the flat on an international web site called and they wanted someone who spoke English, because some of their friends, who'd be coming to Paris to stay in the extra flat. And most of them didn't speak any French.
They had liked Ruth immediately and felt confident that she'd look after their property in a proper manner. Ruth had smiled to herself and thought that they should just know how she'd used to look after the security of Britain.
So Ruth's living conditions were excellent. She had a very nice flat of her own for which she paid less than market price, and then she also had a set of keys to a flat in another building across the yard from her. She had showed all of this to Harry this morning, and he had nodded approvingly. He could see how this could actually work, but he hadn't said anything at the time. He now happily opened the discussion again, however.
"Do you want to hear how I see this?" he asked, deliberately teasing her by not being too specific.
"What do you mean?" she asked and looked at him with a hopeful mind.
"The plan," he said and looked around. There weren't many people out and definitely not anybody who could have any interest in what he was about to say. His reaction just reminded him that old habits die hard.
She looked at him with great anticipation.
"I come back in a few weeks time and book myself into a hotel. I travel as Harry Pearce telling everybody that I want to spend a weekend in Paris to go to museums. Between now and then you find woman who can play the role of bait for me. Can you do that?" he asked. She nodded and before she could ask any questions, he continued.
"You'll instruct her to make contact with me and I'll be very open to her," he said and squeezed her hand.
"I'll pretend to get along really well with her and when I get back to London, I'll tell everybody that I've met someone really interesting in Paris, and that I'll probably go back soon. I'll make sure I go and see Juliet and tell her all about my new found love."
"Why Juliet?" Ruth demanded to know. The sheer thought of Juliet and Harry talking together made Ruth's mind turn green with jealousy.
"You see, the reason we're here now is really down to Juliet," he said and smiled. "If she hadn't been so nosey I'd never have had the nerve to ask you out for dinner."
Ruth looked at him with great surprise. "How's that?"
"Well, after Juliet was crippled I went to see her in hospital. You came to pick me up and knocked on the window. Remember?"
Ruth nodded. She remembered picking Harry up and being glad to take him away from Juliet's sick bed. She was afraid Juliet being crippled would soften Harry.
"As always Juliet went for the throat and referred to you as 'my spaniola'. I answered something back that defended you and offended her."
Ruth smiled to herself. She could easily imagine Harry and Juliet fighting such a war of wits. She'd witnessed it enough times in the office to know how they spoke to each other.
"After I'd offended her," Harry continued, "she looked at me and asked me if I was in love with you."
Ruth raised her eyebrows and stopped walking.
"And what did you answer?"
"I tried to avoid answering, but she was very persistent in getting a reaction from me. So I said something about you having many wonderful qualities, but she wasn't going to let it go. Instead she told me directly that you were in love with me, and she encouraged me to do something about it."
Ruth looked at Harry with a puzzled look on her face. She couldn't believe what she'd just heard. That 'The Witch of Whitehall' had helped her in her pursuit for Harry.
"Why did she say all that?" Ruth asked Harry.
"I don't know. Maybe being crippled had softened her. Albeit only for a short while. She's as unbearable now as she ever was. Make no mistake about that," Harry explained.
"So in the end you asked me out, because Juliet had encouraged you to do so," Ruth asked and looked Harry in the eyes.
"Well, yes. But I really wanted to, you know. Juliet just made me realise that I couldn't continue not doing anything about it. You know for someone like me, things to do with love and relationships are not easy to handle. As confident as I navigate professionally, as confused do I get when treading the unknown emotional waters."
Ruth looked at him with great emotion her eyes. She leaned forward and placed a prolonged kissed on his lips. As she broke off the kiss a tear ran down her cheek.
"Anyway, I'm glad she said it, and I think she can still play a role," he said.
"How?" Ruth demanded to know, feeling a bit uneasy about Juliet being mentioned so many times by Harry. After all Harry and Juliet were known to have had a brief but hot affair years ago. She reminded herself that Juliet was now crippled and that her relationship with Harry had only had a professional character for years.
"If I am to spend more time in Paris in the future I'll both need an excuse, but I'll also need to know when they send someone to check on me."
"You think they'll do that?" Ruth asked.
"Ruth, think of my position. If I start spending a lot of time abroad it's due to raise eyebrows and if there's something we don't want, it's 5 or 6 on our tails. Agree?"
She nodded and sat down on a bench standing next to them. He sat besides her and put his arm around her and drew her closer.
"So how can Juliet help?" Ruth wanted to know.
"I'll let Juliet know what's going - that it's you I'm seeing when I go to Paris, and if she approved of it in London while we were working together, she'll probably not object now. Also it would be handy for me to have an ally like her, as incidents are due to happen now and again when I'm here with you. Juliet will then be able to get a hold of me if an emergency arises. Moreover, I'll ask her to let me know when I should expect company. That way you and I will know when to stay away from each other, and you should send this other woman instead. D'accord?" he asked and looked at her.
Ruth broke their gaze and looked across the park towards l'Orangerie.
"Very good, Mr. Pearce, I must say you have solved this little task very well. I can't see any loose ends. Can you?"
"Not at the moment, but we shouldn't get complacent. Let's keep thinking about it over the weekend and maybe we'll stumble across something," Harry rounded off with a smile.
"Come on let's go. We still have enough time on our hands to do some people watching."