'I'm not sure I'm the right person to be giving you advice,' Harry told Paul, after Ruth, Maddie's newly acquired and now preferred bedtime story reader, had pulled on her jacket and headed out into the darkness, telling him that 'she'd see him later.' No book required, tonight's story was going to be about a small dog called Scarlet and a cat called Fidget.

'Rubbish, you're the perfect person. To be honest, apart from Ellie who keeps dropping hints without actually coming to the point, you're the only person whose advice I'd take seriously. Not only because I trust you, but I know whatever you tell me will be without bias. Which if that doesn't convince you, then think of it adding to the favour of inviting us to your wedding and throwing in a two-week holiday.'

Which as nice as those sentiments were didn't make it any easier, when Harry already knew that Paul wasn't quite ready to quit the army and become a full-time family man, because Ellie had told Ruth and of course Ruth had told him. Despite having told him that every time he saw him and Ruth together, he felt envious.

Dismissing the notion that Paul had somehow found out about Ruth's resistance is futile tactics, Harry took his time. Because Paul acknowledging that he and Ruth were living the life that they'd dreamed about, almost qualified as ancient history in spy terms. The subject of discussion when they'd sat either side of Ruth's hospital bed and he'd been pleading with her to wake up. How when Paul had said, 'if the way you're looking at her is anything to go by, I wouldn't mind betting she can hear you,' had prompted him to divulged far more about his feeling for Ruth, than he ever had to Ruth herself. Paul patiently listening and even then, had told him that, 'one day who knows, I might come to you for advice.'

Well, that moment had arrived, but not before Harry decided that it might be easier if each had a whisky or two. Heading into the kitchen in search of a couple of glasses and more importantly for his opening line.

'From the mouth of an expert you have to understand, you sound exactly like I did when Ruth went to Cyprus. I could and should have stopped her, instead of which, I rolled up my sleeves and went back to work. Wasted years Paul, when we could have been together and I don't need to remind you what happened after that. Time is precious and now that you've told me that this new posting will involve a lot more redeployment overseas, which with your rank will paint a target on your forehead, my advice, from someone who is considers himself to be the prime candidate for the 'been there and done it' slogan, is to start thinking about where you'd like to live and take it from there. If not for you and Ellie, then remember what I told you about Catherine and Graham, who unlike your boys, didn't have their father at home during those first important years. Germany isn't Cyprus with blue skies and the beach on the doorstep, Maddie is going to grow up surrounded by concrete.'

'How did it go?' Ruth asked him, when she walked in to find him standing by the bedroom window. The light off, not preventing her from seeing the outline of his face. Or the memories that talking about her beloved Fidget, who had ended her days in Harry's care from resurfacing. Both of them tired after what had been a very different day.

A day, when after they'd had lunch in the usual café in the market square, they wandered around the village. Her, for no reason in particular, taking Ellie and Maddie into the church, where what remained of the children's paintings, which had played an important part in the Christmas concert that they'd attended, were gathering dust. Before they'd caught up with Harry and Paul who had walked along the river as far as the weir, where a family of ducks with their tails up and their heads in the water, had been searching for their dinner. Maddie fascinated and her parents thoughtful. All things that now came under the heading of normal to them, but were a world away from being normal for Paul and Ellie. Before they'd walked back to the car and Harry had driven up the hill and to the village on the opposite side of the valley where they'd stopped to get a drink on the day when they'd first seen the house, doing so again.

Harry joking that, 'he felt like a tour guide,' to which Ellie had responded by saying, 'you've missed you vocation.' Before for Maddie's benefit, he'd driven to the children's play area, or more specifically to the swings. Where Paul had pushed a giggling Maddie and Ellie had said, 'I wish,' when Ruth had suggested that if they'd made it, then anyone could.

.

'We're popping into town,' Harry told Paul the next morning, with the offer to take them with them, when he and Ruth arrived back from their walk, to find Paul clearing the snow from both their cars, having already replenished the supply of logs in both the houses.

The only clue, if clue it was that he'd made up his mind, other than he certainly looked a great deal happier, was his response of 'Ellie and I are going to build a snowman for Maddie, so you can have some quiet time, without us getting under your feet.'

'Thanks,' said Harry, without explaining that the only reason they were going out, was that with a couple of days to go and having planned their wedding day right down to the finest detail, they didn't have anything else to do. A day which they couldn't have been better prepared for, especially Harry who due to the amount of practice he'd put in, was confident that he'd be able to respond in French, without the card that had been offered to him. A civil ceremony which was obligatory in France, before what was almost always a church wedding. Valerie, having taken them through the procedure more than once and was one of the reasons that they'd invited her, her husband and the children, explaining that weddings had been known to go on for days.

Not so in their case, where the ceremony was going to be straightforward and without any fuss, followed by the meal and what they were planning to be a low key get together at home in the evening. What they didn't know and wouldn't until they they'd become the married couple that they were destined to be, was that Harry's best man, wanting to discharge his duties and then some, had put into place a surprise package in the person of Ros Myers.

Paul, keeping in touch with her as she'd requested and after receiving the news, had been to see the Home Secretary. Far more in awe of her than he'd ever been of Harry, he'd granted her leave.

Why wouldn't he, when she'd told him that 'her Great Uncle Silas, ninety if he was a day, she didn't know exactly how old because he'd always lied about his age, was marrying his childhood sweetheart and that naturally he wanted her to be their bridesmaid. A request that he'd granted without argument, much in the same way as he did all those that Ros went to see him about.

Ros, who if people knew what was good for them, didn't mess with, had her bag packed and was looking forward to her few days off. Her exact words when Paul had told her the good news, 'not before bloody time and I need to see this with my own eyes,' she'd followed up with, 'don't tell Harry because I want to surprise him.'

.

On the big day, which saw them wide awake long before any of their guests and despite the early hour, were smiling and for the moment at least, had their pre wedding nerves under control.

Skipping with convention, when hadn't they, Harry was going to drive the two of them and Maddie, who had become so attached to Ruth and Ruth to her, that it had prompted Ellie to have a conversation with Harry about Nico.

'How it was obvious that Ruth missed him and had he and Ruth ever discussed having a child of their own?'

To which Harry had replied, 'he was too old to start a new family,' and Ellie had responded, 'age is just a number, you're only three years older than Paul, and Ruth's younger than I am.'

A subject that Harry was keeping under wraps for another day, but wasn't discounting. Pleased as he constantly was, that Ellie considered herself confident enough to have mentioned it.

Breakfast came and went quietly. Their showers they took their time over and when Ruth was sitting in front of the mirror and putting on her makeup, a rarity these days and when she was, what she called fiddling with her hair until she was happy with it, Harry was sitting with her. This was their day and he was determined to commit every single moment to memory. Each of them gaining strength from the other. His suit dark grey, his shirt white and his tie described as lemon with a diagonal matching grey stripe, he only donned after he'd zipped up Ruth's dress. Knee length and also lemon with a silver fleck, they looked by the time that they were ready, to each other if nobody else, perfect. Pausing for a moment before they went downstairs, where Ellie and Maddie, looking every bit the princess of her dreams were waiting for them.

The flowers which had been delivered earlier, a combination of snowdrops and winter berries. A small an understated bouquet for Ruth and for Maddie a tiny posy on a ribbon. All of them recognising what a defining moment this was, when Ellie opened the front door and watched her daughter walk between them towards Harry's car. Paul waiting at the bottom of the steps to open the doors and to strap Maddie in.

.

Ros who had also slept well, had enjoyed the luxury of a lengthy breakfast. Croissants, coffee and fresh fruit, as she watched the village wake up to what for the majority of people was just another day. After she'd been for a run along the riverside before she'd come back, showered and dressed with no intension of making herself known until the ceremony was over. Her plan to arrive via a back street and ahead of the other guests, she manged with ease. Finding herself a quiet corner where she could observe until everyone was seated, before she slid onto a chair at the back. Nobody took any notice of her, whereas she took in every detail in an attempt to decide who was who amongst the guests. Paul, she recognised immediately and the woman who were sitting beside him as Ellie. Valerie, the Notaire's secretary, who was sitting with a man who was presumably her husband and two girls, older than Maddie by a few years, she knew was going to be the other witness. What she hadn't banked on and helped her to remain anonymous, was that there were people from the village where Harry and Ruth lived, who for whatever reason, had decided to come to their wedding. Which wasn't at all what she'd expected. OK, Paul had told her that Harry and Ruth had made a big effort to integrate and were known by name, but she had never envisaged that in such a short space of time, they would have made such an impression. That these people who were presumably neighbours, friends even, a word that had never been pinned to Harry and Ruth, would want to see them get married. A headcount when she did it of about twenty people who only fell silent when the doors opened and the couple in question walked in.

She would have recognised them anywhere, of course she would, but she hadn't prepared herself for the confident way in which they walked down the side of the room, Ruth's arm through his and a small blonde girl, who was hanging tightly to Harry's hand and trying to keep in step. Not only that, they looked every inch as though they belonged here, something that Paul had already told her, but she hadn't been able to envisage until now. That and when they stood side by side in front of the mayor and delivered their lines, faultlessly she presumed, because they received a round of applause. The couple who had hidden their love affair in the shadows for so many years, now opening acknowledging how much they loved each other. More than that, her reason for being there to witness it, had turned from curiosity to pure pleasure.

'We need to turn round Harry but I can't feel my legs,' Ruth told him, when the applause died down to be replaced by chatter. Their hands still joined together and Harry with the same expression on his face as it had been throughout the ceremony. Maddie coming to their rescue, by tugging on Harry's sleeve and saying, 'did I do it right?'

Causing both him and Ruth to turn around and see Paul and Ellie talking to the most unlikely and in Harry's case, welcome guest.

.

'No need for me to ask you how you both are?' Ros told them when they were all taking off their coats in the restaurant. Paul's intervention accepted during the journey, to the point where Ruth who had never been a fan of Ros, despite her being an integral part in her rescue, had when she'd hugged her, said 'thank you.' For a lot more than the fact that she'd come to the wedding and was eased even further, when Harry asked Ros how she'd managed to get the time off and she told them her Uncle Silas story. Before handing over a small gift and in a way that could only be attributed to Ros, said 'it's nothing.'

Something that for Ros wasn't going to continue, when she found herself sitting next to Patrick, who didn't question who she was or ask any stupid questions. Understanding what each was saying to the other, mainly achieved with the use of body language and in Patrick's case with some chat up lines. Sufficient that Ros by the end of the evening, would be sharing her hotel room with a well- toned Frenchman. Before which and what Ros was going to discover was an uplifting experience, Patrick was after all a roofer, was the first of three courses which had been placed in front of her.

Courses which were slow and measured in the speed with which they were served and eaten, time enough for Harry to repeat his wedding vows, this time in English.

For Ruth's ears only and therefore in a whisper, 'to love and to cherish,' was a given, he'd done that for years. 'In sickness and in health,' ditto. 'All that I am I give to you,' was him offering the past and present Harry. His ability to love and protect her. His promise to never leave her, but without the till death do us part, which he stopped short of mentioning. This Harry who was determined to make her smile from the moment she woke up every morning until the moment that she fell asleep at night. All of which was said, with Ruth never taking her eyes off him.

Something that was echoed by Paul during his speech, when he talked about friendship and what a truly wonderful couple Harry and Ruth were.

.

With the formalities over and with four hours to spare before the same guests arrived, Paul and Ellie were relaxing with their feet up and with a cup of tea. Maddie, out of her dress, 'you don't want to crease it do you sweetheart?' having accepted, was asleep.

The bride and groom also out of the wedding attire but not as would be expected for the same reason, were also lying down. George Groban singing 'You raise me up' on the sound system, to be followed by the other music that they'd selected for the evening.

'At the risk of you telling me that I've started to repeat myself Ruth, you do know how much I love you don't you,' Harry told her, trailing kisses across her face and then kissing her properly. A kiss which despite the feeling that it was evoking in both of them, didn't develop into what Harry intended to happen when they finally closed the doors on their guests. For now, it was enough that he had his wife lying beside him and if all went to plan, they'd be on their own well before midnight.