Richard leads Hyacinth into a small sitting room located at the back of the house. He has one arm wrapped around Hyacinth's waist.
"I can't believe how many memories you have from our early relationship." Hyacinth says as they sit down side by side on the sofa.
"There are some memories I have that I haven't even shared with you. I remember how I felt when I saw you walking up the aisle towards me on your father's arm. I remember every emotion I felt preparing to propose to you and the night I proposed I remember every moment. I have never forgotten those precious moments between us. You made moments so special for me. I remember thinking that I'd gotten very lucky because I didn't deserve you. I forgot that when things weren't going well, and to see you now as a woman so comfortable in herself for the first time in ages, I remembered why I married you and how lucky I am to be with you." Richard smiles and holds Hyacinth gently in his arms. She is beautiful and confident and relaxed.
"I always felt so lucky to be with you. I got out of my crazy household because of you. I remember telling my sisters that you were my favourite person in the universe. You made me feel so confident and happy. You're the reason I'm so confident because I know you love me. I loved the time when we were engaged. Everything was so perfect. I loved that time so much. I loved the time before Sheridan was born when we were first married. We were so considerate of each other and I don't know when I stopped being considerate of you. I was so in love with you. I am still so in love with you. I loved creating a home for us in that flat that we started out in. I wish we could go back to that time. We were so close then, but I feel like we're getting back to the way I felt then. I blame myself really." Hyacinth has always blamed herself for the way things have turned out between them. She has her hand halfway up Richard's thigh and is playing with the seam on the outside of his pants.
"I feel the same way. I feel so much closer to you after today. I feel much more like things have gone back to the way they were before Sheridan was born. Today has been wonderful for both of us. I feel much more confident about our relationship after today. Your sisters have been lovely. They've been very helpful. I've been comfortable around them again. I know you always felt lucky to end up with me, but I was equally lucky to end up with you. I remember how stunning I thought you were when I first met you. I remember telling my parents that I'd never felt the way I felt about you. You and I seemed so perfect together then and we can be that way again. We're so close to being back to that way after today. You and I used to be able to tell each other everything and I want to be able to do that again. I miss being able to talk to you, but I feel like I can now." Richard sets his hand on Hyacinth's.
Both Hyacinth and Richard fall silent as they're sitting together. Richard, for the first time in many years, is not uncomfortable in the silence. Normally the silence would have spelled trouble and lots of work for Richard, but now Hyacinth is more relaxed with him than she has been for years. Hyacinth kisses Richard's cheek as she sits there in the silence. "Are you okay?" Hyacinth asks quietly.
"I am now. What are you thinking about?" Richard asks gently.
"All the relationships I've destroyed and damaged are first in my mind. My sisters and I are healing and you and I are healing. I need to heal my relationship with my son, my father, and my friends before I feel like things have really changed for me. I need to prove myself to you and me before we believe the change. I'm scared to go back to who I was when no one could stand me. That's what worries me the most." Hyacinth begins to cry. Her fear is overwhelming.
"I am not going to let you go back to that. We are just going to be like this forever now. I can't go back to the way we used to be." Richard says firmly. He can't let this change and revert to previous behaviour. He's so happy with the ways things are right this moment. He was always afraid to hold Hyacinth publicly before and now he's not anymore. When Hyacinth relaxed today Richard breathed a huge sigh of relief. Hyacinth seems to get sleepy sitting in Richard's arms. "You seem sleepy, darling. Are you alright?"
"It's just been a very emotional day and my emotions do tend to wear me out somewhat. I'm not used to expressing them this much." Hyacinth admits wrapping one arm around Richard's waist. "I think my sisters are trying to give us as much alone time as possible. The kitchen got very quiet though. My sisters are very sweet. This is just how things used to be, when I was still living at home and my sisters were trying to give us as much privacy as possible, but they still wanted to know as much as possible about our relationship. It's so nice to feel so at home with my family again. I can't believe I ever went away from this. I was very foolish."
"You wanted to give your family a better life than the one you had and the best way you saw to distance yourself from that time was to distance yourself from the people who created that past. It's not wrong, but it's not right either. You did what you felt was best at the time. You've learned from your behaviour and I'm quite glad that you've seen that the way you were wasn't helping anyone especially yourself. I do understand where you're coming from. I know sometimes I try to pretend that I have no idea what you're talking about, but I do. We grew up in the same area. I understand the desire to have something better for your adult life than you have as a child. It doesn't matter how hard you think you have to work to get out of the situation you just know you want out so badly, but it's so easy to go to the other extreme without realizing it too. Both extremes need to be tempered and it's high time we both learned to do so while still being exactly who we want to be. We don't need to be friends with the Major or Mrs Councillor Nugent in order to be who we've always wanted to be. We have to remember how important our family is in our lives no matter how much we feel they don't fit into our vision." Richard kisses the top of Hyacinth's head.
"When did you get so wise? I should have listened to you a long time ago. I could have avoided half of these problems all together. I don't understand why I was okay with not including you in the decisions. You know my family as well as I do and you seem to understand them which is more than I can say." Hyacinth sighs contentedly.
"You know Bruce said earlier that we could stay if we want for a couple of days to get things sorted. Do you think we should? It will give us more time to figure our lives out without the pressure of being back amongst friends. It could really help us I think." Richard suggests to Hyacinth.
"That sounds like a wonderful idea. I can't believe that Bruce is being so nice. He must like you very much Richard. Bruce never really liked me I don't think. Maybe we can get everything figured out now, so that by the time we go home we're both settled with where everything is between us. Can you call Elizabeth and let her know, so she can pick up our mail? She gets nervous when I call." Hyacinth whispers.
"Of course I'll call her. You stay right here with me though." Richard reaches over the back of the sofa and picks up the portable telephone. "Tell me her number." Richard waits as the phone rings three times before Liz picks up. "Hi Liz, it's Richard." "Yes, we're having a wonderful time. Listen, I have a favour to ask of you, if you're not too busy. Hyacinth and I have decided to stay out here for three, maybe four days, and we were hoping that you wouldn't mind picking up our mail and newspaper for us? You still have the spare key don't you?" "Thanks Liz. This means a lot to both of us." "Why didn't Hyacinth call? Oh well, she's in the kitchen cooking up a storm with her sisters. No men in the kitchen on pain of death." "Thanks Liz, I'm sure we'll have a great time. See you in a few days."
"Why did you tell Elizabeth I was cooking in the kitchen? Why didn't you tell her the truth? You didn't tell her why we were staying." Hyacinth turns and looks very seriously at Richard.
"I didn't think you'd want Liz to know everything. I didn't want to tell her you didn't want to talk to her because I didn't want her to feel worse. Her self-esteem isn't very high anyway. I think that there's still a part of you that doesn't want the world and especially your friends to know the whole situation. We'll keep this to ourselves as long as you want." Richard says sweetly.
"Oh, Richard that's so sweet! You're right, I'm not ready to tell everyone what the situation is with us. I'd prefer to fix everything first and then we can tell everyone why we were away." Hyacinth very rarely, in fact never, admits that Richard is right.
"Wait, did you just say I'm right? You never say that. I like hearing that though." Richard teases.
"Yes, I did just say you're right and you better get used to it because it's not going to change any time soon. You've been right a lot over the years and I haven't been willing to admit it and don't ask why because I can't possibly tell you. Maybe my insecurities have made me want to be right all the time. I don't know. I should listen to you more often. I don't give you enough credit some times." Hyacinth says honestly.