Sorry to drive you all mad with frustration - but hey that's H/R for you! This and an epilogue to go. Enjoy (I hope).
Ruth closed the door behind her. She cursed herself in every language she knew. She cursed her timidity, she cursed her negativity, she cursed her self doubt. She knew it was time to give herself a stern talking to.
How have you felt in the last few days, Ruth?
Happy.
How happy?
Happier than I can remember.
Why?
Because of him.
Why?
Because I love him.
Is that it, Ruth?
Yes, that's it. It's simple.
And how do you feel now?
Like shit.
Good. Go find him.
She left her room.
As she walked through the courtyard she found herself drawn to the beach. She was about to head to the bar and from there to Harry's room but something caught her eye, something stopped her. There was a light on the beach, it was small and it was intermittent, glowing in the night. It was there and then it was gone.
Something under her ribs pulled her towards it, something inside her wouldn't let her move away.
It was a cigar and she knew without seeing him that it was Harry.
She padded quietly across the sand.
He was leant against the central pole under the wooden shade. He looked out to sea and to the lights of the village in the mountains and he smoked his cigar. He looked pensive.
No, thought Ruth, he looked lost.
"Harry?" she said and stepped in front of him.
His gaze didn't move from the sea.
"Yes."
She didn't know what to say.
His breathing was getting deeper, heavier and he was using the cigar to try and control it, to breathe in and breathe out.
"What do you want of me, Ruth?"
She didn't speak. She too looked at the sea.
He sighed.
He felt so close to her and yet so far away, thus it was ever so.
Her fingers reached for his, their touch was feather light.
He did not respond.
She wound them through his, entwine them together.
He did not respond.
"Ruth, please," he pleaded.
"What is it, Harry?"
His breath was becoming still deeper and heavier.
Suddenly he looked at her and this man who hid his feelings for a living was instead a living book of emotion and she read each and every chapter as they played across his face. Love, hurt, pain, desire, need, hope, rejection, passion, happiness, fear, regret, loyalty, faith and sadness. They were there and then they moved on.
He opened his mouth to speak but nothing came out. His breathing was more laboured still.
And then Ruth knew.
"Say it, Harry."
He looked at her, breathing in and out, in and out, deeper and deeper.
"Say it..it's time."
His eyes widened.
"It's the right time., Harry, say it…please."
His eyes closed and suddenly his breathing stopped.
"I love you, Ruth," he whispered.
His eyes slowly opened and he reached out and tucked a strand of her hair, caught in the wind, behind her ear and with a sudden intake of the breath he had been holding, he kissed her. He kissed her and every emotion that had passed across his face now passed through his lips and Ruth felt all the love, hurt, pain, desire, need, hope, passion, happiness, fear, regret and faith in every moment of his kiss.
They stood beneath the umbrella and kissed. They would have been happy to stay there all night.
It was a kiss they had owed themselves for a long time, a kiss the world had owed them, a kiss they were in no hurry to stop.
Eventually Ruth pulled her lips away from him.
"I love you," she said.
Harry smiled. His next words were not his own, but he felt them true enough.
"I cannot be so blessed, after all my misery. It is a dream; such dreams as I have had at night when I have clasped her once more to my heart, as I do now; and kissed her, as thus….and felt that she loved me, and trusted that she would not leave me."
"Which I never will, sir, from this day." Ruth smiled.
They paused and looked at each other and then as one they said, 'Chapter 37."