Let's go round again?

Chapter Twelve

This chapter has not worked as well as I wanted it to. I have written it in moments that I've been able to snatch whilst I should be doing other things and I think that shows but I needed to move the story on or lose interest in it.

"Ruth, Ruth" although his voice was soft and had a degree of humour running through it her companion couldn't quite hide the annoyance that he was feeling. He was obviously more than a little put out by the fact that she wasn't paying as much attention to him and his words as he felt she should.

Ruth gave herself a shake both literally and mentally as she dragged her mind back into the room and away from the flights of fancy she'd been allowing it to pursue. "Sorry" she said "That was very rude of me. I'm afraid that I'm not at my best tonight, it's been a hectic few days hasn't it and I'm not as young as I once was."

Her companion leaned in closer to her and dropped his voice to almost a whisper as he said "I think you're perfect Ruth. You have have no idea how you have enchanted me."

Oh dear thought Ruth this was not going well. It had been an absolute age since she'd allowed herself to be put in a situation like this. A situation where she'd allowed herself to be admired by a man and she was finding it very hard to control were this seemed to be leading. His interest in her had been obvious since the first time they'd meet and bloody Seb had taken full advantage of the attraction.

Just flirt with him Ruth, he likes you. We need his money or this project is dead in the water, we'll never find another sponsor in the short time time we have left. Please Ruth, pretty please. For the sake of the project and for history.

The conversation had taken place as they'd walked back to their hotel on the first night Ruth had been in York. They'd had a wonderful meal at a gourmet pub just up the road and it seemed that Seb was very pleased with the ways things had gone. As they walked back to the hotel he'd praised her efforts telling her that she made a really good first impression and that Gary …...had been very impressed with her and her knowledge of the project so much so he'd asked if she'd meet him for lunch tomorrow so that she could explain some of the more technical details to him.

"I don't do technical Seb, you know that. Why didn't you tell him that? Eric or Sally should be the ones who go to lunch with him, I'll just make a total hash of it and then we'll be back to square one."

"What did you think of him?" Seb had asked.

"Who?"

"Gary of course, don't play dumb with me Ruth you know very well who I'm talking about. What did you think of him?"

"He's intelligent but I don't know. I've never meet anyone with so much money before. I think he's bored. Oh I don't know Seb, honestly I've not given it a lot of thought."

"He likes you Ruth."

They had reached their hotel and Ruth turned to Seb "What do you mean he likes me?" He didn't need to say a word the answer was plastered all over his face and she had to fight very hard not to reach out and wipe the look from his face with her hand. Instead she clenched her fists before she spoke "Don't be so bloody ridiculous Seb, I must be twenty years older than him and, well it's just ludicrous."

It's fourteen years actually and since when did age have anything to do with attraction Ruth? He likes you; it's as simple as that."

"I'm going to my room Seb and I'm going to order a bottle of wine which I'll put on your bill and then I'm going to go to bed and then I'll decide the best way to kill you and hide your body. Do not come after me or send anyone else to come and talk to me Seb Baxter. I cannot believe …...Oh just …..."

She'd thought she'd sit up and drink the wine and just let it dull her senses but the lure of the shower and the bed had been too much for her and after just one glass she'd given in and made her way to bed but although she was exhausted sleep eluded her and it seemed the harder she tried the more wide awake she became. After tossing and turning until the small hours she finally gave it up as a bad job and got up.

Looking across the room she could see the open bottle of wine and she was sorely tempted but what would that solve? The problem would still be there in the morning and she would have the added bonus of a thick head. No not a good idea!

She'd liked Garry in a superficial way; in truth she'd hardly paid him any heed at all, she'd been tired and she'd found her thoughts straying back to London and Harry which was stupid because less than a week ago he'd not played even a small part in her life but as she'd sat in the pub amongst all the noise and the cheerful chatter she'd found herself worrying about him.

She'd always known that the Harry Pearce he'd presented to the rest of the world was not the man he was but in the few days she'd spent with him that perception had been reinforced; he was stubborn, funny, insecure and lonely, the last two traits were ones that she knew well. She had first hand experience of them and she thought back to all the times she'd been at some social gathering or other and felt completely and utterly alone. Just like she had earlier this evening but know it was magnified because there was somewhere else she wanted, needed to be but would he want her to be there with him? They still had so much to talk about, so much that had to be confronted and Harry didn't do confrontation unless he was the one in charge. And now to add to the problem it seemed that Seb was convinced that she'd caught the eye of Garry …..a man who they needed in order to get the project off the ground.

She'd finally given in to exhaustion and gone back to bed in the early hours of the morning where she'd fallen into a deep, unsatisfying sleep only to be woken a few hours later by the sound of a gentle tapping on her room door. Struggling up into something akin to consciousness she called out "Just hold on a moment. Just let me …..

When she opened the door Seb was standing on the other side a look that could only be described as hangdog on his face "I've come to say sorry Ruth" he began "I let my enthusiasm, my worry about the project get the better of me. I'm sorry I went too far Ruth, I said things I had no right to say. Forgive me?"

She'd not forgiven him, but she was

much to wooly headed to process his words; bloody hell she thought I should have drunk the bloody wine, I'm sure I couldn't feel any worse than this. "Go away Seb" she said "I need to get a shower and get my head together. Are they still serving breakfast?" When he nodded in reply she told him she meet him in the dining room and watched as he walked towards the lifts.

When she finally joined him Seb was sitting alone at a table well away from all the others. Oh, oh thought Ruth this can't be good. He rose as she approached the table saying "I've asked them to take your order for breakfast Ruth although we are a little late. I can tell that you haven't slept and I know that it's my bloody fault. I got carried away and I said some really stupid things, things that I had no right to say. Can we just forget about it all and pretend that I've not acted like a complete prat?"

Up to that point she'd been going to give him both barrels but he'd taken the wind out of her sails. And after all she'd got enough on her mind at the moment without picking a fight with Seb. "It's okay" she said "Don't worry about it, I was tired last night and I was snappy with you. Let's just put it behind us and decide how best to go about persuading Gary to come on board. Yes?"

The next few days were busy and interesting for Ruth. Her presentation to the conference was very well received and she was pleased and embarrassed in equal parts to find herself sought out by many of the delegates who wanted to discuss their research and ideas with her. And much to her surprise she was even asked to consider working for some of the top museums in the world. All this she told Harry when she rang him at night. It became her quiet time, the time that she took for herself in the madness of the circus she found herself in. Harry was encouraging; up to a point. But she could hear the uncertainty in his voice when she talked to him about her job offers. "Do you really want to be uprooting yourself again Ruth?" he asked when she'd told him about yet another offer she'd had from an institution on the west coast of America. And she'd made the decision there and then not to talk to him about Gary. Gary was becoming a bit of a problem, a problem that she was not sure she could deal with.