'I assume by the smile on Sally's face that you went through with it?' Malcolm asked Harry, when they were standing by the front door watching the two of them walking up the lane.

'Not the expression I would use to describe one day a week with a soon to be four-year-old, but yes we did.'

'Good.'

'Malcolm if I didn't know better, I'd say that you were asking me an altogether different question.'

'The one I ask myself every day since I sat in your office and told you I wanted to retire.'

'Which is?'

'If I was put in the same position again, would I have the courage to save a child I barely know?'

'Malcolm, surely you're not trying to imply that what Ruth and I are doing is on a par with that?'

'Only in as much as some of the best family units are made up of the people we meet and form a bond with. Sally clearly needs support and you two are the perfect couple to provide it. In my humble opinion that is.'

I don't disagree thought Harry, who had been wondering if by offering to help Sally he was in some way trying to compensate for letting his own family down? Only for Malcolm to bring him back to the here and now by reminding him he had talked about getting some security lights fitted. Something which as he and Ruth had already gone further by agreeing to do more for Jacob than sit him in front of the TV or let him to make mud pies in their garden, made sense that he and Caroline came with them to Norwich in the morning.

'Ruth wants to look for some books to help Jacob with his reading and as Sally's keen that Jacob learns how to swim, we're going to have a look at what's described in the local paper as Minnows on a Monday,' he told him.

Saved from continuing what had been another bizarre conversation and for the best part of which Malcolm had come out on top, Ruth bounced back into the kitchen to tell them that she and Caroline had finished planting the rose bushes and would they like to come outside and see how they looked against the new fence?'

.

Expecting to see Maurice in the pub since he was the one who had invited them, they were surprised to see how quiet it was compared to the night when they themselves had stayed there. That so much had happened in those two weeks, both in terms of the people they now knew and the progress that had been made in determining what in the short term was going to be a change in their lifestyle, made Harry ask Ruth, 'if it was just an illusion?'

'The past is an illusion this is real and the future is ours to enjoy Harry,' she told him, sounding remarkably like the Ruth of old or perhaps it was something that Malcolm had said?

'It's not a quote it's how I feel, but yes Malcolm did speak to me. And he's right Harry, in that whatever our motive is for doing this and yes maybe it is partly rooted in our joint past, I think we should stop analysing and get on with it. Especially when a week from now Malcolm and Caroline will have gone home and with winter approaching whatever is left to do in the garden will have to wait until the spring. And before you say we can always spend the winter in bed and as nice as that sounds in my head we would -,'

'Die happy?' he suggested.

'I was going to say run out of food.'

'Why aren't those two married?' asked Caroline, who having found some menus had re-joined Malcolm who was standing at the bar ordering a round of drinks. Just in time to see Harry and Ruth smile at each other. Before adding, 'I mean just look at them.'

'Maybe he's never asked her or maybe there's never been the right moment but it will happen I'm sure about that,' was close enough to suggest that he knew what had happened. Had he known which of course he didn't he would have given the same answer, such was his loyalty.

The following morning.

'You really struck gold moving here,' Caroline told Ruth when they were sitting at a table in a bookshop which specialised in children's books. With the bonus in that while they were waiting for Harry and Malcolm to come back from their security system search, there was a café in the corner so they could have a drink while they waited.

'Yes, we did,' said Ruth, who was finding it very difficult under Caroline's gaze to ignore the fact that she probably knew or worse still had heard, her and Harry who had abstained from intimacy in bed for the best part of the week because she and Malcolm were staying with them, making up for lost time.

'Sorry for interrupting but I couldn't help but overhear you talking about books for the under- fives,' said a woman at the adjacent table. Before adding, 'my son's favourites are The Rainbow Fish and Don't let the Pigeon drive the Bus!'

'Thank you,' said a grateful Ruth. Not only because she now knew what to buy, but the interruption had prevented her from telling Caroline how on the toss of a coin, she not Harry was going to be Jacob's partner in the pool. To which she was sure Caroline would have suggested she should have checked the coin when it landed. Which Harry had and was how it had started.

Only for Harry right on cue to open the door and say 'Malcolm's on his way Caroline, but we need to get going if we're going to find you a costume before our appointment Ruth.'

.

'Children who are four years old tend to be the ones who learn to swim having had fewest lessons,' the manager told them, when they were looking down at the pool from what she had described as the viewing gallery as opposed to seats where Harry would be able to watch. Having already impressed them by saying that they stuck to the guidelines in every sense when they had been filling in the enrolment form. 'The club was formed two years ago after a six-year-old girl was swept out to sea near Cromer, and is funded by a charity set up by the child's parents. It was close to where I live and was why I got involved and I imagine is the reason that Sally wants Jacob to have lessons. I also see by her letter that you bringing Jacob here is with her blessing, so it would be remiss of me not to give you a list of other activities in the run up to Christmas that he might enjoy.' At which point her phone rang and with a nod by way of an apology she left them to it.

Which with an hour to spare before they met up with Malcolm and Caroline, saw them heading for The Lanes. Aptly named, because not only was it a pedestrian only area made up of small shops intermingled with the regular high street chains, but the alleyways and narrow walkways which crisscrossed each other, gave the impression that you were miles from the centre of the city. What it also gave them was some much needed time on their own.

'Caroline was quiet on the drive in, did she say anything about last night,' Harry asked Ruth, having waited until they were sitting in a teashop to broach the subject.

'She didn't need to not when she's got the same eyebrow raising technique as Ros had.'

'Malcolm said as much. Not that I think for a moment that he heard anything. Caroline's bluntness was how he put it. His suggestion and he could well be right, is that having had a husband who played the field for the best part of thirty years and deceived not only her but Ros, only to lose her, means that Caroline is desperate to be part of something which has a future. Which the person I love more than I can put into words, told me only yesterday was to be enjoyed.'

'You remembered.'

'It's my new aim in life.'

'With or without a ten pence coin?'

'A week from now is when you'll get my answer to that question. Now lets have a look at that list and see what else we might be able to do to make Sally's life easier,' said Harry. All thought of Lucas buried under the huge wave of love that he was feeling.