'Do you ever read these?' Graham asked Ruth, when he was loading her two boxes of books into the car, with a look to suggest that not only did he find it hard to believe that at a time when people were glued to their phones that they read anything other than what could be found on the internet, in a voice slightly leaning towards someone who was trying to come back down to earth after an overload of adrenalin.
As was Ruth who as soon as Harry's car hand pulled up outside the house, had raced down the path and thrown herself into his arms, leaving Beth to wonder why she who was much more worldly wise than Ruth, was still looking for a man that could breathe her in in the same way that Harry was her. After which, having received Harry's thanks she had headed back to the grid keen to find out what punishment was coming Lucas's way. Only to discover that thanks to Harry's generosity of spirit although god knows why in her opinion, that during a conversation with Alec, it had been mutually agreed that Lucas who was currently under house arrest would be decommissioned and then handed a one-way ticket to somewhere yet to be decided, rather than be locked up for what would have been a lengthy prison sentence. The theory being that when he formed a relationship in the future, whatever he chose to call himself, he would never be free of his past.
Unlike Harry and Ruth who two hours later having deliberately avoided the motorway in favour of taking the side roads in order to give Graham a better idea of the area in which they have chosen to live, are happily approaching the village from a direction that that not only offers the best view of the coastline but the countryside and lack of habitation, when Ruth's phone rings.
'Sally, yes of course we will, we're nearly there,' means nothing to Graham who is been sitting in the back of the car and up until that moment had been listening to a potted tour guide to the wonders of Norfolk from his dad. Who knows exactly what to expect from the miniature dynamo who will hit him at knee height the moment that he sees him. Before that happens though, he wants to see his son's reaction when they turn down the lane. Because from the moment that Graham had asked if he could come back with them, he had realised that next to Ruth, spending time with his son and filling in the gaps in their relationship will bring closure to a wound that had cut him far deeper than he had realised. So much so that the thought of being home again and Graham's reaction to this way of life which he and Ruth are building on with every passing day is causing him to well up.
'You two go inside, I'll wait for Sally and Jacob,' says Ruth who knows how important this moment is to Harry. Instinct that can only come from loving him as much as she does, meaning that she knows the bones that have made up Harry's fractured life are about to be mended.
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'Sally? Jacob? Asks Graham, who once he and Harry have taken their coats off, walk towards the window where the view at this level has changed in appearance to suggest that when the house was first built it was at an angle not only to shelter the garden from the prevailing wind but to determine the boundaries.
Thoughts which mean that he is sufficiently distracted to believe when Harry says, 'a single mum with a young child,' that Sally's backstory is a simple as her getting pregnant and not as Harry knows being married to a man that had been handy with his fists.
Expecting Ruth to be there when the introductions are made, a quick look in Harry's direction to tell him that she needs to use the bathroom, means that Ruth can only imagine Jacob tearing across the room in search of Harry. Not though Graham and Sally who left in his wake introduce themselves with the accustomed handshake. Her apologising for the intrusion and Graham who is no longer imagining how it must have felt to live here when the only means of light had been from candles, with a look of appreciation on his face.
Which leaves Ruth with more questions than it does answers, who once she has washed her hands and face and put a brush through her hair, comes downstairs intending to make some tea, not only to find that Sally has already gone but an unaccountably shy Jacob is hiding behind Harry's legs.
One question that is answered and surprises Ruth, is that when Harry who is not known known for assessing a situation and reacting in a way that sets the ball rolling, rather than trying to push it uphill, picks Jacob up and walking towards Graham say's 'this is Graham and he's come to help us with the garden.'
The magic word, to which Jacob responds by asking Graham, 'would you like to see a picture of my garden?' And without waiting for a reply, as soon as Harry puts him down, heads towards the basket in the corner of the room where his toys and assorted art works are stored. Forcing Graham who is still reeling from the fact that what he had imagined to be a quiet life that his dad and Ruth were living, is anything but. In that they have turned their hand to looking after a small boy who looks very much at home. Proven even further when a smiling Ruth arrives not only with the tea a and a plate of biscuits, but a beaker which is clearly Jacob's.
And if that isn't enough to convince Graham that his dad has reverted to the man of his childhood memories, with the exception in that he's living with a woman who understands him and doesn't expect him to do everything at her bidding, it's when he leans forward and in a voice which suggests that nobody other than Jacob can hear him, says, 'after we've had our tea, why don't we go outside and show Graham what we're going to do in the garden.'
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Leaving them to it rather than joining in with whatever might happen once they do go outside and after Graham has unloaded the car and carried their cases upstairs, Ruth looks at her two boxes of books and wonders if perhaps Graham is right and the chances of her reading them again any time soon, is about as unlikely as Christmas which is only four weeks away being cancelled. How and will it differ from the one they had planned with Sally and Jacob now that Graham is going to be here will she and Harry have time to do the shopping and buy and wrap the presents? Are altogether different questions.
First things first she tells herself collecting what needs to go into the dishwasher before she heads upstairs and into the bedroom to make the bed so recently occupied by Malcolm. Then because the only view of the garden is from hers and Harry's room, she wanders through with the intension of having a quick peep. Only to be overtaken by an unexpected feeling of tiredness. Five minutes she tells herself kicking off her shoes and lying down on the bed.
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Coming back into the house less than half an hour later, expecting to find Ruth doing anything but to be asleep on the bed, Harry rejects the urge to join her and maintains the role which now includes answering Graham's previous questions. But because Jacob is close by, despite having been distracted by a pair of buzzards that had been flying overhead, he knows this because Graham apparently worked in an animal sanctuary as part of his rehab, he moderates his version of Sally's history and how they had come to look after Jacob. Something which he hopes if Graham stays with them for as long as he says he will, might encourage Sally to tell him herself.
For the moment though he contents himself in the knowledge that not only does Graham want to do all he can to ensure that the design of the original garden is pegged out so that they can visualise it before the winter really licks in, but he genuinely wants to be part of what on the day that he and Ruth had first set off to meet Caroline had only been a pipe dream.
The latter of which poses the question as to whether he should wait until the New Year when they meet Malcolm and Caroline at the location where he made a pig's ear of his marriage proposal to ask Ruth the same question, or as he has been thinking recently when they come out of church after the Midnight Service on Christmas Eve?
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Waking up to the sound of laughter downstairs, Ruth's first thought is that she must have slept through the night and that Harry and Graham are having breakfast. Only for her brain to engage and remember that the reason she is fully dressed and someone presumably Harry has at some time covered her up, is because she had allowed herself forty winks. Over hot, what she now needs is to shower and get changed she tells herself, at the same time as her stomach rumbles as if it agrees with her.
That done and feeling a lot better, she stops halfway down the stairs where because they change direction there is a small landing, from where she can see not only the kitchen itself but that she was right in as much as it is only Harry and Graham who are occupying the space. Which means that Sally has collected Jacob and gone home. No explanations for her absence needed she thinks with relief as she makes her way to the bottom and walks over to where the table is already laid.
Which coincides with Harry rewarding her not only with a look which tells her he understands that it was the culmination of so much happening in the space of one day that caught up with her to point where she needed to sleep, but when she sits down, to be handed a glass of white wine and a list headed things we can do to help so that Ruth doesn't fall asleep at the table on Christmas Day, by Graham.