It is Caroline saying, 'I can't thank you enough for what you're both doing,' when they are sitting at the breakfast table the next morning which is making it hard for the usually calm Ruth to separate the two occasions they have been here and to wonder if perhaps it is wise to be revisiting what in truth had been an awful day.

Harry's proposal, her rejection and the two days which had followed, when she alone had known where he had gone. How when he had walked back onto the grid, with the usual flick of his head she had followed him into his office. How she had tried to smooth things over with the offer of a coffee, only for him to say she was perfectly within her rights to say, 'I told you so' because she had suggested that driving all that way on his own would exhaust him. Added to which, she is trying and failing to forget the Lucas factor and what he might or might not have been thinking when he and Tariq had been sitting behind them in the church. In complete contrast to their reconciliation which has been beautiful is the word she would use to describe it if anyone were to ask her. Which reminds her that only yesterday, she had told Harry they were doing this for Caroline and how Harry had said Malcolm knows Caroline far better than we do, which is undoubtedly the case. In the same way that there is no one on earth who knows her better than Harry does, which means that if she does stumble either verbally or literally, she can do so in the knowledge that Harry will step in and save her. In the same way that the decision to take both cars has been his.

Had she told Harry this she would know that Harry has no such qualms. In fact, his only problem is to wonder if there will there be an obvious moment to suggest that he and Ruth take a turn around the grounds and if there isn't, how he can manufacture one? Because this time he has Ros's approval as was clear in her letter and knowing Ros, not only does he think she is out there somewhere organising who does what, but in his current frame of mind, would go as far to suggest that she has had a word with whoever it is that decides that everywhere north of Brighton gets rained on, because today although cold is bright and sunny.

Thoughts which he fails to park with the car, when the four of them are walking in the direction of the church. Caroline outwardly composed other than she is holding tight to Malcolm's arm as Ruth is to his. The only difference being that he knows that Ruth as he is will be acutely aware that a few metres to their left is a fence with their names on it.

.

'Twice in the space of two weeks,' Malcolm reminds him when Ruth is introducing Caroline to the vicar. Who unlike their own vicar who would almost certainly have gone off at a tangent, is offering her his heartfelt sympathy.

'Not something I intend making a habit of, but Ruth wanted to go and as it was Christmas Eve. How about you?' he adds to prevent Malcolm from telling him that apart from going back to work, he will doing anything that Ruth asks of him.

'I was just trying to remember when I last wore a suit.'

'The night you took Caroline to the theatre when we were all staying at Ruth's. Which sitting here now feels like a lifetime ago.'

'And only happened because Ros wrote you that letter. A day which incidentally Caroline still talks about and says how kind you both were. And I know this probably isn't an appropriate time to ask, but what with moving house and now this, I was wondering once it warms up a bit if Caroline and I could drive up to Norfolk and spend a few days with you?'

'March,' says Harry, his mind fast forwarding to a time when the blossom will be on the trees and a ring in Malcolm's pocket.

.

'What I don't understand is why Rosalind chose to be buried here?' asks Caroline. The same question that Lucas had asked on the day which Harry had responded to by saying that Ros had been an enigma to the end. Not something that a bereaved mother would want to hear when they have walked the short distance to where amongst the most recent headstones is a simple tribute to her daughter. The small bunch of flowers she is holding perilously close to being dropped and the question as have been the others since the moment they had walked into the church, directed at Ruth.

That Ruth has already shown Caroline the reading she had battled through on the day and with one eye heavenwards told her that the service had been well attended, both Harry and Malcolm know.

But if the latter has any doubts as to Ruth's ability to find the right words, or for Harry to think it is impossible to love her more than he does, they are blown away by what they both know is very much down to her quick thinking and her ability to make someone feel special, when she says, 'I asked myself the same question the first time I came here Caroline. But standing here now in this beautiful setting and knowing you as I now do, something which Ros orchestrated in as much as the four of us are here together, has led me to believe that Ros chose this place knowing that if something happened to her, one or all of us would bring you here. The quiet, the gardens where even today in the middle of Winter I mean just look at the snowdrops and aconites.'

.

'I couldn't have done what you did, you were amazing,' Harry tells Ruth and means it, after Malcolm and Caroline have driven away and they, as they both knew they would, have gravitated to the fence, beyond which are the carpets of flowers she had referred to, hoping to draw Caroline's eyes away from the grave.

'So, while I've been amazing, what were you and Malcolm talking about?' she asks him, in a voice which suggests that she's got a fair idea that it hadn't had any direct bearing on the reason they are here.'

'He commented on the fact that I have been in a church for the second time in as many weeks before saying that he couldn't remember the last time he had worn a suit, which again was a way of telling me that he recognises how all our lives have changed for the better.'

'I agree, although better doesn't adequately describe our lives does it, apart from today?'

'So, if I ask you the same question as I did the last time we were standing here, whilst admitting that I'd rather not get down on one knee and with the promise not to mention the number of people who might or might not attend our own funerals when the time comes, what would your answer be?'

'That up until now I've been trying to stop myself from straightening your tie, that I love you Harry which of course you know, whilst hoping despite us having told each other that today was all about Caroline that the only thing that has got me through the day so far, has been the thought that you'd ask me again, so yes I will marry you.'

.

The drive back to the hotel is in both cases with a smile that neither of them can hide, which had Malcolm seen them, would have raised the question as to what has happened? Instead, they are greeted with the news that their friends having come back have gone out again, this time to Kew Gardens which is four miles away. Somewhere that at any other time would have made Ruth envious. Whereas now as they head up to their room with the promise of a pot of tea in the next ten minutes, followed by a long hot shared bath to burn off the adrenalin which is surging through their bodies, before they intend to dress as they had done the previous evening in something casual. The thought being that if they are smiling when they go down to dinner that Malcolm and or Caroline will assume as it had been the previous evening, that they are looking forward to another quiet evening together.

Which in theory had been fine, whereas in practice celebrating to the point where they had gone to bed and fallen asleep because the water in the bath had gone cold, there isn't a cat in hells chance that Caroline who says, 'come on say something to cheer me up,' despite looking to be back to her usual forthright self, doesn't know, if not in detail, what they've been doing.

Unlike Malcolm who when Harry tells them, that they are getting married, says 'that's wonderful news.' as well thinking back to Harry's invitation that he and Caroline should come and stay in March, when the blossom would be on the trees. And how despite it being a reaction to him saying that Caroline was feeling a bit down in the dumps and the fact that he's had little experience when it comes to the opposite sex, knowing this couple as he does, he'd had an inkling that there was more Harry's response than just an invitation. Either way he's absolutely delighted although whether or not Harry has told Ruth he's decided on March is an altogether different question.