This is hopeless says Harry's expression when Adam who has been into last but one of the agencies, climbs back into the car after yet another blank in their attempt to find Ruth.

'It's not over yet because I've got a phone number of another agency that doesn't open at this time of year but has someone we can speak to,' says Adam pressing in the numbers while Harry holds his breath. Until Adam in a voice which is entirely calm says, 'yes we can do that so we'll see you in the morning.'

'Where and is it her?'

As much as Adam would like to say yes and by doing so bring Harry back to being the man who had held him together after Fiona had been killed, 'client confidentiality, they want proof of identity, hers as well as ours,' he tells him.'

Which means in the hour that follows by which time they are back at the hotel, Harry washes away the negatives which have pretty much occupied the second day by having a long hot shower and despite his doubts with renewed hope. That the only way they can prove Ruth's identity as the person who has rented the yet to be named cottage, is for him to open the small package containing her things which Malcolm had found in her desk despite it feeling as though he's invading her privacy he does. Only to be surprised because it opens what is a window into the inner Ruth who when he reads through what amounts to a diary although not in diary form are her thoughts and dreams from before and since she has joined MI5. But that he features in virtually every chapter from the moment that Tom had shot him, when Danny had been killed, through his suspension by who Ruth describes as the witch and what she had felt on the night when he had walked back onto an empty grid, the terror when Collingwood had detained him right up to and including the chatter which had prevented a second date, is written in such a way that anyone other than him would see it as scribblings. Put together with and what they need to prove that they know her are some photos, one of which was when she had posed as Adam's cousin Lesley to convince Moran that Samson was planning to replace him and another which had been taken as long ago as his own birthday when Danny had organised a party. Who had taken the photo he has no idea, because all that matters is that he and she are clearly smiling at each other.

'In that case we need to pack,' says Adam a couple of hours later when they are sitting in the dining room with their meals in front of them and because Harry needs it, he pours him a glass of wine.

'How confident are you that it will be Ruth?'

'A five foot something brunette who has rented a rural property for two months with the option to extend, so yes Harry I am and so should you be. In the same way that when she opens her front door and sees you standing there, apart from offering to make us coffee I doubt either of you will want me to stay for any longer than it takes me to drink it. Which is fine because by then I will have achieved what I came to do which was to help you find Ruth. Which means that I can go back to London and make a few calls to some contacts from my time in the middle east that owe me a favour which should speed up the search for Mace. Unlike you who has the HS blessing to stay on as you have mine, because I dread to think when you last had a holiday?'

'Sometime in the seventies as I recall, not that I can remember much about it other than it rained every day.'

.

On the back of this renewed hope Harry goes for walk after dinner. The crisp night air helping to clear his head from all but seeing Ruth again in the morning and what Adam had said. Adam who had made it all sound so simple and it should be he thinks, memories of her hands on his face and the kiss. Whereas this time tomorrow not only will they be sharing a house but a bed, which reading between the lines is something that she has thought about almost as long as he has. Along with the something wonderful both verbally and physically, but not before he is sure how much and how soon she wants that side of their relationship to develop.

Thoughts which are still running through his head when they leave the hotel with enough time during which and as a precaution just in case Mace is roaming the countryside anywhere close to where Ruth is, to hire a car for however long he and Ruth are in France and to buy a couple of bottles of wine and some flowers. The former because Adam is going to drive his car back to London and the latter Adam knows better than to comment on. That Jean Luc is on time and the exchange of information takes place in a café where he tells them he met Ruth, answers the question as to what she had done when she first arrived. That she had fallen in love with the cottage and its location close to the towpath alongside the canal, falls into the somewhere remote category which he had imagined and now has directions.

'Remember to drive on the right,' is Adams attempt at humour,' as he shakes Harry's hand before adding, 'give her my love,' then climbing into Harry's car and driving off.

.

As she had done the previous morning the subject of Harry's hopes and dreams is still walking back from the village when he arrives outside her house. Adam having decided that as he was nearer to Calais and the tunnel that it made more sense to keep going, while Harry who is now standing there on his own has concluded that to explain his presence in any other way than to tell her the truth is not only his best but only option. Not though before he puts his arms around an ecstatic Ruth who as soon as she sees him, races along what is barely ten metres of the towpath as though she can't believe what she's seeing.

Now fifteen minutes later having been back out to the car to fetch not only his luggage but the bottles of wine and flowers with a cup of coffee for him and tea for her they are sitting on her sofa, him having told her in as few words as possible that Mace was still at large.

'But not a threat as long as you're with me which is for how long Harry?'

Resisting the urge to say for ever, he opts to tell her about the coincidence that hadn't registered by saying, 'many years ago, a close friend lost her life in what was recorded as a suicide after stepping out in front of a bus. When Maudsley did virtually the same thing I should have put two and two together but I was all over the place worrying about you. Then when we heard that Mace had gone missing, Ros went to see the Home Secretary not only to explain mine and Adam's absence but to tell him you were very much alive. Unlike other Home Secretaries who would have blown a gasket it was his idea that Ros visit Martin in Dorset who told her what had happened to his wife and how at the time we had both suspected Mace to be involved if not the perpetrator.'

'And now?'

'I'm here with the Home Secretary's blessing for as long as you want me to stay.'

'How did you find me?' Was an altogether different question.

'Trial and error with a lot of miles most of which Adam drove until we eliminated all but rental properties and spoke to your agent this morning. He wanted proof that we knew you before he would give us the address and the only thing I had was this which Malcolm retrieved from your desk before HR stormed in,' he said, producing the folder. 'The upside presuming that you still want me to stay, is that my notes had I made them would have mirrored yours and I could of course help you unpack your shopping,' was as far as he got before she kissed him.

'Had I not turned up what would have done with the rest of your day?' he asks her over lunch of crusty bread, cheese, and enough emotion to boil the kettle again.

'Gone for another walk this afternoon, made dinner, watched TV or if I had some books read for an hour or two, had a shower and gone to bed. In that order Harry,' she adds when he smiles.'

'I've haven't come here to foist my ideas on you or alter your routine Ruth so let's do that,' he says as tempted as he is to make more of the bedroom comment. But this is Ruth and steady wins the race he reminds himself.