'I should have made the connection Malcolm then none of this would have happened.' Harry tells him.

'You were stressed, worried about Ruth.'

'I still am.'

'Glad to hear it otherwise I've be wasting mine time.'

'Any news on Mace's whereabouts or hers?'

'No but I've got some advice which might help to lower your blood pressure.'

'Which is?'

'Within moments of hearing from Adam that Mace had gone walkabout we put a ring of steel around Europe. Border forces, airport security staff and Interpol all have a copy of his photo. So do as your friend Martin suggested and concentrate your efforts into finding Ruth and before you say this is all your fault, somewhere between you glassing Mace and both of you ending up on the quayside, Ruth said and I quote, if I can save him I will.'

Somewhere during the silence which follows, Malcolm knows that that Harry is looking for a way to reply other than, 'I just hope she's warm wherever she is,' only for Ros to interrupt him yet again, but this time to say, 'she is sorry and that she hadn't meant to imply that she didn't care, because she does,' before asking 'if it was Harry he was talking to?'

Ignoring the fact that Ros has already said she was sorry, 'he was just checking if we have any news on Mace's whereabouts,' he tells her.

Not expecting her to add, 'Zaf and Jo are on their way back having tracked down Mace's ex who has been more than forthcoming about the women who provided a service which suggests that his taste for being hurt was the only thing that turned him on so when we do find him a nice little holiday where he sent the prisoners should do the trick don't you think?'

Malcolm whose eyes are already watering having spent the best part of two days staring at screens just nods. Yes, Mace deserves everything that's coming to him but he doesn't want to imagine what that might entail thank you very much. And like Harry he does hope that wherever Ruth is that she's warm and knows how much she's loved.

.

Unlike Ros, Adam knows that Harry is ringing Malcolm on a regular basis and is glad that he does because it is taking the pressure off him, but at the start of another day when they need to be proactive, 'so we ignore towns as agreed?' he asks him.

'Which unless Ruth has bought a car in the last twenty-four hours which I very much doubt, leaves us with a strip of land divided by a major road, a railway line and a canal, interspersed with a sprinkling of villages and footpaths which I would suggest extends inland for a maximum of ten kilometres and from east to west – well your guess is as good as mine.'

'So, working on the premise that Ruth is somewhere within those boundaries and I don't want pry, but was there anything other than going to Paris that you or she might have said when you were discussing your Grand Tour which might help us to find her?'

'Walking in the streets, sitting in cafes without a back-up team or a surveillance van.'

'Then it's just as well we like coffee,' Adam tells him producing a map and a local guidebook of the area that they are slap bang in the middle of.

That Harry then hands him the car keys and says, 'you drive' suggests that Harry still doesn't trust himself behind the wheel of a car, but that he accepts the responsibility of reading the map is vital. Because using the sat nav when they are crisscrossing multiples of junctions to eliminate as many locations as possible and as quickly as possible to picture where Ruth might be, will in all probability see them getting lost. The first example of which is when the lights flash at a level crossing and what is clearly a freight train rumbles through what is listed as a village but is clearly only a hamlet given the number of houses.

By the time they do stop for coffee in what constitutes a village where a market is in full swing, they head towards what is listed as a guest house. Boyed at finding it, their hopes are dashed once again because a card in the window says closed until the Spring.

Mercifully the café is open where in surprisingly good French as far as Adam is concerned, Harry enquires about accommodation in the area.

To be reminded via Harry, that apart from hotels the likelihood of them finding anywhere to stay at this time of year would be properties to rent. But therein lies a far greater problem that within the area they are covering there are hundreds if not thousands according to the proprietor, but with the flicker of hope that a good proportion of these will also be closed for the winter.

'Does this sound like something that Ruth would do?' Is a question that is answered by Harry's expression over a second cup of coffee.

The where is another question altogether other than, 'we can rule out something which is surrounded by other properties or next to an apartment block.'

'In which case we narrow our search area to small and rural and where she would have gone to find something to rent?'

.

The subject of Adam's contemplation and Harry's accelerating heartrate due to the possibility of finding Ruth as early as the next day, having slept far better than she had expected, is currently walking back from the village after what she had realised once she had compiled a list of what she needed to buy in the way of food as well as warmer clothes will require a second visit.

That she had felt obscurely comfortable in her new surroundings when she had been pottering around the small shops and speaking a language that had tripped off her tongue as easily as her own, she had hoped would diminish her need to see Harry rather than just imagine what he was doing. The predictability that is her future with nothing more than a cup of tea to look forward to when she gets in then what, is a question that she knows is going to be ever present with no more visits to the roof terrace or walks along the embankment. The heat that had her drawn like a moth to a flame when he had come anywhere near her, is something she needs to remedy but how? Get a job maybe, join something other than a choir possibly or find a bookshop are all crossing her mind as the house comes into sight. The remoteness as it had when she had first seen it calming her torrid indecision and lifting her spirits.

So much so that by the time the light starts to fade she has negotiated her way into discovering how the oven works enough to be able to cook herself a proper meal, something that she rarely had time to do at home, succeeded in lighting the fire and moved things around so that she now has a flat surface on which to put the books she intends to buy. Through the window she can see the canal and beyond that some way in the distance she can see the tower of a church.

Somewhere else to explore she tells herself the decision made that as soon as she buys a warmer jacket and some boots which are designed for walking off the beaten track. Maybe even as early as tomorrow she thinks, turning on the TV in time to hear the weather forecaster say that across Normandy it is going to remain cold but without rain for the remainder of the week.