'Miss Myers and Mr Carter, what have I done to deserve two of Harry's officers at this early hour?' Asks the HS.
'In Harry's absence we want to update you personally about our plan regarding Mace,' Ros tells him, despite Adam sitting on the chair which Harry has occupied so many times over the years because this is how they have agreed to play it.
'I have always given Harry free rein to do as he sees fit so providing that whatever you have planned will be enacted away from these shores, then do with him as you wish. But before you go, I trust that your esteemed leader and Miss. Evershed are safe and well wherever they are?'
'We have every reason to believe so yes,' says Ros keeping up the pretence of being in charge and having spoken to Harry the previous morning knows a good deal more than she is prepared to divulge, before getting up to leave but not before shaking his hand as does Adam.
'You didn't think that we ought to tell him then.'
'Tell him what Adam?'
'That Harry's coming over and when he does, we suspect that he's going to hand in his resignation.'
'You can't know that and besides it's none of our business.'
'I was the one who was with him when we were looking for Ruth remember and as I know to my cost with Fiona, we all make enemies in this job. Besides I suspect unlike some of the other politicians that Harry has successfully managed to fool over the years, that this one worked it out as soon as you told him that Harry were going to France.'
'Then we better be sure that we give them a good send-off hadn't we.'
'You've changed your tune.'
'And you can choose the venue.'
.
'So, we're all agreed that we hit him here,' says Adam when Jo and Zaf have joined them in the bar of the Royal Arms an hour later, having re visited and discounted the cemetery as being too vast an area to cover and notwithstanding that rain is forecast, whereas in the chaos which will follow Mace's collapse it will be easy to convince the landlord that they know him and as their car is parked outside that they will take him to the hospital. As opposed to putting him on a plane which will fly him to Egypt where he will be given a taste of what the Cotterdam prisoners had been subjected too, with no hope of ever being released on the grounds of him being a paedophile.
Only Jo being squeamish enough to say 'it's horrible,' to which Ros responds by saying 'we live in a horrible world and the alternative that Mace had got his hands on Ruth would have killed Harry.'
.
Quite happy not knowing what is being planned with one day to go, the couple in question who have an entire day to themselves because Malcolm and Martin are visiting one or more depending how quickly they find the War Grave Cemetery where Malcolm's grandfather is buried, are enjoying their new found freedom and each other by spending an uninterrupted morning in bed.
Where bathing in the afterglow of Harry's attention, 'despite what you told Malcolm, you do like the sea,' says Ruth, running her fingers across Harry's bare chest and causing him to imagine an altogether different scenario and a coastline with a broad expanse of sand where they can walk late into the evening, before arriving home to a house which they have chosen together.
'I also like rivers and mountains but my current priority is that I don't want to subject you to the same channel crossing as the last one, so we need to book the tunnel and sooner rather than later, providing that you haven't changed your mind about facing our colleagues head on. That and make the decision as to whether we're going to stay at yours or mine?'
'I haven't and lying here now feels as though anything's possible, although I might require some metaphorical hand holding when the time comes and I'd like to bring some of my books back.'
'Metaphorical or otherwise I'm sure we'll both feel better once we hear from Ros,' he says, if only to distract her from pushing him into telling her what else he has planned. The highlight of which is that he has managed to book tickets at the Barbican to hear the National Philharmonic Orchestra play what is billed as Christmas Light. A selection of music from around the world, including France, followed by dinner afterwards. By which time because he or they if he can persuade her to come with him, intends going to the Home Office the day after they arrive, means that by then they will both be members of the public.
Today though and by mid-afternoon when the sun comes out they go for a drive up onto the headland. Killing time maybe, but by looking behind them rather than over the choppy waters of the channel through which the ferries appear to be weaving, to the undulating landscape interspersed with tiny villages is a stark reminder of the two wars which had torn this part of France apart. The resilience of its people which had so fascinated a much younger Ruth and still does, which is evident by her expression which Harry acknowledges as he had on the day after he had found her when they had walked along the canal to the church. Ruth who could have flown so much higher had she not come to Thames House but because she did, has for the first time since he was a child, made him feel loved in every sense of the word. So much so that he cannot look away despite feeling tears pricking behind his eyes, or can he dismiss it as just being the wind, so instead points to the horizon and says, 'I was just wondering where we'll be this time next year.'
Pragmatism or just being Ruth he doesn't know or does he have to explain that he so wishes his parents were both still alive, to see as his mother had predicted that if he was patient enough that he would find someone who was worthy of his love and he her when Ruth says, 'the where doesn't matter Harry, it's building on what we already have that will determine how we spend the rest of our lives and as long as we're together I know we'll be happy.'
