Adam's call to say that they have just driven off the train so prepare for a tornado in the form of Wes, not only catches them on the hop but reminds Harry of the morning when he and Adam had left the agent having proved that they knew Ruth, but before that how he had felt after three long days of searching and even longer nights when he'd barely slept and how if it hadn't been for Adam chivvying him, he would in all likelihood have given up on his ability as a man who was so much in love to cope with what had reached crisis proportions.
A crisis which after what is no almost three months has transformed his mindset to the point where he truly believes that he and Ruth can and will achieve everything they have planned. Other than today when they have overslept which means that in less than half an hour Wes's first impression will be one of chaos not the calm they had been hoping to portray. Until he reminds himself that their early morning routine is pretty much set in stone, which means that when he goes downstairs to stoke the fire and make them both a restorative cup of tea, not though before throwing an appreciative smile at a naked Ruth who having grabbed her clothes is disappearing into the bathroom is something that won't have to change, for the simple reason that for the one and only day that Adam will be with them they are going to do very little else other than walk along the canal into the village.
The reason that Wes is behaving like a tornado or a bomb which is about to explode Harry discovers when he hears their car pull up and goes out to greet them, is because although Wes knew and had been looking forward to going on a train through a tunnel under the Channel, he hadn't grasped the fact that his dad was going to drive their car onto the train which means not only has he been sitting in it during the thirty five minute journey, but is pleased that the house that he and Ruth live in hadn't required the drive of his imagination. Added to which and guaranteed to please Wes is that before they go for their walk, they are going to have breakfast French style together.
If Harry got the tornado treatment, then the scene of a much calmer Wes who having walked into the kitchen ahead of them giving Ruth a hug, proves how well equipped she is to become whatever Wes needs her to be and not only as a provider of a breakfast of fruit and croissants. Highlighting yet again that had she been the mother of his own children how different his life would have been. In the same way that Wes follows her upstairs to use the bathroom and when they come back down, he allows her to choose which of his warm sweaters he should put on before they set off. Something he can remember Catherine at the same age had insisted she could do for herself, combined with an almighty strop.
.
Blessed by sunshine as they had been on the day when Malcolm and Martin had arrived but without the negativity as Harry likes to think of it rather than feeling at the time that Martin should have been grateful about what had been Ruth's suggestion that they come over, at the same time knowing he should be focussing on the present, he manages by watching his future wife, a description that always tears at his heartstrings, responding to what are a barrage of questions from Wes about the surroundings. The latest of which is to tell Wes that the tiny creature that is swimming towards the bank on which they are standing is a water vole.
Only for Adam to interrupt his thoughts by saying, 'please don't think because I lost Fiona that you have to be guarded when it comes to how you look or behave towards Ruth, because as you well know Fiona and I never shied away from showing how we felt.'
Which is so far removed from what Harry has been thinking that his response of, 'I'm not sure I understand,' is exactly that.
Unlike Adam who has been waiting for the right moment to tell Harry something which he may not have considered, so in the hope that he will realise that he is being genuine rather than interfering says, 'yes, I miss her and always will but Fiona and I lived on the edge both in our home and work lives so to be honest it could easily have been Fiona who was standing here rather than me. Whereas had you lost Ruth to somewhere hundreds or even thousands of miles away from here with no hope of knowing where she was or ever seeing her again, the pain would never have lessened. Besides who other than Ruth would put up with you?'
Having conceded that Adam was right on both counts, Harry was still smiling when they caught up with Ruth and Wes who were standing on the bridge that they have aptly named the bridge which leads to nowhere, before they walk the last half mile into the village which is busy as it always is at this time of the day, but in what Ruth would have said was a good way.
Where, 'wherever we take Wes will be weather dependant,' Harry tells Adam, who having booked in at the hotel is sitting alongside him on the low stone wall which surrounds the square, watching Ruth with Wes in tow disappear into her 'we sell everything including books' shop. Reappearing with a carrier bag containing pencils and various notebooks so that he can write and draw pictures about what he sees. Something which Adam concedes is rather than spoiling him just one more tick against Ruth's name and unlike Harry who has been in what Fiona would have told him was a thoughtful mood all morning that Ruth appears to be blissfully relaxed. A thought which stays with Adam confirming how even in the home setting that they balance each other out but leaves him with the feeling that there is something which for whatever reason they are not telling him, such as is Ruth pregnant perhaps?
That what remains of the day goes quickly, means that the moment when Wes will either change his mind and want to go back with him or be happy to stay, sees Adam continuing in the same vein of thought. Wes's bag unpacked and his clothes in a draw in Harry and Ruth's bedroom, the furniture in what he agrees with them is far too small a house to live in long term, rearranged to accommodate the camp bed where Wes will sleep. Proving what he has always known that whilst Wes is with them that they will put his needs first. A mantle that barring emergencies at work will be taken up by Malcolm and Zaf, who are going to help him to move his and Wes's things into Ruth house, so that when Wes comes home it will be to the new start that they both need. A combination that makes him feel overwhelmingly grateful to the couple who are preparing dinner having told him not only that they can manage but that he should relax.
.
That Wes had done nothing more than hug Adam when he was leaving meant that bedtime for Wes had been without drama other than as he had never slept on a camp bed so had been excited. Which means that when Harry wakes up the following morning, his trip downstairs to make the tea is laced with curiosity as to how he has slept. Only to find Wes sitting at the table with his books and pencils spread out in front of him with an entry from the previous day in progress. Childlike in its simplicity he has drawn a train, the square and what is undeniably the canal, together with what looks like a cat but he presumes is a vole. Under which once Harry's eyes adjust to the light Wes has written in understandably squiggly writing, I like it here, followed by Wes's version of a smiley face.
Very similar to the one which Wes gives him when he realises he is there and Harry tells him that, 'he is going to make Ruth a cup of tea and that she'll love his picture.'