When Harry's phone rings, waking them up when it is far too dark for him to see what the time is his first thought is to ignore it. Until he adjusts to the light and sees Ros calling, which compels him to answer, but with no indication in his voice as to how he is feeling, or when Ruth who is visibly shivering climbs out of bed, grabs a heavy jumper and heads downstairs to make them both a warm drink that he is wondering if Ros is about to tell him that they need him back on the grid.

'Usual time always depended on what was happening at work but we aimed for mid-afternoon, whereas the usual place could be the cemetery but it could just as easily be the Royal Arms in Duke Street where we went afterwards,' he tells her once she explains that her reason for calling is that she and Adam are going to take a second look at what are now two venues without the pressure of the others being there.

'Anything else?' He asks during a pause when he quite rightly presumes there is more, when she adds, 'you know Mace better than any of us Harry, so why when he could have left the country, do you think he chose to stay here?'

'An over inflated ego and the belief that he can somehow silence Martin and or me, although I'm still not discounting Ruth as having been on his original list of victims.'

'Nor are we which is why in order to fool Mace into believing that one of the bods we've drafted in from six is you, as hard that is to imagine, we'll need to borrow your car and raid your wardrobe if that's ok? That and will you ask Malcolm to run through the plan and see if there is anything you think we ought to change and how best you think we can cover both venues.'

'Take what you like other than my grey suit, I have plans for that and get someone to have a bit of a tidy up if you would Ros.'

.

'Adam and Ros do you really think so?'

'Well, it's only six in London so it's unlikely she was calling from the grid,' is Ruth's take on why Ros has rung so early and by doing so has prevented what is still an exquisite feeling of them waking up together and easing themselves into the day. The upside being that having arranged to pick Malcolm and Martin up as late as ten there is more than enough time to enjoy a leisurely breakfast in front of the fire before they need to get ready. Something that they now take for granted, as is Harry's conviction that Ros's call was to confirm that he trusts them to deal with Mace.

Which means that by the time he parks in front of the hotel Harry is determined to put his conversation with Ros out of his mind and while he waits for Malcolm to appear passes the time by gazing unashamedly to where Ruth is weaving her way between the other shoppers on her way to the boulangerie. Another day in this new life they have created and with a lifetime of days like this to look forward to he can almost believe that the reason that Malcolm and Martin are here is to have a holiday. Malcolm especially who knocks on the car window before climbing in whereas Martin looks tense and is belted up within moments.

The presumption being that Martin with tell them in his own good time, is in the short term is helped by Malcolm who cuts through the silence by extolling the virtues of French cuisine after Ruth asks if they enjoyed their meal the previous evening and how well they had slept? Diversionary tactics which the three of them know only too well but in this case are designed to pass the time during which Harry drives out of the village and then sticking to the tried and tested but with a slight variation planned, turns onto the same stretch of road as they had when they had spent the day in Wimereux. The new car with a sat nav that unlike the day when he and Adam had been looking for Ruth, after half an hour directing them to a vantage point on the headland and better still to a café.

Where whatever Ruth is expecting Martin to say when they are sitting by the window watching Harry and Malcolm who are standing at the counter ordering their drinks, 'I want to go home and take my chances,' isn't it.'

Worse still for what feels like an age and short of reminding him just how much time the team at home have invested in keeping him keep safe and that he should be grateful not throwing it back in their faces, she hears herself going on the offensive by telling him why she herself is here as is Harry, rather than one or the other of them being imprisoned for life having been set up by Mace and before that how Malcolm had lost his best friend Colin to another of life's monsters.

Hers and Harry's radar alerting him to the fact that she will explain later they maintain up and until for the second time in as many weeks he parks the car on the seafront in Wimereux where unlike the first time when it had been cold, not only is there are bitter wind blowing there is an entirely different conversation to be had.

.

'Ropes, knots, men playing in boats is not my idea of fun,' says Harry to Malcolm, who is steering Martin in the direction of a chandlery further along the harbour wall when the prospect of getting Ruth somewhere warmer and finding what the hell is going on is much more tempting. Before arranging to meet up later.

'I stopped short of telling him that Collingwood dowsed you in petrol before Zaf saved the day,' says Ruth who on their last visit here had been adamant that unlike Harry who had arrived in France with very little more than the clothes he was wearing that she had brought sufficient with her. Whereas now she has little chance of persuading him that the dress which he had wanted to buy her then isn't something she'd like to wear when their colleagues see them together as a couple for the first and last time, because it is, when they are seeking the sanctuary of yet another coffee shop and what they do have control over.

Time to decide what else they want to do during their trip in addition to the multiples of decisions that they will have to make about their houses and that Harry still needs to pre book his appointment with the Home Secretary and because Harry wants to see Wes that if Adam gives them the say so they will take him out for the day.

Only to discover that whatever Malcolm has said to Martin seems to have worked because by the time they track them down he is receptive to Ruth saying, 'Harry and I will cook this evening if you'd like to come over about seven.'

.

An evening which passes without any further talk about what might or might not happen in what is only two days away, largely because once they have eaten Ruth asks Martin about his house in Dorset and how he came to choose it which as it turns out is something he does like to talk about and at the same time allows Harry to discuss with Malcolm the plan as Ros had requested. The decision made that rather than ring Ros at what is almost eleven which is when Malcolm and Martin finally leave that Harry will send her a message saying nothing to add but be careful.

After which and locking the doors and turning off the downstairs light, Harry climbs the stairs and looks at Ruth's sleeping form. The one constant in his life that allows him to put what has been an extraordinarily stressful day to the back of his mind and fall asleep beside her dreaming about the moment which is fast approaching. The ability to cut the ties with their past life once and for all and to build a new one.