'I need your assurance that you will tell me the truth,' Ros's mother tells Harry, with an expression to suggest that she's seen the TV coverage, only for his phone to ring and after an apology because Home Secretary is flashing on his screen he goes back out into the hall, leaving Ruth to answer what on the face of it sounds as though despite wringing her hands, Marion as she had introduced herself can't face hearing the actual words, when he hears her ask, 'is there any chance that it wasn't her?'
'I'm so sorry but I'm afraid not,' says Ruth, persuading her to sit down, proving to Harry who can see through a crack in the door that bringing Ruth with him had been the right decision, whilst bracing himself for further questions once his call ends, with no idea as to reason that he and Ruth have been invited to dinner at the Home Secretary's house. A question which sees him buying himself some time by heading into the kitchen and making a pot of tea, which only serves to remind him that he had done the same for Ruth when she had witnessed Mick Maudsley jumping in front of a train, at a time when everything had seemed possible only to see it torn away from them.
Memories which are heightened when he carries the tray through, where the only emotion appears to be one of grief, until he raises the question that he knows he must about Ros's choice for the funeral, to which Marion responds by telling them that the small village in Bedfordshire was where Ros's grandmother with whom she spent a lot of time as a child had lived. His question as to the preferred undertakers, the order of service and who she thinks might want to attend, sends her spiralling again, which is why in a voice that given how dreadful Harry himself is feeing, is testament Ruth knows to the inner strength that he is able to sum up. More so when he suggests that she leaves it to them, before adding what she herself hasn't considered but makes perfect sense despite it not being true at this stage, when he tells her that Joanne who was a colleague and close friend of Ros's has already offered to drive her and Ros's aunt, who she going to ask to come and stay to and from the funeral.
All of which they relay to both Malcolm and Jo when they are sitting in the George after what feels like another interminably long day. Only to be told that having gone back to the time when Ruth had been away and based entirely on intuition and with no evidence to back it up, they think that the nowhere to be found Nicholas Blake having failed in his attempt to have the entire team assassinated by Davey King, might not only be a member of Nightingale but the person who had ordered the bomb to be planted.
Which just leaves the question as to why the Home Secretary has invited them to dinner the following evening, if you can ignore the verbal roasting which Harry knows he is in for because he had walked out from behind the car knowing there was a fifty percent chance that Davey would go for a head shot, before they say goodbye to Jo and head home. In Malcolm's case grateful that he has his own car and slowly via Yorkshire would be his preferred option if he wasn't so tired, because he doesn't want to be there when Ruth reminds Harry that Tom shot him, Collingwood had been on the brink of burning him alive and now when everything had been going swimmingly in as much as they are closer than they could have possibly imagined on the day when she had sailed away, she's found out that in her absence he had played Russian Roulette with a one-time member of the IRA, hell bent on revenge.
.
Which just leaves the question as to wear when you have been invited to dinner with the Home Secretary, at the end of the following and a much shorter day for the entire team, a decision made by Harry because he appreciates how tired everyone is. As he is grateful that not only has Ruth forgiven him, not though before she had made him promise when she had been fired up to the point where he had told her she had never looked more beautiful than she did at that moment, which had only added fuel to her already incredulous expression, that he would never again knowingly put his life in danger.
That she is struggling with the zip and asks for his help, on what is the dress she had last worn on the evening when they had walked down the road to the hotel in Fairlight and more slowly than was necessary on the way back because they had been unable to keep their hands off each other, is a thought he is still holding onto when they are invited into the drawing room for before dinner drinks, only for his vision of a repeat performance to be cut short when Ruth is persuaded to follow what is a clearly nervous Mrs. Lawrence into the kitchen.
Waiting for an explanation that makes sense, only comes after the Home Secretary has topped up both their glasses, and says, 'my wife was obviously shaken by what happened at the hotel and has got it into her head that I am still a target, which is why I am hoping that I haven't stepped out of line by telling her that when you and Ruth came to see me at the hospital it was as a couple, which I appreciate was a rather a crude way of approaching things but I'm rather hoping that Ruth will be able to assure her that it won't happen again.'
Not quite sure how to respond to this extraordinary revelation, one which certainly makes Harry feel able to tell the truth albeit only in part, in as much as until they are absolutely sure that Nicholas Blake is the person responsible for their host being the subject if not the victim of a plot to murder it's on a need to know basis sees him taking a breath, only to be surprised when Andrew as he's struggling to call him adds, 'oh and by the way I never did ask you how you damaged your hand?'
Now caught between a rock and a hard place and not wanting to lie, 'as a couple we went to see Ros's mother who not surprisingly was very upset, but during what was a difficult morning, she told us that Ros's choice of location for her funeral was based on the time she had spent there as a child with her grandmother, which at the time made me feel as though the Ros that we all thought we knew had an altogether different side to her that we hadn't appreciated. In the same way that punching Dolby who insinuated that I had let Ros down, which sounded better than saying he called me an incompetent prat, is the reason I have two broken fingers, on reflection might have been a bit hasty.'
'I assume we're talking about the same Richard Dolby who had you tortured because he thought you were a Russian spy and is well known for bullying his female staff, in which case he had it coming?'
'It was yes,' says Harry, hoping that the moment when the four of them can sit around the table and enjoy whatever is being prepared in the kitchen is imminent, rather than continue with what is getting to the point where he will want Scottie to beam him up.
Only for the Home Secretary to surprise him even further when he says, 'if Ruth is the same Ruth that caused you to glass that equally obnoxious Mace, and I know this isn't what you expected when I invited you here this evening, but as a husband who loves his wife more than life itself, I would like to think that keeping Ruth safe from now on is your only priority and if that means that I'm going to lose you to a world that will give you the peace you both deserve then I promise I won't try to stop you, other than I'd like to think that you'll still be here up until the point where whoever killed Ros is brought to justice.'
As someone who has always been predisposed to disliking politicians, Harry now saw in Andrew Lawrence a person who didn't hide behind the power he had, or was he someone who manipulated the conversation to suit himself by changing the subject or having shied away from admitting that his motive for inviting them had been to convince his wife that she wasn't going to lose him, in the same way that he himself has promised Ruth that he will never again put his own life at risk, which was why his response of, 'I promise you I will continue to do my job to the best of my ability, but whilst I'm doing that I would like to think that in the spirit of friendship you will begin the search for my replacement,' is heartfelt.