Unlike the first time they met Doctor Laura Bradley when Harry had been concerned about her attitude only to be proved wrong in that she had been understanding and more than reassuring, this time it is Ruth who is metaphorically chewing her finger nails despite having gone the best part of a week free from nightmares, something which she puts down to the fact that they have been concentrating on finding a new home for Malcolm.
Not so this morning when they had woken to see what at first glance looked like a whole winter's worth of snow had fallen overnight and with the wind howling across the marshes had made for a very difficult drive into the village.
Which means that when the doctor says, 'marriage really suits you both so congratulations and I'm also sure that the nightmares will lessen both in severity and frequency, not that I'm dismissing what you've told me to be anything less than shocking, but just to be sure that there isn't any physical reason why you won't be able to conceive I'd like to examine you,' to which she adds given Ruth's expression, 'it might help you to relax if Harry sits next to you and holds your hand.'
Which of course he does unlike the Harry of the past who had never been near a doctors surgery, whilst at the same time thinking that in this case shocking doesn't even touch the surface having listened for what is the second time to Ruth's detailed explanation and how she had suffered both mentally and physically at the hands of George, only to watch her optimism turn into tears of joy mixed with disbelief when the doctor says, 'there are several reasons which might explain why you didn't know that you are actually pregnant although it's too early for me to be able to tell you both assuming that you want to know, whether you're having a boy or a girl,' before passing her a box of tissues and then adding, 'my next two patients have cried off due to the weather, so why don't I ask my receptionist to make you both a cup of tea before you drive home and as I'd like to see you on a weekly basis let's stick to Mondays shall we and if this weather doesn't improve I'll come to you and earlier if there's anything that either of you are worried about.'
'Thank you,' says Harry, knowing how inadequate it sounds, making a mental note to tell her how grateful they are when they see her in a week's time when he is sure they will have a whole list of questions to ask her.
.
Certainly calmer if still in shock despite the cup of tea they finally leave what feels like the sanctuary of the surgery and in Harry's case not about to take any chances despite the gritters having been out, so before they drive home buys a large sack of salt from what used to be an ironmongers, only to find out when they do arrive that Malcolm who has done the general shopping and on the back of having his offer on the house accepted has not only done the same but bought what he intends to cook this evening to celebrate.
'Thank you and congratulations,' says Harry and means it, but having made the joint decision that they are going to keep their news for later and more so now rather than steal Malcolm's thunder, for no reason other than a baby of their own is no longer a pipe dream but a reality which will in the short term involve changing the smallest of the bedrooms to accommodate a baby and in the long term to build on an already solid future that means this tiny person will never doubt how much he or she is loved, means that they need some time on their own to let it sink in.
Neither of them realising that Malcolm being Malcolm who not only knew why they were going to see the doctor but having spent so much time with them over the past few months, having watched them walking down the yet to be salted path and based on the added attention that Harry was paying Ruth, had if not quite getting the full extent of their news had become optimistic that at some time in the not too distant future there was no reason that they couldn't become parents.
Only to be prevented asking how it went when Ruth says, 'I can't feel my feet so I'm going to pop upstairs and have a bath.'
Not that he intends commenting or does he tell Harry that he himself has lost his once ability to school his face to suggest that nothing has changed, because his overriding emotion is that after all the years when his home life had revolved around his mum, that within a few weeks he will be living here permanently and as such will be happy to do whatever they ask of him whether it be babysitting or just the joy of watching them as a family whenever that might be.
Warmer and with a smile that Ruth can no longer hide, when she walks back into the kitchen it is to hear Malcolm deep in a conversation with Andrew about possible moving dates and describing a pre-arranged conversation he has had with Len who knows exactly what he wants bringing to his new house, all of which she is sure is going completely over Harry's head because along with the million and one other things they still don't know as in the approximate due date and where the doctor will suggest their baby should be born, he wants them rather than just him to tell both Catherine and Graham, combined with a look on this face makes her wish it was bedtime. One when it comes not that they had ever doubted is their first real chance to say I love you and we can do this.
.
After years working for the Security Services when promises made had meant nothing, through what remains of the next seven days, which according to the weather forecaster, not that they needed to look out of the window to know that the East of England was buried under snow to the point where the authorities were struggling to keep roads open and candles were providing the only lighting when the power went down, in their case thanking Len for suggesting that they installed a wood burner because on one particularly cold night they had slept in the sitting room, the residents of Walberswick including Harry and Malcolm had pooled their resources and their energy to ensure that the vulnerable never felt isolated or went short of food. In the same way that the doctor, or Laura as they'd come to think of her given the number of days when she or her colleagues had had to walk part of the way to see their patients or in Ruth's case wasn't the only pregnant and would be mum of what they now knew was going to be a baby boy, until the thaw which when it came saw the entire village taking a combined breath of relief and none more so than Harry and Ruth who had a list as long as their combined arms of baby items that they still needed to buy and a room to decorate.
For James, the name which Ruth had chosen simply because she liked it not because it was Harry's second name she had told him, not altogether convincingly, in the same way that the soon to be father again was imagining the early years when just as he had with Freddie and would do again he was quite sure be building numerous sandcastles combined with what in the short term had been the incentive he needed to make the garden child friendly as soon as the weather warmed up.
All of which has the backing of his older children, Catherine who is now flat sharing with Jo and in typical Catherine fashion had said why doesn't that surprise me, then because they hadn't replied had followed it up by saying that's amazing I'm so pleased for you both, and Graham who had said why stop at one, which Harry had remembered as though it had been yesterday was exactly what Ruth if not in those precise words had suggested on the night of the beach party.