'Are you sure about this?' Malcolm asks Harry the following morning when they are laying the table for breakfast.

'I'm not but Ruth insisted and who knows it might be something that catches on,' he says, before adding, 'that's a joke by the way.'

'But why?'

'Can we turn the clock back just for a moment, time enough for me to remind you that it was you who stopped me from committing professional suicide on the day when Ruth sailed away by strangling Mace and on the day when Adam was killed from drinking myself into an early grave. That you also identified Connie as the mole and for all the times that I have short of a better expression told you to go away and leave me alone and as if those aren't good enough reasons, when Ruth did come back not only did you offer us a roof over our heads but the privacy we needed to get to where we are now, which means that a trip to the West Coast of Wales where if you do say yes given that you are never going to walk the coastal paths around Britain as you once suggested, will be a drop in the ocean when it comes to us saying thank you Malcolm, and before you ask no it isn't the reason that we've postponed our honeymoon or will we treat it as such.'

'Put like that I can hardly refuse can I,' is Malcolm's response, coinciding with Ruth who has been doing their packing coming downstairs and looking every bit as happy as Harry does, combined with a smile which causes Malcolm to think that this couple who give over so much of their time to others, really do deserve to have a child of their own.

What he doesn't know is that they had made the decision to take him on holiday a while ago but had only confirmed the booking when he had said he wished he could be open about his past with his neighbours, with the subtext that as well as missing Colin he also missed his mum, that and a change of scenery after what felt like weeks rather than days of entertaining people, they themselves are also in need of a break and as it is a Sunday with the added hope that the volume of traffic given that they will be driving from one side of the country to the other, or two if you want to be pedantic will be less busy than on a weekday.

.

There were several adjectives which could be applied to both Suffolk and Pembrokeshire, but the latter held the trump card in as much as it wasn't flat or were the roads easy to negotiate after dark, when six hours later having taken it in turns to drive on what in the main had been motorways which meant that both Ruth and he were tired, Harry who had driven the last leg pulled up in front of the Cambrian Inn in Solva, halfway up what was a steep hill with a view across the bay which on their website had been described as magical and in Harry's case just as Malcolm had predicted, had him reassessing what amounted to a honeymoon. As did Ruth, but in her case grateful that Malcolm wouldn't verbally revisit the subject of them making babies whilst they were here and more so when they were shown to their rooms and with the agreement to meet in the bar in an hour's time gave her and Harry plenty of time on their own to have a relaxing shower and to look again at the options from which they were going to suggest Malcolm choose as to where and how they spent the week.

Without as they find out when they are sitting at a table by the window in the dining room, which again has a view across the bay has an equally good menu to suggest that their choice to stay here was a good one when it comes to dinner every evening rather than having go out again.

For Ruth to then wake up the next morning before Harry, comes under the heading of rare as hen's teeth, but when she opens her eyes and sees him sleeping beside her it is combined with a feeling of love that threatens to overwhelm her and one which increases when she pulls back the curtains and the sun which is coming up behind the hotel is shining on the sea. The world outside waking up in the form of tiny figures on the beach, fishermen with their boats, the occasional car driving up the hill outside. Ridiculous she tells herself when they themselves live within spitting distance of the sea and Malcolm is either still asleep or like her is about to put the kettle on in the room next to theirs, but there is something magical about whichever way you word it is being on their honeymoon.

Fighting the inclination not to get back into bed, for no reason other than she knows where it will lead and almost certainly make them late for breakfast, she makes herself a cup of tea and mentally revisits their wedding day. How loved they had both felt by everyone who had been there and how simple and uncomplicated they had made it just as they themselves had wanted it to be, her thoughts only interrupted when she hears Harry stirring behind her and turns to see the eyes that over the years have caused her so many different emotions, this morning combined with a smile which is almost impossible to resist but other than to kiss him before making him a cup of coffee she says nothing.

Which is sometimes but not always an indication to Harry that for some unexplained reason, which they are going to talk to the doctor about when they go for their pre - booked appointment as soon as they get back, that Ruth who unlike him dreams frequently has had a nightmare during which not only is she is back in Cyprus but terrified that George is coming for her in a way that he did when she had been living there. Memories in his case of the night in Malcolm's house when she had told him George had been relentless when it came to forcing her, which even to this day makes him feel physically sick. A fact that up until now only he and Malcolm know and might be the underlying reason that she thinks she might not be able to get pregnant.

Despite her saying, 'not last night or this morning and for the best part of the half hour since I've been awake rather than put the kettle on and wake you up, I've been watching what I presume happens every morning on the beach,' isn't enough to convince him that she hasn't, but knowing Ruth want's to ensure that it doesn't in any way impact on the holiday and more so when she adds, 'James or David, if we have a boy.'

Which is enough and more to give him the confidence to say, 'we will have a baby Ruth, although whether it's a boy or girl we won't know until we and I do mean we, because we are in this together whatever ever happens go for the first scan, but for now breakfast and Malcolm can wait, so come back to bed because I for one need a cuddle.'