'Not in the way that you think,' is what Harry says, in response to Alec's assumption that there's a woman involved, although privately he admits that this is not entirely true because without realising it Ruth has somehow got under his skin is the safest way to describe the impact she is having on him and has done since the moment that she had walked into the room at GCHQ, whilst acknowledging that now isn't the time to discuss his personal feelings because he needs to get Alec onto the grid. Only to discover that during the time since he picked him up and based on what little he's told him, that not only has Alec gone back to the moment when they hadn't been able to find the list of potential analysts, but has developed a firm understanding of what's happened since.
Confirmed when he says, 'you gave Ruth the job on the back of single handedly recognising a terrorist group and preventing them from bombing numerous sites which in my opinion suggests that it's someone close to the group, maybe even a relative that you should be looking for, whilst not forgetting that they were based in Durham which unless I'm mistaken is one hell of a distance away from London, in which case perhaps there is someone closer to home that you've personally upset?'
Where to start but not wanting to admit that as far back as the day he married Jane he has been doing just that, something which Charles Grady had used as an effective weapon on the day he'd been framed by Connie, but necessary given what he does whilst religiously sticking to his principles rather than his job description, which means that the list spans not only several generations and continents but adds to his frustration.
One that by the end of what has been another long day is muddied even further when just as he is about to go home, Malcolm appears with what he says is a short-term solution by suggesting that he absents himself from the grid for a few days by taking Ruth back to Cheltenham.
'And Ros agrees with this?'
'It was her idea,' he doesn't expect, or for Malcolm to add, 'it's all above board and nobody will think otherwise,' when a multitude of questions are running through his mind, one of which is who are these others Malcolm is referring too, but before he has the chance to ask him, he continues by saying, 'the substance that Grady injected you has caused a delayed reaction and the company doctor has suggested that you go home, so nobody will be able to question why you're not here.'
'And Ruth?'
'Is going back to Cheltenham to close the door on her life there as we always knew she would and with you to look after her the firing line and whoever is behind it is something that the rest of us can deal with without you having to worry that some as yet unknown lunatic is going to murder her in her bed.'
'And in this madcap scheme has anyone made as decision as to where we should stay?' Harry asks him, throwing his own words back at him when he had suggested that he himself applied for the post, at the same time trying to blot out the image of Ruth in the hands of the yet to be discovered madman.
'Already done and booked by me, two rooms in a nice little hotel in the heart of the Cotswolds which means that it's all above board.'
.
All above board in the sense that Ruth as Malcolm had put it is temporarily out of the firing line, but there is the not so small matter that when he picks up, no calls for the next morning that they are going to be spending an unspecified number of days followed by nights under the same roof, which given how he feels might he thinks prove difficult, only to find when they do arrive after a journey during which they have avoided talking about work or in his case his perceived failings and certainly his feelings, instead having kept it light hearted, the hotel unlike Malcolm's description is not in the least bit small as well as being set back from the road, confirming what has always been his presumption that the Cotswolds are one of the regions where only the rich and famous can afford to live, whilst thinking that maybe it won't be as awkward as he imagined to spend some time pottering about what Malcolm had described as small villages when he'd made the booking.
Added to which if this unknown someone does put a trace on his car they will assume that he's stopped off on his way to Cheltenham, are thoughts which he uses to occupy his mind once they have parked the car and then walked the short distance into reception, him having insisted that he carry their bags at what is clearly lunchtime, something they have missed but by mutual agreement accept the offer of soup and sandwiches as being kind, as well as booking a table for dinner. In advance of which they are shown into what are rooms on either side of what is a long corridor and from where they emerge at the agreed time. Before descending the heavily carpeted stairs and crossing the room to a table overlooking the garden.
Only for Ruth to surprise him by saying, 'I can't help thinking that if I hadn't applied, you wouldn't have had to go to all this trouble.'
His response of, 'but you did and were the standout candidate and this isn't the first time or will it be the last that I or one of my team are threatened, besides I wouldn't call spending a few days away from the grid trouble,' doesn't provoke a response other than to nod for which he is grateful, as he is that any further negative discussion is prevented when the waiter arrives and asks them if they are ready to order.
What as it turns out by the time the main course arrives accompanied by what is a more than decent bottle of wine is a smile on Ruth's face that allows him to dare to believe that against all the odds that just maybe she can see beyond the fact that he's her boss and that the demands he makes not only of his team but himself, that here in a setting which is so far remote in all senses of the word that when all is said and done he is just a man who is enjoying the company of the woman he is with, whereas anything more than that and he's sure she'll run a mile or worse still tell him to take her to Cheltenham and then what leave her there?
Although not under any circumstances has him thinking that for however long it is before he gets a call from the grid to say that they have dealt with whoever is posing a threat that he needs to keep those sort of thoughts to himself takes an altogether new twist when the expression on her face changes to one which suggests she can read his mind.