Chapter Text
“Push, Elroy, push. good lad, well done. Good finish Henry, come on Jack, that's it, give it everything, well done. Alright lads, have a drink”. Strike had to walk the water bottles to the three boys flopped on the lush grass near St Mawes castle at the cliff top to the west of the Village. All three sucking in the New Year’s Eve air, their chests heaving after the run from the top to the bottom of the cliff path to the beach below, across the beach to the rock face the other side of the beach and return to the top.
“Okay, let’s make our way back. That was a good session, helping blow away some of the Christmas feasting.”
The three teenagers heaved themselves off the grass as they drained their bottles, making sure they took them with them. If they even thought of dropping them in the grass, Strike would just know and make them run it again. They all made their way along the clifftop to the path that led back into the village.
None of them had noticed the loan figure standing close to the castle wall, watching them.
“Is that the Atlantic coach?” Leroy and Henry were lads brought up in the East End of London, their only experience of seeing the sea was a school trip to Southend on Sea. The nearest to being on the sea was to walk along the mile long Southend pier.
“That’s the River Fal, with that town being Falmouth, ‘cos it is at the mouth of the river. Further south is the English Channel, if you keep going south you would eventually reach France. We won’t reach there tomorrow, Dave will only take us down that coast, as far as Lizard Point, the most southerly point on mainland Britain.
“Never been on a sailing boat, that one there looks like it’s jumping around a bit.” commented a worried Leroy, his eyes widening as he watched a smaller yacht being tossed across the constant choppy waters in the meeting of the English Channel, the river Fal and the creek known as Carrick Roads.
“S’okay, that boat is on a broad reach, racing for speed, Dave will keep us to just cruising, more comfortable sailing, but with enough movement to test your balance, will be good training for footwork. “Right back for something to eat and rest, we’ll do some ropework later before heading to the beach”
They strolled back to the cottage, now an airBNB. Before Strike and Lucy had managed to get the cottage ready to sell, Ted had suffered a severe stroke and passed away in late September. The siblings agreed to use the rest of Ted’s estate, monies from life insurance and pensions to update and refurbish the cottage to place it as an airBNB, renting out to pay for the upkeep. Giving the siblings, but mainly Lucy the ability to still use the cottage themselves, keeping the link with the happy memories of their childhood. Dave Polworth agreed to look after Jowenet, to use as he wanted, but made available as part of the package to rent if required. Dave would take out the clients to ensure that they had the necessary sailing skills. The money charged for renting the boat went to Dave as a thankyou for all the help and friendship he gave to Ted in those latter years.
Lucy wanted to be the main designer in the improvement of the cottage, to reach a standard that allowed the cottage to become an AirBNB property. Strike held the purse strings to make sure Lucy did not become too exuberant in her designs. After many discussions and some arguments, with Greg's quantity surveyor skills they had managed to open up the the living area into an open planned kitchen lounge design, adding a shower room on the ground floor next to the small front room which had become a small snug/quiet room, which also had a pullout bed for extra sleeping. Ted’s potting shed had been dismantled with its increased base being used to build a cosy garden house with large thermal efficient windows allowing views south across the harbour towards St Anthony’s Head on the Roseland Peninsula.
All of the building work was completed by a friend of Polworth. By early December the cottage was ready for hire.
The Package was proving popular, Strike had only managed to pick up a booking for the New Year period. He would have liked to have booked over Christmas as they had closed the office over the holiday period, but a family from Yorkshire had booked the cottage for a different festive holiday experience, though cancelling at the last minute the New year period of the booking.
Strike had brought Jack and two other members of the Romford boxing club as part of his assistant coach duties. With his determination to improve his fitness, he had taken up boxing again. Joining the Romford boxing club, fortunately the head trainer was also a member of the british paralympic association, and seeing the skills that Strike showed at his limited training sessions had offered to have a prosthetic blade fitted to enable improved movement and training techniques.
With no response from Robin after the reveal of his feelings for her before her weekend away with Murphy. She had returned on the following Monday with no ring, which pleased him no end, but without any response to him. Strike accepting that any more than just their business partnership had been quashed and ignored.
With Ted’s passing the following weekend, any thoughts of romance with Robin were extinguished, he and Lucy had been devastated with Ted’s death, throwing their energy into holding onto the cottage.
He spent most of his spare evenings at the boxing gym and free weekends with Lucy at the cottage decorating, as the builder made all of the structural changes.
Lucy had aimed to organise his birthday weekend as also a girls weekend to celebrate and finish the cottage, inviting Pru, who had shown interest in where Strike and Lucy had grown up, Ilsa, who she had had no chance of stopping from attending for the weekend and Robin who happily swapped the weekend with Strike. With the painting finished, the girls would choose a room and design and buy the furnishing to match, Robin had bagged Strike's old room. Nick was handy with a drill and had hung any furnishings.
He was also keen to throw himself more into his boxing, starting to assist with the training of the young boys keen to take up the sport. The head trainer recognising Strike's disciplined approach to his training, asked him to pick up the task of discipline coach to a couple of the more gifted young boxers. Both had come from deprived housing estates in east London, not much above the squats that Strike had spent his childhood in.
Though with gang culture much more prevalent than in his youth, and with the drug culture more amongst the youth. Using his army training he was beginning to turn the boys away from the only life they knew, encouraging their school work and slowly changing their attitudes to their social contacts.
As part of that development, and as he had had limited time to spend with the young boxers, he hoped to use the holiday period with the agency closed. He had promised to take them to a totally different environment for a few days, including a day sailing and a training session arranged at the local Falmouth boxing club. The boys had hardly ever left London, so the few days in St Mawes was a great adventure for them. His nephew Jack, who idolised his uncle, took a while to convince his mother to allow him to take up boxing, but with Strike promising his half sister that Jack would do no more than gentle sparring, but the discipline of the sport could only be a benefit, she had relented. Of course, although nowhere near the quality of boxer that the two young proteges were showing, there was no way his uncle was going on a short training break at the cottage they all loved without taking him. Especially as it included a day sailing on grandad’s Jawonet.
When they had first arrived at the cottage they walked around choosing their bedrooms, having one each including the new pullout sofa bed in the snug. Strike was going to use his old room, but he was hit by the lingering scent of Narciso. Unnerved by the coincidence of the previous guests using the same scent, he knew he would not be able to sleep in the room with reminders of Robin. Part of the reason for his involvement in boxing was to help his mind have a rest from constantly thinking about her and Murphy together, which he thought he had successfully achieved, but to have the smell in his old bedroom, conjured images of the pair of them in his old bed. The ultimate rejection. He decided it would be best if he slept in the snug downstairs. Jack was happy to have the bedroom he always stayed in as kids when visiting his grandparents.