Author's note: Sorry for the delay. That funny thing called Real Life holds me in its tentacles and I hardly find some time to fill the line of my ideas with words. This will unfortunately happen more often in the near future but I'm sure there will be times when I have plenty of time to entertain you! ;-)

Strolling about St. Ives.

.

It was now somewhat after one p.m. and all the snow they had seen falling in the night was gone. Unlike the day before the sun was shining brightly but it was still cold and windy. Barbara put her hair in a ponytail so they won't always fly into her face. They went back to the Wharf Road at the harbour and then wandered along The Wharf to the Smeatons Pier where they stopped a while cuddling and watching the harbour and the open sea on the other side.

Thomas told her of times in his youth when he had been forced by his father to work for a fisherman near Nanrunnel to "teach him something about hard working life". Thomas had been fifteen and during the week he had stayed at the fisherman's shed next to his house to "learn to think and care for himself" like his father had said. For the weekends he had been free to come back home or to stay there. He mostly had stayed there, just to be away from his father. A difficult relationship that was between them at those teenage days.

"And I had to work really hard. For seven weeks I was ruled by the tide: Got up in the middle of the night, slept whenever there was an opportunity, barely ate."

Thomas sighed. "Nobody cooked for me and nobody washed my things. My father had made that arrangement with the fisherman."

"You poor boy." Barbara mocked. She helped her mother's household since the age of ten.

He rolled his eyes. If the fisherman's wife wouldn't have had mercy he supposed that he had starved to death in that time.

"I had to coil ropes, mend fishing nets and lobster pots, had to clean them and pile them up. And I literally was up to the elbows in fish."

With a slight sigh of disgust Thomas recalled how he had to rearrange the haul, stack the boxes and worst of all gill fish for the harbour sale.

"I thought that I would never again touch any seafood. And guess what - the next year I returned. My father didn't want to buy me that Vespa I had to have, and he also denied me the money for it so I had to make money by myself." Thomas grinned.

"A Vespa?!" Barbara asked disbelievingly.

Thomas wrapped his arms tighter around her and chuckled. "I was a bad boy..."

"...no doubt!"

"...with a rocker's leather jacket and heavy boots. But I've taken it into my head that I had to have that Vespa 150 GS, 1956 model. A dealer offered that special item with the option to restrict the engine but in the end I couldn't afford it."

"Say..."

"Yes, he'd charged an imm... You're not takin' me serious, do you." Thomas grumbled playfully.

"Yes, I do." Barbara had to chuckle. "I see that you fancied an old expensive vehicle - like nowadays - but I can't image you wearing denim and leather, Mr. Fine Cloth." She poked him in the chest with her finger.

"I was the terror boy of Nanrunnel!" Thomas tried to hold back his laughter.

"Oh, that I can imagine!"

"That village derived great benefit from my absence when I was working in that harbour." Thomas winked and kissed Barbara.

"Just harbour work? You didn't make it for deep water?"

"No, when my father and I had one of our argues about that holiday job beforehand we compromised I won't have to go to sea." Thomas chuckled when he told Barbara that he actually wasn't really fond of bob up and down in a cockleshell on the huge waves of open water.

"Neither am I." Barbara mumbled.

"I remember."

It came up for discussion when Barbara once had been to Essex in that case her former neighbour had been involved and she herself had been demoted afterwards.

"Now, can we please change the subject?" she asked eventually. "It wasn't my best acting."

"Well, you've saved two lifes and one of those was mine. I may say that wasn't the worst acting."

Thomas pulled Barbara into his arms and gave her a deep kiss.

Releasing her lips he asked "Now, did you work during your holidays?" He had his arms wrapped around her waist and kept on holding her close to him.

"You're joking." Barbara shook her head. "You rich man's son wouldn't believe it, but I've had a job throughout the year and not just since I was fifteen."

She told him of her countless jobs among daily school duties.

"I watched the neighbour's children, I delivered advertising brochures, gave extra lessons for younger school mates, went to the shop for an old lady - those teenager jobs I had. And becoming older I also worked as a cleaner or in a fish'n'chip shop. And it was during the year, not just on holiday."

For a while she dwelled on her own thoughts looking past his face onto the sea.

"And I didn't want to buy me an old scooter, I've saved every penny for my education."

Thomas cursed himself inwardly. She's true. he thought. I complain about my first world problems and totally forget her working class origin.

Barbara gave a laugh. "But it became really tough when I was a probationary constable. You might not have noticed it by yourself but they really underpay us, especially in the beginning. And I've had too less time to have a proper sideline. I nearly jacked it all in."

"I'm glad you didn't. Otherwise I wouldn't have met you. And that would be a pity!" They smiled at each other.

Oh, I adore that silver hair and his greying temples. Barbara thought. The wind ruffled through his dark hair. And I love how he's wearing it now. Not that short anymore. More to hold onto.

"You've come that far." Thomas stated.

"If I'm not constantly demoted."

"Naah, it was a single incident."

"No, it was the second single incident." Barbara chuckled. "Two weeks after my first promotion I had been demoted 'cause they had confused names."

"They what?" Thomas couldn't believe it.

"The stupid pen-pushers had confused names. It had to be Parvati Evans." Barbara shook her head. "I was hit in the face by that promotion because it wasn't my turn at all, three years in the force." She laughed and told him about that monetary apology they gave her for it.

"It was a pretty penny and came in very useful."

"It was the least they could do." Thomas got excited about that matter.

"You see, I always bring evil upon myself." Barbara sighed.

"Am I evil?" Thomas asked leering.

"Didn't I recently hear you swagger that you're a bad boy?!"

Thomas now grabbed her bum and pulled her hips firmly against his.

Barbara reddened. "Stop that, Thomas!"

"Why should I? You're mine. I want to express that!"

After another deep and passionate kiss they decided that the wind was blowing too freezy and the sea spray had become too heavy so they left the stormy pier.

.

Author's second note: As cold as it is outside they will need something warm when they return to their refuge. I'm so looking forward to something that is already written but its time has not yet come...

Author giggles.