p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Strike felt an immediate savage pleasure at the sight of Matthew and Sarah in the corner of the small yorkshire pub. Matthew appeared drawn, depressed and his smooth young face was showing the slight creases around the corners of his mouth that denoted prolonged stress. Sarah on the other hand, sat with her arms folded looking bored and over made-up, rolling the ankle of her crossed leg with ill disguised impatience. Robin, who was busy shrugging her coat off her shoulders, had not seen the couple in the corner of the small pub. Although it had been many months since it seemed to strike she had been able to speak of matthew and sarah with ease and even go so far as to make light of her disastrous first marriage, strike doubted that she would have willingly ventured out for christmas eve drinks if she'd known the drinks would be had in the same room as her ex and his new wife. Strike gave her a wordless look, and looked meaningful over her shoulder causing her head to swivel, taking in the small pub around them. Blank shock registered on her face, followed by a slow rising color that diffused her face with a delicate blanche, that despite revealing her emotion, was flattering to her pale skin./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Deftly, Strike rested a hand on the small of her back and guided her silently to a small table in the opposite corner of the cramped space. Strike prided himself on being adept at reading the emotions of others, however, Robin, whose emotional states he was always most interested in was hardest for him to read. For a woman of ease and good humor she was more stoic than most, and a fact that was both a cause of gratitude and consternation to him. At the moment, he knew her well enough to recognize the swell of emotion that was rising in his partner, but was not absolutely certain what she was feeling, anger? embarrassment? Fear? Or worst of all Regret?br /"You alright?" he said quietlybr /"Fucker.." she muttered with some /Definitely angry then, he thought, suppressing a small quirk at the corner of his happened to agree with her. Matthew WAS a fucker, and so was Sarah. He'd thought it of the former for years, and the latter as soon as Robin had introduced them at their housewarming party. Both of them were the sort that wanted six figure salaries, lived in beige walled houses and had 2.5 kids- and slept with other people's spouses. They really made quite a perfect couple, complimenting each other in both duplicity and /"Cheer up, Ellacott. He looks fucking miserable." Strike said,leaning back in his chair to eye the bar, "Like He exchanged tiramisu for a turd."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"An unwilling snort of laughter escaped her, he did look unhappy she had to admit. Robin, who had known Matthew intimately as long as she'd been an adult , recognized his dissatisfied pout, which she had always found childish and petty, as well as weariness that was a new addition to the smoothly handsome man she'd married./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Robin was lost in the turmoil of her thoughts and jumped slightly as Strike clapped her gently on the shoulder as he pushed up from the table to weave through the crowded space to the worn mahogany bar. Robin spared a glance at his retreating back feeling oddly exposed. His presence always buoyed her courage, however, an irritated part of her thought that a gentleman may have turned her around at the door upon seeing her ex and his new wife. It seemed to Robin however, that Strike was deriving some pleasure from seeing Matthew and Sarah in the flesh post divorce. A small part of her brain not devoted to bitter recollection wondered at this./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"The fact that Strike had agreed to spend his Christmas in Masham was odd enough, but the circumstances of her partner's invitation to the family festivities was still more mystifying. After some polite inquiry about her boss's holiday plans by her mother the week prior, Robin had revealed that Strike had no plans to speak of. His sister Lucy and her Greg had decided to take their uncle Ted on a trip to Bavaria for Christmas rather than facing the prospect of a Christmas in Cornwall without Joan. Joan had been not only Lucy's chosen mother, but she had also been the heart of every Christmas for as long as Strike could remember. The expressed reason for not traveling with his family was, of course, work. The unexpressed reason was that Strike would not suffer two thirds of his nephews for a long evening much less a long weekend- the exception of course was /He had untruthfully told Lucy that he would be having christmas dinner with his close friends Nick and Ilsa. Nick and Ilsa had indeed invited Strike to their small christmas party, but Strike declined quickly saying truthfully that he did not want to gate crash their first christmas as new parents. Robin found this reason quite thoughtful, although she had not expressed /Strike was not the sort of man who felt unduly sad about the prospect of a Christmas spent in solitude. He had suffered far worse christmas' both as a child in the care of his vagabond mother or with the mercurial and vindictive beauty that was his ex, Charlotte. Despite this, Robin's mother had insisted that she offer strike a place in their home and at their table over the /"It's the christian thing to do" she had said, as though she were speaking about giving shoes to a /Robin had agreed to convey the invitation and was certain he would decline. Except he didn't decline. To her wide eyed amazement, he had agreed so quickly she was certain that he was joking. Her shock deepened when he asked for details and even asked if he should look for a hotel for the /Robin's assumed her mother Linda had some ulterior motives to inviting the lame legged detective to the family home in Masham, and even suspected that her mother was simply curious to know him properly as he now seemed a permanent fixture in her daughter's life. She still maintained to her mother that they were, "just friends" even going so far as to say were "Very good friends" but always careful to add "and colleagues" as if to dispel any impression of them being friends for the sake of being friends much less revealing how she really felt about her partner./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Deftly, Strike rested a hand on the small of her back and guided her silently to a small table in the opposite corner of the cramped space. Strike prided himself on being adept at reading the emotions of others, however, Robin, whose emotional states he was always most interested in was hardest for him to read. For a woman of ease and good humor she was more stoic than most, and a fact that was both a cause of gratitude and consternation to him. At the moment, he knew her well enough to recognize the swell of emotion that was rising in his partner, but was not absolutely certain what she was feeling, anger? embarrassment? Fear? Or worst of all Regret?br /"You alright?" he said quietlybr /"Fucker.." she muttered with some /Definitely angry then, he thought, suppressing a small quirk at the corner of his happened to agree with her. Matthew WAS a fucker, and so was Sarah. He'd thought it of the former for years, and the latter as soon as Robin had introduced them at their housewarming party. Both of them were the sort that wanted six figure salaries, lived in beige walled houses and had 2.5 kids- and slept with other people's spouses. They really made quite a perfect couple, complimenting each other in both duplicity and /"Cheer up, Ellacott. He looks fucking miserable." Strike said,leaning back in his chair to eye the bar, "Like He exchanged tiramisu for a turd."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"An unwilling snort of laughter escaped her, he did look unhappy she had to admit. Robin, who had known Matthew intimately as long as she'd been an adult , recognized his dissatisfied pout, which she had always found childish and petty, as well as weariness that was a new addition to the smoothly handsome man she'd married./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Robin was lost in the turmoil of her thoughts and jumped slightly as Strike clapped her gently on the shoulder as he pushed up from the table to weave through the crowded space to the worn mahogany bar. Robin spared a glance at his retreating back feeling oddly exposed. His presence always buoyed her courage, however, an irritated part of her thought that a gentleman may have turned her around at the door upon seeing her ex and his new wife. It seemed to Robin however, that Strike was deriving some pleasure from seeing Matthew and Sarah in the flesh post divorce. A small part of her brain not devoted to bitter recollection wondered at this./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"The fact that Strike had agreed to spend his Christmas in Masham was odd enough, but the circumstances of her partner's invitation to the family festivities was still more mystifying. After some polite inquiry about her boss's holiday plans by her mother the week prior, Robin had revealed that Strike had no plans to speak of. His sister Lucy and her Greg had decided to take their uncle Ted on a trip to Bavaria for Christmas rather than facing the prospect of a Christmas in Cornwall without Joan. Joan had been not only Lucy's chosen mother, but she had also been the heart of every Christmas for as long as Strike could remember. The expressed reason for not traveling with his family was, of course, work. The unexpressed reason was that Strike would not suffer two thirds of his nephews for a long evening much less a long weekend- the exception of course was /He had untruthfully told Lucy that he would be having christmas dinner with his close friends Nick and Ilsa. Nick and Ilsa had indeed invited Strike to their small christmas party, but Strike declined quickly saying truthfully that he did not want to gate crash their first christmas as new parents. Robin found this reason quite thoughtful, although she had not expressed /Strike was not the sort of man who felt unduly sad about the prospect of a Christmas spent in solitude. He had suffered far worse christmas' both as a child in the care of his vagabond mother or with the mercurial and vindictive beauty that was his ex, Charlotte. Despite this, Robin's mother had insisted that she offer strike a place in their home and at their table over the /"It's the christian thing to do" she had said, as though she were speaking about giving shoes to a /Robin had agreed to convey the invitation and was certain he would decline. Except he didn't decline. To her wide eyed amazement, he had agreed so quickly she was certain that he was joking. Her shock deepened when he asked for details and even asked if he should look for a hotel for the /Robin's assumed her mother Linda had some ulterior motives to inviting the lame legged detective to the family home in Masham, and even suspected that her mother was simply curious to know him properly as he now seemed a permanent fixture in her daughter's life. She still maintained to her mother that they were, "just friends" even going so far as to say were "Very good friends" but always careful to add "and colleagues" as if to dispel any impression of them being friends for the sake of being friends much less revealing how she really felt about her partner./p