Gwendoline had to postpone her marriage after the sudden death of her father just after Christmas  and her inheritance of his title and estates.  She had been incredibly busy for the first few months, moving into her parent's apartments and out of her own small but beloved flat in the upper floors.  Her mother had gone to live in France with her sister. There had been some very hard financial decisions to take and negotiations with the Estate Duty Office.  It was not until February that she had got things on to an even keel.

Harriet, meanwhile had returned to her cottage in Devon and terminally quarrelled with Bill to her great relief.  Bernie had been right, a boy was no substitute for a real man.  She still had her ambition to be a manual worker but soon discovered that it is not easy to be a woman in a very macho man's world and even less easy for the posh-accented daughter of an aristocrat. She was beginning to slip back into her  old hedonistic routine when in early  February after the journey's end the phone rang and Gwen was on the other end.

"Hi darling.  How's the search for back-breaking toil?"

"Not very well, I'm afraid, Gwendoline.  It seemed such a good idea when I thought of it, but it's not an easy thing for a toffee-nosed snob like me to get into - AND I'm a woman."

"Come up to Hampshire and stay awhile.  I may be able to help.  Come now - this minute"

Harriet leapt into her car after throwing some clothes into a suitcase and was ringing the bell of Gwendoline's stately home a few hours later.  It was answered by Jenkins, an imperturbable looking man  in the traditional garb of a butler.

"Lady Harriet?  Her Ladyship will see you upstairs.  She instructed me to say you may undress down here and follow me upstairs when you are ready.  She further instructed me to say that there was no compulsion - she merely thought you might like to for old times sake.  You may undress in the drawing room."

An amazed Harry followed this apparition into the drawing room and removed all her clothes.  When she emerged,  the unflappable man showed her upstairs and ushered her into a room on the very top floor, announced her   in a sepulchral voice and retired with majestic dignity, as if this kind of thing happened all the time.  (in a way, it did under Gwendoline's new and eccentric management)

Gwendoline was standing on the top rung of a ladder and removing some dusty old files from a high shelf.  She was quite naked and covered in dust.  This room must have been unused for decades, if not centuries.

When she had climbed down, she cried out in delight and put her arms around her friend, squeezing her to her breasts and eagerly pushing her lips against hers, hungrily  inserting her tongue into Harriet's  mouth in a well remembered demonstration of affection.  Same old Gwen!

"I'm just going through all these old registers.  Hundreds of years old, some of them.  All in a shambles.  They need cataloguing and all sorts of things like that.  Might be very valuable, some of them - but I'd hate the tax-man to know that!"

"You want me to help with them?" asked Harry.

"Hells bells - no.  I've got some outdoor work on the estate all lined up for you.  I'm going to have a large swimming pool and YOU are going to dig it for me!  And you don't have to wear clothes - aren't you the lucky one?"

"Have you been getting out lately Gwen?  It's several degrees below freezing out there.  You cannot be serious?"

"Now where have I heard that phrase before?  Yes, darling I'm quite serious.  You must be getting soft to ask a question like that!  We'll have no more of that nonsense.  You get your clothes back when you leave this house and not before.  Let's go to bed for a bit, dear old Harry - I feel tired!  And  we've a lot of catching up to do.  We can have sheets and blankets if you  like for a day or two until you get back into the old routine."

"No thanks, Gwen.  I'm not that soft!"

"Scrumptious!  Lets hit the sack!"

 As they lay together, Harriet asked Gwen about her life.

"When are you getting married, Gwen?"

In June, darling.  Big society wedding, you're going to be a bridesmaid.   Fuck knows what creep Jim will have for his best man.  Some of his friends,  Harriet - what a crew!  You wouldn't believe it.  And I don't who who's going to give me away now that darling Daddy is gone."

"Do you still see anything of Janet, Gwen?"

"I see everything of her, but only now and again.  She was here last week.  Look closely at my belly and you can still see the marks.  What a woman!  Hard as nails - but I'm not soft - not by a long chalk!  She still thinks she can make me cry off first - fat chance of that, Harry my love!"

"Any way let's just enjoy each other, shall we?  You're my favourite girl now that Jessie is a married woman and has all these boring notions of lifelong fidelity, and Janet is strictly a very part-time pursuit.  I'm sorry to see you've started shaving again Harry.  I don't want any more of that when you're staying here.  Don't worry - I know you'll be a bit stubbly for a while, but you'll look so much nicer with that lovely red down on those strong legs of yours and that sweet red bush that I want to bury my nose in again.  Be good to me, darling and do as I say!"

"Let's finish making love" she continued, "and then go down and get something to eat.  It should be ready in an hour and a half.  Now come here  and let's get to know each others lovely secret places again!  You do smell so good, Harry!  Breathing in the odour of that darling body of yours is like drinking champagne, only much, much better!"

On their way down to dinner, for which they did not dress, despite being waited on with all due formality, Gwen explained that Harriet's duties would begin as soon as it was light.

"I'll come  with you and explain what needs doing and then you're on your own out there until mid-day when you come in for lunch. You can have an hour and a half and then go on till it gets dusk, which is about five.  I don't want any excuses about it being too cold.  I hate it when you whine, Harry and I won't have it.  You can have your own sleeping quarters if you like, but I'd like it very much if you slept with me as long as Jim is not around and Janet is not here.  How does that sound, my strong and muscular manual worker?"

 "I'll give it a go, Gwendoline, but it IS bloody cold.  Just let me see how the first day goes - eh?"

Next day, the two nude friends walked out into the freezing February morning.  Harriet had not felt the ground under her bare feet since she had delivered the partially recovered Gwendoline to this same mansion a week after that gruelling  fight, when the brave girl had taken on seven fighters  one after the other, and beaten them all.

It came as a fearsome shock to feel the icy cold air on her skin and her heart sank to think that she would be out here for the next four and a half hours.  She looked sideways at her friend and saw that she was seemingly unaffected by the cold.  She didn't even seem to have any gooseflesh, unlike Harry, whose skin was covered in tiny little bumps.

Gwendoline pointed to where she had marked the outline of the proposed new pool, and instructed a shivering Harry to put the soil in one barrow and any large rocks and stones in another.  When full the barrows were to be wheeled across the extensive lawns to a distant spot where Gwen intended to use the spoil to build a rockery.

Pick-axes and shovels had been laid out and Harry was left alone, already feeling very much more than half-frozen, as Gwen stalked imperiously back to the house, her fine young bottom undulating appetisingly as she went.

Deciding that she must get her circulation going quickly or perish, Harriet picked up a pick axe and attacked the ground vigorously.  The tool seemed to bounce  straight off the iron hard soil and flew out of her hands - this was not going to be an easy morning!  She retrieved the implement and next time she was careful to hold it more firmly and a few bits of soil and some stones were dislodged from the ground.  A few more blows and she was beginning to  make a bit of headway and the first indentation began to appear.

She soon appreciated that a spade would make absolutely no impact on this frozen ground.  The pick axe was to be her only tool as long as this cold snap continued.  She continued to attack the earth and in an hour or so there was enough to fill one of the barrows with soil and she wheeled it across to the distant  future rockery, the long frost covered grass crackling under her bare, numbed soles. In her battle against the cold, her body was beginning to make a fight-back and she almost started to enjoy herself.

By the time noon came she had transported three loads of soil and one of rocks and the hole was three foot square and a couple of feet deep.  She was quite satisfied that she had done so much in such trying conditions, when Gwendoline came stalking towards her.  She looked at Harriet's handiwork with distaste.

"Ye Gods,  Harry!  Is that all you've done?  What do you think, this is, Harriet?  A rest cure?  Forget about lunch.  I'll send Jenkins out with a sandwich and a flask of tea - or coffee if you prefer and don't take up too much time eating it.  You can stay out here until it gets too dark to work.  I'll see if I can't get some floodlights installed and you can have more time out here.  Well, Harriet - get on with it!  Try putting your back into it, use some of that muscle you've let get so flabby."

With these hurtful words Gwendoline again stalked away and  again the toiling Harriet saw that arrogant bottom gyrating its imperious way back to the house and a warmth which Harry longed for.  Gwen's recent ennoblement had obviously done nothing for either her temper or her humility, but her loveliness was not undiminished, it was enhanced and Harry was so much under her spell again that she redoubled her efforts in her anxiety to please.

Round about one o'clock the servant, Jenkins came out with a picnic basket and a rug, followed by Gwendoline.  He laid out the rug on the grass and spread out the contents of the picnic.  There was mulled wine and delicious looking sandwiches and chicken drumsticks, canapes and other tempting goodies.

Jenkins retired,  relieved to be out of the cold,  regretting that the ancient house had fallen into such lunatic hands since the death of the old Earl.

Gwen motioned an amazed Harry to sit down and start eating.

"I've always loved picnics, Harry.  haven't you?"

Harriet observed that she had not  often been to  picnics in the nude, except during their journey last autumn and never when it was four degrees below freezing, at a conservative estimate!  The wine warmed her enough to enable her to sit still long enough to finish eating and the fumes rising to her head anaesthetised her so that the cold retreated from her body, leaving her with an unexpected sense of well-being.  She nestled up to Gwendoline and rested her head against one of that girl's firm breasts.

"Maybe you're not such a hard-hearted employer after all, Gwen!"

"Would you like to do this every day, Harry my love?"

She heard herself saying she would love to, and wearily realised later on that she had just been talked into being out in the cold all day and every day from then onwards.  She'd better start toughening up and fast, she resolved or she wouldn't see another Spring!