Jenkins was told to get off to bed and make sure the cook and maids did the same,  as soon as he had served the girls' supper.  Gwen assured him that Harriet could be trusted not to wreck the kitchen when she washed up later!

"The one thing I don't like about this heavenly time, Gwendoline  ( now that Janet has finally been sent packing,  and I have acclimatised to the cold, this is really is the purest heaven) is that I don't get to cook any more. Give the staff a week in Madeira or something and let me me do the honours for a few days"

"Jenkins would never stop worrying till he got back.  He's never been away from the place more than a few hours for the last forty years.  Sorry, pet, but it would be the death of him.  Mind you - Cook, Polly and Joan - they're not a bit dedicated so we'll pack  them off for a long weekend if you like, but you'll be under Jenkins's thumb for a few days, as well as mine - think you could handle that?  -  and working on the pool?  You'd be up and working from 6 am till 11 pm and working pretty darned hard too - this is  a big house and collects a lot of dust and I insist it be kept spotless at all times   You quite sure about this.?"

"Absolutely sure.  Let's ring the travel agent and get that three off to the sun now - well, tomorrow first thing!"

"Tomorrow's Sunday,  Harry my dear!  You're letting your enthusiasm run away with you.  Any way I really don't like the idea of my dearest friend on her hands and knees scrubbing floors and slaving away in the kitchen.  Are you absolutely sure you're keen on this?  I mean one hundred per-cent certain?"

"Two hundred per-cent certain!"

"Ok, then.  But I'll be glad when the three of them get back.  You're going to be utterly shagged out by the time you get to bed, and what use is that to a healthy red-blooded sex maniac like me!"

"Maybe Jim will drop in for a day or two!"

"Jim who?  Oh, him! - that guy I'm engaged to!  Yes - it might be fun to see him for a day or two!  He'll have a few questions to ask about my bum and your just about everything!  I think it would be best if her stayed away for another three or four days - and then there's that nose of yours!  Bring it a bit closer, Harry - it hasn't been kissed yet today!"

..............................................................................................................................................................

This Sunday was a vast improvement on the previous one, despite the fact that the snow had melted, leaving everything as before, only wet and muddy.  The two barefoot, but otherwise beautifully attired ladies were driven to church and back and found later that they were entertaining not just the usual bunch of Gwen's neighbours, but Andy and Jessica who were on their way back from a visit  to Wiltshire.

Gwen said in a waspish   whisper to Harriet which must have been audible a mile away, the Jessica was looking more and more homely every time she saw her.

The main purpose of the happily married couple's visit was to announce Jessie's pregnancy, and enable the proud mother and father-to-be to entreat Gwen and Harry to be godparents when the time came.  Andy was fussing over an embarrassed and clearly irritated Jessie, anxious to prevent her from engaging in any strenuous exercise  - contantly asking her if she was tired and wanted to lie down.

"Fuck me, Harry!  Old Jim had better not try that fusspot routine on with me when my time comes!  If he does I'll remove a few of his front teeth  with one killer punch!  That daft prick Andy thinks his wife is the one and only mother-to-be in the whole wide world! To think I quite respected him when we first met  - really fancied him myself as a matter of fact, but he was hopelessly stuck on Jessie right from the time he was going to piss on us in that ditch!"

These words, Gwendoline spat out, as at the same time she was waving a smiling  'goodbye' to the couple's car as it reached the end of the drive and turned into the road and sped away towards London.

"You miss her a lot, don't you" said Harriet, feeling just a little jealous.

Gwen put her arm around her and squeezed her still rather sore body as hard as she could.

"Yes, but life moves on and I have you now - you scrumptious lovely girl!"

"And Jim, Gwendoline.  And Jim"

"Oh, that's right - so I have.  Let's get these fucking awful clothes off, shall we, and have a bit fun.  We'll have some more of the Burgundy - wash away the taste of that rot gut I gave those boring old dinner guests!"

As a matter of fact the wine served at dinner had been excellent and Gwen was far too courteous and considerate a hostess to offer her guests anything inferior,  be it food or wine.  But that wonderful liquid she shared with Harriet had been acquired by her father many years ago,  and he had been keeping it for a special occasion which had never materialised.  In Gwen's view, a drink with Harry was always a very special occasion indeed, and only her very  finest  was appropriate to it.
 
 

................................................................................................................................................................

"Glad I suggested coming back here, Gwen?"

"Oh, yes! - so very, very glad my angel.  What a clever as well as darling girl you are!"

The two were standing once more on the top of that dramatic rock which they had climbed months ago on their northward journey.  It had been when they finally scrambled on to the very summit and looked down at    all the toy houses and people below that the animosity Gwen had felt towards Harriet had melted away as if it had never existed,  to be replaced by an ever growing and deepening love.  Despite the very much colder weather than the last time, they had left Jim's cottage  as naked as on the first occasion.  On the way Gwen had invited Harry to slap her buttocks in the same savage way as she had slapped hers before the first ascent and Harry had answered, "only if you promise not to like it."

Although Gwen had squealed in pain, she had not really minded - Harry was entitled to her revenge, after all said and done!

Finally, they had completed the second ascent and stood clasped tightly together, their two mouths melting together, tongue lovingly caressing tongue,  until the extreme cold forced them to start the descent.

Jim was not at either of his two northern homes, being in America executing a commission for some rich client or other.  Gwen really had no idea who, she told Harry.  "Could be anybody - they're all rich over there, so I believe.  Just as long as he doesn't ever expect me to go there with him!  I'm never going abroad again, Harry - never!  I feel just like Jenkins - even this is too far away from  home for more than a couple of days."

They got a few bits and pieces to eat,  Harriet performed her usual alchemy and a feast appeared before Gwen's astonished eyes.

"You really are a wizard, Harry! I don't know how you do it!"

They were sitting in the kitchen - the same one that Gwen had forced Harry to clean.

"You start working in my kitchen at the Hall  as soon as we get back.  All that awful cleaning of floors and changing the bed linen tomorrow - you poor darling!"

"I can't wait to get started, Gwen!  I really can't!"

........................................................................................................................................................................

Harry rose at five next day, after their return home to Hampshire.  She cleaned out the kitchen, lit the old stove and  made sure that she, at least would start the day with a real meal inside her and not a cup of weak tea and a croisssant.

An hour scrubbing the terrace had that much remembered part of the house looking cleaner than for many a long year.  She was sweating when she had finished, despite the fact that it was still far from warm, freezing again in fact.

Jenkins took the breakfast tray up to Gwendoline's room and instructed Harriet to hoover the ground floor apartments - there were a lot of them.  Be the time all the early morning duties were done, Gwen had been digging away for half an hour.  She was in a foul mood when Harriet finally joined her and had obviously forgotten for the time being her promise not to order her friend around again.

Mid-day came and she snapped at Harriet to go and get the lunch.

"Jenkins is far too busy, thanks to your moronic idea of giving half the staff a free holiday.  If you could do their work properly it would be fine, but you're so fucking useless at just about every fucking thing you do, I want to weep!"

It was a relief at five in the afternoon when Harry could get away from the increasingly truculent, foul mouthed and vicious Gwen and submit herself again to Jenkins's control.  At least he had a stable personality and hated foul language - unlike Gwen!

It was midnight when she slipped exhausted into bed next to her friend/employer.  She had supposed that Gwendolibne would already be asleep, but was shocked to see that she was awake and sobbing  uncontrollaby.

"What is it, my angel, my darling Gwen?"  she embraced the distressed girl and lay beside her, waiting for her to say something.

"Oh.  Darling Harry, I'm so sorry I was horrible to you!   I keep thinking of all those nasty things I said  and I hate myself.  I'm such a selfish person.  You hate me now, don't you?"

Harriet stroked her weeping friend's lovely golden hair and kissed her on the back.

"May I make a suggestion, Gwendoline?"

"What"

"We both work on the house tomorrow - you and I become housemaids for a few days until the others get back, and I'll never suggest a silly idea like I did last weekend again - what about that?"

"Gosh!-  sniff -  That'll be fun - sniff - Harry.  Thanks so much for being my friend - goodnight, darling!"

And so it came to pass, until the return  of a sun-tanned and very grateful staff, a that the two girls cooked, scrubbed floors and did all the other manifold chores as well as adding more piles if rock and earth to the rockery and digging ever deeper into the ground.

The cold retreated and the ground became softer and easier to dig. Both girls  could foresee that the time would come  when the easy part would end and professionals would need to be called in to line the pool and install all the drainage and filtration plant.

"Pity we're both too fucking dumb to be able to do all that". said Gwen.

"Never mind, there's plenty else to do" replied Harry, eyeing the piles of rock and earth in the distance. Under the gardener's direction, she was to shed much sweat in the months ahead as the rockery was assembled, bit by bit.