Just behind the fire she made out in the gloom a group of men and some lights, one of which was switched on as she watched, lighting up the group around the fire. So, this was not some exercise in nocturnal diabolism. It was just some people making a film! Relieved at this, and unable to endure the cold for one more second,  she decided to risk going down to them and asking if she could warm herself by the fire for a few minutes before going on her way. She really was quite desperately cold by now.

This sort of person was sure not to be too scandalised at the sight of a naked woman! Not likely - the things they all got up to! One long round of lechery and licensed debauchery - that was the life these people led - hell, they probably wouldn’t bat an eyelid when they saw her!

As she approached the group,  a couple of them looked round and their jaws gaped wide open at the sight of the naked and lovely Veronica. This unnerved her a bit - she had expected a bit more sang-froid!

“I wonder if I might warm myself by the fire for a few minutes?” she said rather nervously and with her teeth chattering. “ I’m bloody freezing as you can see!”

One of the women in the group replied. “Of course - are you in some kind of trouble? You’ve been attacked by some bloody man or men, haven‘t you? Bastards - all of them!   We can get the police if you like and I’m sure we can find something for you to  wear!”

“No. I’m deliberately naked. Too long a story to bore you with. I’m nearly home - all I want is to get warm enough to tackle the last lap.”

At this a fussy and harassed-looking man, holding a clip board, came bustling up to them.

“Come on everybody!  Time to shoot this bloody scene before the fire starts to go down. Let’s get on with it!”

He looked at Veronica. “I don’t recognise you. What are you doing here? Never mind! At least you undress a lot more quickly than  the rest of this lot!”

Veronica became aware that, all about her, the men and women around the fire were stripping off their clothes. Soon she was no longer unique in her nudity!  The lady who had first befriended her explained to the director  that Veronica was not part of the act but merely a passer-by  in need of some warmth.

“Well, you’ll have to either dance around the fire with all these good people or go away. Otherwise it’ll ruin the scene. Write down your name and address here and we’ll be in touch with you about  the fee in due course. Two hundred pounds for being an important extra!”

Veronica, still in a bit of a daze,  scribbled down her name and address. Soon after she was dancing hand in hand with two others as part of a ring of revellers,  or whatever,  around the lovely roaring fire. Golly! That was better, she thought as she began to cease shivering and start to perspire instead!

Whatever the film she was taking part in, the bonfire scene was soon over and she found herself sitting, still near enough to feel the blessed heat of the fire, and talking to two of the other extras. One was a man and the other the same woman who had spoken to her in the first place. He was called Jeremy and she, his fiancé, was called Drusilla. They both sat without replacing their own clothes, perhaps as a way of making Veronica not feel out of place.  Veronica was about to be on her way  home (time was pressing somewhat), when there was a scream of pain and a commotion from the fringe of the group. The man in charge - presumably the director, came across, looking more worried and stressed than ever.

“Oh, bloody wonderful. That bitch Roseanne seems to be having acute appendicitis or something equally inconvenient. And we need to wrap this sequence up tonight. What are we going to do?” Then his eye lighted on Veronica.

“Do you act at all, young woman - you‘re certainly photogenic enough?”

“Not since I took part in a few School Drama productions - no”

“That’ll have to do. As soon as I get that cow off to hospital, I‘ll show you what to do. You don’t know the nearest hospital, I suppose?”

“The Royal Free is the nearest. In Pond Street.”

“OK. Don’t go away, now!  Roseanne is our Virgin Sacrifice and she’s your build and hair colour. It’s worth a thousand to you if you agree to do it! No need to tell HM Inspector of Taxes - straight out of the petty cash!

First of all, I must see she’s taken care of - be right back!”

Veronica wondered what Henry, her Tax Inspector friend, would make of her new career as a tax dodging moonlighter!. She decided she would not trouble him, busy man that he was,  by talking of this incident!

“Gosh, isn’t this your lucky night!” said Drusilla enthusiastically. “That’s twelve hundred pounds you’re going to be better off by! I bet you’d never have guessed this morning you were going to end up with all that money before you went to your bed, did you!”

Veronica decided not to answer this!

Soon the director and a trio of assistants were back.  Veronica was ushered over to a rudimentary table.

The Director addressed her in a crisp and stern voice.

“You are to be dragged screaming over to this spot and tied  spread-eagled to the corners of the table. Then a hooded man will stand beside you, pronounce a lot of incomprehensible but horrible incantations, and , finally with a flourish of a ritual knife, he will disembowel you. All you need to do is scream and look and sound frightened.”

“That shouldn’t be too hard” she thought.

Before she could reply, she had been seized by four hooded men and dragged to the scene of her sacrifice. She screamed for all she was worth and the man with the clip board looked almost happy for a change.  As the blade of the ritual knife gleamed in the light and came flashing down towards her naked, quivering and unprotected stomach, there was nothing feigned about her screams!

PART THE TWENTYFOURTH
 

“Are you sure you have to be going home so soon?”

These words were addressed to Veronica, the new and highly applauded film star, by the Director, who was by this time a very friendly man indeed. This previously harassed and irritable fellow had taken a great fancy to the stunning tall blonde by this time. In his opinion she had handled the human sacrifice scene brilliantly.

Everyone had agreed that she had brought a startling dimension of horror the scene by her unearthly screams and gargantuan writhing against her restraining bonds as the knife had flashed down towards her unprotected and heaving belly.  Truth to tell, she had half believed that the disembowelment was to be for real!

 “Sorry, but it is part of my agreement.  I‘m doing this nude thing as part of a kind of bet.”

“Well, you certainly dug us out of a pretty deep hole tonight, my dear. I can’t tell you just how much we are in your debt. I wonder if you would be interested in taking part in any future productions we might be embarking on?”

“Are you a very well known film company?” asked Veronica, trying to suppress a deep and very loud yawn.
(She was getting to be pretty exhausted by now).

“No” replied the director, giving his name as Algernon FitzWalter. “I fear we are a very struggling enterprise. And if this latest production doesn’t make the grade, we will be in a bit of bother.  Don‘t worry - you‘ll get your money OK.”

“Oh, no!” sighed Veronica. “You saved my life tonight with that lovely fire and all that warming exercise. If I can ever help, I will. Not that that is very likely, alas, apart from my minimal acting talent!”

Then she explained to the Director the reason for her being in a state of undress.

“What a story!”, he exclaimed. “We might even try to make a film out of that! You never know! That gay black Wykehamist bouncer is a lovely touch!”

“I’d rather you didn’t, to be quite honest” replied Veronica with a shiver - the fire was rapidly diminishing  by now and she was, of course,  still quite naked in the cold night air.

  “You never know. This film could be the making of you! I certainly hope so!  And now I really must be getting along before all the good that blaze did for me goes to waste! Goodbye everyone!”

She slipped off into the night with the good wishes of the film crew ringing in her ears and was soon out of earshot of them all as they prepared to tidy up and leave the Heath in the same pristine state that they had found it in earlier in the night.

The lovely Veronica  had a choice before her now. It would be quicker for her to make for the path between the mixed bathing pond and one of the other ponds, but this would leave her totally exposed on a narrow pathway and with no hope of concealment for very many yards. She decided to make towards the right and  take the longer way around, where there would be much greater cover in case she happened to come upon a late night patrol of the zealous guardians of law, order and public decency.

Fortunately there was a clear sky at present, which was the worst of bad news from the temperature angle, as she shivered uncontrollably and tried to forget the intense cold - mind over matter and all that - but good news when it came to picking her way in the dark, as the moon was almost half full by this time of the month. Nevertheless, her feet kept stepping on sharp and stony protuberances, much to the detriment of her already tender and over exercised soles. She gasped painfully more times than she could keep count of.

Veronica was making towards that tree lined avenue familiar to anyone who had ever watched the 1980s series “Smiley’s People” -  that sinister avenue where the hapless elderly  General  Vladimir had met his grisly death in Episode One.

Veronica was thinking about this as she walked gingerly along. “Moscow Rules” she thought. “Just what the bloody Hell WERE Moscow Rules?”

Making chalk marks on wooden posts seemed to have formed a part of this odd and mysterious procedure, although what possible benefit it was to any dangerous and covert operation, she had always been at a complete and utter  loss to understand. It hadn’t done the poor old General much good; that was for sure! “Mind you, old girl” she thought. “There was a heck of a lot I didn’t understand about that series. ‘Friends‘ is a lot easier on the brain, but, of course,  it‘s American, so it would be.”

As she was thinking these thoughts and feeling a little apprehensive about negotiating the storm damaged avenue in question, she was on the point of screaming as a new fright burst upon her!

PART THE TWENTY FIFTH

A black creature darted out from the shadows and sped towards Veronica’s naked and well shaped ankles, wrapping itself sinuously around them and bringing a much needed touch of warmth to those chilled parts of her almost frozen body.

The frightened and startled girl, scarcely suppressed a frightended scream, looked down and felt her heart rate rapidly subside to a more sustainable level.

Beneath her in the gloom, the lovely Veronica descried the shape of a long haired and very friendly cat, whose pretty face stared up at her with adoration.

As she bent down, she was able to make out the features of this very talkative feline. As the mews and wails of the darling little creature filled the night air with their sweetly musical cadences, she recognised the furry little face that was turning itself up to her with such a winsomely appealing look.

Oh, yes!

This was the adorable moggie, whose features on a duplicated poster had stared out at the passing and, sadly, indifferent multitudes from pretty well every tree trunk in Hampstead for several days, now.

Veronica recalled to mind the words of this notice in all their heart rending pathos.

“MISSING CAT. Lost since Saturday. Very greatly loved friend and faithful companion.
Reward Offered for Safe Return.”

There followed the phone number of the distressed owner.
 

Veronica playfully twitched the big toe of her right foot and the animal made a dive for it, fastening its teeth painlessly upon it. She laughed.

“Oh, you little darling!”

Then she thought. This lost feline wanderer had a name. This name had been inscribed on the notice, but she could not, for the moment, remember what it was. Something pretty bloody daft, she recalled, but what?

Veronica stood frowning with concentration and shivering in the rapidly intensifying cold as she cudgelled her brains to yield up the name of this sweet little stray.

And THEN! It came to her.

“Cuddlywinks ?, she nervously intoned to the still writhing creature as it continued its ministrations to her lower limbs.

“Miaowowwow!!, Prrr! Prr!” replied Cuddlywinks, as he appreciated in the depths of his primitive intelligence, that his days of fending for himself were now over! A rescuer was at hand! This lovely lady knew his name!

He had enjoyed, to start with, the novel experience of fending for himself in those first days after a backfiring car engine had caused him to flee, panic stricken, from his home and become hopelessly lost, ending up here on the Heath as an involuntarily feral feline

This nice young lady had addressed him by name! He was recognised at long last for who he was. Oh, Bliss! Soon this lovely woman, with her sweetly scented body, would take him home to renew his life of pampered ease with a doting owner. Cuddlywinks enthusiastically returned his attentions to Veronica’s well turned ankles.

“Oh, come on! Time for us both to be heading home. I don’t know about you, sweetheart, but I’m perishing bloody cold!”

Veronica picked the animal up and started to carry him in her arms. She looked down at him in the faint half-moonlit light and cooed. “Oh, aren’t you a sweet little boy?”

“And you have the juiciest pair of tits I’ve ever seen, sweetheart” replied Cuddlywinks. He dearly loved his owner, but this old lady had long ago ceased to possess a body like that of his luscious rescuer!

To Veronica’s untutored human ears, this came out as “Ioww, Owww, Mioaww“.

An affronted Veronica began to realise the import of the cat’s remarks when the appreciative Cuddlywinks began vigorously to caress her hardened and very sensitive nipples with his warm and rough little tongue.

“You dirty little sod! You feline pervert!” a horrified and disgusted Veronica shrieked. “From now on you walk you depraved little fellow!”

The disappointed cat was rapidly deposited upon the ground and henceforth followed adoringly behind the tall and lovely naked lady. He was determined that he would not lose sight of her. Every now and again, he would wind himself around her delicately sculpted ankles and nearly bring her crashing to the ground.

After what seemed to the increasingly irritable Veronica to be an age, she came to the point where it was possible to leave the avenue and make across the grass to the main road and then to her ever more dreamed of home.

Could this be the end of my day of troubles? She asked.

We shall have to wait and see!
 
 
 
 

PART THE TWENTY SIXTH

As Veronica made her way across the Heath, feeling the grass, rigid and prickly,  now that the temperatures were plunging,  under her tired and sore feet, the cat followed eagerly behind her. Cuddlywinks  was looking appreciatively up at her perfect young buttocks as they gyrated their sexy way across the sward. The adoring cat was  salivating at that beautiful prospect. He really was a very lecherous pussy! She looked around a couple of times and was horrified at the look of fascinated intensity on those furry little features.

By this time all nocturnal wanderers,  young lovers, voyeurs  and cruisers seemed to have deserted the great outdoors for the night and decamped indoors where it was warm and cosy. Veronica reflected that she did not blame them. Even fully clothed, it must be uncomfortable out here. And she was not clothed at all, as her chattering teeth reminded her from time to time! She considered picking up the long-haired cat again, but remembered his partiality for her firm young maidenly breasts and thought better of it.

When she came to the road (East Heath Road), she decided that it would be best if she did carry the animal, in case a late night motorist might drive by and maybe run him over or frighten him back onto the Heath.  This time, thanks be to heaven,  he was a good cat and contented himself with burying his sweet little head between her twin mounds of soft and fragrant flesh, purring loudly and alternately retracting and  extending his claws, somewhat to the sensitive Veronica’s  discomfort.

It was when the pair of them were half way through the connecting road to the High Street when Cuddlywinks suddenly became agitated. With a sinuous wriggle, he broke free from Veronica’s grasp and landed on the pavement, immediately scooting off up a side street.

 She ran after him, anxious that she should not lose him now,  after getting him safely all this way towards his home.  Cuddlywinks ran up to a house half-way along the street and jumped up onto the front room window sill. Then he commenced crying loudly.  It was a noise which seemed capable of summoning the dead back from the other side of the grave, however glad they might have been to bid the cruel world farewell!

Despite the late hour, the window opened after a very few seconds and a pair of hands came out and grasped the animal. These hands belonged to an elderly lady, who was obviously Cuddlywinks‘s owner and equally obviously a very relieved and happy lady.  “Oh, my darling little boy! You’ve come back to me! Where HAVE you been, you naughty boy?” she said in a voice that was not far removed from tears.

“So, he recognised he was back on familiar ground and didn’t need me any longer! Well, that’s one happy pussy and one happy owner, both together again and thanks to me. How nice!” thought Veronica as she prepared to make for her home, now only a couple of minute’s walk away.

But the cat’s owner had spotted Veronica and the girl caught the lady’s astounded gaze as she stared open-mouthed at the tall, dishevelled and gloriously nude, if shivering,  blonde, standing directly under a lamp post.

“What are you doing out there like that?” she gasped. “Some kind of stunt, or are you in trouble. Do you want me to phone the Police?”

“Oh, no. Thanks all the same. I found your cat while walking on the Heath and was going to take him back with me and phone you in the morning, but he managed the last bit by himself. He’s a very engaging little fellow, he really is!”

“So, I have you to thank! I simply can’t tell you how grateful I am. I have no friend in the world apart from this little chap! Please come inside for a minute or two and have a cup of cocoa or tea or whatever you like! Maybe something a little stronger?”

Veronica accepted the elderly lady’s invitation. She was not likely to eat or drink for some hours and the thought of a cup of something hot and hopefully intoxicating was very tempting indeed.  She came indoors and was ushered into a wonderfully comfortable armchair, into which she lowered her aching body with an enormous sigh of relief.
.

As Veronica appreciated the comfort of the armchair and waited for the hot drink to materialise, she felt the warmth seeping back after the freezing walk across the Heath. If she got out of this with anything less than a severe cold, it would be a miracle! But she felt the shivering gradually ease. She looked at her feet and inspected them minutely now that feeling was painfully returning - no signs of frostbite, by a miracle! No matter! For the present, she was beginning to feel alive again.

The lady, introducing herself as Miss Andrea Ferguson, soon came bustling in with a cup of cocoa, laced with fine old brandy. A shameful waste of a good Armagnac, thought the fastidious Veronica, but she was in no mood to query anything right now and sipped gratefully for a few minutes, feeling the drink pleasurably warming  her .

She gave Miss Ferguson a very abbreviated account of her day  so far and the events leading up to her finding the errant Cuddlywinks, by this time sleeping peacefully and deeply after his first proper meal in several days.  The old lady nodded as she came to end of her story.

“I’m so glad you will refuse to take the money and yet still carried on with your mission. As you say, it will be an act of penitence in a way. And it has certainly produced good!  Just look at the little darling, home and snug once again! I’ll never be able to thank you enough, not if I live to be one hundred!”

Veronica declined the proffered reward, saying that the pleasure of seeing the pair of them re-united was reward enough. (Which, indeed, it was.)

She looked up at the old clock on the mantelpiece and saw that if she were to be home before dawn, she was running out of time and had better leave soon.  She thanked the lady for the drink and gave the cat a farewell pat on the head. The animal was too fast asleep by this time to notice.

In a few seconds she was once more in the street and yet another door closed behind her, leaving her to face the rigours of the cold for a few more minutes. “Surely I can’t meet with any more adventures in the last few yards” she thought.
 

PART THE TWENTY SEVENTH

Veronica got to the end of the street where the old lady lived and resumed the interrupted journey to her home. She kept a careful watch for the odd late night reveller and, more importantly, for any nocturnal policemen/women, whether on foot or motorised. She reached Hampstead High Street without mishap, save for the fact that she was already getting to feel as cold as ever.

Crossing this wide thoroughfare was the worst moment since leaving the comparative security of the Heath. Any insomniac looking out of his or her window at that instant would have had a wonderful view of her as the bright street lights shone down on her, revealing every single feature of her noble and curvaceous body, gleaming white, as she sped across the road and headed for her block of apartments.  She was a fit and athletic young lady, as I have already said several times, and her neighbours would never have seen her physically toned perfection to better advantage as she ran gracefully up the slope to her home. Happily, insomnia was not a problem with anybody tonight.

But, sadly for our by now exhausted heroine, a group of returning revellers did happen to pass by at this time. The sound of their maudlin delight rent the air.

“Nice one darling! Lovely f*cking arsehole! Now turn round and let’s have a look at the front. Come on sweetheart“.

She ignored this cacophonous and very unwelcome compliment and hurried towards the door. It seemed that the young  men were debating among themselves whether to come and inspect her at close quarters and a consensus seemed to be quickly emerging to the effect that this would be an excellent idea. She heard the sound of their hilarity getting closer and panicked.

The street door to the apartment block was opened by punching the correct combination into a keypad and then pushing  the door open. But her fingers were numb and she was shivering,  partly from the cold and partly out of fear of what these awful hooligans might do to her. At the best, the noise might cause the police to be summoned - and she didn’t care to think too long or too hard about the worst  possible outcome!

For a few horrible moments, she was afraid that she had forgotten the combination altogether, that the horrors of the day had driven it forever and irretrievably out of her mind. Then it came to her again and she tried keying it in for the seventh time, as the sound of footsteps and ribaldry came ever nearer. It was only after several more increasing despairing attempts that she got the door open and scrambled inside, pushing it shut just as the first of the yobs ran up to it. Saved in the nick of time!

Veronica was so distressed by this time that it was several minutes before she could think about going upstairs to her own apartment. In order not to make any noise she elected to use the staircase rather than the lift and skipped lightly up the steps, feeling the deep piled  bottle-green carpet under her poor sore and tired feet - those feet which had borne the brunt of today’s adventures and carried her all the way from the Elephant and Castle to Dalston and then across North London and Hampstead Heath to bring her finally to her own dearly beloved home.

Her door was the third one along the corridor and she prepared to sink down outside it and sleep like a log until discovered in the morning. Then she saw something that brought her heart right up into her mouth and almost made her faint away on the spot!

PART THE TWENTY EIGHTH

Safely back home after a day of humiliation and adventure, the beautiful Veronica had expected to be obliged to spend a few hours lying on the carpet outside her apartment. In the morning, when the street door automatically unlocked, a member of Andrew Vane-Clatworthy’s staff would come up and return her shoulder bag, containing her keys , cheque book and other personal items. Imagine, therefore,  her astonishment at beholding her keys still in the lock of her apartment door!

“Well!  That’s a bit of luck! I must have forgotten them in the excitement this morning and left them in the lock, and they‘ve been there all day! Very careless, but what a wonderful time to have a memory lapse!

It  was assuredly very unlike Veronica to make ANY mistakes, no matter how trivial. She was famous at work for her reliability and attention to detail. But we all slip up sometimes!

She let herself in to her apartment and went straight to the shower, standing under its blessed heat for many long minutes, feeling her chilled body become restored and warmed. Then she dried herself off and looked at her tall and athletic young body  in her full length bathroom mirror. Not too many ill effects, she decided. A few bruises and scratches here and there, maybe ; but the overall effect of her hours of total exposure was to leave her looking very healthy indeed! Glowing was the operative word!  The parts  of her usually well covered body that had been bare from the very first hours of her adventure were somewhat red from the sun and the more intimate regions that had waited until late afternoon to be revealed to the world were scarcely even pink!

For some reason, she regretted that parts of her were still an almost pure and virginal white. She had a sudden and uncharacteristic urge to procure for her pneumatic body an all -over tan at the very first opportunity.  Her mind became instantly resolved!

She would send off for some brochures in the morning! Once she had  details of sundry exotic and sybaritic holidays in far away and very sunny places, she would book herself a few weeks of Paradise! At the same time, she wondered what Douglass would think about this. He had better go along with it, she thought - goodbye Douglass if he did not!

She looked out of the window and saw that it was still dark. It would not be for long, though, she thought, before the eastern sky became paler with the approach of another rosy dawn. Time for her  to grab her weary mind and body  a few hours’ desperately needed sleep. She still had a job to go to and without the million from the old man, she would need to do her level best to keep it.

The idea of being kept , for the remainder of her days,  by her beloved did appeal to her more than she would ever have thought before yesterday, but  she had no idea when their marriage would take place. It might all have been one of those sudden infatuations that vanish away in the cold light of day. Not that it had faded for her, though!  She still trembled as she thought of that embrace under the streetlight in Kentish Town!

She got into her bed and breathed a great sigh of pure satisfaction as she slid her still naked body between the smooth and faultlessly laundered sheets. The softness and warmth of her lovely luxurious bed immediately started their work on her. In seconds she was fast asleep.  She dreamt of many things, all the events of the past day jumbled up into the most fantastic series of adventures, most of which involved a tall handsome Scotsman and a variety of grotesques and eccentrics. And she was nude throughout!  Miss Prosser had just erupted into the dream and started trying to drag Veronica away from the embrace of Douglass, when she woke up.

The sun was high up in the sky when she emerged from these feverish dreams. A look at her bedside clock told her that she would be very late for work indeed!

She rose and prepared herself quickly, finally donning one of her sober, smart  and sombrely dark business outfits. She looked at her reflection and sighed. Somehow she was far less satisfied about her customary smartness than of late! Perhaps she could make herself look a little less like an old maid, she told herself. At the weekend she must think about acquiring  a few new outfits - something a little more colourful and revealing of her young and perfect body.

She looked in at the porter’s lodging on her way out and enquired whether or no anything had been left for her and was very surprised to be told that nothing had. Just as well she had left her keys in the lock, she thought. She’d still be locked out and very publicly naked if she had not. How extraordinary of the old man to have broken his word! He was famous for living up to all his promises. Maybe he had been taken ill - all the excitement of sitting opposite the naked  girl, playing game after game of chess,  might have been too much for his aged heart!

As she slipped into her office, almost ninety minutes later than her usual time of arrival, her immediate superior came up to her and asked her if she  would step into the boss’s office as a matter of extreme urgency. “I know what it’s all about, Veronica, but I mustn’t say what myself. Hurry along - he’s in an impatient mood today!”

“This is it!” she thought. “The axe is about to fall. Never mind, I’ll soon find another job, and the enforced  rest and time for sorting my life out will be good for me!”

She made herself a quick cup of coffee and  adjusted her dress before a hand mirror - a totally pointless exercise as she was already quite impeccably tidy, intimidatingly so - in fact. But if you are going to be fired, you should always look your best!

She marched along the corridor to the self important and rather tiresome boss’s lavishly furnished office and knocked on the door.

“Come in Veronica” he called out.

She did, and with a heavy heart. He beamed at her.

“So glad you were finally able to make it, my dear. I see we have reverted to our customary conventional attire today. What a crying shame! Please sit down, my much valued and greatly talented Veronica. We have a lot to talk about!”
 

PART THE TWENTY NINTH
 

Veronica lowered her sweet posterior into one of the comfortable chairs. She crossed her legs elegantly, reflecting how much less of those long and sleekly muscular thighs was on view than the day before, and looked uncertainly at her boss.  Mr Travers got up from behind his desk and sat opposite her. His usually uncommunicative features melted into an  unaccustomed and somewhat sinister smile. The contortions of his face as he tried to convey an uncharacteristic message of  benevolence were almost frightening in their ineptitude.

“Would you like a drink, my dear Veronica? I know it’s early in the day, but how about a spot of the old bubbly. Don’t refuse!”

He got up and went  into his secretary’s sanctum, returning with a pair of glasses and a large bucket,  in which reposed,  among many lumps of ice, a large bottle of what Veronica recognised to be a very superior Champagne. This interview was very definitely NOT going the way she had anticipated!

After her boss had none too expertly opened the bottle and poured them both a glass, spilling a great deal of expensive sparkling wine upon the office’s maroon coloured carpet in the process,  he leaned back in his chair and laughed in a falsely casual way.

“Well,  my exquisite Veronica!  I suppose you wonder what this is all about. I’ll come straight to the point.  Yesterday, over a drink in the Lamb Tavern, where incidentally I had the pleasure of seeing your delightfully and splendidly less conventionally clothed self, I agreed with Wilkins that our two firms should merge as of pretty well immediate effect.”

Veronica froze with horror and her heart started to work overtime. Sweat appeared on her brow and her head reeled  dizzily. She had actually been seen by her boss in that ghastly outfit - or lack of an outfit by that time! What was the man playing at?  Surely he should just sack her out of hand and not subject her to all this rigmarole?

He continued. “Well, it will mean a lot of changes, I fear - this merger. As you know, business is very slack lately and there is just about enough work between the two companies to support the staff of only one of them - if that. Wilkins has, very obligingly, agreed to fade into the background, leaving me in effective charge of the combined outfit.  Benson and Fortescue, (Benson’s opposite number,  in Wilkins’s outfit),  are taking early retirement - unwillingly, but on generous enough terms. We both agreed that you should take over their combined jobs . It goes without saying that your pay will be considerably increased. - another £15,000 a year to start with. Alas, my dear young lady, there won’t be any fat Christmas bonuses for a year or two, but things can’t be as bad as this for ever. The darkest hour comes just before the dawn and all that! I’m sure that when the market picks itself up off the floor - in that happy time,  you will do very well. You’ll be worth millions by the time you’re thirty! Guaranteed,  my sweet, darling,  talented and beautiful Veronica! Well! What have you got to say?”

His darling Veronica had very little say for some seconds and contented herself with sipping at her glass of champagne - not her favourite tipple by a long chalk, but a welcome corrective to the shock and mental turmoil she was experiencing. A few days ago she had been looking forward to redundancy and desperately clutching at the straw of Vane-Clatworthy’s challenge and now she was on the threshold of a brilliant career! Quite a turn up for the book!

Finally she had enough confidence in her ability to talk with some kind of approximation to her normal voice. She cleared her throat and shook her head as if to clear away cobwebs.

“I can’t begin to thank you, Mr Travers, Sir! I’ll make sure you don’t ever have cause to regret the faith you have shown in me. I can still hardly believe all this is happening. It‘s been a pretty extraordinary couple of days for me.”

“Yes! I would be interested to here about yesterday’s little escapade sometime - although it’s a busy time right now for me as you can imagine. I suggest you go and arrange the hand over with Benson and tootle over to Wilkins’s office and take a look at their set-up. You won’t have a lot of spare time for the next few weeks, I’m afraid. Be here at seven tomorrow morning, my dear. We will be having a bit of a combined power breakfast and brain-storming session. Bye for now!”

Her head still spinning with her stupefaction at such a sudden and favourable change in her fortunes, Veronica wandered back to her own office and was soon deep in discussion with the soon to be departed Benson.  As soon as she had shaken hands with him and bid him farewell, she went across to the offices of the other firm and spent the rest of the morning there.

On returning to her own place of work, she was told she had a visitor. In her office, ensconced in her favourite chair was the beloved Douglass. After finally and most reluctantly disengaging herself from a very enjoyable embrace, she frowned.

“What happened to you this morning, darling? Luckily I had forgotten to take my keys with me and left them in the lock - else I’d never have got inside.”

Douglass looked at her and laughed.

“Now, Veronica! You KNOW you’d never slip up like that! Not you - I know enough about you by this time. Think, darling. Think!”

Veronica thought. “You mean?”

“Yes, my angel. I went back to Andrew as soon as I had said goodbye to you ,  filched the keys out of your red shoulder bag and  drove straight over to your place. The street door was still open, even at that late hour,  thank Heaven, and I went up and left them in your door. I wasn’t having you sleeping out in the corridor - not after all you’d been through. I’d have waited there for you until you turned up if need be. Don’t worry - Andrew agreed to it, so you haven’t broken the terms of the agreement.”

“So it was thanks to my darling Douglass, I got to be bed last night. Come back here and be kissed again you darling lovely man!”

The two lovers finally parted, she to continue the reorganisation and he to help run his employer’s business empire.

 It was not until Saturday that they met again. It was a glorious day - a real harbinger of Summer - and Veronica gladly agreed to be driven by him to a remote sandy beach on the East Coast. There were no other people around and soon they were both plunging naked into the still icy waters of the North Sea.

After a most enjoyable swim and shivering happily together they dried each other off and settled down to  enjoy each other’s company for a few hours until it was time to go back to London.

“And what are you going to do with all this lovely money, my darling?” asked Douglass, as he emerged from a sweet exploration of her secret places.

“What money? I only get another fifteen thousand a year - peanuts, really. It’ll be years before I am earning serious money.”

“When did you last check your balance, my darling angel?” Douglass asked.

“Not for days. I should have a balance of about twelve thousand. I haven’t had the time to check.”

“Well - when you get home, check it. You can access your details online? Now let’s get back to having fun!”

They had a lot of fun and all too soon it was time to be heading home.