Lady Helena had awoken a little earlier than usual. It was a beautiful sunny morning, and being the height of summer, it was already warm too. She looked over to her right at Nikky the maid who was patiently awaiting for Christopher to wake. She glanced to her left, and smiled at Jack, he smiled back.
She whispered to him quietly;
'It's ok Jack, you can go now, thank you.'
He nodded, turned silently, and left the room without making a sound.
Helena looked back towards Nikky. She held her finger to her lips to indicate that she should remain quiet. She then gestured for the maid to come to her side of the bed. Once she was within earshot, she whispered to her.
'I think I would like to have a lovely soak in the summer room bath this morning where I can see the rest of the sunrise, would you prepare it for me please?'
Nicola, otherwise known as Nikky throughout the house was a petite girl of around thirty with short dark brown hair, cut in a straight style, just slightly longer than a true bob cut. Several of the other female staff wore theirs in a similar manner. It was not a mandatory style, but it was practical, and Lord Dansett liked it. Everyone tried to keep the masters of the house happy as much as possible of course.
Nikky softly padded away across the deep pile carpet towards the summer room which was attached to the side of the house and was connected to the master bedroom by a short glass passageway. After a couple of minutes, Helena could just make out the distant sound of water filling the bath. It wasn't really a bath in the normal sense - more like a small plunge pool that was roughly ten feet square and sunk into the marble floor of the summer room. It could be filled with hot or cold water via a high pressure system in just a few minutes even though it was almost four feet deep at one end. It tapered upwards to floor level in a series of full width steps which doubled as shelves to sit upon.
Helena daydreamed as she admired the continuing sunrise out of the french doors.
Before ten minutes had passed, Nikky appeared once more at the passageway entrance and nodded to Helena that everything was ready.
Lady Dansett gently pulled back the sheet and swung her slender legs out of the bed in a manner that would not arouse her still sleeping husband. She stood completely naked, stretched, and then headed towards the summer room. She stepped into the glass passageway and followed Nikky along the soft carpet.
Across the beautifully manicured lawn to the East of the house, Gavin, one of the groundsmen idly looked up from his work as he noticed a movement out of the corner of his eye. First he spotted the maid walking along inside "The Tunnel" as it was sometimes called. Then he looked again as he saw Lady Helena herself walking along behind her absolutely naked, and seemingly without a care in the world. Just as he was staring, Helena looked over in his direction, and gave him a smile. She continued along as if it were completely normal.
Gavin certainly didn't think it was. He suddenly started having naughty thoughts about Lucy, the young lass who looked after the horses at the stables...
Lady Helena stepped carefully into the pool, testing the water for temperature as she did so. It was perfect - quite hot, as she preferred it, but not too hot to get straight in. She sank down onto the second step so that the foamy water came up to just above her waist. She took a small jug that was sat beside her, and began to scoop water over herself. She then slid herself forwards enough to drop down onto the third step. The water now came up to shoulder height. She leant back and put her arms out either side to steady herself as she laid her head back and to the side to watch the orange sun rising.
The trails of fluffy clouds turned from shades of brown through a deep maroon, then blood red into deep orange before a paler orange predominated over the pale blue that seeped over the horizon.
After what had seemed an age, Helena lazily turned her head the other way, towards her dutiful maid.
'Would you do my back please Nikky?' she asked as she moved back up to a higher step.
Nikky took a real sponge from the wicker basket beside her on the floor, and picked up a small velvet cushion. She stepped over to the pool, and placed the cushion near the edge. She then knelt down on it beside Helena. She dipped the sponge into the water. Lady Dansett turned away as Nikky began to gently rub her back.
'Mmmm, that's really good Nikky, would you do my front as well?'