MIRIAM<br/><br/>Roger and I left the ballroom (http://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=41483.msg2069140#msg2069140) and made our way upstairs.<br/><br/>http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk137/HaibaneR/school_level_02.jpg (http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk137/HaibaneR/school_level_02.jpg)<br/><br/>We parted company briefly at the door to my suite, he retiring to his, no doubt to lose the inconvenience of clothing. Inside my room I removed my jewellery, watch, shoes and peeled my stockings down before padding nudely around to the integral bathing area that in contemporary style was a part of the main room, though screened off. I washed my face clean of make up and proceeded to the door to the sauna, grabbing a towel from the rail en-route.<br/><br/>(http://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/0/00/Miriam_Baudelaire_14.jpg)<br/><br/>The traditional pine sauna was quite small, about twelve feet by eight with raised benches in two tiers around three sides. The fourth wall had a door accessing my suite directly, then the brazier where the heated stones were kept and a second door which accessed the communal teacher's sun deck that was cut tastefully into the south-facing roof profile of the old house. Aunt Ester hadn't been one for too much of the old pleasures of the flesh - sun bathing, Jacuzzis and sweating out your pores to clean them but I was, so I'd had the south side of the upper floor converted when I took over the school. The sun deck was especially pleasant and captured the summer sunshine, giving an expansive view over the lawns and woodland of the estate with the gym block to the right foreground beyond the swimming pool, the stables and paddock to the left and beyond these, down the valley a vista of parkland ending in a small private beach, not often used for bathing but it had good Atlantic surf and I liked to don a wetsuit and take a board out there when the October rollers were crashing in.<br/><br/>I opened the sauna door and the dry oven-like heat hit me like a wall. I paused to pour water on the stones which sizzled wickedly before laying my towel out on the right hand lower bench and laying down on my back, arms raised above my head. I closed my eyes and felt the intense heat envelope me, breathing shallowly through pursed lips lest the scalding air burn my nostrils. I shut my eyes and relaxed, stretching out happily.