The Secret

The Secret

         Alice knelt down to pick up the envelope which had just dropped onto the doormat and, with trembling hands she ripped it open and removed a sheet of paper.

         Struggling back up onto her feet, Alice masked her smile that had formed as she read the piece of paper and walked back into the living room.

         Tom looked up at her fondly. “You ought to be getting ready love. Jenny and the grandchildren will be arriving soon.”

         “Yes, you’re right. Isn’t it exciting Tom? I can’t believe that they’re going to be here with us on our Ruby wedding anniversary, all the way from America.”

         “Well they are, now why don’t you take that corset off, Alice? It looks as if it’s killing you and you can’t even bend down.”

         “You know why Tom. I want to wear the going away dress that I wore on our wedding day.”

          “All right Alice, I’ve told you what I think.”

          Alice looked at herself in the mirror and smiled, the dress fitted perfectly even without the corset that she’d discarded.

         She’d never have known that the dress had been secretly altered if Millie Harris’s bill hadn’t come through the letter box.

          Alice smiled she’d let Tom find it tomorrow. Let him think that he’d got a secret from her. Tom deserved to have a little secret, after forty years.