Dearest Papa,
I hope this letter finds you well and you continue to enjoy teaching the piano to your eager pupils. Yes, praise for your skills and patience in this pursuit has spread far beyond Mayfield.
As you see, I have sent you a photograph, which I found whilst inspecting the contents of an old chest that had been stored, forgotten, in my attic these past ten years. I hesitated to send it for some weeks for fear of causing unwanted memories to surface, but my darling Arthur assured me that your memory of my mother’s death would have diminished after almost fifteen years, and the photo of the three of us may bring you joy.
I remember that evening so well, Papa. Mother sang like a nightingale; your piano playing enthralled and the applause from the audience made me proud to be your daughter. Later that night Mother broke your heart.
You never believed I didn’t know what Mother intended to do, but it was true. None of us knew she had a lover. My heart was broken two-fold when we found her letter after she’d fled. To see you so distraught caused me far more grief than Mother’s absence.
Rest assured, Papa, my lips remain sealed regarding your journey to Brighton on the day Mother was stabbed in her apartment. Even Arthur knows nothing of that. Mother’s murderer was never found and her lover simply disappeared. Though the man was never located, the police drew the obvious conclusion…
I chose to believe that the knife concealed in your dresser was simply an unwanted gift. I’ll take that belief to my grave. As you will, doubtless, take your secret to yours.
Your loving daughter,
Dottie
*****
I must thank my daughter, Louise, over at An Enchanted Place for the use of her photo, which is one of many taken on a lovely day out we all had to Warwick Castle a few years ago. (I scrounged a photo from Lou because her pics are SO much better than mine!)
I am currently in the middle of putting together another 85 stories for A Second Dash of Flash and hope to publish it later this year. This is one of the stories I’ve already written for the book – which, like Book One, A Dash of Flash, is an eclectic mix of stories of varying lengths and genres. It will make a nice change from writing historical fiction for novels for a while.
Part 1 of this story (originally just titled The Photograph) can now be read here. It was written as an afterthought, some weeks after this one: the reason for the additional information to the title.
Millie Thom 
I love this, and the picture is just perfect. The portrait within the picture was a popular pose of the time and I’ve seen many such subjects, often showing identical, or nearly identical backgrounds. I think it must have been almost the obligatory “selfie” of that age!
Thank you so much, Peter. 😀 I agree, those old portraits are fascinating. We love visiting castles and stately homes and have been to a lot of them over the years. Our photos make great prompts for stories. It’s funny how the styles of paintings – the poses and backgrounds as much as the clothes – give away the era in which they were painted.
Happy to see your post after such a long time, Millie. I hope all is well at your end.
Thanks, Arv, it’s good to see you, too. I imagine you are still photographing all those fabulous places in India and I look forward to finding out. I’m happy to be back on my blog. I’ve tried a couple of times to come back over the past eighteen months, but have had to stop to get on with my writing. Now that the final book in my series is finished, I feel quite liberated! I don’t intend to start another novel for a while, so I’ll have time to concentrate on WP.
Happy to hear that you are back. Book? wow! That’s interesting. Certainly, I have been writing though at a slower pace. I’m sure there is plenty to your liking on my blog. Check it out. Stay safe. I hope your area is all safe during the current crisis.
A very intriguing write-up!
Thank you, Lina. It’s good to connect with you again. From what I noticed yesterday, you’ve been off your blog for a while, too. Sometimes, there are just too many things in life that need dealing with, so some of them just have to go! I’ve really missed my blog, but finishing my historical fiction series had to come first. I’m feeling quite fancy-free now and ready to blog to my heart’s content.
That’s great to hear…..I feel the same way too….I would slowly like to start blogging again like before
A lovely story Millie and a great picture to compliment it. I look forward to the new book.
Thank you, Sherrie! I love writing flash fiction and it makes a nice change to historical fiction – at least, for a while. 😀
Great to see you Millie. It looks like you have been busy. Love the story.
Hi, Jo. It’s great to see you, too. I’ve been incredibly busy writing the fourth and final book of my historical fiction series. I can’t deny that I enjoyed writing it – and it’s the longest of the four books – but I’ve missed my blog a lot! I adore flash fiction and need to find some great challenges to join in with. Two of the ones I used to do seem to have gone, so I’m taking note of other good sites.
I imagine you’re still writing flash, and look forward to reading some of your recent pieces. Thank you for liking my story.
The style is just right – it reminds me of watching Downton Abbey where, no matter the scandal or news, everyone stayed very polite and just made little sideways comments 🙂
I hope no-one intercepts that letter…
Ha ha. That’s exactly what Louise said when she read it! Yes, that would cause more than a scandal. Thank you, draliman. I hope you are keeping well and still writing your fabulous stories for Friday Fictioneers. 😀
Reblogged this on When My Worlds Collide.
Thank you so much for that, Ernest. So much appreciated.
Just thought people would like to see more of your work. 🙂 Your site is amazing. So many wonderful things to look at and read.
Thank you for saying so, but I’ve only recently come back to my blog after virtually ignoring it for a couple of years while I finished my series. It’s a wonder I have any followers left! 😀