Miranda pulled up into their drive, stopped, and parked the car. She paused, briefly, and with a deep sigh she reached to open the car door. Miranda's mind was in turmoil, full of apprehension, unsure of how to approach the problem, if indeed there was a problem to begin with.
Regularly, Miranda and Lisa, her old university friend meets up for dinner, more often than not, Miranda inviting her friend Lisa round. But With her husband working out of town, she had suggested a meal out, in town, and asked Rose, to baby sit. Finally, she opened the door, and stood, heading to the front door as the car door closed, as she pressed the locking button on the remote control. Slowly, Miranda inserted the key, and turned the lock, entering her, or rather their home.
"Evening Rose, everything okay?"
Rose picked herself up from the arm chair, and pressed the mute button on the TV as she replied, "Sure, everything was a dream, now his cold has gone, William is sleeping better a lot better."
"Good to hear Rose, I'll just pop upstairs, and then I'll pay you, if you don't mind?"
"Sure, no probs," was the reply.
Miranda headed upstairs, and entered her bedroom, looking around the room, scrutinizing it closely. The bed, looked lightly disturbed, Miranda thought, as if someone had lain on the bed, and then straightened it out, but the bed didn't appear as straight as she remembered. But was it her imagination playing games? Her eyes moved to the tissue box, knowing there had been an orange tissue on top, but being a two tone tissue box, the colour of the tissue was possibly irrelevant, as it was, still an orange tissue. However, the bin, that Miranda had carefully emptied late afternoon, had several tissues screwed up, laying in the bottom.
Hands on hips, she gasped as her eyes moved towards the sets of drawers, and the wardrobe containing her lingerie collection. From an early age, Miranda preferred the luxurious lingerie that was available, always preferring quality over quantity. Adrian, her beloved husband shared similar likes, and regularly bought Miranda gifts of quality lingerie. When he did, he was never selfish. If he liked an item or a range, he would buy effectively the entire set, the bra, or possibly two, the thong, and briefs. If the set also had matching camisole, and, or French knickers, he would buy them too. Consequently, Miranda had built up quite a collection, and a separate though smaller wardrobe was required to store them. A favourite part of her collection was designer lingerie, sold exclusively in a store in London, or their online website out of town factory online. The quality of silk and silk lace was excellent, and for designer wear, the price was affordable.
Slowly, as if she was scared of someone, or something, Miranda walked over to the wardrobe, and opened the drawers each in turn. Her eyes viewed the contents critically, looking for signs of disturbance, and if wasn't long before she found what she feared, or perhaps hoped? The collection was not as it had been left; in particular her new orange silk bustier had been moved. She picked it up carefully, slowly drifting her eyes over the silk, noticing a long black hair. Her eyes stopped, transfixed at the hair, before finally returning the bustier to the drawer. Miranda paused, as she took a deep breath, and then exhaled deeply, reached for her purse from her handbag; and armed with her purse, Miranda headed downstairs, to rejoin Rose in the living room. She entered, and sat into one of the arm chairs, close to Rose.
"Thank you for your help tonight, Rose," as Miranda offered Rose the £10.00 note.
"Thank you," Rose replied, her eyes smiling at the paper money, already knowing how it would be spent; on the typical things teenagers spend their money on.
"Err Rose, I am intending to go shopping tomorrow afternoon, would you be able to pop over for a couple of hours, maximum? It is so much easier to shop without him." a wave of apprehension rippled its way through Miranda as she asked, her mind revisiting her plans.
"Sure, midday?"
"Please, Waitrose (an upmarket UK food chain) can become quite chaotic if I leave much later."
With that, Miranda saw Rose out, and returned upstairs heading to William's room, having switched the lights off downstairs as she went. She sat on the edge of his bed, and stroked his hair, reached over and kissed him, before she ended back in their room.
Rose had been babysitting for Miranda and Adrian for several years, ever since her early teens. Rose was a bubbly girl, always cheerful and smiling. She was slightly taller than Miranda at about 5'3, and has long jet black shoulder length hair that reached past her bra strap. Her eyes were a deep blue in colour, and her form, whilst not slender, was that of a curvy young teen. Whilst she had the ability to dress up, and make herself rather pretty and appealing, she often wore trousers, or hipsters, that expressed her curvy bum, and her muscular legs, that she had developed from swimming and running. Miranda had always guessed correctly that whilst they were of a similar size, or rather height, Rose's build was such that she was the next dress size up from herself.
Miranda returned to the drawer, and retrieved the silk bustier; bodice. A more recent addition to her collection, (part of a range that was a Christmas gift from Adrian) it had become an instant favourite of hers, especially during the winter months. Made of silk, it was smooth, and comfortable, and because it was silk, it was warmer to wear during the cold winter months, and she often preferred wearing it rather than a bra. The bustier or bodice in question was a deep rusty orange in colour, with wide shoulder straps, and reached to just below her navel. The bustier was decorated with brown embroidered lace with hints of orange and gold in an ornate pattern, a pattern from the Indian sub-continent; that started at the shoulder straps, covering the thickness of the straps, and travelled towards the base of the top, the two bands meeting at the base, forming an Orange V down the body and meeting at the base. This orange was, itself crisscrossed with a brown band, giving the appearance of being tied, although it wasn't. Along the centre of the back were 15 little eyelets, which fastened the bustier. The set came complete with a matching bra, thong, and briefs. The only item her husband didn't buy was the matching night dress, as Miranda preferred sleeping without hindrance.
Miranda felt anger, with Rose; anger with Rose once again going through her lingerie collection. She was not sure how she first suspected Rose had been going through her collection or when she started. However, one item that Rose was clearly admiring was the orange silk set, and in particular, the bustier. Yet again, the bustier was stored at the top of the pile, and this time there was the solitary black hair. She sat on the side of her bed; unsure and confused about how to take tackle this problem despite countless hours spent mulling over the issue. Despite her anger, Miranda often felt a sense of pride, flattered that Rose appreciated her lingerie collection, seeing Rose's rummaging as a compliment. Her eyes flicked across to another part of the room, where a gold gift box lay, with a black bottom and tied with a gold ribbon.
"Damn Rose" she muttered to herself, as she put the item back into the draw, and undressed, before settling into bed, unsure whether she would sleep well.
Miranda awoke with a jolt as William jumped on her bed, "Mommy, Mommy," he exclaimed.
She smiled, as her son climbed into bed with her, her mind registering the time on the clock. It was seven thirty something or other; the exact time didn't matter. William had been good and slept well, allowing Miranda to have a little lay-in despite her disturbed sleep. Her mother was collecting him at 10am, so she had about two hours in which she had to prepare him.
******
Dressed casually, in a t-shirt and skirt, Miranda waved as William was driven down the drive, and onto the road, being entertained by her mother-in-law. Slowly, she closed the front knowing that she had the house to herself till Monday evening, or at least midday, when Rose would show.
Slowly, Miranda headed up to the bedroom, and started to prepare herself for the uncertainly of the afternoon. She showered and dried her hair, before tying it into a high ponytail, leaving her neck, and necklace exposed. The drawer opened slowly, as Miranda reached for the bustier, and slowly put her arms through the arm straps before reaching back and fastened the clasp methodically; finally, she walked over to another wardrobe, and reached for her new, very sheer, silk blouse that was a light cream colour. As she fastened the two half's, she deliberately left the top of her bustier exposed. She tucked the blouse into the waistband of the deep orange skirt, and admired herself in the mirror. She smiled; as the blouse had the effect she was wanting, being that her bodice was clearly visible through the sheer silk.
The time seemed to go slowly, as Miranda sipped her fresh coffee and watched the morning news on the BBC news channel. She waited for midday; the passage of time she sensed was slow. The gift box was placed on a side table.
The repeating news cycle must have at least sent Miranda into a trance, or a light snooze. The door bell ringing bought her back to reality. She gulped and realised that the time had come as Miranda looked at the clock on the TV screen. Slowly, not wanting Rose to think Miranda was sitting at the door, Miranda stood and looked at her reflection in a window, straightened her skirt and ran her hands down her top, before she walked slowly and deliberately into the hallway and reached to open the door.
