The Wake — Bridy McAvoy

Her husband had been adamant on his death bed. He had insisted over and over that she would not be celibate and spend the rest of her life alone. She had been equally insistent that no one would ever take his place.

The day before the illness took him he had wrung a promise from her, to wear some wildly inappropriate underwear to his funeral so he could rest with a smile on his face knowing this.

Alison complied, little knowing the reason for his smile was something both much worse, and so, so much better.