Royal Duchess | BRF Story

Princess Mary

Mary had always been shy, an introvert. She had been the peacemaker of her siblings since a very early age, one of the pros of being the third of five, the middle child, or so she tells herself. She had always been a keen student, and maybe even a little bit too eager and precocious on a few matters. But nonetheless, she was smart. Nursery had been fun, from the few actual memories Mary had of the time, and so had been Eaton Square. But Wycombe had been her favourite, not because it was a challenge, but because she had discovered one of her many passions there: biology. 

The Princess had always loved the gardens, and when the family visited Norfolk and Scotland not even the bad weather could keep Princess Mary inside the big homes. Being outside, with nature, had become her safe haven. And the seemly endless talks about the plants and gardens with her Aunt Katie, one of the favourite family moment she was always looking forward to. 

Wycombe had challenged her academically, helped her discover her passion, and find two of her best and truest of friends, Ciara and Isabella. But it had also brought a few challenges, specially after her older sister, Vicky, graduated and left her alone. 

Since Mary found out, from none other than her brother James and at the age of ten, that they weren't a normal family, and that normal families don't travel around the globe meeting dignitaries from a young age, she had always aware of the glances she sometimes got from people who weren't around her very often, specially when her photo was on the newspapers. But after the new Princess of Wales, her sister Vicky, left the boarding house things became a little bit more obvious. She was now the only Princess there, even if constitutionally she wasn't important. She knew The Queen, later she knew The King, and, of course, Prince George, Prince of Wales. It didn't matter if a handful of others around the boarding school also knew them, Mary was different, she was related to them. She was one of them.  

But she didn't let that stop her, she couldn't. She had put so much time and effort on her studies, she couldn't just let it die down months before her graduation. So she didn't. And that proved the best decision she had made at the time, because, like it was expected of one of the best students of her year, she got into the university she wanted with the grades she needed. 

Moving wasn't news to Mary, of course, it didn't happen every day, but they had moved twice during Mary's late childhood and teenage years, from Kensington Palace, to Clarence House, and then one final time, to Buckingham Palace. But moving across the globe was something she had never done before, but had never been one to back down from an adventure. So on a hot August morning Mary was heading towards Boston, to attend a university she had never thought she would actually be able to be a student at: Harvard. 

She had promised she would come back to England every holiday and summer (which she did), but the plan her and her parents had made started going off course after three and a half years, when she was accepted into a graduate program at the university, so two more years away from home. That by itself wouldn't be a problem, Mary knew, but when you have spent so many years in a place it starts feeling like home, especially if by the end of the second year you've been offered a position in one of the best medical labs in the country. You wouldn't let that opportunity pass by, would you? 

The King wasn't the most happy, but it was The Queen who tried every card she had under her sleeve to bring her daughter back to her side, even Princess Victoria's wedding was used as an excuse for her to either go back to England earlier or stay a little longer. It didn't work. Mary moved full time across the Atlantic ocean by the time September came around. And for the first time since she had moved away she was happy. There wasn't pressure, there wasn't expectations she had no idea how to fulfil. She was just Mary Windsor there, and that was everything she needed.