Princess Adeline of Wales

Chapter Sixty-Nine: The Engagement of Prince William

16 November 2010

The Prince of Wales is delighted to announce the engagement of Prince William to Miss Catherine Middleton.

The wedding will take place in the Spring or Summer of 2011, in London. Further details about the wedding day will be announced in due course.

Prince William and Miss Middleton became engaged in October during a private holiday in Kenya. Prince William has informed The Queen and other close members of his family. Prince William has also sought the permission of Miss Middleton's father.

Following the marriage, the couple will live in North Wales, where Prince William will continue to serve with the Royal Air Force.

Clarence House

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St James's Palace

"Thank you for helping me get ready," Catherine said feeling rather nervous, the announcement had come that morning that she was to wed William; it felt like a dream seeing all the news reports and congratulations coming in.

The news had been shared with the two families before they had told anyone else after their return from their holiday in Kenya last month; with William popping the question in a cabin hut roughly 11,000 feet above sea level on the side of Mount Kenya.

Now three weeks later, it was time to share their happiness with the world; a daunting task at the best of times but this was on the world stage.

No matter how much practice had been put into preparing for her future role, it was always going to be rather unnerving to speak to a room full of press.

"You're welcome," Adeline replied with a smile, she was more than happy to help and she was sure that there would come a time that Catherine would have to return the favour when Adeline was in this position herself.

She'd always wanted a big sister, she admired the relationship that Catherine and Pippa shared; she wondered what it would have been like if her parents had, had a second daughter.

Messing with her engagement ring, Catherine stared down at it knowing how talked about the ring was; it was hard to believe that she was wearing it sometimes.

It had been so sweet of William to ask her with his mother's ring, a small way of keeping her included even when she didn't get to be here.

"Are you sure you're okay with this?" Catherine asked looking up from her engagement ring to Adeline, William had assured her that both his siblings had given their blessing for him to propose with this ring.

However that didn't stop her from worrying that she was taking something very special from them, it had been their mother's ring afterall.

"More than okay with it. She'd have wanted you to have it, it's not really my style," Adeline replied reassuring her, she really thought the ring suited Catherine and it wasn't like she didn't have other options of rings that had belonged to her mother.

There was still quite a bit of her mother's collection still, bits that Adeline would have access to more going forward that she'd have first choice of as Diana's daughter with Catherine and Harry's future bride able to also pick things from the collection if they desired.

"Mummy had a lot of jewellery. I have pieces of her collection, her earrings that I selected when she passed. I have this watch," Adeline continued showing Catherine the watch that she was wearing.