Princess Adeline of Wales

Chapter Seventy-Nine: A Father's Blessing

29th of July 2013 - Highgrove House

Taking a nervous breath as he stood in the living room of Prince Charles' country home, Simon could not help but feel rather nervous about what he had come here to do.

It hardly felt real and he knew when he had called ahead to make this appointment when George had been born that there was no going back now and he had to do this in complete secrecy.

The last thing that Simon wanted was for Adeline to find out what he was planning, he had everything planned out in his head even the small details.

The doors to the room opened and Simon turned to face Prince Charles as he entered the room wiping down his hands from his work in the garden where he had been working on the hedges and feeding his chickens.

"Your Grace," Charles greeted with a nod of his head, a little surprised that Simon had asked for this meeting and had come without Adeline and he could only imagine why he had requested such a meeting.

As much as he liked Simon, he had not spend much time with Adeline's boyfriend despite the fact that they'd been together for around seven years and before that he had been one of Harry's best friends since his early school days.

"Your Royal Highness," Simon greeted in response, he cleared his throat as he stared at Adeline's father and felt himself panic a little when he realised that the speech that he had prepared had disappeared out of his head.

Now he wished that he had written out what he wanted to say, the last thing that he wanted was to screw this up especially since he knew that Adeline's situation dictated that this went well.

"What brings you to Highgrove?" Charles asked him, he signalled for Simon to take a seat while he poured them some tea that had been set out for them and insisted the younger man help himself to the shortbread from the Duchy of Cornwall that had arrived that morning.

He watched Simon with an amused look seeing him fidget nervously as he took a seat on the couch, he handed Simon a cup before taking a seat himself and relaxing back into the chair by the fireplace.

Simon opened and closed his mouth for a few seconds as he tried to work out what he wanted to say, he could not believe that he had forgotten the entire speech that he had planned to give to the father of his girlfriend.

The small jewellery box in his jacket pocket suddenly felt rather heavy, a reminder just what he had come here to do and how much this meeting depended on him not making a complete fool of himself.

"Take your time son," Charles reassured Simon, he looked rather serious and he did hope that everything was alright; although Charles did suspect that he had an idea why Simon had come to see him after he'd been dating Adeline for a while now.

It was something that he and the Queen had discussed in recent weeks, both of them sure that Adeline would be the next one of his children to settle down after William had done so only two years earlier with Catherine.

"I wanted to talk to you today because I have some important news to discuss," Simon started setting down his cup, he sat forward on the couch and clasped his hands as he tried to gather his courage.

He had faced an active war zone three times now and that seemed like a walk in the park compared to what he was about to say to Prince Charles.

"First, I want to tell you how much I've enjoyed getting to know you and Camila, and how much I appreciate being welcomed into the family. I would have loved the chance to meet Diana," Simon said carefully, this wasn't just about honouring Adeline's father but he had wished that he could have asked Diana for her blessing as well.