Princess Adeline of Wales

Chapter Sixty-Four: Graduation

6th of April 2009 - Chester Cathedral

The crowds cheered as Queen Elizabeth climbed from her car, the weather fairly decent for the event that was being held today and she had been so pleased to receive the invitation that had come only months earlier.

There was no doubt in her mind that Adeline had thrown herself into her studies in her final year of university, most notably because of the leak about her relationship that had occurred.

It had been disheartening to see Adeline withdraw like she had, wary of discussing anything about her personal life to anyone in the family when questions were asked in fear that it might end up in the papers.

Queen Elizabeth turned to wave to the crowds that had gathered, the presence of the Queen even in a private capacity drew quite a bit of attention from royal fans.

The Dean stepping forward to greet the Queen and Prince Philip who had come to watch their granddaughter graduate from university, just as Prince Charles had done having entered the building ahead of his parents.

The last thing that the royals wished to do was steal the limelight from any of the graduates that day, they had all worked so hard to get to this point.

Moving through the aisles of seats that had been erected for the ceremonies taking place, the Queen nodded her head at those who acknowledged her as she passed following the Dean as they were lead to their seats.

"Charles," Queen Elizabeth greeted with a smile, moving to be seated next to her son pleased to see him here; the last few months had been filled with an awkward tension around the Wales' since Harry had pulled that stunt last year.

It was hard not to notice that Adeline had done everything in her power to avoid her brother, even going as far as to decline to attend Sandringham at Christmas last year.

Her excuse being she wished to spend the holidays with her friends here in Chester, it would be the last time that she'd get to do so since they were all graduating now and heading off on their own.

"Have you spoken to Adeline this morning?" Queen Elizabeth asked taking her seat, Charles seated on her right while Philip was seated on her left.

There was much to celebrate, but the Queen couldn't help but want to smooth out the situation that Harry had caused in his brash actions that had caused so much contention in her family.

Her eyes swept the rows of people, her head craning slightly before she found who she was looking for; her eyes catching with those of the Countess of Munster, the two of them sharing a look before she broke eye contact.

"Briefly," Charles replied softly, he would not discuss what had been said while they were in public and he didn't blame his daughter; it was a big day afterall and she had a lot on her mind, there had been so much that she needed to do before the ceremony could take place.

Her attentions had been rather focused on her final exams and her dissertation which had left very little time for family interacts, not that she seemed to long for such things even avoiding Clarence House when needed.

Queen Elizabeth patted Charles' hand, she had a plan to rectify the miss step by her wayward grandson and hopefully restore some peace to the family at the same time.

It wasn't long before the speeches were underway, reminding the monarch greatly of those that she had listened to when William had graduated from St Andrews only a few years earlier.

The years seemed to flyby now, time moving so fast that she could hardly keep up as her grandchildren grew before her very eyes and started lives of their very own as their parents had done.