The Royal Scandal | Prince William |

Getting Back To Normal

February 13, 2013

Amelia is a happy baby, and Elizabeth knows the difference.

Despite the scare she put them all through, and the hours her and Philip spent in the private chapel at Sandringham, Amelia is perfectly happy. Harry bounces around the room with her, hand supporting her neck like Jaclyn showed him, and the entire time she gurgles with an open mouth expression that looks like a lopsided smile.

"You did it," Philip whispers with a mocking wink that he knows she'll loathe while both the new parents follow Harry with outstretched hands. She scoffs, hands folded gracefully in her lap, reminiscing about moments in her youth when her children were so young and she was so inexperienced.

Because, despite what the media and her secretaries say, Amelia is a child. A happy child who doesn't see titles and crowns, but the day will come when it sets in that a kingdom is passed on through her family. When she'll look at her father and see her predecessor, and in her mother she'll see all the ways they differ.

"Harry please be careful," William sighs, following his younger brother like a protective shadow. Arms at the ready in case anything goes wrong. Jaclyn sits beside her trying to sit back and relax, but it's clear in her tight smile she's just as nervous.

They're alone in Kensington, the doors closed to even the staff, and there's something intimate about it. Something new and refreshing.

Philip scoffs, turning to Jaclyn with a teasing disbelief. "They're both hooligans."

"I suppose if it tires her out…"

He tisks again, "She's a Windsor I'm afraid nothing will tire her out. Harry!" He yells down the hall that the three have disappeared down. "I came to see my great granddaughter, not for you to hog her the whole time."

Their only answer is more laughing and Amelia's occasional scream followed by William's low warning scold.

"How are you doing, dear?" Elizabeth asks Jaclyn, ignoring the men around her. The bags under the young woman's eyes are incandescent in shades of blue and purple now that the makeup for the cameras is gone. Somehow she looks more alive than she has in months. The shell of bones they grew accustomed to is gone. Her hollow and translucent cheeks fill out with color and a smile that doesn't crack, a light and glow to her that will put everyone at ease.

Her head tilts, blonde hair falling like tangled threads of gold as she beams her smile, her trademark smile that threatens to consume her entire face. Once upon a time the look was so American in Elizabeth's mind, but now she simply sees her granddaughter in law.

"I'm doing better. I've started doing yoga and pilates to help build back my strength."

"If you want a real sport you should join me on the carriage…" Philip loses his train of thought, even though Jaclyn looks genuinely interested, as Harry comes skipping back in snickering. Her husband, despite his rough exterior, is taken with the little girl who's placed in his arms.

She wiggles and fights to go back and play with her uncle, but Harry tickles her belly and steps back. "I know Uncle Harry is your favorite," he laughs, and she continues to wiggle and squirm.

"Amelia Elizabeth Diana!" Jaclyn playfully scolds, and her and Philip laugh together as she stands to come hover beside him. They dote over the little girl, tickling her tummy and playing with her toes, but the Queen struggles to focus on the child and not the name.

Elizabeth doesn't often think about her passed daughter in law, but she's thought about her these last couple of weeks. She thinks about the queen she could have been, and the grandmother she should be. A part of her knew from the second William told her it was a girl, that Diana would be in her name, and she's still not sure how to feel.