Princess Adeline, Duchess of Clarence

Chapter Fifty-Seven: The Engagement of Princess Beatrice

26 September 2019

The Duke and Duchess of York are delighted to announce the engagement of Her Royal Highness Princess Beatrice of York to Mr. Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi.

Her Royal Highness and Mr. Mapelli Mozzi became engaged while away for the weekend in Italy earlier this month.

The wedding will take place in 2020. Further details will be announced in due course.

Household of the Duke of York

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York House

The announcement of Beatrice's engagement brought forward thoughts of the impending FitzClarence wedding that was set to take place next year with Rupert and Ellie about to tie the knot in the coming months.

The date had been set for the 25th of July next year, a beautiful summer wedding that would be held at the family estate like Lucy and Celina's wedding had been.

They had picked out the gardens were they were going to be wed, plans falling into place so easily that it was clear the wedding would be making it's own mark.

The wedding invites had been sent out months ago, most agreeing on their attendance with the exception of Susan who refused to attend if Anne was going to be there.

Rupert had refused to uninvite his own mother from his wedding and with Ellie's support had revoked Susan's invite; neither of them wanting such a negative Nancy at their wedding who was being so petty.

It seemed like all the FitzClarence family had fallen out with Susan over her actions towards their mother, she hadn't even been invited to meet Jia when she had been born earlier in the month.

The other notable exclusion from the guest list was Harry and Meghan, neither of them were considered for the guest list especially with the growing tension behind Palace walls.

Standing in her wedding dress for the first time, Ellie gave a little twirl as she stood in Adeline's living room as she took in how she looked in the mirror.

It had been so kind of Adeline and Simon to offer up their home for her dress fitting, the press following her around most days meaning that she didn't want the surprise to be ruined by the papers before her wedding had even happened.

"Do you think this looks okay?" Ellie asked peering into the mirror, she wasn't sure how her dress measured up to Adeline or Lucy's, they had both worn such beautiful dresses on her wedding day.

It was hard to imagine how her own wedding would measure up to such highest, she wasn't like Lucy or Adeline and her wedding wouldn't mark some grand change for the family.

She wasn't a member of the royal family nor was she entering into a same sex marriage, she was just a woman marrying a man that she loved.

"You look beautiful Ellie... how you feel in that dress matters the most," Adeline encouraged knowing that the younger woman had been worrying about how she measured up.

It didn't matter to any of them what the wedding was like as long as Ellie and Rupert were happy, it was their big day and their happiness was what mattered the most in all of this.

Ellie nodded her head, her hands moving down the lace of her dress as she stared at herself in the mirror and chewed on her lip as she thought about it.

The dress was of her own decision with her parents insisting on paying for it since the FitzClarences were footing the bill for the entire wedding; they had been saving for her dress since Rupert had asked her father for his blessing to marry her.