The Duke and Duchess of Clarence

Chapter Sixteen: Thirty-Six

3rd of February 2023 - York House

Jerking awake, Adeline looked around her bedroom as she tried to pinpoint what had woken her up; throwing back the covers, she climbed out of bed putting her slippers on and looking to Simon's side of the bed to see it empty. 

Adeline shook her head before she made her way out of the bedroom and down the stairs, rubbing the sleep from her eyes and listening out for any sign of her husband since it was very early in the morning. 

The kids were still in bed and Adeline didn't know why Simon would be up at this hour, the sun wasn't even up yet and it was cold around the house. 

Reaching the bottom of the stairs, Adeline paused hearing the quiet sounds of a whispered conversation from the kitchen; she furrowed her brow only making out one of the voices that she could hear. 

Simon's voice, Adeline would recognise anywhere and she couldn't work out who he was talking to as she made her way towards the kitchen; her steps quiet as she edged closer to the kitchen were the talking was. 

"You shouldn't be up, we wanted it to be a surprise," Simon exclaimed moving to stop Adeline from entering the kitchen, a smile upon his face as he moved to wrap his arms around Adeline and herd her back out of the room. 

Adeline couldn't see the face of the second person, their blonde hair causing a niggling feeling in the back of her mind that she could not place. 

"We?" Adeline murmured trying to look over Simon's shoulder to see what he was hiding, her husband laughed and shook his head; turning her around as he continued to usher her out of the room. 

Adeline couldn't shake the feeling that she had missed something, that something wasn't right but she couldn't figure out what it was. 

"Of course, what mother would miss her daughter's birthday?" called the person behind Simon, he stopped trying to push Adeline from the room and she gently pushed him out of the way to stare at the woman that was in her kitchen. 

Adeline felt like the world had shifted and the air had been pulled out of the room as she stared at the woman, her eyes not wanting to believe what she was seeing right this second. 

"Mum," Adeline breathed, the sight of her mother was not one that she had expected not when she had climbed out of bed that morning. 

There were several women that could have been in the kitchen that morning but her mother was not one of the people that she had been expecting to find in her kitchen. 

Diana, Princess of Wales smiled as she stared at her only daughter, she looked exactly the same as the last time that Adeline had seen her; nothing had changed, not even that sparkle in her eyes that she always seemed to have. 

Time seemed to stop as Adeline stared at Diana, she didn't want to blink in case her mother disappeared before her eyes. 

"You look like you've seen a ghost?" Diana teased moving around the kitchen to make sure that the breakfast that she and Simon had been working on would not burn. 

Adeline wanted to laugh at her words, to laugh at the fact that she had died and the ghost that Adeline was seeing was here. 

Simon moved past his wife and started to help his mother-in-law with what she was doing, acting as if this wasn't surreal and Adeline knew that if this was a dream then she didn't want to wake up. 

"We were making you breakfast in bed. But that seems a little redundant now," Diana said shaking her head, it was just like Adeline to do something like this a ruin the surprise that they had worked so hard on.