Princess Adeline of Wales

Chapter Two: It is Gonna Be Okay

2nd of September 1997 - Balmoral Castle

"Adeline there you are," the Queen Mother greeted spotting her great granddaughter coming down the stairs for breakfast; a kind smile appeared on her face as she patted the seat beside her for her to come sit next to her. 

Things had been rather quiet since the news had reached them that Diana had been passed away, the news spreading around the world and people mourning the loss of the People's Princess. 

There was no ignoring what was happening in the world around them even if they did try to shield the children from what was happening; the people grieving for Diana was hard to ignore even with how they were all feeling. 

It seemed that nothing they did was good enough, from what she had been told the people were disappointed with how the Royals were handling Diana's death. 

"Your brothers have gone deer stalking," the Queen Mother informed her, they were trying to keep the children distracted so that they could not think too much about what had happened. 

However, it was not hard to see how grown up the three children had been since they had been told about their mother's passing. 

They had each seemed to age over night with the news and it was hard to try and keep things as normal as possible for them while they grieved for their mother. 

It certainly did not help with the public outcry that was happening around them, displays of floral tributes had appeared so numerous at Buckingham and Kensington Palaces that the main entrances onto the complexes have to be rerouted. 

A small nod from Adeline was her reply and the Queen Mother was at a lost to what to say to the child that had lost her mother in such a way; she recalled her own mother's death and how lost she had felt at that time and she'd been a grown woman. 

The little girl had been ever so quiet since she had been told her mother had passed, no one was sure how she was handling all of this since there was so much going on right now. 

Charles had returned from France with Diana's body and was in the process of sorting things out with Diana's family for the funeral; they wanted a private affair but the public outcry seemed to suggest otherwise.

The people wanted to grieve along with the royals and seemed rather upset that they had stayed at Balmoral instead of returning to London right away; they seemed to forget just who had suffered the most at the loss of Diana. 

Their concern was to care for Diana's grieving children was interpreted as a lack of compassion and that bothered them most of all; people seemed to forget that these children had lost their mother not just some public figure head. 

"Perhaps you would like some breakfast?" the Queen Mother suggested signalling for someone to fetch Adeline something to eat, she was sure the girl was hungry since she had only picked at her dinner the night before. 

Adeline chewed on her lip, she was not feeling hungry and she had not felt hungry since her father had told her that her mother had died; she chose to look down at her feet instead of saying anything. 

"Now tell Great Grandmama what is on your mind?" the Queen Mother insisted smiling at Adeline once they were alone, Philip was keeping the boys busy and she was grateful for that. 

They needed a distraction but so did Adeline and she felt bad for the little girl that had been sort of forgotten with everything that was going on; not that it had been intentional just that the boys were easier to deal with. 

"What will happen now?" Adeline asked softly, she peeked up her blue eyes big as she watched her Great Grandmother; no one had really talked about what would happen now that her mother was gone.