Princess Adeline of Wales

Chapter Thirty: William's Girlfriend

3rd of April 2004 - Clarence House, London

"Miss Middleton, how lovely to see you again," Charles greeted moving to shake the hand of the young woman that had come to his home with his eldest son; he had been most pleased when he had been informed that the two were dating. 

He had made a promise to himself that it did not matter who his children loved, he would support them and he would never force them to do as he had done and forsake love for duty. 

"Thank you for having me," Catherine replied looking to William for a moment, she had been rather unsure how to act for this lunch and all the times that she had visited before now felt quite different to this. 

Before she had been just a friend of William's from university, this time she was at Clarence House meeting his father for the first time as his girlfriend. 

"I believe you have yet to meet William's sister. She'll be joining us for lunch," Charles stated not sure if the two had crossed paths before, he was most certain that they had managed to host William's friends here when neither of his siblings were home. 

With both at the time being at boarding school, Charles had been able to focus on getting to know William's friends and seeing how well his son was doing in his new environment. 

William paled at that, he had been rather hopeful to avoid such a meeting for now; he might be serious about Catherine but he was certain that he was not ready for her to meet his siblings. 

They had been taking things one step at a time, there was no need for them to rush and William had no intentions of rushing Catherine into something she was not ready for. 

"Ahh here she is. Adeline come and meet Catherine," Charles called spotting his daughter, a smile upon his face and he completely missed the look of panic on William's face. 

Only Catherine's comforting hand squeeze seemed to ease it and she offered him a small smile; she had siblings of her own and she was certain that William's own siblings could be do different than hers. 

A wave of recognition washed over Adeline when she saw William and his girlfriend, she had never thought she would see her again; perhaps it was a small world afterall that they were crossing paths again.

"It's wonderful to meet you, Adeline. William has told me all about you," Catherine greeted kindly with a smile on her face, she had seen pictures, of course, of Adeline but seeing her in person felt rather different. 

In the time that she had known William, she had heard so much about his relationship with each of his siblings and Catherine felt close to them just from hearing stories of them from him. 

"We've meet before," Adeline stated softly, not sure if Catherine would remember her especially since so much had happened since then; she did not think what had happened would mean much to anyone else but her. 

She had never forgotten what Catherine had done for her, she doubted she ever could talk back to her bully like that and she was so thankful that someone had done that for her; it made her more determined to stick up for people that didn't have a voice to speak up. 

"We have?" Catherine asked glancing to William uncertain for a moment, he looked just as confused and she was sure that she would remember meeting William's sister if they had crossed paths before. 

A slight panicked settled over her and she felt bad that she did not recall meeting Adeline, it surely would have been a moment that stood out to her even if it had only been a little while. 

Adeline nodded awkwardly, she had never thought that she would have to talk about being bullied in front of her father; she was rather intent on leaving him blissfully unaware of that fact.