What If?

Chapter 88

Thanks again for the reads, votes and comments, it really is much appreciated and I love that you guys are still loving thing story. Hope you enjoy this chapter as well. It's a treat, two in two days. :-p 

When their day off ended far too soon, Amelia had to remind herself that there was nearly finished and they only had six more days of this. Riding back towards Calgary was pretty surreal after spending the previous day so remote and far removed from everything. She'd loved her day there, just nature, peace and quite. There wasn't much else Amelia needed.

When they finally arrived in Calgary it was back to work as she was now already used too. It started off with a visit to a town made for Veterans. It was incredible what the project had done for them. They could live together and help each other when they needed it. It gave them a community, a community of people who'd gone through the same thing and understood each other because of it.

"I think it's incredible, are there plans to expand?" Amelia asked the director of the project, a veteran himself as they sat in the small pub in the community, drinking a cup of tea with those who'd wanted to be a part of today.

"Yes, we're waiting on funding from the government and we have fundraising coming up at the end of the summer. We hope to be able to build at least another 30 buildings," he explained to the royal couple, who really seemed to show interest in what they had going on here. unlike some who visited this place, the two of them showed real interest, they had questions that actually mattered and helped him think about a few things as well.

He was happy with the attention their visit was giving them as well, it would hopefully bring in more money in the long run, if people knew more about what it was that they did.

"I really hope you can accomplish that, it would be amazing to see this place grow." Amelia pointed out as she lifted her cup of tea to her lips as Alex talked a bit more to the director as she turned her direction to a wife of a veteran that lived in the village.

"Does it help you as well to live here?" she wondered with a small tilt of her head as the women nodded her head slightly. At first, I doubted it, that it would help my husband to live here, to be amongst those who have traumatised. I was at a loss of how I was going to help him get through his PTSD from his tours. But when we moved here and he got to share his experiences with his fellow soldiers, it helped him more than I ever could." she explained in a nervous tone and she could see by the small tremor in her hand that she was feeling nervous by talking to her.

"I can imagine it must have made you feel helpless, inadequate not to be able to help him," she told her, recognising the feelings she must have felt at that time. Never in her life was she going to admit to her former communications teachers that all the things she'd been taught actually helped her be a better Duchess. Those lessons had been so boring and at the time they seemed to not give anything but bore them to death. They'd wondered countless times as students why in the hell they were forced to sit through these lessons. But now she was so grateful for them. It made her able to talk with people in a way that she wouldn't have been able to do if she hadn't had those lessons.

"yea, I was ashamed to admit it as well. I felt useless as a wife. I knew him better than anyone else and he came back and I just didn't know him anymore." she admitted with a shy and ashamed smile on her face.

"It's only normal, we can only relate to the things we've gone through ourselves. Imagine if we knew what it was like to go through everything, we'd go crazy. I think you helped your husband more than you know by just being there." she reassured her, her hand reaching out to rest on top of hers.

"I remember when I returned from Peru, Alexander wanted to help, he pushed me to talk and help. But I couldn't be helped by him, cause he hadn't seen the things that I had seen. I had great support in him, but I could only talk with the people who'd been there. They'd seen the destruction and dead I had, Alexander hadn't. But his support and just knowing that he was there, that alone helped me to push through it. I can imagine that you being there and supporting your husband helped him more than you might now. We tend to sell ourselves short because we feel inept at doing what we think we should do." she explained to the worried woman as she let out a heavy sigh before looking down in her lap.