𝐷𝑎𝑟𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑡𝑜𝑛. ʙʀɪᴛɪsʜ ʀᴏʏᴀʟ ғᴀᴍɪʟʏ

9 ♔♕ 𝗮 𝘄𝗼𝗺𝗮𝗻 𝗻𝗮𝗺𝗲𝗱 𝗰𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗮

𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚕𝚢 𝚜𝚙𝚛𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝟷𝟿𝟿𝟿.

Bella knew that her brothers had already met her. And, to be honest, she felt a bit bad for her about that. Harry was still struggling, and she could only imagine how he had reacted to meeting his father's girlfriend who he had also been seeing through his marriage to their mother.

William had tried his best to explain to her what had happened in their parents marriage, to try to explain it to her so that she wouldn't have to find out from the papers and then get the wrong idea. They had both done wrong he had said, that yes, pa had done wrong first, but that ultimately, it was both of them and that it had just been an unhappy marriage.

And so, there she was, being driven back to Highgrove for the weekend where she would meet her father's girlfriend. Bella had seen her in the papers, she knew that she had two children of her own, but that was it. The rest was unknown.

She wasn't sure how she felt. On the one hand she had the hazy memories of their parents arguments that were fighting their way to get to the forefront of her brain. And on the other hand, she knew that her father must really love this women. So she stayed not sure, not wanting to make a decision to early.

Her father greeted her at the door, enveloping her in a big hug, "hello darling, how was school?"

"Good." She replied, a smile breaking onto her face at the thought, "now hockey season's over I've joined tennis club."

"Oh really," he began, ushering her inside towards the sitting room with a gentle hand on her back, "we could have a practice on the courts here if you'd like?"

"Oooh yes, that'd be fun...are William and Harry coming back this weekend?" Bella asked, eyes pinned to the door of the sitting room that was coming closer and closer.

"No not this weekend, so we'll have to do singles for now...now," he tailed off, taking hold of both of her shoulders, Charles gently turned his daughter round so she was facing him, "there's someone in there who I'd like you to meet." He watched with a smile as she nodded at him, "okay, so, best behaviour yes? Be nice."

"I'm always nice pa..." she replied with a smile. Charles just chuckled at her, his daughter seemed to be developing a very quick wit and dry sense of humour which she had begun to experiment with, not always to the delight of others.

It was Bella that opened the door, her father rooted to the spot with nerves. And it seemed the women inside was nervous too, her complexion was flushed and she jumped as the door opened.

"Hi," Bella smiled, "I'm Bella." She held out a hand to the woman who was staring at her with wide eyes. After a few seconds she took her hand and shook it, "hello, it's so lovely to meet you...I'm Camilla."

♔♕

Bella wasn't quite sure what to make of Camilla, she seemed nice, if not extremely nervous. But Bella wasn't sure if she was always like that or if it had perhaps been the previous meetings with her brothers that had made her nervous, the latter was probably most likely.

"So, how's school?" Camilla asked, taking a rather large sip from her wine as she finished. Maybe that question hadn't gone down so well before.

"Good, I'm really enjoying it...did you know that if the sea level lowered by...40 metres I think it was, then we'd be able to walk over to Belgium and buy some chocolate."

Camilla's eyebrows shot up in response, "no, no I didn't know that actually."

"Mhm, we're not actually an island."