A Princess of Wales

Chapter Thirteen: Lonely This Christmas

24th of December 1996 - Kensington Palace

Making sure that her children had everything, Diana forced a smile to her face as she prepared for them to leave to spend Christmas at Sandringham with the rest of the royal family. 

Since she was no longer a member of the royal family, she was no longer obligated to attend the gathering and a part of her was relieved by that. 

There was no escaping, you came from the dining room and you couldn't get to the sitting room because there were three or four people in their playing charades or Scrabble or something. 

Diana would go off for a walk on her own and often bump into people while she was out walking, there was no sense of peace with so many people gathering together at Sandringham for the holidays. 

Instead this year she would spend it alone here at Kensington since she didn't wish to intrude on her own family; she wasn't speaking to certain members of her own family because of their disapproval of her actions. 

Diana had insisted that the staff spend time with their own families for Christmas, that they leave the food in the refrigerator and they had prepared meals for her to reheat since she wasn't much of a cook over the holidays. 

Diana had spent the day with her children opening presents with them, she would get them back tomorrow evening and they would spend the holidays together. 

"Do you have everything that you need?" Diana asked checking that Harry had everything in his bag to go to Sandringham, he never seemed to be able to get everything packed before he had to leave. 

It was the same when it came to packing up for school, it was always Harry that she had to help with packing his bags and ensuring that he didn't forget anything for the term. 

Harry would likely forget his head if it wasn't screwed on, at least he had a good set of friends around him that kept him out of trouble. 

Diana had noticed a particular closeness between Harry and Lord Simon FitzClarence; the son of the Viscount and Viscountess FitzClarence. 

Diana didn't know much about the couple, she honestly didn't know many of her children's friends parents; she kept to herself mostly when it came to school drop off and she couldn't say that she knew most of their friends either.

Of course, the usual suspects were mentioned quite a bit over meals shared but with the FitzClarences it was hard not to notice the mixed raced couple in a predominantly white gathering. 

"I think so," Harry mumbled laying down on the bed as he read a comic that one of his friends had lent him before the Christmas break; he didn't look at his mother as he spoke knowing that his father would be here soon to pick him up. 

The idea of spending the Christmas holidays with all of his cousins was thrilling, they had all sorts of games planned and his grandfather had promised to take them stalking for deer and other things. 

Diana sighed resting her hands on her hips as she looked at her younger son, she adored Harry but she honestly didn't know what to do with him sometimes. 

A part of her did blame herself for what had happened with her younger son, she dotted upon him to make up for the lack of attention that he got from others; something that seemed to have cost her in the form of relationships with her other children. 

William would likely never really forgive her for the interview, he was still upset about it even if he did listen to her issues with the new men in her life. 

Then there was Adeline, always a daddy's girl like her mother had been when she was a little girl; she was so quiet and unlike Diana that she struggled at times to connect with her.