Princess Adeline, Duchess of Clarence

Chapter Twenty-Six: A Family Occasion

20th of May 2017 - St Mark's Church, Englefield Estate

It was a lovely day for a wedding, the family descending on the small church were Pippa Middleton would marry James Matthews surrounded by their friends and family. 

The younger Middleton daughter had become engaged to James last July, she would walk down the aisle today and become Mrs Matthews of Glen Affric the Younger. 

It was no surprise given the closeness between the families that Adeline and Simon had been invited to attend the wedding, leaving their children at home with Anne while they made the trip. 

Daphne and Sebastian were a little too young to make an appearance at the wedding although their cousins would be serving as pageboy and bride's maid at the wedding. 

Simon helped Adeline from the car, she looked lovely in the blue dress that she'd selected to attend the wedding and he knew that there was a chance that the press would be watching from a distance. 

It was the first real event that the couple had attended since Sebastian had been born, although his christening had been held earlier that month with the press eager for more pictures of the growing family. 

This time the couple had chosen Emma Thynn, Daisy Jenks, Rupert and William to stand as their son's godparents; all people that the couple trusted and loved dearly to serve as godparents to their son. 

William had cried when Adeline had asked him, clearly not expecting her to do so but he had been honoured all the same and had beamed with pride on the day of the christening holding his nephew. 

 "I'm glad you both made it," James greeted shaking Simon's hand and giving Adeline a hug, it was always nice to see them and he knew that he had to visit more especially to see his goddaughter. 

It felt like so long since he had visited them, he hadn't even had the chance to come and see Sebastian yet and he knew that he needed to make more time to be around his family. 

His relationship with Donna Air had been rather strained as of late as he sort treatment for his mental health and it was becoming clearer that they both wanted different things out of life. 

The age gap between them certainly didn't help and James knew that sooner or later, they would need to have a conversation about what they both wanted out of this relationship that they were in.

James directed them towards their seats, not wanting to hold up the line as more people filed into the church; it was a lovely day for a wedding and no doubts were in anyone's mind that the day had been planned out so carefully.

"Makes me think of when we got married," Simon said taking Adeline's hand as they sat in one of the pews, it was hard to believe that their anniversary was coming up so quickly. 

They had been married three years this week, three years and so much had changed for the two of them in that short period of time. 

They never would have believed if you had told them that they'd be parents to two adorable children by now and things were only looking up for them.

Adeline laughed, she wouldn't change a thing about how their lives had played out; she was so thankful that she had him by her side in all of this. 

There wasn't one person in her life that she looked back on that she thought could hold the spot that Simon held in her life; she knew that they wouldn't have been able to handle the way her life worked. 

It wasn't long before the bridal march started to play and everyone stood from the pew to turn and face Pippa as she walked down the aisle with Michael; a large smile on her face as she was followed by the pageboys and girls.