A Royal Accident (A British Royal Family Fanfiction)

Responsible

Alice

It is now April of 2016. I have now been at Millfield for a year and a half and love it so much. My little sister Charlotte Alexandra Jane was born in May of last year and now she was almost 1. George will be three later on this year and although he hadn't always loved being a big brother to Lottie, I think he'd come to like it now.

"Are you ready to go?" Great Grandpa asked as I came down the stairs of my boarding house with my bag in my hand. I nodded, before saying goodbye to my housemistress and leaving out the front door. I put my bag in the boot of Great Grandpa's car and climbed in the front, beside him. He had come to watch my netball tournament this afternoon, and as today was also the end of term, he was picking me up and taking me to Buckingham Palace, where Granny, Grandpa Wales, my father and I were having an official portrait taken to mark Granny's 90th birthday later on this month. 

Life had got much busier since Lottie was born last year. Not only was the house busier with one more person in it, but Mummy and Pa had taken on more and more work as part of the family, and as I was getting older, I was required to assist with that work as well. Granny had been busy with celebrating becoming the longest reigning monarch and now her 90th birthday, but while she got busier, she was also getting older, which was why more of the work was moved down the pecking order to Mummy, Pa and I. I liked doing it, and last year, when we'd gone to Canada on a Royal Tour, it had been amazing to meet so many people and see so many new things, but it was busy and as well as all of the things that I wanted to do at school, sometimes there just wasn't time for everything. I was appreciative of Great Grandpa, who, even when life got busy, was amazing at making time for the smaller things, like my netball matches or stopping at a service station for a treat on the way home.

"Granny wants me to do my first away day soon." I told Grandpa as we got closer to London.

"Where?" he asked, rather abruptly.

"To meet the England Netballers, before they go to the European Netball Championships next month." I explained.

"And you don't want to go?" he questioned.

"No, I do, of course I do, but Pa said he did his first away day on his own when he was 20 something and I'm not even fourteen until the end of the year." I said.

"You would love that though, I heard Granny even discussing putting you as the Patron for England Netball, it would be the perfect starting block for you Alice." he told me.

"I know, but, on my own Grandpa?" I questioned.

"You'll be absolutely fine Alice, a superstar in fact, as you always have been." he told me.

"Why does everyone always say that?" I asked him, turning away from him to look out the window.

"Say what?" he asked.

"Say that I'm so great and so amazing, when sometimes I don't want to be great and amazing, I just want to be me, I just want to be Alice Wales, without all of the other stuff." I explained.

"You know that you will always have the other stuff Alice Wales. But you will always be Alice, Alice meaning noble." he said. "And noble is exactly what you must be." 

"What does noble really mean?" I asked.

"It can mean two things, either that you belong to a certain rank of aristocracy, or that you demonstrate fine qualities, with excellent morals. And my dear, it is your role to perform both, you are an Alice in every sense of the word." Great Grandpa explained.

"So you're saying that I have to do the away day that everyone wants me to do?" I asked him, after a couple of moments of trying to figure out what he was trying to say.