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."
"It'd be a hell of a walk..." Charles replied under his breath making them all laugh briefly.
"So, do you like geography then?"
"No, not really." Bella quipped back, watching with a slight smile as Camilla took another gulp of wine. "I think history's my favourite, oh, and PE of course."
"Bella likes to a do a fact of the day, she's done it ever since she started school." Charles responded, looking at his daughter proudly.
"Can you play tennis Camilla?" She asked after a moment, being quite sincere this time.
"Um, well, I like to watch...I suppose I could have a go..." Camilla replied, unsure of what was going to come next. Charles's daughter certainly kept you on your toes.
"Perhaps you could just umpire to begin with then?" Bella asked as she cut up the fish that had just been placed in front of her, "Pa and I are going to practice this weekend, I've joined the club at school now the hockey season is over."
"Oh." Camilla said in shock, she hadn't been expecting that.
"You don't have to if you don't want to..."
"No, no...I would like that very much, thank you." She replied, sharing a smile with Charles who was sat opposite her. Camilla just hoped to god that he had a book on tennis rules, she had a feeling that his daughter would be quite up on them and ready to challenge her if she went wrong.
♔♕
"You don't have to umpire you know." Charles said quietly. The two of them were sat nursing a whiskey each in the sitting room, Bella having gone to bed long ago.
"No, of course I will." She replied, chuckling at herself she continued, "just please tell me you've got a book on the rules."
Charles gave a hearty laugh in reply, he stretched as he stood up before walking over to some rather overstuffed bookshelves, "I'm sure there'll be one in here, your not the only one she likes to test."
"Well that's good to know."
"Oh yes, last summer she gave me an almighty bollocking for not knowing the rules to rounders." He chuckled at the memory as he continued to rifle through the books.
"Competitive then?"
"Putting it lightly."
"Well I don't know where she gets that from..." Camilla replied, smiling as he span back round to her.
"I'm not competitive at all..."
"Oh come on Charles, I've seen you play polo."
"Yes well, apart from that - ah! Here we are." He passed the book over to her as he returned to his seat, sighing in comfort as he sank back into the chair.
"Do you think she likes me?" She asked quietly, staring down at the book in her hands.
"Oh, yes."
Her head shot up so that her gaze was matching his, "really?"
"Yes, if she didn't like you then she would have started to ask you about something obscure that only she knows lots about like, what you thought the reasons were for the collapse of the tsarist empire? But she didn't..."
"No, just challenged me to umpire a game of tennis."
"Yes, well, she can't make it too easy for you." Charles said as he gave her a reassuring smile, "you'll be fine, she's only just started tennis, I'd be a lot more worried if she asked you to umpire her playing hockey...now that really would be something to stress about."
♔♕
To say that she had only just started to play tennis, she was jolly good. Charles was a sweaty mess as he chased after the ball that his daughter kept firing back to him.
Bella gave a big sigh as she sent the ball too wide, puffing slightly she turned back to Camilla who was stood on the sidelines. "What's the score Camilla?"
"3 games to you, one to your father, this game is 30-15."
She nodded in response, watching her father with a grin as he returned to the back of the court carrying the ball she had sent wide, "do you want a break pa?"
"Unless you want me to have a heart attack..." he wheezed back.
"Best do then."
She smiled at Camilla in thanks as she handed her a bottle of water, sitting down cross-legged on the court, she watched with a grin as her father slowly let himself down into the chair next to Camilla's, "shall I go easy on you pa next time?"
"Best do...god, I'm going to be stiff as a board tomorrow, I can't remember the last time I played." He replied with a grin, "you see what she does to me...it's no wonder I'm going grey."
Camilla chuckled at him in response, she couldn't believe that she was sat here with the two of them. Granted, Bella had frowned at her a few times when she got the scoring a bit wrong, but the rest, well, she couldn't believe it. The other meetings with her brothers had been, different.
William had been scrupulously polite whilst keeping a very strong guard up, not letting any emotion show, whilst Harry had been standoffish and a bit sharp with her which she had expected, she had actually expected more from all of them. But Bella, whilst she had still tested her no doubt, and Camilla thought it very likely that she wouldn't get to see the true Bella for a while, she had been slightly more welcoming than her brothers.
It was probably down to her age she surmised. Bella was the youngest, and she knew from Charles, the most protected. Her parents and her brothers had tried to not let her see any of the bad parts that had occurred, granted she still knew about it of course, she wasn't that protected, but she definitely wasn't exposed to it as much as her brothers. And it showed. She didn't seem to have the same predisposed ideas about her that her brothers had, or if she did, she was very good at hiding it. She wasn't as angry as Harry or had walls as high as William.
She was freer, and very quick, now Camilla finally knew what Charles meant when he said that she was sometimes a lot. Not emotionally, oh no, she seemed to have the Windsor genes for that, but energy wise, she gave everything for everyone. It was no wonder she had begun to yawn just past 9pm, Camilla was exhausted just watching her. And then the next morning she had practically bounced downstairs, her morning wishes to the staff radiating off the walls as she arrived at the dining room. She had smiled at Camilla, it was a polite smile, but still it reached her eyes more than it had done the first time she had met her. That was good.
Tennis had been, interesting. Bella certainly did know the rules and if you were playing seriously like they were, expected everyone else to know them too. Camilla had felt her eyes bore into her a few times when she had taken to long to score or had given a wrong point, but then she had also heard her laugh, a joyous sound, the sort of laugh that made you laugh too.
It was that laugh that brought Camilla back to her senses, and also made her realise that if this was a test from Charles's daughter, then perhaps she had passed.
Hopefully she had passed.
♔♕