Title: A Bygone Day
Author: Karina
Rating: PG
Pairing: Lady Alice Darlian
Notes: Challenge 86. Baby Series 3 #20. Takes place at the same time as Afternoon Appointments.
Spoilers: None
Warnings:
Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing or the Characters from the series but the baby is mine.
Title:
It had been dangerous to keep these happy snaps of a bygone day. Dangerous to herself, her husband and especially to the young daughter she had so suddenly acquired. It had perhaps not been the wisest thing to do, but she had not once considered destroying them.
She simply could not.
They were important to her, reminders of a past that seemed so very long ago. So many people in the photographs were dead now. Friends and family. The war had taken so many of her loved ones.
Not just one war, but many. Little outbreaks of conflict escalating into larger conflicts and around her people vanishing, never to reappear again.
They lived on only in her memories.
Katerina had been her best friend. She had held an honoured position as Lady of the Queens' Bedchamber and she had met her husband soon after following Katerina to Sanc. She had thought all was right with the world.
Rose coloured glasses could make the world a wondrous, happy place. It was a cruel shock when reality descended with the force of a winter avalanche.
Relena was like Katerina. The snapshot in her hand was of two young girls, teenagers at the beach, carefree and having the time of their lives. It was two years before they had attended that fateful ball where Katerina had met Stephan Peacecraft. Two years before the Marquis Wayridge had accepted the King of Sanc's interest and wed his daughter to Sanc.
/We were sixteen that day and we had not a care in the world./
Two years would see her friend a Queen. Two years and she was ensconced as Lady Alice, the Queen's friend and confidant and had seen her introduced to a young politician who would capture her interest and her heart.
Neither she nor Katerina had been fools and knew the way things were in the old noble houses and neither had expected to wed for love. That they had found love was wonderful, but their parents had not considered love in their decisions. It simply was the way things were done.
Not this time though. Katerina's daughter, who was also her daughter, would not be married off like so much chattel to the highest bidder. Relena would marry for love and not have to hope to find love in an arrangement designed to suit the power struggle of old nobility.
/I will need to keep an eye on the Marquis and ensure he does not further enhance his dynastic dreams. He has royalty in the family, a claim few of the nobles can make without something in the order of six or more generations separating the ties of blood. Monarchy is almost a thing of the past though it still holds its mystique./
She had determined when she had taken custody of her friend's daughter that she would ensure Relena grew to live and love freely.
End
Karina Robertson 2008