Sir Malcolm Harding, the queen’s secretary, came in holding a leather box and handed it to Annie as she looked at him in surprise. Her grandmother, the Queen Mother, had given her a double strand of her own pearls that morning as a wedding gift, and said they had been a gift from her grandmother, Queen Alexandra, on her wedding day. The queen had given Annie a heart-shaped brooch by Carl Fabergé encrusted with diamonds and pearls on pale pink enamel, which she had worn at her wedding, and she had no daughters to pass it on to, so she was giving it to her sister’s child. And even more meaningful to her, Annie was wearing the gold bracelet with the gold heart charm that had been her mother’s and Alexandra had given her.
“Who’s this from?” Annie asked Sir Malcolm about the antique leather box she took from him, and he smiled.
“Your husband, ma’am. He wanted you to have it immediately.” She opened it in haste and smiled when she saw it. It was the tiara he had borrowed from Garrard’s for her, that had been given to Queen Victoria by her husband, Prince Albert. Theirs was one of the great love stories of the British monarchy. “He was hoping you could wear it with your veil. It’s your wedding gift, ma’am.” It fit perfectly over it, and was just the right proportion, as though it had been made for her. Annie had loved it when she’d seen it, when Anthony borrowed it for her for the party. She had remembered it, and apparently so had Anthony. It was back in the right hands, with Queen Victoria’s great-great-great-granddaughter. Sir Malcolm took the box and disappeared with it. Annie looked up at the man who had been her father for most of her life.
“You look like a queen, not just a princess,” Jonathan said, in awe of the moment. She had chosen to have no attendants, only him walking her to her husband in the small chapel.
“I love you, Papa,” she whispered.
“I love you too, Annie,” he said as the music started, the door opened, and they headed toward the aisle. When they reached it, she saw Anthony waiting for her at the altar. It was meant to be, just as everything that had happened was. Being brought back to the Windsors, where she belonged, learning about her mother, meeting Anthony, winning the races, and now this moment when nothing else mattered. She had lost him for a year and found him again, or he had found her. She knew she would love him forever, like Victoria and Albert.
They walked slowly down the aisle, and she stopped next to Anthony, who was beaming at her. They had already been through so much, and knew each other so well, their fears and their dreams, their hopes for the future. Her dreams had already come true, and now she had him, and hopefully one day their children.
Jonathan took his place in the pew next to Penny and the twins, and across the aisle, the prince consort sat next to the queen, as Alexandra and her sister Victoria held hands, watching Annie, and remembering when there were three of them so long ago. The Queen Mother sat next to them, with tears in her eyes, remembering Charlotte too, and all three of them were struck by how much Annie looked like her. She was the image of the mother she had never known.
“She looks just like her, doesn’t she?” Victoria whispered to Alexandra, and the Queen Mother took Victoria’s other hand and held it. They were all there now, with their history and their stories, their loves and their losses, and George the future king sat right behind his mother, with his brothers beside him. Just as the past stood behind them, the future lay ahead with George and his brothers, and Annie wore the tiara their great-great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria had been given by her husband. It was all woven together like a never-ending chain of love stories and people and monarchs, as Annie looked into the eyes of the man she loved and was about to marry.
“Thank you,” she whispered to him, and pointed to the tiara.
“I love you,” Anthony whispered back, as Jonathan watched the little girl he had loved and taught to ride and had become a princess. They all stood together, as Alexandra and Victoria thought of Charlotte, and seeing their niece standing there in her image, it was almost as if Charlotte had come home at last.
As Anthony and Annie exchanged their vows, the past and the present, and the future, blended into one shining moment which united them all in memory forever.
To my beloved children,
Beatie, Trevor, Todd, Nick,
Samantha, Victoria, Vanessa,
Maxx, Zara,
Never give up your dreams,
Be grateful for who you are,
And what you can be,
Don’t settle for less than you deserve,
Don’t give up!! Dare to be!!