XXX.

I've had butterflies all morning, though I don't know why I should have, exactly. It's not as though there's anything frightening or difficult about today's luncheon. I suppose it's just that it's important.

Mama called me into her sitting room after breakfast and gave me a long jeweler's box. Inside was a bracelet with twelve gold links, each one set with a sapphire: twelve because this is now the twelfth year of Our Lord's Protectorate and the twelfth year we've lived in England. She said that she and Papa are very proud of me and that they couldn't be more pleased with the way I am taking up my duties and fulfilling my role as a leader of my generation. When she'd fastened the bracelet around my wrist, Mama took my hand in hers and said that I've grown up just as she would have me do and that she will be very proud today when I join her as a Daughter of the Protectorate.

I can't think of anything I want more than to make my parents proud and serve Our Lord in all I do.