"It often was, at the time," Leia said solemnly. "Sometimes it still is. But while mourning Alderaan's fate was and is necessary, it would be a disservice to both Alderaan and my family to stay there constantly. Still, I should have told you more about them before now."
She paused, smiling reminiscently . "I know Mother would have adored you. Would have probably spoiled you rotten if given half a chance too; she wanted to be a mother so badly, and probably would have loved being a grandmother just as much. And Father.... I'd have liked to have seen his face the the first time you brought home some random animal as a pet. It would have been me and the tree snake all over again." The smile became a bit more amused. "And I know my aunts would have fussed over you endlessly. Hopefully, being a boy, you'd escape their attempts to treat royal children like dress-up dolls, but they certainly wouldn't have let you get away without learning to serve a proper tea." Their reactions to Ben's father, on the other hand, would have likely been very different, but she didn't mention that for now.
She nodded as she returned the broach to its place. "When you're royalty, appearances matter a great deal," she said. "Especially so for us under the Empire, when appearances had to cover a great deal more than it did for most. But while I came to understand that, I never like how much emphasis was placed on wealth and rank. And I wasn't shy about showing that displeasure either." Leia smirked. "One of the advantages of being a teenage princess is that you can do things like throw your drink all over a spoiled prima-donna who was laughing with her friends about the audacity of one of her servants wanting to try on her dress and have it be brushed off."
Leia listened to the description of the tiara thoughtfully. "If the metal was yellow gold, then I'm almost certain it was from House Panteer," she said. "Their house colors were azure blue and gold. Anything that old with those colors and a motif of stars is bound to have some connection to them."
Leia's smile when Ben commented on her words about her parents' marriage was a bit wry. "Not officially," she said. "But unofficially, you'll find that marriage among noble families- Alderaanian and otherwise- is almost always at least as much about forming a political alliance as it is about love. It was just understood that I'd eventually marry someone from another of Alderaan's noble houses, or someone of similar standing from another of the Core Worlds in order to help maintain or enhance Alderaan's position in galactic politics. Everyone involved was always willing, and at least on Alderaan, most of those involved did already have feelings for each other. But there are always other considerations too when that much money and influence are involved."
She sighed in remembered exasperation, but again, there was a fondness to it. "I know my aunts certainly thought that my primary goal in life from approximately my 16th birthday onward should be to find myself a suitably princely husband and settle down," she said. "They pestered me with referrals of potential matches that they'd deemed 'suitable' so often that I was seriously considering lying to them and saying that I didn't like men just to get them to stop. I didn't but only because I was worried they'd start trying to set me up with women from those same noble houses; I tended to like them even less than the men, and the few I really did like I didn't want to potentially lead on."
She paused. "I'm fairly certain my aunts wold have fainted from shock if they heard I married your father," she said. "Mother and Father would have taken it better- they were never quite as strictly traditional as my aunts-, but still if Alderaan still existed, the princess running off and marrying a Corellian smuggler would have been quite a scandal."
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Date: 2017-08-16 05:45 am (UTC)She paused, smiling reminiscently . "I know Mother would have adored you. Would have probably spoiled you rotten if given half a chance too; she wanted to be a mother so badly, and probably would have loved being a grandmother just as much. And Father.... I'd have liked to have seen his face the the first time you brought home some random animal as a pet. It would have been me and the tree snake all over again." The smile became a bit more amused. "And I know my aunts would have fussed over you endlessly. Hopefully, being a boy, you'd escape their attempts to treat royal children like dress-up dolls, but they certainly wouldn't have let you get away without learning to serve a proper tea." Their reactions to Ben's father, on the other hand, would have likely been very different, but she didn't mention that for now.
She nodded as she returned the broach to its place. "When you're royalty, appearances matter a great deal," she said. "Especially so for us under the Empire, when appearances had to cover a great deal more than it did for most. But while I came to understand that, I never like how much emphasis was placed on wealth and rank. And I wasn't shy about showing that displeasure either." Leia smirked. "One of the advantages of being a teenage princess is that you can do things like throw your drink all over a spoiled prima-donna who was laughing with her friends about the audacity of one of her servants wanting to try on her dress and have it be brushed off."
Leia listened to the description of the tiara thoughtfully. "If the metal was yellow gold, then I'm almost certain it was from House Panteer," she said. "Their house colors were azure blue and gold. Anything that old with those colors and a motif of stars is bound to have some connection to them."
Leia's smile when Ben commented on her words about her parents' marriage was a bit wry. "Not officially," she said. "But unofficially, you'll find that marriage among noble families- Alderaanian and otherwise- is almost always at least as much about forming a political alliance as it is about love. It was just understood that I'd eventually marry someone from another of Alderaan's noble houses, or someone of similar standing from another of the Core Worlds in order to help maintain or enhance Alderaan's position in galactic politics. Everyone involved was always willing, and at least on Alderaan, most of those involved did already have feelings for each other. But there are always other considerations too when that much money and influence are involved."
She sighed in remembered exasperation, but again, there was a fondness to it. "I know my aunts certainly thought that my primary goal in life from approximately my 16th birthday onward should be to find myself a suitably princely husband and settle down," she said. "They pestered me with referrals of potential matches that they'd deemed 'suitable' so often that I was seriously considering lying to them and saying that I didn't like men just to get them to stop. I didn't but only because I was worried they'd start trying to set me up with women from those same noble houses; I tended to like them even less than the men, and the few I really did like I didn't want to potentially lead on."
She paused. "I'm fairly certain my aunts wold have fainted from shock if they heard I married your father," she said. "Mother and Father would have taken it better- they were never quite as strictly traditional as my aunts-, but still if Alderaan still existed, the princess running off and marrying a Corellian smuggler would have been quite a scandal."