Kate (19 page)

At St. Andrews, the media agreement had meant that the couple was sheltered, but out in the real world, Kate found herself in new territory. She was polite, but she never posed for the cameras, having been told by courtiers not to engage with the media. Earlier that summer, she and her mother had attended the Horse Trials at Gatcombe Park, Princess Anne's country house. With or without William, Kate's attendance at any event was now big news, and she was quickly surrounded by the press pack. Dressed in a cowboy hat, brown corduroy jacket, and fitted jeans, the photographers addressed her as “Kate” and asked her to pose for a photograph. “If I do it now, then I'll have to keep doing it,” she explained. It was the first time she had ever addressed the media, and her response was smooth and calculated. It was the clearest indication yet that she was being given some very effective media training behind the scenes. Bizarrely, she had been advised to watch footage of the late Princess of Wales in order to learn how to deal with the paparazzi, notorious for being aggressive in their pursuit of a picture, taunting their prey in order to get a response. At the Palace, there was a concerted effort not to allow Kate to be exposed to the same ruthless treatment.

In a further show of support, Kate was also given access to the Prince of Wales's London-based legal team, Harbottle and
Lewis. The lawyers were instructed to write to newspaper editors before the year was out to express their concerns about how much Kate was being photographed. When a German magazine,
Das Neue
, pinpointed the exact location of Kate's London home, William was livid. Although the intrusive photography was bad enough, this was, he fumed, an unacceptable invasion of Kate's privacy and posed a serious problem for the prince's security team. William was often at Kate's apartment, and now it was a matter of public record that his chauffeur-driven Range Rover could be seen parked in the narrow street. Panic buttons linked to the local police station were installed at Kate's apartment as an additional security measure.

When it came to going out in London, William and Kate had their own way of dealing with the paparazzi. As they had done at St. Andrews, they never held hands in public—in fact, they never acted like a couple. At a private black-tie gala dinner in Whitehall that October, they sat at separate tables in order to not be photographed together and, according to guests, barely spoke to each other all evening. It was the same during a night out at the Mamilanji nightclub in London a couple of weeks later. William was enjoying himself on the dance floor, while Kate sat with her friends. They arrived and left separately, according to the British show-business journalist Emily Maddick, who was at the club that night observing them. “William was in very jovial spirits, chatting and drinking,” she recalled. “Close to midnight, he hit the dance floor with some of his friends. He was having a great time dancing to ‘Don'tcha' by the Pussycat Dolls, and he knew the words. He was loving it, but Kate was sitting in the VIP area with friends, cradling a glass of white wine. She didn't seem in the mood to dance, and William left the club separately and said
he was on his way to a house party. You would never know they were together.”

They made a point of keeping a low profile, and although the press speculated that the romance might be on the rocks, the truth was William and Kate were tighter than ever. Not acting like a couple when they were out was their way of keeping private what was special, even though it was not always easy for Kate. By November, she was still jobless, but she approached her parents with a business proposal to launch a children's clothing line on the Party Pieces website. They talked the idea through that Christmas when she went home. Carole thought it was an excellent plan of action. Children's T-shirts had always sold well on the site, and she believed that a clothing line had the potential to be successful.

Kate loved being back with her family at Christmas, and even though they were no longer children, Kate, Pippa, and James still opened stockings on Christmas morning before making a start on the Christmas puzzle, a family tradition. Ever since they were little, Michael had dressed up on Christmas Day, and this year he donned a sumo wrestler's outfit, which had the family in stitches. On Boxing Day, the day after Christmas, Kate packed her bags and drove to Norfolk to join William at the Sandringham shoot. She had stayed at the royal estate several times with William and their friends for shooting weekends, but she had never been invited for Christmas when the entire royal family was in attendance. William thought it better not to stay in the main house, where Kate might find things a bit daunting, so he arranged for them to spend several nights at Wolferton Marshes, an isolated cottage on the estate. She was thrilled to be part of the festivities and was now an accomplished shot herself. Diana never enjoyed
her stays at royal residences, complaining that William and Harry were “always out killing things,” but Kate loved the sport and seemed to settle in well.

After seeing the new year in together, William and Kate boarded a plane on New Year's Day for Klosters. The trip was an early birthday present for Kate before William started Sandhurst, and this time he didn't care who saw them on the slopes, as he kissed her passionately. They would not see each other for five weeks once he enrolled at Sandhurst, and they made the most of every minute together.

On their return to London with the days ticking down, Kate threw a champagne send-off for William at Clarence House with his closest friends, and then on January 8, 2006, William left London to begin his army training. Driven down by his father, while closely followed by his security team carrying the prerequisite ironing board, he was welcomed by the major general. After signing into Blenheim Company, William was shown to his sparse, soulless room, which overlooked Old College. Not wanting to overshadow his brother's arrival, which was captured by the waiting media, Harry was not there to greet William but made his way to his room later. Now that he was in his third term, Harry took great pleasure in reminding his older brother that his higher rank meant that William would have to salute him.

While William knuckled down to intensive physical and mental training, which would prepare him for his future career with the military, Kate started putting the wheels in motion for her new business plan. She worked on a business strategy and started sourcing reasonably priced, high-quality children's clothing. She traveled around the country looking at samples and flew to Milan where, using her basic Italian, she
found a reliable manufacturer. That summer, the press reported that she had the backing of clothing label Viyella, which wanted to partner on the project, but the rumored venture came to nothing. Kate realized that starting a business was not easy, and she hit obstacles early on. She decided not to register the company with Companies House because it would mean publishing personal details as well as annual accounts. Her parents helped where they could, and Kate had some savings to get the business off the ground, but by the summer, she was operating the business at a loss. She confided to Jamie Murray Wells, an entrepreneur and close friend of William's, that she was struggling to break even. “The business is running into debt, but I really want to prove to my dad that I can do this without asking him for any money,” she said. Kate decided that she might be better off working for a well-established fashion company instead. She was rumored to have been approached by the design house Ralph Lauren, which was interested in making her an ambassador. According to one former employee, it was “an idea, but it never took off.” In the end, Lady Gabriella Windsor was appointed to the role. Kate was also rumored to have applied for a job at the Harrods store in Knightsbridge, London, as a buyer's assistant in the fashion department, but again, it came to nothing.

Although she was eager to carve a career for herself, not having the commitment of a nine-to-five day job rather suited her. As a royal girlfriend she was largely at William's beck and call, and she fitted in seeing him around his timetable. She also had a busy social life, constantly whizzing up and down the M4 motorway to London to see her friends. She was often spotted browsing in clothes shops in Kensington and Chelsea and attending glitzy nights out with William
on the rare occasions he had time off from Sandhurst. They attended the Boodles Boxing Ball in June, a charity night for which some of their closest friends were competing in the ring, and the opening of a new shop at Bluebird, the fashionable restaurant and café on the King's Road, owned by the retail tycoons John and Belle Robinson, friends of the Middletons. Kate seemed to revel in her role, and even without William, she still mingled in royal circles. Earlier in the year, Kate had caused quite a stir when she was photographed in the Royal Box at the Cheltenham Gold Cup with Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall. It was the first time she had appeared with the family at a public event without William, appearing happy and relaxed as she chatted with Camilla and her children, Tom and Laura. Kate's warm rapport with Charles had intensified, and the prince had grown even fonder of Kate. He loved it when William brought Kate to Highgrove for occasional weekends and had given them a set of keys and allowed them to share a room. “Charles was like any other father; he was very kind and hospitable towards Kate from the beginning,” said a senior member of the household. “He was delighted William had found such a lovely girlfriend, and she was made to feel at home. Charles loved the fact that Kate enjoyed coming to Highgrove and to Birkhall in Scotland—where he would take her hill walking and deer stalking. It gave him great pleasure that they could share those pursuits.” Birkhall, the eighteenth-century mansion that the Queen Mother gifted to Charles when she died, holds a great deal of significance for the Prince of Wales. Charles would escape from Gordonstoun, the Scottish boarding school he hated, to see his grandmother at the three-story house on the Queen's 50,000-acre Deeside Estate when he was a boy. The place, he
said, had a “soul-refreshing effect,” and he refused to move the eleven grandfather clocks from the dining room. Nor would he refurbish the moth-eaten tartan curtains, despite Camilla's protests.

Camilla, meanwhile, took it upon herself to advise Kate on royal etiquette. The duchess was skilled in royal courtship, and she encouraged Kate to work her diary around William's engagements. Kate made sure she kept the weekends free so she and William could be together. Often they stayed at her parents' house or at Highgrove with Charles and Camilla. They also had a close-knit group of friends, and there was always a shooting party to be enjoyed in the countryside. That Easter, to celebrate William's success in making it through the notoriously tough first term at Sandhurst, Kate had arranged for them to go to Mustique, an island in the Caribbean, where the Robinsons owned a luxury villa. They generously waived the $12,000-per-week rental charge and told William and Kate to make themselves at home.

William had longed to visit the private island for some time; his great-aunt, Princess Margaret, had owned a villa there where she conducted a long-standing affair with her young lover, Roddy Llewelyn, in the 1970s. Better known now as a private playground for rock stars and A-list celebrities who want five-star luxury and complete privacy, the paparazzi are banned, and every visitor is vetted by the island's twenty-five-strong security team.

Described by the fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger as “endlessly social yet perfectly private,” Mustique is the epitome of luxury. It has its own private airport, nine stunning beaches, and some of the world's most sumptuous villas, one of which has its own golf course. There is just one hotel on the island—
the Cotton House—and a guesthouse. The Robinsons' hillside home, a five-bedroom stone mansion overlooking the famous Macaroni Beach and the sparkling turquoise Caribbean Sea, was quite simply paradise. The villa came with its own maid and gardener, as well as a cook who, alerted to the fact that the future King of England was coming to stay, had the couple's favorite foods flown in from St. Vincent ahead of their arrival. Kate and William loved it from the outset. They slipped anonymously into island life, zipping around on golf buggies and sunbathing on the tranquil beaches. With a health spa, world-famous equestrian center, and a busy tennis club, there was plenty to do. According to Elizabeth Saint, who runs the island's equestrian center where William and Kate went riding, “They love it here; they can be natural, and that's very precious for the island and everyone that lives here. We value their friendship. Mustique is a haven and sanctuary for them because no one ever talks about what goes on here.”

In addition to riding horses along the shoreline, Kate and William played beach volleyball and chilled out by the infinity pool at their villa, beneath the shade of the poolside gazebos. They challenged the Virgin Group tycoon, Sir Richard Branson, to games of tennis, appreciative of the loan of his catamaran, on which they enjoyed romantic dinners à deux. Some evenings they ventured to Basil's Bar, a rustic beach shack on stilts overlooking the sea. Wearing his famed caftan, Basil Charles, one of the island's most exuberant characters, poured William's vodka and cranberry while Kate enjoyed a chilled piña colada. They danced into the night, and according to one merrymaker, William was so relaxed he joined in a karaoke night and sang along to Elvis Presley's “Suspicious Minds.” “William and Kate loved Mustique and promised
they would come back,” recalled a regular visitor to the island. “They were left alone to enjoy their holiday and no one bothered them. They could be themselves, and they really got into the spirit of Mustique. It can be as pretentious as you make it, but William and Kate were very relaxed. They were always dressed down and often turned up at Basil's barefoot.”