Kate (24 page)

With her schedule now flexible, on June 16, 2008, when William was invested into the Order of the Garter at Windsor Castle, Kate was there to watch. The ancient ceremony saw William appointed a Royal Knight of the Garter, one of the highest honors bestowed by the Queen upon her most-trusted and dutiful “knights,” among them Prince Philip and Prince Charles. William was invested in Windsor Castle's Garter Throne Room and then “installed” during a service at St. George's Chapel. Seeing him in his ornate velvet robes and hat of ostrich plumes, Kate, who was watching the procession with Prince Harry, couldn't resist a giggle. Later that month, she had plenty of time to plan William's twenty-sixth birthday, a small celebration at Highgrove for a group of their friends. When William left the country to spend five weeks aboard HMS
Iron Duke
in the Caribbean at the end of the month, Kate kept herself busy at work.

The Queen had quietly suggested to William that Kate get involved with a charity, and they both considered it an excellent idea. Party Pieces already had a connection with Starlight, a children's charity in the United Kingdom, and Carole regularly sent out complementary “prince and princess”–themed birthday party bags to hospices and children's wards around the country. Before he left for the Caribbean, William and Kate attended the Boodles Boxing Ball in June at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London, where they took a table at the black-tie gala with some of their friends. The charity night, which involved a series of boxing matches between former Etonians and Cambridge graduates,
was followed by a champagne dinner and raised $180,000 for the charity. Charlie Gilkes, one of the couple's friends, organized the gala, and Kate had arranged for cystic fibrosis sufferer Bianca Nicholas, who had sung that night, to meet William and Harry, which had thrilled the aspiring singer. Kate thought highly of the charity, which grants terminally ill children a “once-in-a-lifetime wish,” and she arranged to meet with Chief Executive Officer Neil Swan of the charity to see how she could help more. He recalled, “Kate was working with Party Pieces at the time, and she came up with a clever idea for a party bag that doubled up as a coloring-in gift. She also designed some Starlight-themed crayons and other bits and pieces to go in the bags. To us, she was just Kate, and we would go and have meetings with her at Party Pieces, and sometimes she would come to us. She came up with lots of creative ideas for parties that we were arranging for sick children, and she did a lot of work below the radar.”

Wanting to learn more about the work of the charity and how it helped hospices and children's hospitals around the country, Kate began making secret trips to the Naomi House hospice in Hampshire, close to her family home. She would drive to the hospice bearing gifts for the children, with whom she would spend hours reading and playing. The press never found out about the visits, which Kate wanted to keep below the radar, according to one senior source at the charity: “We are used to working with high-profile people, and it is in our interests to keep the visits secret. A few of us were aware of the work Kate was doing in hospices at that time, but we were asked to keep it quiet.”

Kate found the visits deeply rewarding and grounding, and it gave her great pleasure to know that she was able to bring a
ray of happiness to some seriously ill young people. “It upset us a lot when we read in the papers that Kate was work-shy when she was actually doing a lot of charity work that no one knew about,” said one of her friends.

Kate recognized that her profile afforded her the opportunity to do something worthwhile. In September 2008, she joined forces with her friend Sam Waley-Cohen and co-organized a charity roller-skating disco to raise funds for a new ward at the Oxford Children's Hospital. Sam's brother, Tom, had been treated at the hospital for a rare form of bone cancer before his death, and Kate, who had been at Marlborough with Tom, was profoundly affected when he passed away at the young age of twenty. She helped Sam plan the event at the Renaissance Rooms in Vauxhall, South London, and oversaw the guest list. “Kate has been fantastic in using her contacts to get people along—she persuaded loads of people to commit. Her involvement has obviously raised the profile,” Sam told the
Daily Mirror
after the event. The night was a sellout and raised $150,000, largely thanks to Kate, who whizzed around the skating rink in a pair of canary-yellow hot pants and a shiny green sequined halter top. On her final lap, she fell flat on her rear, spread-eagled in a most unladylike manner.

This, however, wasn't the only thing to knock Kate off her feet. William had announced, quite suddenly, that he wanted to join the RAF and become a search-and-rescue pilot, and the news had come as a surprise to Kate, the royal family, and the courtiers at the Palace. The prince had completed his military assignments with all of the Armed Forces, and now he was at a crossroads in his career. There were two real options; returning to the Household Cavalry or quitting the forces.
The press had speculated that, having finished his assignments, the prince would be under pressure from the Palace to start carrying out more official engagements, but it wasn't what William wanted to do. He had seen his father struggle to carve a niche for himself as a king in waiting, and he didn't want the same fate, not yet. He had loved his time serving with the RAF, and now that he had his flying badge, he wanted to use it. The news that he was to join the RAF was made official on September 15, 2008. “The time I spent with the RAF earlier this year made me realize how much I love flying,” William said. “Joining search and rescue is a perfect opportunity for me to serve in the forces operationally.”

With that single decision, Kate's life was turned upside down. She had expected a proposal once William had completed his military training, but instead, she was forced to accept that there would be no engagement anytime soon. Kate would have to wait even longer.

CHAPTER 9

Princess in the Making

K
ATE WAS STILL
coming to terms with William's about turn. It was late October 2008, and they had flown to Scotland for some downtime. William had recently completed an exhilarating charity motorbike ride across Africa with his brother, so this was the first opportunity he and Kate had to spend some time together.

He knew that his decision to join the RAF affected hugely on Kate's life and that she needed some reassurance.

The reality was that William would train for eighteen months, and after that he would be expected to serve with the Search and Rescue Force for a minimum of two years. He would be based at the Defence Helicopter Flying School in Shawbury, Shropshire, for a year before being posted to a remote base somewhere in the United Kingdom. The question was hanging: Was Kate prepared to join him? She supported his desires and ambitions, but privately she was crushed. Essentially, William was asking her to be an army wife—without
the nuptials. Her frustration was understandable. She had loyally supported William ever since he enrolled at Sandhurst, but the pact they had made in Desroches suggested that his military training was coming to an end and marriage would be the next step. Now that he was joining the RAF, Kate could see that he would be married to his job for several more years.

William was optimistic that he and Kate could make the relationship work. They had coped successfully with long periods apart before. Kate knew there was no point in trying to change William's mind—he was strong willed and determined.

At twenty-six years old, the prince was not too young to marry or become a working royal, but he didn't want to commit to either just yet. At the same age, the Queen had already been married for five years and had ascended the throne following the death of her father. Charles had given up his career as a naval officer when he was twenty-seven, five years before he married Diana, to devote his life to official duties. William, however, had been allowed a very different upbringing. Both Charles and Diana had wanted to raise their sons as “ordinary,” within the confines of royal protocol, and as they grew into young men, William and Harry worked hard to pursue careers independently of their HRH (His Royal Highness) titles. The military gave William the chance to live a “normal” life outside of the bubble of royalty, which was about the most important thing to him. The idea of flying Sea King helicopters to rescue ships or mountain hikers in distress was, for the prince, the epitome of this privilege.

For Kate, it was a step backward. It seemed that everyone was getting married except for her. Just days before William had made his announcement, they had flown to Austria for
their friend Chiara Hunt's wedding. Her best friend, Emilia d'Erlanger, was engaged to her long-term boyfriend, David Jardine Patterson, and Oli Baker, their friend from St. Andrews University, had recently proposed to his university sweetheart, Mel Nicholson. William and Kate's former apartment mate Fergus Boyd was getting married to Sandrine Janet the following May, and William and Kate had accepted an invitation to Nicholas Van Cutsem's wedding to Alice Hadden-Paton in the summer. As she neared her twenty-seventh birthday, Kate's plan to be married with children by the time she was thirty was looking increasingly unlikely. And it wasn't just Kate who was unsettled about the future. Carole was also “jittery” about the absence of a ring on her daughter's finger. “Carole is very concerned that it might not happen,” revealed a friend. “She is concerned about Kate's position and that there might not be a wedding at all.”

Kate had promised William in Desroches that she would stand by him, and she wasn't about to go back on her word. When she attended Charles's sixtieth birthday party at Highgrove that same month, it was a clear indication that despite William's unexpected career decision, she was sticking with her prince. Days after the party, William was posted to Barbados to spend ten days with the Special Boat Service.

While William spent Christmas at the royal estate in Norfolk, Kate and her family flew to Mustique as they had the year before. It was Kate's third visit that year, causing the press to christen her the “Queen of Mustique,” a title once reserved for Princess Margaret.

On the island, the Middletons were treated like royalty. It was their second trip as a family, and they knew many of the local residents, including the tennis coach, Richard Schaffer,
and the island's yoga instructor, Greg Allen, who came to teach them on the terrace of their villa every morning. According to Greg's partner, Elizabeth Saint, who took the family horse riding on the beach, “They love to ride, and Greg did yoga with them on a daily basis. He went to their house and taught them there. They love Mustique, and on the island everyone is very protective of them. They walk on the beach in their flip-flops, play tennis, and do their yoga. They don't want people hassling them and taking their pictures.”

In the privacy of the luxury villa, Kate and her family relaxed and enjoyed the services of the in-house chef. One source who enjoyed a supper with them recalled, “There was always lots of chilled white wine, Carole's favorite drink. They are amazing hosts and enjoyed having a big table of people for dinner. They quickly made friends in Mustique, and it was always an open house. They are a lot of fun, and they aren't afraid to poke fun at themselves. One of Carole's favorite dinner party jokes is to put on her best air-hostess voice and announce incoming flights as they come in. It had everyone in fits of giggles.”

Kate was home in time to go to Scotland to see the New Year in, and this time she and William stayed with Charles and Camilla at Birkhall. Kate had helped Charles choose a Labrador puppy for William's Christmas present, and the four of them spent many happy hours traipsing over the hills with the energetic pup in tow.

They were back in England in time for Kate's twenty-seventh birthday, a small celebration at her family home. William drove to Oak Acre, where Ella, the newest addition to the Middleton family—a sweet black cocker spaniel puppy belonging to James—was bounding excitedly around the
kitchen. Unusually, the prince had arranged to stay the night, so his protection officers booked into a nearby guesthouse. It was the last time he and Kate would be together before he moved to RAF Shawbury.

On January 11, 2009, Flight Lieutenant Wales drove himself to the Defence Helicopter Flying School in Shropshire, three hours from London. After a couple of weeks living at the base, which had far from luxurious living quarters, he moved to a nearby farmhouse on the grounds of a stately home, prompting comments that William was being given special treatment. The Ministry of Defence however, insisted that he was being treated “like any other officer.” Very few of his fellow officers, however, were living in such luxury. Complete with a tennis court and an outdoor pool, the farmhouse was a more comfortable option when Kate visited, and there was a bedroom for Harry, who had just split up with Chelsy and was being posted to the same base to train with the Army Air Corps in the spring.

Often, William would drive the 130 miles from Shropshire to Bucklebury for the weekend. He and Kate enjoyed time together, mostly away from the public gaze. As his schedule was unpredictable, the paparazzi never knew when William was going to visit, and the locals were protective when they saw the couple in the village. They were able to drink and eat traditional pub lunches at the local Bladebone Inn without being disturbed, and William often shopped at the local Spar store for newspapers and Kate's favorite Haribo candy. Nothing was ever reported about them going about their daily lives, which was how they liked it. “In the village we are very protective. There's a lot of camaraderie towards the Middletons,” reported resident Lynda Tillotson. Martin Fiddler, who owns
the local butcher shop added, “William and Kate are often here, but no one makes a deal of it and we leave them be. We have known the Middleton children for years and they are part of the village life.”