Kate Middleton is said to believe she and Prince William will be engaged by Christmas, according to sources close to the couple.

One source said, “Actually, word is that William and Kate had a row recently over the way in which he continues to confide in two of his closest girlfriends about matters of the heart. Apparently he had always planned to go up to Balmoral for the end of the stalking season but he decided to take Kate with him in an effort to make it up to her.”

The source continued, “Kate has now started telling people to expect an engagement by Christmas, although no-one really thinks that it will come to that so soon. William still wants to wait another year or so.

“That said, he does want to get married before his father accedes to the throne as he would like to have a family of his own before he has to take on the responsibility of being Prince of Wales.”

So the old reticences are still there, but who can doubt that this will end in the Abbey sometime in the next two years?

The supposed meeting with the Queen and Prince Philip at Balmoral may well have taken place in London earlier, probably before they “came out” (again) as a couple two weeks ago.

However, for anyone who still believes that Kate Middleton is not now an informal part of the Royal Family, these shots of her practising shooting techniques under the supervision of Prince Charles should confirm it.

Princes have always been associated with the armed services, so shooting and hunting have been part of their military training and keeping their hand in. City folk sometimes forget that aspect of hunting.

Kate is a very sporty girl, as we saw during her training for the cross-channel dragon boat race. It’s not surprising then that she has thrown herself into the basic Balmoral routines of stalking, shooting and yomping across the hills in all weathers.

Prince William is nowhere to be seen here. It looks like she’s getting a few lessons from her future father-in-law and a ghillie of the estate.

One thing’s for sure, Kate will be no plaster Royal.

There’s an intriguing passage in an article by Richard Kay and Geoffrey Levy in today’s Daily Mail. #

In careful language that has probably been crawled over by the paper’s lawyers, the writers seem to suggest that Diana’s belief that Prince Charles was planning to kill her may have been planted in her mind by journalist Martin Bashir in an attempt to spook her into doing an interview with him on the BBC’s Panorama.

He later succeeded, of course, and it finished Diana with the Royal Family and led directly to her divorce. Bashir is also known for befriending Michael Jackson to establish trust and then attacking him in the subsequent film.

Here’s the passage in the Mail’s article :

Other toxic whisperers were at work deliberately stoking up her suspicions against Prince Charles, especially in relation to Tiggy, who, the voices said, had transplanted Camilla in the Prince’s affections. They also fed her the possibility that, since she no longer had police protection and often drove alone, Charles might solve his problems by having her killed — hence her letter claiming that the Prince would arrange for her to meet her death in her car.

These whisperers have never been identified. But one person who coincidentally benefited is the television journalist Martin Bashir. For, at around this time, he was trying to persuade Diana to give him an interview on BBC television’s Panorama. When, after several months, the deeply emotional and distressed Princess finally agreed, it gave Bashir one of the biggest television scoops of all time.

Powerful stuff. If true, it exonerates Prince Charles from all the nastiness he’s been accused of since then.

Royal Anecdotes has never believed either he, or Prince Philip, went beyond private disapproval of Diana, especially when everything was spiralling out of control in the run up to her death.

Remember those early post-uni days when Kate Middleton set out to create her own mail order children’s clothing line?

She was said to have spent many hours and much money travelling to Milan, and other centres of fashion, sourcing fabrics and ideas for her merchandise. Not surprisingly perhaps, she ran out of money before the business started up. There were even security fears about the level of personal information needed to set up a company — although nominee directors might have got around that one. The project was eventually dropped.

Now her potential cousin-in-law Princess Beatrice is said to be working on her own clothing line, and has even started to sketch ideas for her first collection.

Of course, if Bea’s idea is to challenge model and now fashion designer Kate Moss for the Top Spot, it may be more difficult than it seems, for Bea lacks Moss’s “edgeiness” and “cool” credentials. So far her fashion sense has been more derided than praised. Her mother, Fergie, Duchess of York, is a well-established fashion disaster zone.

However, friends are rallying round. “It was Beatrice’s idea. She has always loved clothes and has an innate sense of style. She has said she is going to start up her own line of clothing and plans to call it Bobcat. She’s creating the label with one of her girlfriends. She has lots of ideas for her first collection although she hasn’t made a garment yet.”

The friend added, “She is quite reserved with what she wears. But she has a sophisticated sense of style and a knack of knowing how to accessorise her clothes. She’s always up to speed with the latest trends.”

Maybe Kate Middelton and Bea can get together on a joint children and adult clothing line.

Bibcat, perhaps?