Kate Middleton will go to the Windsor wedding of Peter Phillips, non-Royal grandson of the Queen, and Canadian, Autumn Kelly.

Chelsy Davy — Cinders will not be going to the ball

The ceremony, described as a very small and private occasion, will apparently be held in St. George’s Chapel as originally thought. However, the recent mention of Frogmore House on the Windsor estate perhaps gives a clue to the venue of the reception afterwards.

A disappointment for some is that Chelsy Davy has not been included on the guest list. An insider has told the Mail on Sunday that both Prince Harry and Chelsy are angry at her absence — she was not invited to ski at Klosters either, suggesting some reluctance to accept her on the part of the Royal Family.

[Speculation] Of course if Prince William and Kate Middleton are secretly engaged — as has been suggested in the German press — it would explain Chelsy’s omission. [End of speculation].

The Royal insider comments, “Chelsy has been left off the list for the wedding and all the invitations have gone out now. Peter and his fiancee Autumn sent invites out a few weeks ago for what is going to be a very small and private occasion.

“The explanation being offered is that, at the time, Harry and Chelsy were going through a wobble. But Chelsy sees it as a direct snub and is pretty miffed at not having been invited, especially as Kate plans to go. Chelsy feels like she is often left out of family engagements. She was not invited to ski, which doesn’t bother her because she’d rather go home to Cape Town, but she would like to have been invited to Peter’s wedding. She’s becoming the Royals’ Cinderella.”

If Cinders needs a role model on how to be a Princess-in-waiting, she would do well to take a close look at Kate Middleton.

A scented candle in her bathroom may have provided the Duchess of York with a little aromatherapy, but it also landed her with a £20,000 ($40,000) bill after nearly burning down her new home, Dolphin House.

The Duchess of York’s Windsor property, Dolphin House

Fergie had left the house yesterday for a business appointment when her housekeeper found smoke billowing from the bathroom.

Ten firefighters arrived on the scene and put the flames out, but not before considerable damage had been done by fire and smoke. Neither of the Duchess’s children, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, were thought to be at home at the time.

A fire brigade officer said, “The Duchess may not feel that lucky right now but this fire could have been very much worse. If the housekeeper had not been there to react so quickly, it could have destroyed much more than a bathroom suite.”

Fergie moved into the house last year following the sale of Sunninghill Park. It is less than a mile from her former husband Prince Andrew’s home at Royal Lodge, Windsor.

So will Fergie be lodging with Andrew again, albeit temporarily? Only if she leaves the candles behind, I would imagine.

Kate Middleton was pictured with Prince William yesterday while he shot pheasant at Windsor Great Park.

Kate helping William collect pheasant

The couple seemed happy to be out, despite the freezing temperatures. At one point they even snuggled up together behind a convenient hedge.

A snatched kiss behind a hedge for Kate and Wills

There have also been suggestions, via a tabloid newspaper, that Kate is virtually living with William at Clarence House.

Relationships change with time, of course, but a more stable sense of “steady as she goes” would be helped by a statement of intent from the couple and a hint of where they are going.

Otherwise 2008 will be a long year to get through without an engagement announcement.

Angela Kelly, 55, Roman Catholic and a divorcee with two grown-up sons, has a very impressive job title at Buckingham Palace : Personal Assistant, Adviser and Curator to Her Majesty the Queen (Jewellery, Insignias and Wardrobe). Palace insiders see her as the Queen’s “gatekeeper” and even as her close confidante.

A picture emerges of a very posh lady, with a cut-glass accent and a noble aristocratic lineage.

It couldn’t be further from the truth. Angela Kelly comes from a terraced council house (social housing) in Liverpool. She has a pronounced Scouse accent — think Beatles — and started out at the Palace as the humblest of maids. Eliza Doolittle most definitely springs to mind.

Angela Kelly dressing the Queen

Now, for the first time, and with Her Majesty’s permission, Miss Kelly has given a public interview to Andrew Alderson.

“Years ago, the Queen kindly invited me to listen to her conversations with her designers, Sir Hardy Amies and others, and give my opinion,” she explains. “Well, asking a Scouser to give an opinion is dangerous, so I told her straight. The Queen loves clothes and is a real expert on fabrics. It has not been a question of me teaching the Queen — it has been the other way around.”

Now, in the privacy of the Queen’s castles and Palaces, they discuss “anything and everything”. Their conversations are said to range from their beloved grandchildren to “flowing ballgowns, and from designer jewellery to new ranges of make-up”.

The Queen recently told her, “You and I do work well together. I think we are a good team.” Staff report that they often hear the sound of their joint laughter echoing down the corridors.

“I love the Queen and everything about her,” she says. “I adore her, but then, so does everyone else. She is not ‘my’ Queen, she is everyone’s and so I have to share her. Once she has chosen something to wear, I just want her to look good in it. I love seeing the faces of the public when they meet the Queen, and when she gives them that special smile. It makes me feel so proud of her.

“I do worry about her and care about her. But we also have a lot of fun together. The Queen has a wicked sense of humour and is a great mimic. She can do all accents — including mine.”

Nowadays Angela Kelly is much more than just a dresser. She advises the Queen on all aspects of her wardrobe and is even developing her own clothing line with a top designer.

“I just want everything to be right for the Queen — to make life easier for her because she is so busy. My job is to ensure that when the Queen meets people she looks right.

“I would never overstep the mark and I remain in awe of the Queen. But she has allowed me to become closer to her over the years. We [the dressers] are not treated like flunkies. It’s not like that. The Queen treats us with real respect.

“I don’t know why the Queen seems fond of me — because I don’t give her an easy time! I do think she values my opinion, but she is the one who is in control. She always makes the final decision.

“We are two typical women. We discuss clothes, make-up, jewellery. We say, ‘Would this piece of jewellery look nice with that outfit?’, and things like that.”

The friendship with the Queen became closer in 2002 when the Monarch lost both her mother and sister during her Golden Jubilee. Angela Kelly doesn’t believe there is a connection, “I am not there to replace her mother and her sister. If she wants to talk about matters of the heart, she speaks to her family. It’s just a working relationship — but a close one.”

For a precedent we could perhaps go back to “Crawfie”, the Queen’s Scottish governess when a child. Crawfie blotted her copybook by spilling secrets of Royal life to a women’s magazine. She was ostracized by the Queen Mother.

Somehow, I can’t see that happening with Angela Kelly.