What's Next?

With glacial slowness, Camilla Parker Bowles has been coming in from the cold. By dint of a public appearance here, a royal invitation there and in May a speech at an international conference on osteoporosis, the woman Prince Charles has loved for 30 years is gradually taking her place as official partner to the future King. It has been a tentative process. It was not until January 1999 that the couple risked a brief public appearance together; the first public kiss came two-and-a-half years later. But then the relationship that Charles once said was "non-negotiable" has faced formidable hurdles in the shape of disapproval from Queen, country and Church. At the time of Princess Diana's death nearly five years ago, there was widespread hostility toward the woman Diana blamed for the breakup of her 15-year marriage and reportedly dubbed "the rottweiler." "There were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded," Diana famously told the BBC in 1996 to huge sympathy.