"Secret strategy for Camilla to go public," proclaimed one headline. Another told a different story: "Prince cannot wed Camilla, says vicar." After a week in which the British newspapers have been filled with photographs of Princess Diana on holiday in the south of France, their attention switched to last night's 50th birthday celebrations of Mrs Camilla Parker Bowles, the woman described as "the future Queen."
The 80 guests at a marquee on the grounds of the Prince of Wales's home at Highrove, Gloucestershire, were sworn to secrecy - her former husband, Brig Andrew Parker Bowles, was among them. The assembled press was reduced to peeping over the hedgerows and speculating on an evening it regarded "as one of profound constitutional import."
But it seems that despite attempts by Prince Charles to keep the relationship out of the public eye, British opinion is beginning to warm to the idea of the couple appearing in public.
According to a poll in the Mirror last week, 68 per cent of the British public now support the idea of the couple being married. However, opposition to Mrs Parker Bowles sitting on the British throne is still strong.
But Mrs Parker Bowles did not have to wait long before the critics came out of the woodwork. Even the prince's local vicar denounced the relationship. If Prince Charles married Mrs Parker Bowles, "he would be an unrepentant adulterer," announced a highly agitated Rev John Hawthorne. The Vicar of Tetbury said he had decided to break his silence when the prince announced his plans to celebrate her birthday at Highgrove.
"I do not see how he could be Defender of the Faith of a church whose laws, rules and teachings he is ignoring, being an admitted adulterer, perhaps unrepentant," he declared. "And certainly if he marries Mrs Parker Bowles he would be an unrepentant adulterer."
Despite the opinion polls, there is still the question of "the nightmare scenario" - the couple being booed or ridiculed in public. For the Prince of Wales and Mrs Parker Bowles, risking the nightmare scenario might be a step too far.