A set of very important people are beginning manoeuvres in the bowels of St James's Palace, Charles's headquarters. The shadowy world of ``Camilla's friends'' is gearing up to sell one of the toughest products on the market the Prince of Wales's mistress.

A picture is slowly being revealed, pieces of a jigsaw are being fitted into a whole: Sunday's Channel 5 television documentary is devoted to Camilla; Prince Charles is throwing a $80,000 party at his Highgrove home in Western England to celebrate Camilla's 50th birthday on July 17; front-page stories in the Daily Mail and The Sunday Times suggest that Camilla and Charles will marry; an autumn charity event is to be presented by Camilla and her sister Annabel Elliot. And Diana is accused of a series of blunders.

Suddenly Camilla is in the headlines. Something is going on, and somebody, somewhere is trying to control it all. On Thursday the first invitations were sent out by Camilla and sister Annabel to ``an evening of enchantment'' to be held in Gillingham, Dorset, in September. It is Camilla's first effort at a ``public event'' and the invitation, with whimsical illustrations of dancers, fine wine and fine food, says that guests should be prepared for the ``unexpected''.

An intriguing proposition. Speculation is rife that Charles will use the occasion to make his first public show of support for Camilla. For the moment his office is insisting that he will not be attending, but his diary has been kept clear for the event and an open, up-front arrival certainly beats hiding under blankets in the back of cars. Behind all this, behind the slowly thawing image of Camilla: the woman who wrecked The Dream Marriage, is a certainty which will have to be made official at some point in the future, as the prince's aides well know. Charles and Camilla have a relationship. And it is not going away.

``Few people want to be on their own,'' a friend of Camilla said over lunch in a smart London restaurant last week. ``Charles feels that he won't meet anyone else, and does the nation really want a single man as king who is totally isolated from the influence of a partner who can every now and again burst a few balloons and prick his ego? He will be surrounded by enough yes men as it is.''

The essential ground preparation started earlier this year. Camilla was announced as patron of the National Osteoporosis Society and a new, smiling photograph of her was released. The tabloids devoted pages to analysing the ``softness of the haircut'' and the ``smile of confidence''.

Certainly a good deal better than the pictures which followed the farcical ``Camillagate tape'' when Charles discussed ``pushing the tit'' during his telephone call to Camilla.