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Everyone was getting impatient for an outcome (Bradford, 2007, p. 73). Then on February 2, 1981,
Prince Charles called Diana from his annual skiing trip in Klosters, Switzerland (Brown, 2008, p. 147),
and told her that he had something important to ask her when he returned (Morton, 2010, p. 116).
Diana was sure that he was going to propose to her (Bradford, 2007, p. 74), and that night she talked
until the small hours with her flatmates discussing what she should do (Morton, 2010, p. 116). On
February 6, Diana went to Windsor Castle to see Prince Charles (Brown, 2008, p. 147), and Prince
Charles formally asked her to marry him (Bradford, 2007, p. 74). She accepted instantly (Smith, 2007,
p. 96).
A little after the engagement had taken place, Diana, in a state of euphoria, travelled to Australia to
spend three weeks with her mother to plan the wedding (Bradford, 2007, p. 74). During the visit,
Diana’s mother expressed serious doubts about the match and therefore used the time Diana spent
with her in Australia to make Diana think more seriously about the marriage, as she could see the
parallels between Diana’s relationship with Prince Charles and her own marriage to Diana’s father:
both of them too young, too hasty, too incompatible, and having too great an age gap and too many
responsibilities (Brown, 2008, p. 148). According to Bradford (2007), Diana later claimed that Prince
Charles never called her while she was in Australia and that when she tried to call him he was never
there and did not call her back, which was not the case. In truth, Diana and Prince Charles spoke on
the phone constantly but guardedly during her trip. Nevertheless, when Diana came back from
Australia, Prince Charles was not there to welcome her home, but had had flowers brought to her
instead. However, as there was no note, Diana believed that the flowers were not from Prince
Charles, but that someone in his office had arranged it (pp. 74-75). In reality, Prince Charles had
asked that the biggest, most fragrant bouquet of flowers were to be brought to her along with a
handwritten welcome home note (Junor, 2005, p. 64).
On the evening before the official engagement announcement, Diana moved into Clarence House,
the Queen Mother’s
London home, to protect her from the press that surrounded Coleherne Court
(Bradford, 2007, p. 77). It was, as her Scotland Yard police protection officer told her “the last night
of freedom ever in the rest of your life” (Morton, 2010, p. 118). Diana later said that his words were
like a sword that went into her heart (Bradford, 2007, p. 76). At Clarence House, Diana was shown