“I am sorry about that, Sire,” Kelson said as he calmly sat petting a very contented Ming, “Nigel had just asked me about the time of the incident with the boat and my uncle being killed. I hadn’t even considered taking him up on his offer but certain circumstances,” he paused, “have caused me to rethink that.”

“And those circumstances would be?” The King of Howicce and Llannedd asked, looking first at Kelson for an answer, and then to his daughter, Michaela, who was sitting across from Kelson.

“I can’t really tell what they are at this point, Sire,” Kelson said as he absently petted the cat, “truth be told, I don’t really know myself. Right now I just have my suspicions.”

“And you don’t want to tell me about them?” the King asked, folding arms.

“Not without further proof, Sire,” Kelson said, looking up at him.

Letting out a sigh of exasperation, the King then put forth another question, “Well at the least you and Nigel have decided on a date when you will assume control of the Duchy of Carthmoor from him?”

“We have, Sire,” Kelson replied, patting a recently opened letter on his desk.

“And?” the King asked irritably.

“That’s just over a month away,” the King commented, “Isn’t that a little soon?”

“Sire, if I may?” a recently returned Jackson Morgan inquired.

“By all means, Jackson,” the King said.

“My father has suggested, Sire,” Jackson paused. “That His Grace,” Jackson indicating Kelson, “would be best served if he was installed sooner rather than later to get a handle on running things.”

“It could backfire, you know,” Stephen said after being silent for several seconds.

“I know,” Kelson said before adding, “but I will be going there the day after tomorrow. Outwardly, I will be going to see how the joint oil leasing deal would …”

“But really to check out the opposition,” stated the King, finishing Kelson’s sentence.

Kelson smiled and nodded in agreement.

The King was silent for several minutes as he digested the information, “Are you planning on taking Alexandra with you? What about the regency? Are you planning on stepping down?”

“For now, Sire,” Kelson said turning to glance at his daughter who was playing with Linda by the balcony doors, “she will be staying here, until I am certain about security there. Eventually, I do plan on bringing her over. She is, after all, my heir as well as yours. I assure you, Sire, I will have something figured out by the time I am installed as the Duke of Carthmoor. If you have no further questions, Sire,” Kelson said standing up and placing Ming on his chair, “I really need to talk to Linda, in private, concerning Alexandra.”

Once they were alone on the balcony overlooking the castle gardens, Kelson turned to Linda and said, “I need you to do me favor, Linda.”

“Everything?” she asked.

“Yes again,” he said “and only what they feel is necessary in not comprising themselves. I may not get the chance to tell him myself.”

“Only that,” he replied, “that I will need him for my eventual investiture as Duke of Carthmoor and…”

“And?” she asked probingly.

Having been established in the year 1829 the Yard at Nyford has long been the home of the Criminal Investigation Department of all Gwynedd. The first headquarters for the Yard, being an old palace. With the growing need for criminal investigators and the improving techniques, new buildings were built along the Lendour River in 1890. At this time the Yard changed its name to the New Yard at Nyford. In 1967 the present headquarters, a modern 20-story building, was built on the old site.

As The Yard, as it often referred to, is continuously consulted by investigators from the Eleven Kingdoms and around the world, the headquarters currently houses, a criminal records office, forensic laboratories, a detective-training school, a criminal intelligence department, an anti-terrorist unit, and fraud and drug squads.

“Okay, Chris,” Carolyn asked as she moved next to him in the big bay window overlooking the Yard’s training area, “What is so important that you had to see me?”

“Two things,” he said pointedly, holding up two fingers.

“They are?” she asked curiously.

“One, Matt’s training is going quicker than I thought,” he said glancing at her, “I may send him undercover with Bart sooner than I thought. I want you to watch him for a minute. I didn’t know he was so adept at martial arts.”

Looking down onto the training yard Carolyn picked Matt out in the crowd of recruits he was training with. It was fairly easy to see even from here that the class was mostly beginners with a few that stood out as having some form of martial training before. She was surprised to see that Matt, standing in the middle of the group, was mimicking the movements of the instructor exactly, while the other's seems to be having problems putting together the moves, holding their balance, and listening to the instructor at the same time. A faint, "Do you understand" could be heard issuing from the mouth of the instructor as he completed a combination of kicks and punches that looked a little more difficult than those prior. A strong "YES SIR" came from the
middle as Matt executed the double punch, front kick, jump spinning round kick combination.

Carolyn was surprised to see how light he was on his feet, and judging by the expression on the instructor, she was not the only one surprised. He gestured for the other students to stop while assistant instructors went around talking to the students, correcting a stance of a posture here and there. Waving Matt out of the group and gesturing for another instructor to take over, he walked with Matt from the center of the yard to an enclosed area just below the balcony where Carolyn and Chris stood. They could hear the conversation passing between the gray-haired old master and the young security agent.

"Yes sir, I have studied martial arts before. I took some TaeKwon Do classes in college and along with a short academy training class for grappling and shoot-fighting, I practice my old forms quite a bit. The combinations you were asking for are some of my old sparring combinations."

The older man smiled slightly, saying, "So you have sparring experience then?" After receiving a nod from the younger man, he continued saying, "Please show me then. Master Shen!" Another master standing at the side of the yard, dressed in a Japanese ghi, tied with a black obi, came over in answer to the old mans call.

"Yes Grandmaster." He bowed, waiting respectfully.

"I need an assessment of skills for this young man. He claims some Tae Kwon Do training, but I believe he has a lot more training than he is letting on." the old man said, a slight smile crossing his lips.

The young master bowed, nodding. He turned to Matt and faced him, his hands behind his back as Matt stood at attention. As he studied the young agent’s posture, he called out "Say Jak" (Korean for Begin).

The still agent flowed from an erect attention stance to face the young master, both men falling into a ready stance, hands poised in front of them, their balance center on the balls of their feet as they began to move. Carolyn watched as the two men feinted once or twice to gain a measure of their opponents reach and speed. Twin smiles appeared on the men's faces as a flurry of kicks and punches were thrown, blocked, countered, and thrown over again. Several deep grunts could be heard from time to time as a kick or punch landed, but they kept the pace quick and circled one another. The speed at which they both moved was a great deal faster than Carolyn had imagined.

"Par Row!" called the Grandmaster, telling the two fighters to break off and assume a ready stance. Both men were breathing fairly hard, the identical smiles on their faces. The Grandmaster said "Shee Yoe" and both men relaxed. Matt sketched a deep bow to the young master, saying "Con so hom nee da, Sa Bum Nim". The young master took a step towards Matt saying "Chun Mun a Yoe. You are very welcome, but it was not a lesson. You are far more talented than you appear to be. That is important." He smiled as Matt stood erect and held out
his hand. Matt shook it as the young master said, "Anytime you want to spar like that again, come back and ask for me. Woo!"

He bowed once more to Matt, deeply to the Grandmaster who then dismissed him. The old man smiled at the agent, raising his eyebrows. "It was not my intention to offend you or your school sir. It was my masters wish that my instruction not be made public knowledge. I believe you know Master Shi Lun Kim?"

"HA!" the old man barked. "I knew I recognized your stance. He is the only one who teaches such deep stances with any efficiency or effectiveness."

He chuckled as he looked up at the balcony. Matt looked up as well and upon seeing Carolyn smiled and waved. Carolyn returned the greeting. As she watched the two the master leaned in closer to say something to Matt, then motioned to a door that exited the training area.

“Where are they going?” Carolyn asked turning to Chris.

“They’re going to get Matt started on his undercover identity,” Chris answered stone faced, ”why don’t we go have a seat?”

As they each took a seat in a nice sized couch a short distance from the big bay window, Carolyn asked, ”I take it this isn’t the only thing you wanted to tell me about?”

Chris stared at her for several seconds, and then he finally asked, ”What would you say if I told you that at one point a member of the Haldane Royal Family may have known who Jack the Ripper was?”

“Excuse me?” she asked surprised by the question, ”where the hell did that come from?”

Carolyn stared at him dumbfounded as he continued, ”a couple of months ago my wife Donna , who has been helping me update all the Old Yard Nyford files, came across a journal in the Jack the Ripper file, written by one Michael Conley.”

“Who was he?” she dared asked.

“He was an inspector and an ‘Alienist ‘on the case,” he said.

Carolyn nodded recalling that ‘alienists’ were the 19th century equivalent of modern day criminal profilers.

^{“In journal it mentions a visit to the castle at Rhemuth, on the premise on briefing the Crown Prince. Michael Conley didn’t go into much detail about was said, but got the impression that he left the meeting very scared. “}

“What was he scared of?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” he said, adding, ”unfortunately the very last page, where he may have mentioned who Jack really was is missing.”

“I have a bad feeling,” she said, ”that isn’t the worst of it.”

“Your right,” he said, ”beside the fact that if this journal where to go public we don’t know how it will affect our present Haldane’s reputation.”

^{Carolyn stared at him blankly for several seconds, and then said, ”The journal is missing isn’t it?”}

^{“Yep,” Chris replied bluntly}

“Mikos?” she asked, ”what are doing calling me? I thought we agreed that you weren’t to call here?”

“I wouldn’t be calling if it weren’t important,” he replied, ”how soon can you come to Carthmoor?”

“What is it?” she asked.

“I can’t tell you over the phone,” he said, ”all I will say what have something that may have led to the destruction of the Haldane’s before, and may do so again?”

“Where do you want me to meet you?” she asked.

“I can be there tomorrow,” she replied, ”I have to finish up helping out my niece, Alison, with the Claibourne family accounts; they are mess since my sister-in-law died.”

“Okay,” he said, ”see you tomorrow then.”

** I am glad no-one heard that** she thought to herself.