Chapter 28

The first event was Sir Laurence's exclamation of horror as he digested the paragraph which the DNI had just personally brought to his attention. She sat watching his reaction as she enjoyed Sir Laurence's hospitality, the renowned taste of his coffee blend. There had been a noticeable rise in the already high standard of the brew and the word had quickly passed around the Admiralty drawing an increase of high ranking visitors – all on official business but it didn't really require face to face – could have been handled by the Aides. The coffee was the gift of the Grenoble Defence Force Military Secretary officially - practically it was the thanks of a grateful extended family.

The thought of enjoying a cup of the renowned brew had entered DNI's mind but the decision had really been made for her when her Chief of Counter Intelligence had personally brought his report to her.

The same report was on Sir Laurence's viewer.

"This has been close held hasn't it? I never heard as much as a whisper of it."

"Nor I, and my understanding of it is that not even the Palace knows."

"She's in line for the throne and the Palace doesn't know?" Sir Laurence rather incredulously asked.

"You'll need to read the attachments, its all in there. Their claim to the throne comes through her mother, Caitlin Winsor"

"A quick summary will do, " Sir Laurence gave her the 'come on' wave.

DNI collected her thoughts and began,

"The Nancarrows breed young – appears that their 'nannys' reject the contraception until triggered by a conception and then it kicks in hard. Can be reversed I'm told but difficult. The old investigations suggest their line is not aware of it. There is a very strong female breeding line and they don't spontaneously miscarry."

Sir Laurence interrupted,

"You seen to have got a lot of genetic information in those few sentences."

"The scientists were intrigued and got carried away a bit. The Nancarrows are Negroid stock and several centuries pre Diaspora were slaves to Anglo's. Appears they were bred for beauty and the line developed as courtesans. Nancarrow's mother appeared as a migrant from Sol with Nancy Alma as a babe in arms, had moderate wealth with her. Nancy Alma met Anton Hawkins, Viscount Peakeries at MU, she was a senior and he a freshman. The relationship, mainly because of that disparity, attracted the eye of PGS even though at time he wasn't part of the Royals – that came much later, when he married Caitlin Winsor. Potential senior member of the House of Lords – the family has always been political and so on. Just before she graduated, with double firsts, I might add, intelligent and beautiful – Hawkins couldn't resist it was said love at first sight, his sight, she broke off the relationship and dropped right off the screen except for PGS who had a good case of the worries apparently by this time. She never approached the Hawkins. PGS got a blood sample of the daughter. She had gone to ground with the grandmother on a Griffen farm. Nancy had hidden her home address from MU and PGS had a slight panic over that lack of detail. They located her just before the birth, got all the slavery details as Grandmother had joined the local geneology association. After the birth, Nancy returned quietly to Settlement, got employment in F.O.; all the investigation actually did have a positive side to it; got her clearances unusually quickly and now is high up on the Renmark desk. Daughter Anna was raised on the farm, comes to the Uni and reads for a bachelors in agronomy. Meets Mick McGraw, a second generation red head of Celtic Sol stock, marries, and they go off to Griffen to work the farm which they inherit. The McGraw daughter, Sally, gets bundled off to Boarding School here in Settlement under Nancy's wing, starts MU but leaves and marries a scion of Indo-chin merchant family who disapprove and cut him off with the proverbial penny. Dan Lee is just establishing himself as a broker when he is killed in an air car incident – fully investigated, nothing suspicious, Sally is early pregnant, returns to Nancy. Nancy adopts Erin, Sally joins the Navy. The Lee family have had a bad time of it as far as heirs are concerned and Erin is an heiress unbeknownst to her. Nancy showed them the door and got an injunction. Erin was about two, doubt if Sally knows about it. Nancy apparently made it quite clear about the consequences if they tried any contact whatsoever. Erin's potential won't put her in the class of the McCocks but not to be sneezed at. His family know of her as a girl friend, don't know of the inheritance side but aren't concerned about a fortune hunter. There have been some whisper of discreet family enquiries but they won't hear about this report. Erin has told her friends that she is after McCock and has been for over a decade. CI haven't been able to ferret that one out yet. Seems the girl has managed to build up her personal espionage net to keep track of his movements and we don't think they met by accident. But she checks out – rather spectacularly I think. Thanks for the coffee, Laurence; that file is for you. Your problem now", she gurgled as she let herself out.