Daniel held up his hand to quiet her.

“Even if she was here, she probably would not tell you, either,” he said quietly. “And I’m afraid that there is no easy explanation to why I know.”

He studied her again, then stood.

“I think perhaps I should go.”

“You’re not just supposed to say all that and then leave,” she snapped. “If you’re not going to answer my other questions, at least tell me why on earth I’m here.”

“Considering you went outside the walls at night, I think you already know the answer to that,” he said gruffly, then turned back to look at her. “Why did you go outside the wall?”

“It’s not my fault some jerk decided to kidnap me,” she said decidedly. At his second question, she hesitated. “I was going to visit the graveyard. And there’s nothing wrong with that. I needed to do it.”

“After dark and after the gates were closed?” he shook his head. “Yeah, I’d say that there’s something wrong with that. What was so pressing that you had to leave?”

She inhaled, and took a few moments before exhaling. “Your friend the Marshal decided to shoot somebody, and I saw it. Therefore, I wanted to go talk to my dad, who is, unfortunately, dead, and lives in the graveyard. Is that a good enough explanation?”

“We’re not exactly friends,” he said, then shook his head. “Who’d she kill? And why?”

She didn't make a comment about this man and The Marshal not being friends; they must have been nemeses. Or something.

“Abe Lincoln. I don’t know why,” she said softly. The memory was coming back to her, and she didn’t want it to.

Daniel rubbed his forehead and frowned, then sat down and studied her.

“Char...Kid…” he paused, thinking. He was frustrated, then again, he was pretty sure he knew why the Marshal had done what she did. He could also see that it distressed Charlotte, but he really wasn’t in a place where talking with her would help her any--she had made that clear already. “Ok.”

“...That’s it? No more cryptic monologues?”

Daniel rubbed his brow again.

“Why?” he asked. “Would you like one?”

“...No. If you’re going to give a monologue, make it detailed.”

“The Marshal has a history of her own--if you haven’t figured it out yet. Abe knows a bit more about that than most. Most everyone that knew her before she became a Marshal has died. Cane was one of the last. Cane understood how she came to be who she is. Abe, I think, didn’t, and if I’m guessing right, she probably put him in such a position where it would be the only thing that he had to use against her. And he would.”

“That’s all… dark and surprising,” Charlotte said, fiddling with the grass again. “Thanks for the… uh, semi-explanation. But I still want to know how you know her.”

Daniel smiled slightly.

“I guess you’re going to have to wonder, then,” he said. “Now, if I cut you loose, are you going to do something stupid like try to run off and get shot in the back, or are you going to stay put?”