“What do you propose to do, then?”

“Sleep, I guess. After that all bets are off.”

“You can sleep like that, then.” Daniel nodded at her, then stood and placed the chair back where it belonged. “Goodnight.”

“That’s not...I’d prefer to be untied. If I’m supposed to sleep well anyway.” She shook her head. “Goodnight, then, I guess.”

“You’re not. You’re supposed to stay alive. There’s a difference,” Daniel said as he pushed the flap of the tent aside and stepped out. His shadow lingered on the edge of the tent for a while, then vanished completely. He was gone.

Charlotte struggled with her tied wrists for a few minutes before giving up. She let out a grunt of frustration, then laid back on the grass. She thought for a while about the conversation, and all the details swirling in her mind. But eventually exhaustion gave in, and she fell asleep again.

“So who’s the girl?” Abigail asked, ambushing Daniel nearly as soon as he exited the tent.

“Nobody,” Daniel said as he gently put his hand on Abby’s elbow and guided her away to a more secluded area. After glancing around, he looked back at Abby. “Kid shouldn’t be here. She’s...it’s a long story. Let’s just say I’ve been keeping my eye on her and what’s left of her family for longer than she can remember.”

“Thats a bit stalkerish, but I’ll bet that you have a good reason. Care to elaborate?”

“Saw the kid’s father get shot,” Daniel replied lowly. “Kept the kids for a while, though she’s too young to remember. We knew we couldn’t keep them long term, but we set them up well enough and agreed to keep an eye on them when we could. I still do--part of the reason why I settled down where I did.”

“So how does this affect the plan?” Abigail lowered her voice even further as she asked this question, the rocks were full of ears around these parts.

“It doesn’t--stay the course. We just need to be more careful and get her back home in one piece.” He paused. “What will cause us some trouble, though, is--Abe is dead.”

This new development caused her to pause for a moment, “how’d that happen?”

“The Marshal shot him, apparently,” Daniel said. “Which is interesting in its own right. Apparently that’s what spooked the girl, too. My guess is his job went sideways and he got caught.”

“Huh, this Marshal sounds like a real hardliner. You know her?”