Chapter 7
CHAPTER 7
F eeling tired, Danielle left the dining hall and drifted down the Great Hall toward the stairs. Before she reached the first step, Graeme joined her, making her smile. "Good evening, Graeme."
"Good evening, Lady Danielle." He moved next to her with his hands locked behind his back as he walked. "I wondered if you would care to take an evening stroll? It is fine weather out, and the moon is nearly full."
Danielle hesitated. She was a bit tired, but she didn't want to pass up the chance to walk with him. It wasn't often that he didn't have some duty or other. "All right, perhaps a short one? I don't want to fall asleep on you," she said, adding a giggle as she grinned up at him.
He looked at her curiously and then offered her his arm, but the look on his face told her that he wasn't sure she would take it. "Should you fall asleep, I will make sure you don't fall and hurt yourself."
Danielle's grin widened. "Thank you, Graeme. You are quite the gentleman, aren't you?" She took his arm and gave it a little squeeze, moving in close. She liked him very much and couldn't help but flirt a little. He was the opposite of Jay, the asshole at her law firm that she'd dated. Just the thought of him and Michele had her scowling.
"Is something wrong?" Graeme asked as they stepped out of the keep and into the courtyard. "You are frowning."
"Oh, sorry. No. I was just… thinking of something that happened back in my time,” she replied, shaking her head. “That's so weird to say."
"Something upsetting?"
Danielle sighed. "In a way. I was a lawyer, someone who defended criminals and made sure they got a fair trial," she explained. "I made partner at my law firm?—"
"What does that mean? You got married?" He looked taken aback and nearly dropped her arm.
"What? No. No, I'm not married. It means that I was on equal footing with the rest of the lawyers at the firm, not a junior lawyer, I suppose that all means nothing to you," she laughed. "I'm not sure how to explain it, except that it made me one of the bosses. Does that make sense?"
He nodded. "Why did that upset you?" he questioned.
"Oh, that didn't upset me. No, it was… there was this jerk, well… I didn't know he was a jerk until later, but anyway, he was another boss. We…" Danielle paused, searching for the word that correlate with “dated” for him. "I guess you would say 'courted'?"
"You planned to marry this man?" He frowned.
"Maybe at first, but later, no. I broke up with him. Before I left, he tried to take one of my cases, and then I found out he was seeing—um, courting—my assistant. What upsets me was that now, they will get away with it."
"Him seeing this other woman upsets you? Did you love him?"
Danielle stopped walking and turned to him. She wanted to make sure he understood that her heart never belonged to Jay. "No, no. I never loved him; I promise. What upset me was that my assistant and I were friends. At least I thought we were, and she betrayed me. That is what upset me. I was going to fire her and have the other partners vote on his tenure with the company when I returned from Scotland."
"And now, because you are here, they will not see justice?"
Danielle smiled. "Exactly." She squeezed his arm, grateful that he understood. She tugged on his arm a little as she started walking again. "I'm sorry I let the thought of them ruin such a lovely evening stroll with you."
"It is not ruined; we are still enjoying the nice weather, and I enjoy hearing about your time in the future."
"I am so glad to hear you say that." Danielle smiled up at him. "You are a very kind man, Graeme." She pressed herself a tiny bit closer to him as they walked. "I enjoy spending time with you. Tell me about what you do here?"
"Oh. Well, my brother and I are not like the Guard. We are not part of the MacLeod Clan. We're MacMillans. There are just two of us left. We did not have a very big family to begin with, like the MacLeods. I did not get here until about six months ago, so I am starting at the bottom."
"What did you do before you got here?"
He sighed but shook his head. "I would rather not talk about that, if you do not mind? It is in the past, and something I would rather forget."
Danielle looked at him curiously but nodded. Between his words and Eva's, she was even more determined to figure out the mystery. "All right. So, what kind of things do you do here?"
He swallowed and gave her a small smile. "A bit of this and that. Guard the doorway, of course, and polish the armor and daggers. I occasionally have tower watch." He shrugged.
"You don't sound as though you enjoy those things very much."
" I cannot say that I do. I would much rather be out on patrol with the rest of the Guard, or taking a turn on the wall, or any number of other things. There is not much call for me to use my weapons while guarding the doorway or polishing armor."
"I noticed you carry a very large sword." Danielle grinned.
"It is a claymore."
"A claymore? Are you skilled with it?" she asked, adding a bit of flirtation to her voice.
"Aye."
"Is it very sharp?" she asked playfully, biting her lip, and gazing up at him.
"Aye."
His one-word answers left her feeling as though he didn't understand that she was flirting. Maybe she was out of practice? She sighed.
"You are sighing at me; did I say something to upset you?" He frowned at her.
Danielle smiled ruefully. "No, you are fine. I think I am just tired. I am still getting used to this time period, and I think all the exercise I am getting from walking everywhere is making me more tired than normal."
"Do you not walk in your time?"
"We do, just not as much. We have machines that can lift us up several floors, so we don't have to take the stairs, and cars to get around in when we aren't in buildings."
"Your world is very curious to me. Do many ladies work in your world? I know the ladies who came before you all claimed to have worked in their worlds. Is that normal?"
Danielle nodded, thinking of the other ladies. "Yes, it is quite normal in the twenty-first century for women to have professional careers beyond housekeeping and cooking. We are on fairly even footing with men in that regard, but it took us centuries to achieve it. And even in the twenty-first century, it is hard to compete because there are still some men who believe that women are not as intelligent or as worthy as they are."
"I have always felt women are far more intelligent than me. My sister was." He smiled. "She was strong-willed, determined, good with a bow, and could cook and take care of a horse better than some men I know."
"Do you mind me asking what happened to her?" Danielle asked.
"She… died. Our father was not a good man. He killed her."
"Oh, Graeme. I am so sorry to hear that. How could he do such a thing to his daughter?"
Graeme shook his head. "I do not know. He was an angry man." He looked up at the stars.
Danielle followed his gaze and stood with him, taking in the deep, dark sky and the millions of stars above. She'd never seen a more beautiful night. Back in San Francisco, she barely saw any stars at night.
"You said you defended people as a lawyer?"
"Yes." She nodded and turned back to him.
"Were they worthy of your defense?"
"Not usually. Most of them were guilty as sin." Danielle pursed her lips. "Still, everyone deserves to be treated fairly, so I gave them the best defense I could." She sighed, thinking of Maria and Sarah, who didn't seem too pleased to have her there with them. Not that they'd been unkind, just… standoffish. "A couple of the other women aren't thrilled that I am a criminal defense attorney."
"Why?" Graeme asked curiously as he looked into her eyes. He reached out and gently tucked a loose hair behind her ear.
Danielle felt a slight thrill at his soft touch. "Because they were cops. Or as good as cops, I guess. They locked up the criminals, and sometimes, I got them out of jail because of a technical detail that violated their rights. We have laws in the twenty-first century that have to be followed, and if they aren't, some criminals go free."
"So, even though they did what they were accused of, they did not always go to the dungeon or get put to death?"
"Well, I wouldn't call prison a dungeon, and many states no longer have the death penalty, but yes."
"You were good at your job, then?"
Danielle smiled. "Very good," she shook her head, "but I was considering switching sides. I grew tired of defending guilty people who deserved to go to prison."
"I can understand that feeling." He nodded. "Do you think a person who has done bad things, who is a criminal, can change?"
Danielle shrugged. "I don't know, maybe? I never saw it with my clients, but I’m sure it’s possible."
Graeme nodded silently, but he looked thoughtful. "I should get you back in so you can seek your bed."
Danielle turned with him, and they headed back to the doors. "Thank you for the lovely evening, Graeme, I have enjoyed it."
"It has been my pleasure, Lady Danielle." He smiled as he led her to the stone staircase. "I would like to walk you to your door, if you do not mind?"
"I think I would like that very much," Danielle answered, feeling a blush rise in her cheeks.