Chapter 61

“I accused you of lying to the family, and now I’ve been false with you.”

“How?” My heart wobbled in my chest.

“Raven Strongbow. I knew him at Greasy Grass.”

My throat went dry. “How did you know him?”

“His family was at the village Custer attacked. There were a lot of Cheyenne with us. So we fought together.”

I began to breathe again. “Is that all there is to it?”

Matthew fixed his gaze over my right shoulder. He’d gone Indian again. “Think about it. He knows I was at Greasy Grass, and he works for the army.”

I remembered the grunt I’d heard from Raven when Matthew tossed his shotgun to me from the stage’s seat. “And you know he was there. But why lie about that to me?”

“When you saw us talking, I was making arrangements to meet him in Yanube City. I needed to know if he was going to cause trouble before I said anything.”

“Did you talk?”

“He said he owed the army nothing but scouting. And it’s like you said. I know he fought at Greasy Grass against Custer too.”