Chapter 68

“My first day off. You said I could sleep here.” Dressed only in a breechclout, he joined me as I rubbed Arrow down.

“I remember. Uh, did you go see—”

“I done what you told me. Tiller showed me to his daughter. But I seen I made her skittish and told her I’d feed the pigeons tonight.”

I put the birds in the cote with the others and discovered how clever Matthew had been. The pigeons I’d brought from the Mead were white. The Turtle Crick birds were gray so we could tell where each called home.

Afterward, I washed up in cold water and made ready for bed. Raven had thrown his blankets near the ones I’d left behind. Once in our respective beds, we lay in the dark and talked a few minutes. He was the sole surviving member of his family. The rest had fallen when General Mackenzie attacked Dull Knife’s sleeping Cheyenne village on Powder River. He’d had seventeen summers at that time, and had been on his own ever since.

“Matthew tells me you were at Greasy Grass.”