“I have seen no one want to be an Indian before.”
“Heck, even Indians are trying to be white.”
Olivia’s face turned beet red at the men’s mocking words. She opened her mouth to explain how she came to be in Standing Tree’s tribe. But then she changed her mind. She owed them no explanation.
Her heated gaze returned to the cowboy who had been staring at her with guarded eyes.
“You and I know what I’m talking about. I demand that you say the truth.”
Silence fell at Olivia’s authoritative words. She had passed the sheriff’s and marshal’s office a few buildings away. She wished now that she had sought Adam. Perhaps he would have walked her to the ranch and most likely arrested the cowboy after she sighted him.
Olivia shook her head. With Adam in proximity, she wouldn’t have noticed the cowboy. Her thoughts and consciousness would have been centered on only the marshal.
She bit her bottom lip and glanced at the men who were staring at her like someone who escaped from a madhouse. She didn’t know how she was going to do it, but she was determined to make her voice heard.
Turning her back on the men to look at the passersby, she yelled at the top of her voice.
“Someone please get the marshal or the sheriff!”
Her voice got the attention of two men and a woman walking by the saloon. They came forward with curiosity in her eyes.
“What’s going on here?” the elderly man with a thick mustache asked.
Quickly, Olivia turned around to point at the cowboy whose face had darkened.
With a note of urgency in her voice, she said, “This man and his gang are responsible for the mayhem that was carried out in an Indian village a few weeks back.”
Murmurs sounded around her as some men trooped out of the saloon and more people came to join the circle.
Having an audience now, hope rose in Olivia’s chest. “I remember the scar on his jaw. I begged him not to do anything to the Indians before I fainted, but he and his gang did. I reckon he also carried me out of the village when the ugly deed was done.”
“Is that true?” the elderly man asked loudly as almost everyone gathered started speaking at once.
Looking nonchalant with his arms crossed over his chest, the cowboy simply shrugged.
“She’s lying. And not only that, she’s crazy,” he answered in a smooth voice.
Olivia stomped a booted foot on the ground. Her hands fisted. “I’m not lying, neither am I crazy. Just you say the truth, you coward. Tell the people how you came to my village, destroyed it, and killed my family.”
A sob caught in her throat at her last words and Olivia fought for control of her emotions. Giving in to the despair clinging to her would make her look like a troubled person.
The cowboy gave a bark of laughter. “Did you just hear that? She said the Indians are her family.”
Some people laughed. Olivia felt her face inflaming as the man made her look foolish.
“She has been yapping about what I know nothing about. Tell me why a white woman would claim to have an Indian family.” He whistled and shook his head. “I say we tie her up and look for the madhouse she ran away from.”
Appalled at his words, Olivia raised a warning finger at him. “Don’t you touch me, you coward! How could you have killed innocent men, women, and children? Don’t you have any conscience?”
She whirled around as more people came forward to know what the raucous was about.
“This man is a murderer. You have to believe me and call the marshal. He killed the Cheyenne Indians I lived with for the past eight years, took me away from the massacre, and dumped me in the middle of nowhere. You can ask the marshal when he comes. The marshal found me wandering in the bush and rescued me. I work at the orphanage now. You can go and ask about Olivia Foster. They’ll tell you I’m not crazy.”
The sea of faces before Olivia changed from amusement to thoughtfulness.
“What say you about her accusations?” someone from the crowd shouted at the cowboy.
Olivia turned around to see that the man’s confidence had slipped. No longer did he look cocky. Joy rose inside Olivia. Mayhap justice would be served for Standing Tree’s tribe.
