Thirty-two-year-old mixed blood John Strobaw, known to the Sioux as Medicine Hair, returns to his Turtle Crick Farm after a six-year exile on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Grief-stricken at the loss of his mate and lover Matthew Brand, known as Shambling Bear, at the Battle of Wounded Knee, he struggles to become a farmer again while fighting an internal battle to let go of the past and face his future. Will that future be with his best friend Winter Bird or with Pretty Face, an outrageous flirt who hasn’t yet decided who he is?<br><br>But before he can come to grips with this, John faces several battles. Will his former friends and neighbors accept him now the Indian War has come to an end? Can John forgive those same friends and neighbors after the murderous ambush of the Sioux by the 7th Cavalry at Wounded Knee? Or survive the hostility of an Indian-hating sheriff named Charles Landreth and protect himself against the mindless fear and loathing for Two Spirits, men who love men?

Wastelakapi…Beloved

After rubbing down Thunder and Star, I returned to check on Ethan. I found him and the baby both asleep in the chair. I checked his breathing. Once satisfied this was healthful sleep and not a loss of consciousness, I sat on the porch step and watched for riders coming up from the south. Landreth would likely run his big white horse half to death in his race to reach the scene of violent murder where an Indian, whose hands were already bloody, had killed three more innocent whites, one a helpless woman.” 27


Libby Appleton showed up first, bringing with her a supply of milk for the infant. She and Ethan almost got into a fight over the child, but my injured lover was in no condition to put up effective combat against a hundred-ten-pound wildcat, so Libby ended up feeding the tiny child Ethan had taken to calling Wi’cin,or girl, in Lakota.


Chapter 89