Far from the world he knows, he’ll find a home. Among strangers, he’ll find acceptance. And in the arms of an unexpected man, he’ll find love. Young Billy Strobaw comes West to escape the stigma of his Tory family. In the Dakota Territories, he encounters the Yanube warrior Cut Hand. Billy’s attraction to the other man is as surprising as the Yanube perspective on same-sex love. Unlike Europeans, the Siouan tribe celebrates such unions. Billy and Cut Hand can live as partners and build a life together, which Billy agrees to do. As Billy struggles to acclimate to a very different culture, quickly discovering the Yanube have as much to teach him as he has to impart to them, a larger struggle is brewing. The white man is barreling through the Great Plains, trampling underfoot anyone who stands in his way. As a leader of his people, Cut Hand must decide whether it will be peace or war. In a historical romance taking place against the epic backdrop of the early American West, where a single spark can ignite a powder keg of greed, lust for power, and misunderstanding, one man must find his place in history and his role in the preservation of all he has come to value.

Cut Hand

“How about a honey-soaked gammon?” I pictured the fat ham so vividly my mouth watered.


Red made an effort to be civil. “What about you, Cut Hand. What’d you like to have?”


Cut looked the redhead in the eye and uttered a single word. “Bil-lee!”


I don’t know if I was more embarrassed or more prideful.


Split killed off the evening regaling us with tales of the tub, cock-and-bull stories of his travels. I was surprised to learn he was at the fourth Fur Trapper’s Rendezvous on the Great Salt Lake in 1828 and claimed to have been on close terms with Jedediah Smith.


Over the past few days, I had wrestled more aggressively against the idea I was offensive to the Lord God, that I was reprobate, abandoned in sin. Despite my Christian upbringing, the power of my need for Cut Hand ate away the base and exposed the noble in my emotions. And there were noble elements: loyalty, companionship, steadfastness, friendship, love. Perhaps love made our coupling acceptable.


Chapter 13