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 many people would be speaking my tongue so well in so short a time? We haven’t said very much in American for several sleeps.”


“English,” I corrected him automatically.


“See…like a teacher. You will be a good teacher to my People. Teachers are important to my tiospaye, my band. Those called by the Double-Faced Woman are often teachers. She enters the dreams and instructs those who will be win-tays.” He pursued the significance of his new name for me. “They say all the tribes will have to face the white man someday. But with you as our teacher, we will learn his way without being infected by it. We will take what is useful and ignore what is not.”


As we shared information and grew to truly know one another, I was able to see beyond my blind infatuation with the physical and appreciate the man. I genuinely liked, admired, and respected the object of my devotion. Nor did the trail lead just one way. I grew confident Cut felt much the same about me.


Chapter 16