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

Doubtless Little Eagle would have taken offense, but his attention was claimed by the pistol. He examined it like the fifteen year old he was, not the adult he was pretending to be.


I called Otter outside and gave him instructions. “Ride to the village and tell Yellow Puma what you heard and saw.”


Little Eagle almost broke and ran for his pony hidden in the trees so he could be first with the news, but dignity reestablished itself, and he remained with me, requiring I relate all that was said. With an inward smile, I told him most of it. As he matured, he was acquiring an arrogance that sometimes sat well and sometimes rendered him obnoxious—like most who reached that difficult age.


Chapter 36