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

“Has there been any word on the perpetrators?” he pursued the issue.


“I thought that was agreed. Boggs was the perpetrator.”


Jamieson’s muttonchops twitched. “I mean to ask if word has filtered down as to who he may have attacked.”


I shrugged and stated the obvious. “Likely some of the Sioux, but which ones there is no way of telling.”


The troop moved out before the young bloods of either race became too agitated. Yellow Puma’s warriors muttered deprecations against the blue-coated soldiers just as Captain Jamieson’s did against the buckskins, I expect.


Chapter 66