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

The fronting room on the east side was a shambles. The two bunks lay in splinters. The long table I used as a trading counter leaned drunkenly on three legs. Bursting through the door to my living quarters, I found Morning Mist hewing at my bed while the two girl-women who accompanied her the other day worried over the kitchen table. Seizing the closest women by the hair, I slung them forcefully through the doorway. I spun as Morning Mist rushed me with her hatchet. It fell harmlessly from her nerveless grasp as I twisted her arm savagely. Shrieking as only an enraged Indian woman can, she spewed threats and imprecations as I tossed her bodily from the porch. The others made the mistake of fleeing across East’s guard area. One lost half her garment before escaping.


I took the wounded dog from Otter and examined the animal’s injuries. “Find Cut Hand,” I snapped.


Chapter 67