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

One day, Otter broke into my musing by drawing me to the porch to point out a black, lowering cloud to the south across the river. The roiling monster dragged a thick, dirty tail that sucked up dirt and brush and grasses, leaving a rusty basal cloud of debris and dust. Evil in its purest physical form!


“Iyaleft the water,” Otter said quietly. “And Wakinyanwent after him. They fight awful battles, and it is humans and animals who pay.”


Iya, I knew, was a giant, the son of Inyan,the First Being, and Unk,the Mother of Contention. The Thunder-Being, Wakinyan, who brought rains and cleansed the earth, was the mate of Inyanand jealous of this illicit offspring. Unable to touch the giant so long as he remained in water, she sought to destroy him whenever he came ashore. But inevitably, Iya escaped the vengeful supernatural and fled back into the depths. That is why tornadoes follow rivers…or so go the Yanube myths.


Chapter 77