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 shots, when they came, were fired like a volley. Cut looked at me pleadingly. With Lone Eagle at my side, I rode back to the crest. The four prisoners had broken away, deliberately courting death. All were cut down. Soldiers rolled the bodies into blankets as one of the army scouts watched us carefully.


The council that night was a noisy and contentious affair. Buffalo Shoulder’s cousin decried the betrayal of his kinsman, declaring that honorable men were bound to ride to his aid. Were the Yanube so infected by fear of whites they could not stand up for their own? The furious young man’s words found favor with some in the assemblage. Cut Hand heard every last voice before he rose.


Chapter 91