Born into a society tolerant of homosexuals, River Otter is confused by the white culture’s persecution of such men. As the war begins to wind down, Otter leaves the only home he has ever known to help Major James Morrow, commandant of Ft. Yanube, build a farm north of the fort. He begins a new life with the handsome major while coming to grips with growing hostility toward natives and rising danger from a local militia bent on eliminating all bloods from the territory.<br><br>As his physical attraction for the blond soldier slowly grows into a love perilous to both of them, Otter is distracted by personal challenges. As he struggles to survive the social and political upheaval sweeping the plains, can remain true to his own set of values?

River Otter

Finally convinced it would take a keen eye to expose my misdirection, I released the dead man’s pony to go where it would and made my way back to Patch and the mare. Then, keeping a keen eye out for the militia patrol, I crosscut the prairie toward the land James had bought.   4


I had no trouble finding James’s property, even in the dark. He had left a marker of stones to denote the exact center of the hundred sixty acres he’d claimed on Turtle Crick, a fair-sized tributary to the Yanube. The cairn rested in a small, lush meadow with a hillock to the north crowned by pines and oaks. Cottonwoods hugged the banks of the stream. This sheltered place would make a comfortable home.


Chapter 11