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

Neither Appleton, nor his wife, Jane, quite knew how to treat me. I laughed on the inside of my mouth that this young couple drew their wages from Cuthan, who was as Indian as I was, yet were helpless to assign a station to me. From all the books I had read, the English were a class-conscious lot.


Crow Johnson made me welcome in the forge in his own stolid, undemonstrative way. He already had John pumping the bellows and Matthew in the loft forking hay.


“Have you seen any sign of the one we spoke of on my last visit?” I asked in Lakota when we managed a moment alone. I was surprised at how eagerly I put the question and at the flicker of disappointment when he had not, although he’d had word of Lance from a blood family from Laramie passing through last week on their way to the pipestone quarry on the big lake.


“The old man said he knew our friend and claimed he’d gone crazy. Says he kills his own now, as well as the whites.”


Chapter 103