A love between two very different men is put to the test. John Strobaw, a young mixed-blood, grows up in the relative security of a family farm after the Civil War. His mother raises her family as Americans, but his foster brother, Matthew Brandt feels his red blood more keenly and leaves to ride with Crazy Horse. John doesn’t understand the longing he feels for his absent companion until he has his first sexual experience with a man and he only thinks of Matthew. After the murder of Crazy Horse, Matthew makes his way back home. John fights hard against a growing lust for Matthew, but when he ultimately succumbs, he is lost to this handsome, dusky warrior. Just when the future looks bright, another suitor appears -- a handsome Cheyenne army scout, and trouble looms on the horizon.

Echoes of the Flute

I went looking for Aaron Salmon. My careless actions at the medicine lodge might have lit the spark, but Salmon’s lie had let Berglund fan the flames that destroyed my friends. As soon as I saw the boy at the livery stable, I put him out of my mind. He was one of those simpletons who grow big even when they’re young. He was probably sixteen, but the vacant eyes and slack jaw argued his mind was younger than that. He didn’t come up with those lies. Berglund had told him what to say, and the poor fellow believed them the minute the words came out of his mouth. I’d take no satisfaction in extracting justice on him. Hell, it wouldn’t have been justice.


I needed Berglund. I could march into his church and shoot him in the head like the pig he was, but that likely would have been the end of me. That’s the last thing Otter would have wanted.


Chapter 27