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

“Anyway, that was different. That was Paris wanting King Menelaus’s wife.”


He gave me a withering stare. “What difference? Are you my mate or not?” His scorn was palpable.


“Maybe it is the same. But…but I never thought anyone would fight over me.”


“I told you what Raven said to me that day in the yard at the Mead. Now he’s tried to kill me.”


“Then we better ride for the fort and settle this thing once and for all.”


“Ride for the fort? And tell them what?”   25


I stood holding Arrow’s reins and absorbed Matthew’s words as he followed tracks in the grass. He halted to pick up a shell casing.


“Army,” he said. “Does that convince you?”


“If that doesn’t, this does. See the scrape mark on the pony’s left front shoe?”


“It’s been scored by a rock or something metal. That should make the horse easy to identify.”


Chapter 78