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

Irons was courteous enough to the Strobaws of Teacher’s Mead, but when Ma demanded to know who’d denounced her son, he permitted a bit of impatience to show. Nonetheless, he sent for Raven Longbow. His manners showed some strain after half an hour with no sign of the scout. Gideon, dispatched to see what the problem was, returned to whisper in his superior’s ear. Irons went mottled as he sent for all the scouts.


Before long, three men in varying degrees of white man’s clothing filed into the room, Crow at their head. I doubted this room had been so full of Indians since it was built.


“Where’s Raven?” the Major asked.


“Ain’t seen him this morning, sir.” Crow paused before adding. “Pinto’s gone.”


“When I took to my bed last night.”


Irons questioned the other two scouts, a Miniconjou Lakota about Crow’s age from up on the Cheyenne River and another man I didn’t recognize…maybe a Mandan. Each denied knowing anything about the missing man.


Chapter 83