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

The Colonel pulled the witness with the look of a drunk forward. The man stumbled so badly he was likely in that condition now. “Tell me if you know this man?”


The drunkard swayed slightly and started to focus. Touch the Clouds, now standing directly behind me grunted. “Dho! The sot’s gaze swiveled as he looked for the source of the exclamation.


“Answer me, Thomas Long Lip,” Col. Steffington said with more than a trace of impatience. “Do you see the renegade, Red Star?”


The witness gave a loose-necked nod. “I see ‘im. Right there.” He pointed a shaky finger…at me.


My stomach dropped somewhere down around my ankles. A sheen of sweat popped out on my upper lip as I remembered the question Touch the Clouds asked last evening. Did he plan to exchange me for my lover?


“What?” the Colonel exclaimed. “What are you trying to pull?”


“Tha’s him. Right there. I remember them stars in his hair.”


“You straighten up and identify the proper man.” Steffington’s muttonchops bristled.


Chapter 94