Teaser Tuesdays 3/20/12

Today's teaser is from my WIP, Yellowstone Dawn. 

Their eyes met. Josh studied her face. Her skin was pale from the cold, and her eyes had dark circles underneath them. He wished he could start a fire to offer more warmth. Her layers of blankets would have to be enough for the night.

“What’s your name,” he asked slowly.

“Danica. Danica Jensen. But my friends call me Dani. Or, the Shoshone family who took me in …who I traveled with, called me Kumaa ekon nawipin. I really don’t know what that means. Maybe you do.”

Josh couldn’t decide whether to frown, or laugh at the name The People had given her. How did she know he would understand Shoshone? How did she know so much about him? The black hair and his bronze skin gave away the Indian part of his parentage. But how did she know that part was Shoshone? Perhaps she was only guessing. She had said maybe he’d know.

“Well? Do you know what it means?” she pressed, when he didn’t answer. He scrutinized her face. Rather than look away from his stare, her eyes narrowed.

“Yeah, I think the name probably suits you,” he drawled slowly.

She glared at him.  “You’re not going to tell me,” she accused. “Fine. It doesn’t matter now anyways. They’re all dead.” Her voice cracked, despite her effort to appear indifferent. She pulled the blankets more firmly around herself, and she shifted her body awkwardly to lean against the trunk of the tree. Her eyes closed, and her face contorted in a grimace. Josh wondered again if she was injured. He pulled his own blanket around his shoulders to ward off the cold.

“Miss Jensen, what do you know about that family of Shoshone that was massacred a few miles south of here?”

Her eyes flew open. “You know about them?”

“Your tracks from the site where they got killed led me here to you,” he said slowly, studying her face for her reaction.

“They were good people,” she whispered. She sniffed, and swiped a hasty hand over her eyes. “They helped me out last summer. I needed to get back to Virginia City, but I lost my way in the wilderness. I think they were taking me in that general direction, but it’s taken them almost a year.” She laughed softly.

“You’ve been with them for nearly a year?”

“Close to it. I can’t remember.” She shrugged.

Josh frowned. Her vague answers only begged for more questions. What was a white woman doing traveling with a family of mountain Shoshone?


Also, check out an interview with Elk Runner, a character from Yellowstone Heart Song, here