Leading a Horse to Water

If I had known back when I was writing Daughter of Helaman that Isabel would get her own story, I probably would have named her something different, as Isabel is not my favorite name. Then again, not every name can be my favorite name, and I think she wears it well, so I'm over being irked about having to use the name Isabel in this book. The boys call her Izz anyway, and that sort of suits her. I call the book Isabel in my head; however, it does have an actual title: Warrior at the Water's Edge. This book is sort of about being able to bring a horse to water but not being able to make him drink—that is, not until the right girl leads him to the water. Yep, I got indulgent and let the kids have a romance.

I only have one more book after this, so I promise the excerpts are going to stop. But who knows, maybe I'll write another book in the next month. Just try to stop me.

It has occurred to me that I am not very good at choosing excerpts. A good one should be short and to the point, have a great hook, and leave you wanting to know either what will happen or what has already happened. I think all my excerpts have failed on every point. But today, at least we have hit the mark on short(er)!

 

As Mother, Cana, Leah and even Keturah began to serve the food, Kenai took a seat on the ground next to my stool. Keeping with their plan to force Kenai to accept that Cana and Micah had married, the women sent Cana to serve him his food.

    I understood their reasoning as Cana had explained it, but I glared at her anyway. He wouldn't look her in the eye and she walked away with her shoulders sagging.

    And he didn't eat the food. Any of it. But every so often he reached over and took something from my dish and popped it into his mouth.

    At first I just let him as if I didn't notice. After a few times, though, after I'd judged he'd eaten enough, I started to giggle when he did it. Finally I reached down and took a large piece of fruit from his untouched dish and put it into my mouth. He glanced at me and our eyes caught and held. The juice dripped over my lips and down my chin. I slowly grinned at him. He reached up and wiped the juice from my chin with a bent finger, and though it didn't touch his lips, there was a smile dancing in his eyes.

    When I looked away and glanced around at the party, I saw that more than one person had noticed this interaction.

    Zeke looked quickly away without meeting my eyes. Mother gave a small knowing smile, probably thinking of all the extra food I had been taking. And Leah stared at us and let huge tears slip down her cheeks.