The Morning Star Shine Brightest
Marie Dorion, A Daughter of The Country
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Published by: Black Rose Writing
Release Date: April 9, 2026
Pages: 268
ISBN13: 978-1685137380
Synopsis
In 1813, Marie Dorion and her husband Pierre and their two small sons are part of an expedition that sets off from Astoria to establish a fur trade outpost in the wilderness of the Oregon Country. Out trapping with a small party, the men are brutally killed by a rogue Shoshone war party.
With no rescue mission coming from Astoria, Marie knows if she and her children are to survive, everything is up to her. They'll need to evade detection by the Shoshone and battle the snowy landscape of the Blue Mountain Range to get back to the great Columbia River. Once there, hopefully, a passing fur brigade will find them.
In the past, Marie had been sheltered by a man, one who had been her deliverer when her world with Pierre went bad. Now, it's all up to her to keep her family alive. But she discovers along the way the power she possesses to face the adversity and danger lurking around every corner.
Amidst it all, she is determined to solve the puzzle of who was responsible for the deaths of these men. She vows to the gods of her people-there will be a reckoning!
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Excerpt
Chapter One
Oregon Country – Shoshone Lands
January 1814
Marie Dorion stood over the steaming cook pot. Despite a light snowfall, she felt warmed by the pot and the fire crackling below it. The smell of gravy, wild onion, and elk meat wafted to her nose. She breathed deeply while stirring the pot, then spooned some of the liquid for a small taste. Needs salt. A few snowflakes floated down around her. As she worked on the pot, she kept an ear perked for sounds of her children’s laughter and glee, which told her they were playing nearby. It’s when I can’t hear them that I need to worry. She turned toward the joyous sounds, and finding the children snowball fighting, she smiled. All their lives in the snowy wilderness, and they could still find joy in the bitter cold playground of the Oregon Country wilderness.
She turned her gaze from her boys to the edge of the tree-lined meadow, looking for the return of her husband Pierre and the men who were out trapping with him. They’d been away for two days, and she expected them any time. She also kept a watchful eye towards the woods for any incoming threat. A day earlier, a Nez Perce warrior had come into camp. His words were ominous. The Shoshone were talking war against the white invaders. They were in Indian country and the Shoshone and her people, the Ioways, were not friends. A century before, the Ioways had clashed with the Shoshone over the contested hunting grounds on the Great Plains.
The first booming report of gunfire rang out...