Be Still My Soul: The Cadence of Grace, Book 1 by Joanne Bischof Read Free Book Online

But like a fool, he’d chosen Lonnie.
    He looked down on her bowed head. One stupid decision, and hewas going to pay. It wasn’t a matter of desire. Just that he’d rather attend his wedding than his hanging.
    Lonnie’s abrupt words were no louder than a whisper. “Go away, Gideon.”
    He rose but studied her small form. She hardly seemed older than a child, but he knew better. She was seventeen and more than able to marry. “Tomorrow, then.”
    “Tomorrow?” She lifted her head. Her eyes were red.
    “That’s what your pa decided on.”
    The color drained from her cheeks.
    Good. Perhaps a healthy dose of fear would get her to reason with the lunatic she called a father. “Unless you can get him to change his mind. If not, I have to do right by you. Is that what you really want?”
    Lonnie rose and smoothed her dress. She started past him, then paused. Her shoulder nearly brushed against his. The scent of hickory and nutmeg lifted from her dress.
    “It’s never mattered what I want.” She strode away, her ankles pale beneath her hemline.
    Gideon did not follow her. He turned, picked up a grainy rock, and hurled it at a tree. The clump shattered.
    He heard his pa call him, and Gideon wasted no time climbing into the wagon. He hardly gave his pa a chance to do the same before he slapped the reins against the mules’ backs.
    His pa cleared his throat, and Gideon looked at him.
    “I can’t believe this is happening,” Gideon blurted. “I don’t know what I’m gonna do.”
    His pa worked his jaw and leaned back against the wagon seat. “You’re gonna bring that little gal home tomorrow and start making this right.” He ran his knuckles over his knee.
    “Is that so? And what about Ma?”
    “I’ll see to your mother.”
    “Sure you will.” Gideon slapped the reins again. If there was one person who ruled the O’Riley roost, it certainly wasn’t his pa.
    When they pulled in front of their house, Gideon left the beasts in his pa’s care and stormed toward the barn. He was in no mood for questions and curiosities from his siblings. He unloosened his necktie and yanked it off.
    He closed the barn door tight, wishing he could lock it. He threw his necktie into the corner, then grabbed a pitchfork and got to work scraping old hay from the unoccupied stalls.
    The events from the last few days turned over and over like a millstone in his mind, grinding his actions into his conscience. But there was nothing to be done.
    He could not step back in time and erase it all. He certainly could not waltz over to the Sawyer farm and tell Joel that he would not marry his daughter. That would only land him on the receiving end of Joel’s shotgun.
    Gideon clenched his hands around the handle of the pitchfork until the splintered wood dug into his callused skin. Nothing in his past suggested he had the makings of a husband. In fact, he had more than enough evidence to prove that he wasn’t. He, as well as the rest of Rocky Knob, knew that he was the last thing a young woman needed. And he hated the thought of being shackled to one woman. Despised it, in fact.
    With a grunt, he threw the tool against the wall. It clanged to the floor, and he kicked it aside. A goat stumbled around in her stall. With all his strength, he hooked his left arm, and his fist struck the wall. Pain seared through his knuckles and into his arm, but he pulled back and struck the solid wall again.
    A shot belted through him. Pulling his arm back, he stumbled away from the wall and stared at his battered hand.
    His ma called from the house.
    Gideon tucked his fist in his shirt and hurried off toward the cabin. He slipped in the door. His littlest brother and sister sat at the table. He kept to the shadow on the far wall as he walked toward the bedroom in search of his sister.
    His mother gasped when she saw his fist. “What happened to you?”
    The frown that wrinkled her lips told Gideon she was not amused. The flour that covered her hands and the