Though My Heart Is Torn: The Cadence of Grace, Book 2 Read Online Free PDF Page B

in hand, Gideon tugged the old animal along. A pile of leaves blew across their trail. Shades of gold, red, and green glittered in the brightening sunshine as their feet found the trail.
    Leaving the familiar farmyard, Gideon only hoped their trip to Rocky Knob would be a short one. “Git on up!” he called and tugged the lead rope. Sugar quickened her pace, and Gideon glanced behind him to make certain Lonnie was close. Turning his attention back tothe trail ahead, he eyed the changing landscape. They had yet to travel their first mile, and already the longing for home left him feeling empty.
    Having caught up, Lonnie kicked at a pile of leaves, only to have them spray back on her in the breeze. Gideon’s smirk widened, and she nearly smiled back. They walked on in comfortable silence. The life that called the forest home provided the song that set their feet in motion: birds chirped as they fluttered about, sending down a chorus of jumbled melodies, and the breeze in the dried leaves overhead whispered faintly as it rippled through the branches. With the forest providing the music, Gideon lifted his face, wishing he knew the words to the mysterious song.

They’d hardly gone an hour when Lonnie froze and stared at the steep ravine. Even though the morning sun hit her back, warming away autumn’s chill, her legs went cold.
    Gideon shuffled to a standstill, and he exhaled. “Well, I’ll be.”
    Her heart a sudden jumble of emotions, Lonnie glanced away and into her son’s sleeping face. He was snuggled in the sling she had fashioned for the journey. Though his nose was red and runny from cold, he seemed peaceful enough. A blue-winged warbler called out, breaking the stillness. Gideon’s hand captured hers, and he offered a firm squeeze.
    Still, Lonnie shivered. “I don’t like this place.”
    Gideon scanned the trail in front of them, and his gaze met hers. “I don’t blame you. It’s not my favorite place either.”
    They stood in silence. The rugged hillside sloped sharply. Trees that had fallen in years past had tumbled down, only to land in a silent graveyard of rotting bark and limbs at the base of the steep ravine. Their rough edges resurrected the painful memory, but before it could form in her mind, she noticed that, with no rain falling, the place looked different. The man beside her more different still.
    Gideon pointed to a stagnant puddle, an emotion pulling his voice tight. “Right there.”
    Lonnie nodded as the horrid images made their way back to her heart.
The cold. The rain
.
    His anger
.
    “That’s where I fell,” she whispered.
    She had been so tired, so weak. Nothing she could have done or said would have dispelled the anger in Gideon’s eyes. Lonnie turned away, yet the grim images were not easily pushed aside. There had been pain. There had been fear. All of it hers.
    She heard his words as clearly now as she did that day. “Get up!” he had hollered.
    Lonnie shuddered. Even with the passing of time, she could still feel the rain beating against her hair. Feel the slick mud as she crawled toward him, praying for a deliverance. For days he had set a grueling pace, and for days she had tried to keep up. But it had been impossible, and she’d paid the consequences. The memories turned her feet to ice.
    When she glanced at Gideon, his eyes were glassy with remembrance, his face pale as if carved from stone. “I’m so sorry that I hurt you. I’m sorry I let myself go that far.”
    “I know.” Lonnie caught hold of his hand and lifted it to her lips. The man who stood before her was nothing like the man from that day.
    His fingers slipped from hers.
    Undeterred, Lonnie slid her arm in the crook of his elbow. Her husband. Her beloved. She peered up into a pair of eyes the color of a meadow in spring and felt the oppression of that moment slip away.
    This was a new day, and her husband, a new man. She patted his forearm. “I can think of one good thing,” Lonnie said, crinkling her