Free Though My Heart Is Torn: The Cadence of Grace, Book 2 by Joanne Bischof Page A

running fingers through his hair. He wouldnever forget that moment. The moment she came to him demanding he make good on what he started, fool that he was. The truth had been clear. Unless he married her, the tattered frays of her reputation were irreparable. He had refused, telling her he didn’t care what her pa knew. What her brothers knew. And with that glint in her eye, she went to find her father.
    Calling his bluff.
    Gideon remembered the day like it was yesterday. He’d grabbed her, halting her. And gave in.
    The next day they had married in front of Reverend Brown. The day had been stiflingly hot. Gideon shoved up his shirtsleeves, remembering the heat in Reverend Brown’s stuffy church.
    “I didn’t want my pa to find out.” Cassie’s voice drew him back to the present. She had the reverend’s rapt attention. She always did well with an audience. “Not like that. I didn’t want him to know”—her slender neck curved and her face paralleled the floor—“that I had been abandoned.”
    Abandoned?
The little vixen
. The tendons in Gideon’s wrist worked as he pressed his hands together. She had come to him, a promise on her lips to tell her father that he had seduced her. But it took two to play that game. And Cassie Allan was no Lonnie.
    Cassie glared at him from the corner of her eye as if reading his thoughts.
    Gideon wanted to shake her. Instead, he slipped from the pew and sank to his knee. With Cassie only a few feet across the aisle, he faced her. “You said it was a mistake. You said you didn’t want this.” He motioned with his hand between them.
    The words slipped from her tongue in a fiery whisper. “Don’t twist the story.”
    “I’m
not
.”
    It hadn’t taken more than a few weeks before Cassie had learned what kind of man she’d married. It had taken Gideon less time to realize that he wasn’t the marrying type. The magic quickly faded, and they fought like two cats in a basket.
    Cassie’s chin trembled. So convincingly. “I thought I wanted to end it as well.” A tear slipped down her ivory cheek. She quick-wiped it away. “But I didn’t know … I was torn.”
    Reverend Brown waved Gideon to stand. “Please return to your seat, Mr. O’Riley. Displays of chivalry won’t get you out of this mess.” He closed the book with a
thud
and cleared his throat. “It’s apparent we have a situation on our hands.” He laced his fingers together and laid the mass of knuckles on the book. “Gideon. You have two wives.”
    Two wives. You fool
.
    Gideon jumped to his feet. “But we can fix that. We can change the ledgers. I’ll sign it. Cassie’ll sign it. We’ll fix it. Forget the circuit rider. I’ll go straight to the courthouse right now—” When the reverend looked about to reprimand him again, he sank into his seat and captured Lonnie’s hand, hoping her familiar touch would calm his nerves. “This can be fixed.”
    “Seems simple enough.” Reverend Brown directed his words to the stout man beside him who was yet to speak. “Except for one problem. Cassie has made it clear that she no longer wishes to dissolve your marriage. She—”
    Boots sounded on the stairs. Every head turned to the back of thechurch. Henry Allan walked toward them, followed by Cassie’s brothers. Jack. Samuel. Eli. Gideon noticed the shotgun in each man’s hand as they strode up the aisle.
    “Cassie does not want to go through with a divorce.” Henry squeezed his daughter’s shoulder.
    Gideon’s heart iced over. “Why now? Why didn’t you speak up sooner?” he growled.
    “I did.” Her eyes snapped. “I tried to speak to you several times. You always managed to duck away. I even wrote you a letter. Months ago.”
    Gideon groaned, dropping his head in his hands. The letter he’d never read. The one he’d torn to pieces. To prove his love for Lonnie. And look what it had done to her.
    He turned to Cassie and spoke her name. “We’ll do what we need to do to end this.”
    Lonnie