Lonnie Sawyer and her family live in the Appalachian hills
among the creeks and hollows. Shy and retiring Lonnie has no experience with
men, so when Gideon O’Riley walks her home after a local singing and dance she
finds herself what his friendliness and advances mean. Gideon has treated her
with respect and kindness, helping her over the rocks and moving branches out
of her way. When they reach her home, she allows him to kiss her. But Lonnie’s
father believes it was more than a kiss and a shotgun wedding takes place. Now
the handsome Gideon finds himself married. Not used to being responsible for
anyone, he takes Lonnie and heads across the hills to find a job. The kindness
and gentleness of the walk home that night is gone and he is now hard and
unyielding in pushing to reach a town where there is work. Lonnie’s life was
hard at home, but nothing like she is experiencing now. She is not feeling
well, is not eating and wants to sleep. The walking all day with little to eat
has begun to take its toil when Jebediah finds them and takes them home to stay
with him and his wife so Lonnie can recover. Gideon begins to realize the
responsibility forced upon him with his wedding day and discovers he actually
loves Lonnie, but there are still things he has to discover and learn before he
is able to be the husband and father his family needs. Lonnie finds that she is
stronger than she ever thought and the book ends with these two young people
ending up where they should have been on their wedding day – deeply in live and
committed to each other.
