The Fourth Life of Sean Donoghue by Trish Hanan (children's books read aloud .txt) 📕

stupid,” he predicted.
He and the boys slipped home the third week to make a cannon and check up on Annie but they left the fourth week before the Wilson’s could find out they were there and report them to the Hamish. They left the Ridge and went next door to Gannon’s. When a Hamish patrol came looking for Neil Gannon, it was a different Captain and different soldiers so they did their Johnson routine and got laughed at but it worked and the soldiers went away.
Switching Ridges worked out pretty well, whoever was at someone’s house did the work there so when winter came no one would go hungry or be without supplies. Sean did miss his beer and sent the boys home for a barrel, they sneaked in and carried it by mule over the mountains without a single problem. Danny and Ryan appreciated that.
“No one makes beer like you do, Granddad,” Danny sighed with pleasure as he sipped his brew. Ryan looked a little worried. Sean leaned forward so he could whisper.
“He’s been feeling tired lately,” Ryan whispered to him. Sean patted his hand.
“Danny’s sixty-nine, lad, he’s got a right to be tired,” he told him gently. Ryan frowned.
“But I’m seventy-two and Annie’s seventy-five and we’re not complaining about being that tired,” he complained, his face sad. Sean smiled. Danny looked at them.
“I know you’re talking about me,” he said and grinned. “And yes I’m tired, God knows I deserve to be tired, I’m sixty-nine years old and if I die in my sleep one night then I die in my sleep. There’s nothing you two can do to prevent it, so quit fussing about it like a couple of old women and let’s enjoy what time I got left.” Sean hugged him.
“I love you, Daniel Donoghue, I always have and I always will, lad,” he said and Ryan felt tears come to his eyes.
But the next day he felt better and everything was fine. It was Annie they found sick in bed when they sneaked back home to make another cannon and check up on her.
“Ah, lass, why didn’t you send word that you were sick, we would have come sooner had we known,” Sean said and sat on the edge of her bed. She glared at him.
“Those Wilson bastards have been watching the house since they heard I was sick waiting for you to show up,” she snapped. “I’m not going to be the reason the Hamish hang you.” Sean laughed and kissed her cheek, it felt cold and dry.
“The Hamish won’t know I’m here, I’m going to send the Wilsons a bit of a distraction,” he informed her. She looked interested.
“What kind of distraction?” Annie wanted to know.
“The kind that drives them off the Ridge forever, we’re going to burn them out,” Sean told her. “We’re tired of them spying on us, they can go to hell or back to Jamestown but they’re off the Ridge either way.” She nodded and went back to sleep.
That night as they lied sleeping the Wilson’s barn burned down. They ran outside to save their animals only to find the horses and mules safe outside and then turned around and their house was on fire. None of their neighbors came to help put it out but all of them stood by and watched. They were so confused; they thought the Ridge was supposed to be a friendly place.
The good Reverend and his wife brought over clothes and took them to their house and handed them five hundred gilders that was a gift from Sean Donoghue who always contributed generously to charity cases such as they now were. The minister then gently suggested that they use the coin to move back to Jamestown because people on the Ridge didn’t appreciate nosey people who liked to gossip to the Hamish about Ridge business especially when that business concerned Sean Donoghue who everyone knew and loved so much. The Wilson took the hint and left the Ridge the next day. The five hundred gilders were more than the Hamish had been paying them and besides the Hamish didn’t almost burn them alive. They were thankful whoever burned them out, burned the barn first.
Annie didn’t recover, she died peacefully in her sleep a few days after the fire and they buried her next to her husband who had died a good twenty years earlier. Danny and Ryan cried and held on to each other with dear life. Out of the fourteen grandchildren who had been alive when Sean returned from Topanga only six remained and Danny and Ryan were the most precious to him. He loved them all, but the two brothers were the ones he spent the most time with and they were the oldest so every day he had with them were special.
The third month they spent on the Ridge. Sean remained an old man with a full white beard and the three old men sat on the porch and everyone laughed every time the Hamish rode up the slope and the three boys went into their Johnson routine. And there were plenty of Johnson’s on the Ridge for the soldiers to talk to so when a stranger sneaked onto the Ridge and tried to be clever and ask about those three young men living in that house up on the slope everyone told them about the Johnson boys and their Granddads. Sean and the boys made three cannons that month. But they left in the fifth month because even the Hamish weren’t that stupid.
The fifth month they spent up in Pembroke and just for the hell of it, because they could and they had Indian friends, they freed the Topangan slaves of the Count of Pembroke and took them back to the Malweenah valley to live until they could get them on a ship to Topanga. The Indians greeted the slaves warmly and welcomed them to the valley. And the Topangans were amazed to find out that Sean and Ryan had lived on Topanga and spoke the language. Ryan had a ball talking his old language and it made him homesick for the island he had left behind.
“I wonder how Sam and my grandchildren are doing,” he asked Sean as they rode out of Donoghue village. Sean smiled at him.
“We could go back, take Danny with us if you want, lad,” he offered. Ryan shook his head.
“No, I made that decision and I’m sticking to it,” he said firmly. “I was born on the Ridge and I’ll die on the Ridge. You can take the boy off the Ridge but you can never take the Ridge out of the boy. Just like you can’t take one of my sons off of the island and bring them here and expect them to be happy,” he informed his Granddad. Sean grinned.
“Does that mean I have to move back to Hamish, say it isn’t so, Ryan or I’ll have to hit you and I’ve never had to do that before,” he teased him. Ryan laughed.
“No, I think you were born with the Ridge in your blood, you’re a Ridge man, Granddad,” he told him and Sean nodded. But later he got to thinking about the Fairie Mountains and how beautiful they had been and how wonderful it had been climbing the trails with his Granddad and their long conversations. Maybe that’s why he loved the Ridge so much, the mountains weren’t as high as the Fairies had been, but they were mountains and he did love mountains. They were in his blood.
All during their hiding Sean kept sending messages to all the delegates keeping them informed about Hamish troop movement and naval movement as the information came to him. He had scouts at all the Forts and by all the ports, who relayed the movements back to him. And of old fashioned bribery worked well also, there was always a corporal or a private who was willing to copy a memo or slip one out for a twenty gilder coin or two. The Hamish army didn’t pay well and corporals and privates got the dirty jobs and the worse hours and with the sergeants always yelling and shoving them around, they were easy targets. Sean expected a lot of them to come over to the Anamylian side during the conflict.
The sixth month was winter and they spent it in Jamestown renting a house near the port where they could watch the ships come in and where the large amount of traffic coming in and out of the house was common. The boys all got jobs at local coffee shops and Sean and Lonnie at a local dock tavern where all the sailor’s hung out and between all of them they heard all the news. Danny and Ryan shopped at the market and heard the old folk gossip; they also hung out at the St. Charles and heard all the rich old parents gossip about their sons and daughter. They heard all kinds of valuable tidbits.
One afternoon the two old men rushed into the tavern where Sean was pouring beers. He looked at their worried faces in alarm and rushed over.
“What’s up?” he asked. Danny huffed and Ryan leaned forward to whisper.
“Count Bentley’s mother was at the Church and she said that her son heard that one of the rebels was hiding out in a house on Franklin Street in the Garment district and they’re going to go door to door until they find him,” he told him. Sean frowned.
“Did the old bat say which delegate they found?” he asked. Ryan shook his head.
“You two go on home and I’ll take care of this, thanks, don’t hurry, you’ll draw attention to yourself and wrap up, its cold and I don’t want you getting sick,” he fussed and wrapped the scarf around their throats. Danny grinned.
“Yes, mother,” he quipped and Sean kissed him full on the lips. A bunch of men whistled.
“Is that your sweetheart, Peter?” one of them yelled. Sean waved him.
“That’s my Granddad, you fool,” he yelled back and yelled at Tony the owner that he’d be back in a minute. Tony yelled that his shift wasn’t over, get back here, but he was yelling at air, Sean was gone.
Sean walked to Franklin Street as fast as he could and no soldiers were there when he got there. It was the garment district so there were a lot of shops so the houses were apartment on the second floor of the shops. Sean sighed and started with the first apartment entrance and knocked on the door. When it opened and he didn’t recognize who answered it, he apologized and quickly went to the next. Sometimes one entrance had two doors, one on either side. He was on his seventh door when he recognized the man who opened it. Sean shoved into the room and not a moment too soon. A whole squad of soldiers came running around the corner.
“Soldiers are here, someone has ratted you out Mr. Delegate, I’m General Donoghue; do you remember me?” Sean asked him. The man looked frightened but he nodded.
“You’re the man with the cannon, of course I remember you,” he said. “You wouldn’t happen to have one with you do you?” he asked. Sean laughed and looked around the room. He started picking up papers and putting them into a