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

it would change the face of farming forever. They couldn’t wait for spring when they could start building a foundry to melt the steel, which they needed to run into Jamestown to buy. Sean whose wife was expecting had to send his three grandsons to buy it but he trusted them, they would go by horseback and return by river.
Julie’s second labor didn’t go as well as the first and she was very sick afterwards. She had bled too much and the midwife Barbie, a Malweenah had been very afraid she was going to die. The baby, another big healthy boy was fine, he came out screaming like his brother and Sean decided to name him Bobby after the man he had loved for so many years. He didn’t know about Julie until the midwife came out to tell him that he’d better come and say goodbye in case there wasn’t time later. He handed the baby to Sally and rushed into the room. He was horrified by the amount of blood on the bed and the floor.
“Ah, lass, I thought I told you I wanted a wee little girl just like her mother,” he teased her gently and held her in his arms. Julie gave him a weak smile.
“You need many strong warriors to follow you into battle,” she whispered. He kissed her softly.
“I need you at my side to love me,” he told her and she smiled. He picked her up and carried her to the window while they cleaned the mess up. Four women rushed to wipe up the blood. Sean sat in the chair and held his sleeping wife. When they were done he took her into the bathroom and gave her a bath and they dressed her in a clean night dress and he put her in bed.
Julie didn’t leave her bed for almost a month. They had to get a wet nurse to feed Bobby but found a Malweenah who had a baby and a lot of milk who didn’t mind living with her and taking care of two children. Sean hired two more women to help with the baby and to care for his wife. He tried to spend as much time as he could with her because it was spring and there was planting. He brought her out into the front room and even built a bed out there she could lie on but she complained it was too noisy with the children and the old men and she couldn’t rest so he would carry her back to their room.
The trouble with that was she wanted him to go with her to keep her company and he didn’t want to be stuck in the bedroom with her. He wanted to out in the front room with the boys and the old men. She whined and pouted but he wouldn’t give in.
“Someone has to spend time with our children, Julie, if you won’t then I have to, they’re our children, not Sally’s and Carrie’s, ours,” he said firmly and walked out of the room. Ryan and Danny looked at him when the book she threw hit the door.
“She doesn’t want to come out to the front room?” Ryan asked. Sean shook his head and crawled onto the floor where Kalin was playing with blocks. The little boy saw him coming and laughed. He held out a block and Sean took it and put it on top of another and the little boy put another on top of that one.
“What’s wrong with her, she used to like being with us, now she acts like we’re a nuisance or something,” Danny said, a bit of worry on his face. Sean saw it and patted his legs.
“I don’t know what her problem is, old man, but its her problem and not your fault so don’t you two start thinking that if you weren’t living here she would be happier,” he said firmly and they both looked guilty. He knew that’s what they had both been thinking. Carrie came out of the bedroom with Bobby. Sean held out his arms and she handed him to him. Sean smiled down at the happy baby and Bobby moved his little arms and legs like he was glad to see him.
“You know she hasn’t even held Bobby yet,” Sean informed them and they both looked startled. Sean continued. “Her own son is over a month old and she hasn’t even held him or talked to him,” he told them. “And she hasn’t said a word to Kalin except Mommy’s tired please go find Sally.” The two old men were shocked.
“Maybe she’s sad because you told her you don’t want to risk her having any more children,” Ryan said. Sean shrugged.
“What else could I do, Ryan, she almost bled to death having Bobby,” Sean said reasonably. The two old men nodded.
“You don’t know women though, Granddad, they don’t feel useful unless they’re having babies,” Danny said wisely. Sean nodded.
So he went in and told his wife that maybe in a couple of years when she regained her strength, he would reconsider his decision about no more children. To his surprise she said she didn’t want any more children and that wasn’t the reason she was sad. She was sad because she wanted to go home to the Malweenah Valley, that’s where she wanted to live and raise her children.
“But, Julie, lass this is our home, this is where my family lives, where I want to raise our family,” he said gently and she began to weep.
“But I want to live with my people,” she wailed. “This is the valley of the Keetiks and a valley of death. I don’t want to stay here, you must take me and our children back to the Malweenah Valley and live with us there. I demand that you do!” she snapped. Sean just shook his head.
“Now you’re being silly, lass, this is a beautiful place to raise our children,” he told her firmly. “You are suffering from some kind of sadness from childbirth, some kind of melancholy, it will pass and you’ll see that I’m right.” And that was the end of it as far as he was concerned. But his wife continued to fight him almost every night when he came home for dinner but Sean refused to give in to her demands. He was not leaving this beautiful valley, his valley and the little town he was building just because she was homesick. In time he figured she would get used to it.
“She might not ever get used to living here you know,” Ryan said wisely at dinner one night three months later, it was summer and after the harvest. Sean looked at him and sighed. She still refused to come out of her room and join the rest of the family. He was sick and tired of her and her pouting.
“Then she can go back to the Malweenah Valley for all I’m beginning to give a rat’s arse,” Sean remarked sarcastically and Kalin laughed even though he didn’t know what it meant, just that his dad had said the word arse. Sean grinned at him. He was two years old and cute as hell. He leaned over for a kiss and got one. Ryan and Danny beamed. Then of course Bobby had to have one too. There was usually a lot of kissing and hugging going on in the Donoghue house. Except of course between Mr. and Mrs. Donoghue, they slept in the same bed, but she remained curled up on her side and glared if he came an inch over his.
“Julie, darling, we can’t go on living like this, why can’t you be reasonable?” Sean asked her gently that night as they got ready for bed. She turned her back to him.
“Are you going to take me and my children home to the Malweenah Valley to live, husband?” she asked him rudely. Sean sighed.
“No, lass, I’m not,” he said gently. She gave a great big exaggerated sigh and got into bed, keeping her back facing him. Sean climbed into bed and placed his hand gently on her shoulder, she stiffened.
“But if you want to go home to the valley and live with relatives I’ll let you and give you coin to support yourself,” he informed her. She rolled around to face him, a big smile on her face.
“You will let me take the children and leave here?” Julie asked and then frowned when he shook his head.
“You can go back to the Malweenah Valley, lass, if you want to, but you can’t take my children with you,” he told her. “My children stay with me. You’re the one who wants to leave me, so leave me, but my children stay here,” Sean spoke firmly. She began to cry.
“You would steal a mother’s children from her, what kind of monster are you?” she wailed. Sean laughed.
“What kind of a mother are you?” he demanded. “Bobby is five months old and you haven’t even held him or kissed him or even touched him once. And you never bother with Kalin anymore, you never hold him or kiss or hug him, you ignore them both and hide here in the bedroom all day and night You may as well not exist as far as the boy’s are concerned so don’t give me the good mother routine.” She looked insulted.
“I cannot touch them here in this Death Valley; it would bring them bad luck,” she informed him in a haughty tone. “I must take them home and cleanse their spirits.” Sean shook his head.
“If you take my children from me, I will go after you and bring all of you back here and make you live here for the rest of you life, lass,” he said. “You are my wife and you will live with me, even if you don’t like it.” He turned around and went to bed while she cried. Sean felt bad but if the choice was her and the children or no children at all, well she was going to have to get used to living in this valley. Didn’t he cleanse the damned rocks for God’s sake? All the other women loved living in this beautiful valley, Julie was just acting like a spoiled little child instead of woman, she was twenty-eight, why didn’t she act like it?
A month later Sally came running out to the field where he was wedding, yelling and waving her hands. Sean dropped his hoe and ran to her, afraid that something had happened to one of the boys or his grandsons.
“Granddad, she’s gone,” Sally screamed when he reached her. Sean took her hands in his.
“Calm down, lass, and tell me what has happened,” he told her calmly. She nodded and took a deep breath.
“Julie has taken one of the horses and she’s taken both boys with her,” Sally told him. “We don’t know what time she left but Danny and Ryan lied down right after supper and I put the babies down right about then so she must have taken them about that time. I went to check on them a few minutes ago and they both were gone and I thought that was strange so I asked the old men if they had them cuz sometimes