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

laid with her head on Sean’s strong chest, his dark brown hairs tickling her nose, sweat gleaming on both of their bodies, both feeling quite pleased with each other and grinned.
“My God, why didn’t anyone tell me sex was like that,” she exclaimed. “I’ve been doing it all wrong,” she declared and giggled. Sean laughed.
“You’ve been doing it with the wrong man, darling,” he informed her and rolled over to kiss her passionately. She kissed him back with equal passion.
“William never did that,” Claire blushed, “You know, what you did to me.” Sean grinned and brushed the hair from her face.
“William sounds like a perfectly dreary man to me, you should divorce him and marry me and stay here and be the mother to my two boys,” he said and she smiled.
“You’d really marry me?” she asked him shyly. Sean nodded.
“I don’t do that, you know,” he teased her and she giggled. “To just any woman,” Sean told her. “Just to the women I fall in love with in bookshops.” Then he rolled her over until she was on top of him. “How would you like to be on top this time, darling?” he asked her with a sly grin. She grinned down at him.
“You mean we can do it again?” Claire asked with delight in her voice. Sean grinned back up at her.
“Who needs to sleep?” he asked and she shook her head.
“Not me,” she replied and bent her head to kiss him.
They did fall asleep but it was much later. And when Bill went to milk the cows in the morning, he thought it odd that Sean didn’t show up to help. Sally thought it odd to that Sean didn’t show up to help with breakfast like he usually did but he did get up when the babies cried. He was sleepy-eyed though and Claire came out of his bedroom sleepy-eyed as well and took Kalin from him and they both looked like they needed lots of coffee. Sally hid her grin and poured them a cup.
“Good morning, Granddad, good morning, Claire,” she said cheerfully. They both looked at her and then each other and grinned.
“Congratulate us, Sally, we’re going to get married as soon as we both get a divorce,” Sean announced and Claire blushed. Carrie, Bill and Sally all congratulated them.
“That’s wonderful, Sean, how nice for you, Claire,” Bill said and he kissed her on her cheek.
“So that’s why you didn’t answer when I knocked on your door this morning and called you to breakfast,” Carrie teased her and Claire blushed. Sean leaned forward to kiss her. Both boys had to kiss her too. Ryan and Danny came out of their bedroom.
“You’re going to have to move the study and our bedroom,” Ryan announced as they sat down. Sean nodded but looked confused. Danny winked at him and Sean got it.
“We’ll do it when the boys lay down for their nap,” he said and winked at Bill who looked confused. Bill looked at him and then at the two old men and then understanding came and he grinned. Fortunately the ladies didn’t understand and they kept on talking about curtains.
Sean took Kalin to the fields with him to do some weeding and Claire kept Bobby with her to go to the store to look at material for new curtains, she hated the ones Julie had put up. Sean showed her where the coins were and told her to help herself since there were engaged, his coins were hers. He kissed her passionately and the boys laughed. She blushed when he suggested they take a wee nap after supper when the babies lied down.
“I thought you were going to move furniture,” she whispered. He shrugged.
“I’ll take you against the wall, it won’t take long, lass,” he whispered back just to see her turn as red as her hair. She shoved him out the door.
“God, Sean, the things out of your mouth,” Claire said. He laughed and Kalin laughed because his dad did.
Kalin was a great help in the field and pulled up every weed his dad pointed out and several stalks of wheat he didn’t, but Sean didn’t yell at him, just gave him two balls to throw around to keep his hands busy. The little boy threw them and chased them while Sean worked and then sat down to watch some bugs and squash them with his fingers. Sean watched him laugh while he did that.
“That’s good, Son, squash the bugs,” he told him and Kalin nodded and laughed. The more bugs the lad squashed, the less that would eat his wheat Sean figured. When the lad got tired, Sean took him into the house and laid him on the couch with his brother.
“They are the cutest little boys, I wish I wasn’t barren, I wish I could give you a son,” Claire said softly as she gazed at them. Sean shook his head.
“Even if I had no children, lass, I’d still marry you,” he informed her and she was surprised. They walked to the door together.
“William said that if he had known before he married me that I couldn’t have children, he wouldn’t have married me,” she said with bitterness. Sean hugged her.
“William is an arse,” he said firmly and she giggled. Sean looked her straight in the eyes. “I’m marrying you because I love you and I’m marrying a woman not a cow or other farm animal. Children are nice but not the only reason to get married. You marry someone because you want to spend the rest of your life with that person and when I overheard you in that bookshop, I knew I wanted to spend the next fifty years listening to you bitch,” he teased and she laughed.
“Oh, go pick some weeds or something,” she teased him and he kissed her again.
“I sure love kissing you, Claire,” he whispered. She nodded.
“I sure love kissing you, Sean,” she agreed. He lightly slapped her backside and went back to work. She laughed and went back to her curtains.
The following week the family traveled to the Ridge to get a divorce from Reverend Andrews who was shocked that Sean’s wife had abandoned her husband and two children and returned to the Malweenah Valley.
“Is there any hope that she’ll come back to you, Sean, and you’ll be reconciled?” he asked him gently. Sean shook his head.
“She refuses to live in Sweetwater Reverend and Bobby is over a year old and she’s never even picked him up once the whole time she lived in the valley, only when she took them and left me,” he informed him. The good Reverend was shocked.
“And you can’t see it in your heart to move to the Malweenah Valley so that your family can be intact?” he then asked. Sean shook his head.
“My life is with my family in Sweetwater in the Donoghue Valley Reverend, it’s where I want to raise my children and where I want to live,” he said firmly. Reverend Andrews nodded.
“Well, since she abandoned you and your children, I guess that leaves me little choice but to grant you a divorce, but I don’t like this one little bit, Sean. A compromise should be reachable. The two of you should be able to sit down and talk this over, maybe you should both come in and let me council you,” he suggested. Sean shook his head.
“Julie wouldn’t agree to that, Reverend,” he told him. “She refuses anything except that I move to the Malweenah Valley.” The Reverend shook his head.
“And you refuse to do that,” he said with hope in his eyes. Sean shook his head.
“I’m not leaving Sweetwater,” he stated firmly. The Reverend sighed.
“What I’m seeing is two stubborn people,” he said and shook his head. “Perhaps if you gave it some more time,” he suggested. Once more Sean shook his head.
“All I want is a divorce so that I can move on with my life and that Julie can move on with hers,” he explained and the Reverend had no choice. He drew up the document, signed it and Sean signed it. Because it was a case of abandonment, Julie didn’t have to sign it for it to become official. Sean gave the Church a donation of a hundred gilders and left.
“I hate to see a marriage end in divorce,” the Reverend said to his wife who agreed.
“It’s so sad, especially when they are children involved,” she said.
The family went home to await the arrival of William Thompson and he arrived in a fancy carriage three weeks later with Aunt Grace and Uncle George who looked around them with awe at the beautiful valley and waterfall.
“It’s really quite lovely here, if you like living in the wilderness,” Grace remarked as she stepped down from the carriage. William sniffed.
“It took us nine days to get here and not an inn to stay at along the way, poor Claire must be going batty, she’ll probably beg me to take her back,” he said smugly. George glared at him.
“Well, remember we have a deal,” he snapped. William grinned.
“Yes I know, two thousand gilders and I take the little bitch back and no one knows of her little indiscretion,” he said and taking out his hankie, he wiped his nose. Grace slapped his arm with her fan.
“Don’t you dare call my niece a bitch, you son-of-bastard,” she snapped. “This is all your fault! If you hadn’t taken up with that little blonde whore, Claire wouldn’t have been so rash to fall for this Donoghue’s offer.” William sighed.
“I’m so sick about hearing about poor little Claire,” he whined. “I’m the one who will never have an heir. What about me? I should divorce her and get a real wife,” he snapped. But they all knew he couldn’t do that of course. Then Claire would get her dowry back and he would be a Duke with a title and no coin. George rolled his eyes and walked into the store. A few minutes later he came out and pointed to a very large, very beautiful house at the top of the mountainside.
“The chap in there says that General Sean Donoghue lives in that house up there,” he informed them and they all turned to look. Grace gasped.
“My God, it’s a mansion,” she said with awe. William whistled.
“Well, Claire did pick a rich one didn’t she?” he teased and the two older people glared at him as they got into the carriage and started up the hill.
In the Donoghue house they had just put the boys down for their nap and the two old men had decided to go sit on the front porch for a while. Sean grabbed Claire by the hand and headed for their bedroom. Claire laughed.
“In the middle of the day?” she protested weakly. Sean gave her a sly grin.
“We won’t have to waste a candle so I can see you properly,” he teased and she blushed. They rushed to the bedroom and began kissing, laughing as they tore at each others clothes. Then a loud knock came at the door.
“Go away we’re busy in here,” Sean called out and she giggled. On the other side of the door