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

Sally laughed.
“Sorry to disturb you, Granddad and Claire but I think you should know there’s a carriage full of people coming up the road and they’re headed for our house,” she called out. Sean groaned and fell on the bed. Claire fell with him.
“That bloody William has lousy timing, I should kill him and make you a widow,” he declared. She laughed and pulled him up by his arms.
“Then they’ll hang you and I’ll be your widow before I’m your wife,” she informed him. “Straighten out your clothes or my Aunt will know what we’ve be doing.” He laughed and they tidied up and went out to the porch.
When Aunt Grace saw Sean she wagged her finger at him.
“Young man I’m very angry with you,” she informed him with an angry glare. “When you told me you were taking my niece to Donoghue Valley you didn’t tell me it was in the wilderness. It took us nine days to get here, nine days of sitting in that carriage, I’m exhausted.” Claire rushed forward and helped her down. The men got down on their own and they were all invited in.
“Nice place you’ve got here, old chap, you must chop down a lot of wood to keep it warm in the winter,” William said as they took seats in the front room. The room was remarkably cool for the summer. Sean smiled at them.
“We don’t have to chop wood, we’ve got these room heaters and air coolers in every room,” he informed them and they all looked shocked.
“Those things are expensive, they’re selling for a hundred gilders in Portsmyth,” George said with a frown. Sean nodded.
“Yes, but they’re worth it, after working in the fields all day, its nice to come into a nice cool house,” he said. Both William and George were shocked.
“Working in the fields, but I thought you were a General?” William asked, his eyes taking in all the expensive surroundings. Sean nodded.
“I’ve been a general and a gold miner and I invented the cannon that was used to defeat the Hamish. Right now my family and I are working on a few other inventions,” he explained. “But through it all, I do a little farming and of course I make beer and whiskey.” George frowned.
“It sounds like move around a lot, you’re not stable,” he snorted. “My niece needs someone who’s more stable like William here, he stays in one place.” William beamed while Claire rolled her eyes. Grace slapped her niece with her fan.
“Don’t be rude, your uncle is talking,” she snapped. Sean got up, walked over and gently took the fan from the older woman’s hand while she gasped with shock. He placed in on the table in front of her.
“A fan is to be used for the fanning of one’s face when one is over-heated, kindly refrain from using it as a weapon in my house. If you strike my fiancée one more time, Aunt Grace, I shall remove you from my house and make you sit on the porch,” he said softly. Claire smiled and wanted to kiss him. It was the first time anyone had ever defended her before. The three nobles were shocked. Uncle George cleared his throat.
“How can my niece be your fiancée when she is William’s wife?” he asked and nudged William with his elbow. William almost spilled his coffee.
“Oh, yes, about that,” he said wishing he had been the one to defend Claire against the old bat. She’d been hitting people with her fan for years and he’d been wanting to shove it where the sun doesn’t shine forever. He’d love watching the mountain man make her sit on the porch. He looked at Claire and noticed for the first time how really lovely she looked, she had lost that pinched worried look she always wore. William cleared his throat.
“Claire, I forgive you for cheating on me, I want you to return home and we can start our marriage again,” he said as firm as he could. Claire and Sean looked at each other and then to the three noble’s complete surprise Claire threw back her head and laughed.
“Uncle George, really, how much did you have to pay him to say that?” she asked in a teasing tone. George looked offended.
“I didn’t pay him anything, William loves you, don’t you, William,” he said and glared at the man. William nodded. Claire stared at him.
“Really, William, you really love me?” she asked and he nodded again. She smiled. “Then if you really loved me then you would give me a divorce so that I could marry Sean because I really love him,” she informed them and gave them a radiant smile. Grace gasped.
“You can’t mean that, Claire, he’s not one of us, he’s a mountain man,” she said, horrified at the thought. William laughed.
“He must be really good in bed,” he sneered. Claire nodded.
“Oh, he’s much better at it than you were,” she told him and he almost fainted. The two older people looked like they were ready to faint. Sean laughed.
“You don’t tell a man he’s lousy in bed, lass, it hurts his feelings,” he said and grinned at her. She shrugged.
“He told me how lousy I was, he said I was frigid and he wasn’t going to have sex with me anymore because he was afraid his prick would freeze and fall off,” she informed them all and Grace choked and had to be given water. Sean glared at William.
“Well, then, lass, I guess he deserves to be told how lousy in bed he is then,” he said and she grinned at him. George had enough.
“Who cares how lousy in bed he is, she’s his wife and I demand that she come home with him right now,” he snapped. Sean looked at William.
“I’ll give you ten thousand gilders if you get a divorce so I can marry her,” he said and William looked interested.
“You’d give me ten thousand gilders for that frigid little girl?” he asked in a haughty tone and Sean wanted to make her a widow. Claire put a hand on his arm and shook her head. Sean nodded.
“I’ll give you ten thousand gilders to stay married to her,” George countered. Grace nodded and sat up higher. Sean sighed.
“Fifteen thousand and that’s my final offer and you’d better take it, lad, because if he counters and you accept his offer the lass is going to be a widow,” he said calmly with a gleam in his eyes that made William very nervous. He swallowed and decided that fifteen would be lovely and he really wanted an heir and she was frigid, so what the hell.
“Fifteen thousand gilders would be nice,” William said firmly and didn’t even look at George or Grace. Claire grinned at them.
“I should report you to the authorities,” George snapped as they turned to leave. Sean shrugged.
“Your niece is over twenty-one and she wants to marry me, what right have you to interfere with her life, you pompous arse,” he said calmly. George flushed and he turned to Claire.
“You’re making the biggest mistake of your life, young lady,” he snapped at her. Claire shrugged.
“And it’s my life, Uncle George, so I’ll have to live with it won’t I?” she told him. They refused Sean’s offer to stay the night and left immediately. Sean sent Lonnie and Todd with them to make sure they got back alright and to bring make the divorce degree so he and Claire could get married right away.
“They always ran my life,” Claire said as they rode away. “I never wanted to marry William but they thought I should so I did.” Sean laughed.
“Well good for me that you did, and then he wouldn’t have cheated on you, you wouldn’t have gotten so mad you jumped at me and we wouldn’t have fallen in love,” he said and she grinned.
“I guess it did work out for the best,” she decided. Then they went back into the house to finish what they started but the babies woke up so they had to wait until after dinner but the anticipation made it better.
Two weeks later the men returned with her divorce degree so the whole family got together and traveled by boat to the Ridge so that the happy couple could get married by Reverend Andrews. He looked at the two documents and frowned.
“So this is why you didn’t want to work things out with your wife,” he said grimly and looked at Sean who shook his head.
“There was nothing to work out with Julie, Reverend Andrews,” he informed him. “She was never going to change her mind about where she wanted to live and I was never going to change my mind about where I wanted to live. You can’t have a marriage when the two people in it want to live in two different places. I would have divorced her even if I hadn’t of met Claire. Now I have met Claire and she loves me and I love her and she loves living in my house in Sweetwater and she doesn’t want to live anywhere else and she loves my two boys. I don’t see a problem here so why are you making one.”
“The problem here is that the two of you have wrecked two marriages just so that you can be together and that’s just wrong,” Reverend Andrews voice rose, he sounded angry. Sean shook his head.
“Ah, lad, you’re wrong, my marriage was over and Claire’s husband was committing adultery on her so her marriage was over,” he told him. “What we have here are two people who were in bad marriages who have found each other, fallen in love and made a good marriage out of them. If you won’t marry us, then we’ll go into Jamestown to your superior and have him do it.” Reverend Andrews sighed.
“I’ll marry you, I have no reason not to and maybe you’re right, I just hate to see a marriage break up, much less two,” he said with sadness. Claire sighed.
“My marriage was over and I love Sean, please be happy for us, Reverend,” she said and Sara smiled at her.
“We are, dear, aren’t we, honey,” she said to her husband who nodded.
Despite the Reverend’s personal feelings he performed a beautiful ceremony and the love that shorn in the happy couple’s eyes did make him feel better about the two divorces. And the two little boys did deserve a mother to help raise them. They left Ridge and headed home amazed that they had once lived in this crowded place.
“How can people live on top of one another like this?” Todd asked his wife who shook her head.
“I don’t know, I like the valley much better,” she declared.
The Ryan and Daniel Donoghue Library opened a month later and everyone came out to honor the two men it honored. They both beamed as they cut the ribbon that was draped over the door. Everyone cheered and they took a bow. The Valley threw a big party and it was a great day. It was close to fall and the leaves were turning orange, yellow and brown
“It’s so lovely here,” Claire gushed as they walked to their carriage after the party. Sean carried the little ones while