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

ages; they appeared to be too young to be Sean’s children from his first marriage.
“Aunt Grace, Uncle George these are our twins, Ryan and Danny, we named them after Sean’s grandfathers,” Claire announced proudly as she took a son from Bill and Sean took one from Carrie and they held them on their laps. Grace looked at the two little boys and then at her niece and her husband and gasped. It was obvious that the two boys were their children, the resemblance was too clear. She and George exchanged a confused look.
“But they’re your children, Claire, yours and Sean’s, how can that be, you’re barren,” Grace sputtered. Claire grinned at her.
“Obviously it was William who was the barren one and not me,” she informed her smugly. Grace nodded and held her hands out for the little boy Claire was holding. Claire put Ryan into her arms and Grace almost wept with joy.
“Oh he’s so precious, which one is he?” she asked.
“You’re holding Ryan,” Claire told her. Grace smiled into his face and Ryan reached out and grabbed her shiny beads. They all laughed. Then Ryan pursed his lips and wanted a kiss. Claire giggled.
“Just like his dad, he wants to kiss a pretty lady,” she said proudly. Grace kissed him on his cheek and then had to hold Danny who also wanted a kiss.
“They’re very affectionate,” George remarked as he rocked Ryan on his knees and the little boy demanded a kiss from him. George quite liked that.
“They’re being raised in a house filled with love and laughter, of course they would be that way,” Sean informed him. George nodded. Just then a servant came in and announced the arrival of Duke Thompson and his wife Louise. Everyone frowned.
“You still see William?” Claire asked her aunt and uncle who both looked uncomfortable.
“We’re still friends with him, of course, society is small here in Portsmyth, dear, you know how it is,” Grace told her. Claire nodded and then a sly look came over her face. William and a tall, gorgeous, blonde woman were shown in. He took one look at the Foster’s visitors and laughed.
“Well, if it isn’t Claire and her mountain man come to visit her aunt and uncle,” he announced and took a seat on a little couch with his wife. “Have you gotten bored in the valley of yours yet, dearie?” he asked in a snide tone, taking out a hankie and wiping his nose. Claire laughed at him.
“William, how lovely to see that you haven’t changed a bit,” she said cheerfully. “No, I’m not bored at all; our little valley is brimming with excitement these days. No, we’ve just come to show off our children to Aunt Grace and Uncle George,” she told him with a smug smile. He looked at the two boys for the first time. Louise looked at them too with a confused look on her face. It was obvious to the two newcomers that the twos belonged to the two people holding them. Louise turned to her husband.
“I thought you said your first wife was barren like I am,” she snapped and William looked confused. He glared at Claire.
“She was,” he insisted. “We were married for six years and she never got pregnant. How could these children possibly be your children, Claire?” he asked her rudely. Sean grinned at him.
“Ah, lad, hasn’t it ever occurred to you that maybe you’re the one who can’t have children and not the lasses?” he asked him in a calm tone. William flushed and his new wife gasped. They hadn’t thought of that, but here was the evidence in front of them. She stared at the two precious little boys with envy in her eyes. Then she looked at Sean who at thirty-four with his little beard and mustache was a remarkably handsome man and compared to William, well, there was no comparison.
“I suppose you wouldn’t want to give me a couple of sons like you gave her,” she asked him in a haughty voice. Claire wanted to gouge her blue eyes out. Sean patted her arm.
“I couldn’t possible do that, Lady Louise, because I love my wife with all my heart and I would never break my marriage vows to lie with another woman,” Sean informed her as Claire beamed with pride. William snorted.
“No man loves a woman that much,” he commented and his wife stared at him with surprise.
“You don’t love me as much as he loves her?” she asked him, her eyes filling up with tears. William patted her hands.
“Of course I love you, sweetheart,” he assured her and kissed her hand. “But all men would break their marriage vows if given the opportunity,” he declared. Sean shook his head. William snorted again. George looked surprised.
“I’ve never broken my marriage vows to Grace, only a cad would do such a thing,” he said and Grace beamed at him. Sean nodded.
“I’d be afraid to break my vows to Claire,” he informed the room who all looked shocked. Claire giggled. So did Ryan and Danny.
“Why would you be afraid, old chap?” William asked him, his handsome face confused. Sean took one of his wife’s hand kissed it.
“Ah, lad, she must not have loved you like she loves me,” he told him. “Claire would surely kill me if she caught me cheating on her. Wouldn’t you lass?” he teased her. She looked him straight in the eyes.
“You bet your sorry arse, Mr. Donoghue, I’d be a widow before daybreak and they’d be one less whore in the world,” she declared and her aunt gasped and choked on her tea. The men all laughed except for William who looked shocked.
“You never felt that way about me,” he whined. Claire shrugged.
“You heard the man, William, I never loved you the way I love Sean,” she informed him and then she frowned and looked down at Danny she was holding. “I think our young son has pooped in his pants. Danny looked up at her and laughed.
“Danny you’re supposed to tell Mommy when you have to poop,” Claire said gently. He shrugged.
“I forgot, Mommy,” he said. She smiled and started to get up. Sean got up instead and reached for him.
“I’ll get him and take this one to the bathroom, if one goes the other will too,” he said and they both laughed. The little boys laughed and the old men did too. Carrie put a bag around his neck and Sean left the room. Grace frowned.
“Shouldn’t the servant do that?” she asked her niece. Claire shook her head.
“Sean’s teaching them how to use the toilet and he says it’s better for a man to do it, he’s got the same thing and can show them how to use it,” she told her and her aunt almost fainted. Louise giggled.
“Now there’s a room I wouldn’t mind being in,” she commented and Claire grinned at her and made a measuring motion with her hands and grinned. Louise giggled. Luckily Grace didn’t see it or she would have surely fainted. George and William both saw it and thought it a rather vulgar gesture.
“Really, Claire, how common,” William remarked and Claire laughed.
“Its how I got pregnant again, William, the next baby’s due in November,” she informed them and they all congratulated her. Everyone stayed for dinner which was a noisy affair. They allowed the children to be present at the table and everyone talked at once, George rather liked it and told his wife later.
“I liked all the chatting and laughter at the table, it was very lively,” he remarked as they got ready for bed. She agreed.
“Claire seems very happy with her mountain man, much happier than she ever was with William,” she said. “And three children and to think we all thought she was barren.” George reached out and hugged her.
“Poor William,” he said. “Do you know that Sean thinks it’s because he had the measles when he was sixteen and the high fever might have cooked his seed so he couldn’t bare any children,” he told her. She nodded.
“That might be it, I feel sorry for Louise, he’s been yelling and screaming at her for three years now calling her barren and blaming her for not giving him an heir and all the time it was his fault,” she laughed. Then she frowned. “Do you think he cheats on her like he did on Claire?” George nodded.
“He has a redhead on Baker’s Street he’s been seeing for about a year now,” he informed her. She shook her head.
“I’m glad Claire’s rid of him, he’s a bastard and I like Sean much better, even if he has those two little half-breeds,” she stated. George agreed with her.
They left Portsmyth and returned to their valley, happy with the way their visit had gone. Production of the plowers and motorbikes which were now being called motorcycles to distinguish them from bicycles were going strong. And the Donoghues and their families were getting richer and richer. Sean put barrels of gold gilders into his cellar. He had more coin than he knew what to do with. And he wasn’t through inventing things.
His next invention was a motorized wagon for hauling things and Lonnie, Todd and Young Sean as well as the two brothers helped him with the development of it. They called it a hauler at first but didn’t like the name at all. They tried all kinds of names from motorized wagons which was too long to wheeled wagons which was stupid. Ryan finally suggested truck. Which they had never heard of before but the wheels were called tires now so why not trucks.
“That’s a very clever name, Grandson,” Sean told him and Ryan beamed.
The truck was a little harder to build than the plower because they wanted to put a place for the people driving it to sit out of the rain, that way they could deliver stuff and not get wet. And Sean wanted lights in the front and the rear so people could see them coming up the road. They were going to be moving fast and he didn’t want anyone getting run over. For this reason they had to have a horn. And they needed windows for the driver to look out of and window wipers to wipe the rain away for them to see. And of course they needed heaters and air coolers for summer and winter driving.
Sean made the back tires the moving part of the trucks but all four tires for breaking just like the motorcycles, he wanted the trucks to be able to stop quickly. And he made all four tires able to rotate individually so that steering would be no problem. He didn’t want anyone getting the damned things stuck and not able to get out.
It had two gears, going forward and backing up, unlike the motorcycles and plowers which could only move forward and that was really tricky to do.
While they were fooling around with building their truck, Claire gave birth to another son who they named Zach. She was thirty-three when he arrived and declared she was giving away her maternity dresses and her dreams of a daughter. She was finished having children.