Chapter 16

We instantly reappeared in the Grove of the Eternal Flame in our own Realm and Reality.

"Where are we?" all four women asked, as they looked around them at the large open space surrounded by the large ancient oaks.

"This is the Grove of the Eternal Flame in the O'Connell Realm," Pat informed them.

"It's much warmer here than it was at your Grandfather's Palace," Clare and Cathleen said, as they looked around at all of the green grass in the Grove.

"Yes, we live in Central Georgia. It's always warm here," I told her.

"Well, almost always," Pat added. The O'Toole Sisters had spotted the break in the trees on the western side of the Grove, and went to look out of it at the surrounding area. On reaching the break, they stared out of it in awe.

"Look at the fields!!" they said excitedly, as the rest of us joined them. We could see that most of the visible fields had already been plowed, and I looked over at Pat wondering just how long we had been gone, and what the date was.

"Any idea of what the date is?" I asked him.

"No, I lost track weeks ago," Pat told me, "but it looks like plowing is well underway and from the temperature it looks like an early spring."

"Yes, it's also only late morning here, and not late afternoon like it was in Frankfurt," I said, as I remembered the six hour time difference between the two locations.

"We need to get home. There are going to be a lot of introductions and explanations to be made," I told him.

"Let's try your house first. It's hard to tell where everyone might be," Pat told. We returned to our bundles of things sitting on the grass, and Pat and I used the transfer spell. We instantly vanished from the Grove and reappeared in the living room of my Parents' house.

"Hello! Is anyone home?" I called, and was answered seconds later by several voices.

"Michael?" a female voice asked.

"Patrick? Are you back?" a second female voice inquired. Our Mothers appeared from the kitchen right after that.

"We're so glad that... ?" they were saying, but stopped in stunned silence on seeing us, and the four women with us.

"Who ... who are those girls!?" my Mother asked recovering from her shock.

"Micheal!! Patrick!!" our four sisters called rushing down the stairs from the second floor. They too stopped in stunned shock at the foot of the stairs when they spotted the four young women with us.

In the meantime the O'Connell Sisters and the O'Toole Sisters were staring around them at the house and its furnishing as well as the other women and girls. All of them appeared to be shocked.

"Hi Mom! Hi girls!" Pat and I said to break the silence.

"You haven't answered my question, Michael," my Mother said.

"Hum... !!" I started suddenly realizing that this was going to be a lot more difficult than I had thought, or really not thought.

"Who are those girls?" Shannon demanded in Gaelic, pointing at our four sisters questioningly.

"You still haven't answered my question, Michael!" my Mother reminded me not giving me time to answer either question.

"Yes, just who are these girls, Patrick?" Pat's Mother, my Aunt Sara, asked.

"They're... !!" Pat started, but I interrupted him as my Mother had asked us first.

"Allow me Pat," I told him before turning to my Mother and my Aunt.

"Can we speak Gaelic? The young ladies don't speak English that well yet," I asked, before starting my answer in Gaelic. "These are the O'Connell Sisters and the O'Toole Sisters, our future wives," I told them to see shocked expressions appear on the faces of our Mothers and Sisters.

"You... !!" my Mother started and stopped.

"Where... !!" Pat's Mother started. They had all switched to Gaelic.

"We met them in the Reality of Continuous Magic when we rescued them from the dungeon of the Duke of Burgundy," Pat informed them in Gaelic. The shock on our Mothers' and Sisters' faces didn't improve any on hearing this.

"Rescued... !!" came the reply from our Mothers and Sisters.

"Yes, rescued. They were in very bad shape, and had been abused and blinded," I told them.

"They ... they don't appear to be blind now!!" my Mother managed to say. It was the first sentence she had managed to complete in a while.

"No, Pat and I restored their sight shortly after we rescued them," I told her.

"And you want to marry them!?" Aunt Sara asked in shock before taking a good look at our women.

"They don't look much older than our Daughters, who are definitely NOT old enough to get married," Aunt Sara told us.

"We'll soon be sixteen, Ma'am," Shannon said just barely loud enough to be heard.

"We'll soon be fifteen," Clare added but not any louder than Shannon.

"That is NOT old enough to get married!" my Mother snapped, as she has very good hearing.

"Just how old do you need to be to get married?" my Father asked, as he and Pat's Father appeared in the room.

"I seem to remember two young girls who wanted to get married as soon as they turned sixteen," Uncle Sean said looking directly at our Mothers.

"Yes, but we were ... we were... !!" Aunt Sara said closing her mouth for a second before shock registered on first her face and then on my Mother's face.

"Surely you aren't!! ... Are you!?" our Mothers asked together not wanting to actually say the word sex.

"Yes, we are and have been for some time," Pat answered as Sheena and Cathleen moved up against him. Shannon and Clare had moved up against me at the same time.

"Would you introduce these young ladies to us, Michael?" my Dad asked.

"Hum ... the red haired ladies are the O'Connell Sisters from County Cork, Ireland," I told them. Shock appeared on both of our Fathers' faces.

"O'Connell!?" both asked.

"Yes! Apparently they are distant relatives - very distant relatives," I managed to say.

"The blond ladies are the O'Toole sisters also from Ireland, but a different part than the O'Connell sisters," Pat told them.

"I see!" Uncle Sean said. "And just which ones do each of you intend to marry?" he finished.

"I intend to marry Shannon O'Connell and Clare O'Toole if they will have me," I told our Parents.

"And I intend to marry Sheena O'Connell and Cathleen O'Toole if they will have me," Pat told them. The sisters had started kissing each of us already.

"Oh yes! We will be glad to marry them," both pairs of Sisters told our Parents. Our Mothers just stared at us in shock, but our sisters were giggling from the foot of the stairs.

"Shannon, Clare, this is my Father, Aengus Patrick O'Connell," I told both women. Dad stepped forward and took each of their hands. The shock on his face when he stepped back was something to see. Pat had been introducing his Father to his women also. Uncle Sean had just as shocked a look on his face when he finished.

"Yes," Dad finally said. "I believe they are a good match." Our Mothers had reached us by then, and Pat and I introduced our women to our Mothers, and our Mothers to them. They too were shocked upon touching each girl.

"You failed to mention their level of Talent," my Mother said after greeting each of the girls. "However, they are still not old enough to get married - yet. After they turn sixteen would be better." Then she paused seeing the expression on Clare's face. "Well, after at least one of them is sixteen anyway," she amended. Clare instantly looked better.

"We have already promised not to get pregnant until Clare and Cathleen are seventeen," Shannon told our Mothers.

"That's very good, Dear," Aunt Sara said. "We were seventeen when we got pregnant the first time, although God only knows, we would have gotten pregnant before that if Katie and Margie hadn't made us wait."

"Yes!" Clare said in a dreamy voice. "I would have Michael's baby now just like Gretchen does if Michael hadn't made me promise to wait."

"Gretchen? Who is Gretchen, and where is she?" my Mother instantly demanded in a shrill voice.

"Oh shit!" I thought. "I am so screwed!" Before I could start to answer, Clare already had.

"Gretchen will be Michael's third wife. She is really a sweet girl. She volunteered to help the Grand Master have more people of high Talent," Clare told them.

"Who is this Grand Master?" my Dad asked.

"He's Michael's Grandfather," Sheena told him.

""OUR FATHER!?" both Mom and Aunt Sara shouted in shock and dismay.

"Yes, OUR Grandfather," Pat injected, and then added, "Oh yes. You have two younger brothers, Seamus and Sean. They're twins also."

"Grandmother Laura asked for you to come visit her also," I added to get all of the family business out of the way.

"But Michael, how could you?" my Mother asked, near tears.

"Oh, Patrick did too," Cathleen volunteered. "Petra is a really sweet girl also, and she's blond too." Aunt Sara just stood there in shock.

"Now hold on a minute!" Uncle Sean shouted to quiet everyone down. "We are all jumping to conclusions. Let's have Mike and Pat give us the whole story before we make any decisions, or place blame on anyone."

"All right," Mom and Aunt Sara agreed after a short pause. "Explain how this happened," they demanded.

"When we arrived there, Grandfather told us that there was a serious shortage of those with strong Talents, but they didn't know why," I told them.

"Later Grandmother Laura asked us to help by getting some of the girls serving at the Palace pregnant, as we have very strong Talents and would pass them on to our children," Pat told them.

"WHAT!!??" our Mothers shrieked in shock. "Our MOTHER asked you to do that?"

"She didn't just ask. She had the girls sent to our rooms. They were all young, good looking and hard to turn down. They had all agreed to try to get pregnant to provide more people with strong Talents for the Grand Master. Each night that we were at the Palace, we were visited by three girls each that we were to try to get pregnant.

"Gretchen is a really sweet girl, and I kept her for several nights. When we returned from our trip a few days ago, I found out that she is pregnant," I finished.