Another TSOM story from me is forming, yay:P I really hope you enjoy it, I'm not completely sure where it's going; it will be a surprise to both you and me. Please read and review, I really appreciate if you tell me what I can improve.
/Linda
Lonely Nights
Chapter 1
Maria, a novice at the Nonnberg Abbey in Salzburg, was sitting in the Reverend Mothers office, awaiting further information on why she had been summoned there in the first place. She twisted her hands nervously as she watched the older woman sit down behind her desk, smiling slightly at Maria's obvious discomfort but decided to approach her firmly or Maria would simply talk her out of her plans for the young girl.
"My child," the Reverend Mother began but Maria intercepted at once, making the beeline for an excuse before she could be reprimanded.
"Oh Reverend Mother, I'm so sorry. I know I shouldn't have been up in the mountains; but everything was so green and fragrant, I just had to be a part of it." The Mother Abbess raised her eyebrows, slightly alarmed that Maria had ventured so far without company.
"Suppose darkness had come and you would have been lost." Maria smiled and got a wistful look on her face.
"Oh Mother, I can never get lost up there. It's my mountain, I was brought up on it. It was the mountain that led me to you."
"Really?" Not knowing what to think about this whirlwind of a woman, the Mother Abbess let Maria tell her story.
"When I was a child I used to climb the wall to the abbey to watch the nuns work in your garden, and I'd hear them sing; which brings me to another transgression Reverend Mother. I was singing out there without permission."
"It is only inside the abbey that we have rules about postulants singing. Maria?" At the mention of her name Maria looked up into the sweet woman's eyes.
"Yes?"
"It seems to be the will of God that you leave us." Maria couldn't believe what she was hearing. How could they send her away from her only home?
"Leave you?"
"Only for a while. There is a Captain just outside Salzburg who needs a governess for his seven children until September, and I thought you would be perfect for the position."
"Seven children!" Maria said, her voice betraying the shock she felt at having to take care of that big a group.
"Yes, seven. It will be alright Maria. You like children, don't you?"
"Of course, but seven! I'll have my hands full every second."
"You will stay there for three months while the children are home from school and then we are counting on you to come back to us again." The Reverend Mother couldn't help but smile at Maria. The vivid young woman clearly didn't belong in an abbey.
"I leave today?"
"Yes, if possible. Do you have other plans for today Maria?"
"No, nothing important."
"Then you must go pack and I will send a message to Captain von Trapp to expect you in the afternoon." The finality of those words told Maria that this was nothing she could oppose to and she gloomily left the room to pack for her new, but temporary, life.
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The doorbell rang at the house of the von Trapps and Franz, the Butler, hurried to open it, thinking it might be Rolfe with another telegram for the Captain. Outside stood a young woman in a plain grey dress with a bag and a guitar case in her hands.
"May I help you fräulein?" he asked, wondering what she might be doing there at this time of day and knowing that the Captain had no more meetings planned for today.
"Oh, it's really nice to meet you Captain." Maria shook Franz's hand, making him look horrified at such an act. She was very nervous but had decided not to let it show, something that was very difficult to do when the Captain didn't even seem to know she was coming.
"I'm the butler, fräulein. I will get the Captain for you, just wait here please." He departed to look for the Captain and Maria was yet again all alone. Suddenly she heard a noise from upstairs and when she turned her head to have a look she could see two small girls hiding behind the banisters, watching her every move. She smiled at them and started playing with them, hiding herself from their view. The girls giggled and Maria continued to sneak around downstairs for the children to watch her fooling around. Suddenly she heard a gasp and the pitter patter of little feet as the girls disappeared from view. Kneeling behind a chest of drawers she heard someone clearing their throat angrily right behind her and she clumsily stood up, banging her head in the process.
"Ow," she moaned before her eyes finally darted to the man in front of her. He was well built, very masculine, and his appearance was very neat; a handsome man all in all. His eyes though, held an immense amount of pain, and she almost fainted when his piercing blue ones locked with hers for a brief moment before he looked away, his thoughts wandering in directions they certainly shouldn't.
"This behaviour of yours is not to be permitted in this household during your stay here fräulein..." he snapped his fingers, indicating that he was trying to remember her name.
"Maria," she said before she could stop herself, causing the Captain to turn around to look at her sternly again.
"Excuse me?"
"Maria. My name is Maria, Captain."
"Oh." He looked slightly puzzled before he continued to tell her rules about his children marching, studying and God knows what, causing Maria to stop listen within one minute, determined to let the children actually be children instead.
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Later that night Maria was alone in her room, thinking about her first day at the von Trapps. It was raining outside and the thunder could be heard in the distance. She started to think about when the children were summoned to greet her this afternoon. The Captain had actually produced a whistle. She knew that was the last straw and when he tried to use it by calling her she had to make him understand that he wasn't allowed to do that. His reaction was shock at her outspokenness; but he had listened none the less. The children were introduced to her and she felt so sorry for them up until the moment she realized they had put a toad in her pocket to scare her. The nerve!
She had been late for dinner, as usual, and had almost forgotten the awkward moment when she suddenly sat down on a pine cone. She had been so angry; but realized that scolding wouldn't get her anywhere. She managed to reprimand the children smoothly without drawing too much suspicion from their father and was therefore on rather good terms with them from now on.
The door to her room opened with a loud bang, causing Maria to start before she realized it was only Gretl standing there.
"Gretl, are you afraid of the thunderstorm?" The little girl nodded and when another roll of thunder could be heard she darted through the room to Maria, hugging her tightly.
Soon the other kids joined them and to take the fear away from them Maria started singing and playing with all of them. Liesl, who had been outside meeting her boyfriend when the rain started, had climbed up to Maria's window and tried to sneak through it without success. She was now emerging from the bathroom in one of Maria's nightgowns, immediately starting to play with her younger siblings.
Maria danced around and ran straight in to somebody, causing her to loose her balance and almost fall to the floor. Luckily the 'somebody' caught her arm and she managed to stand properly again before she looked up to see who her knight in shining armour was.
"Captain!" she exclaimed, causing the children to form a straight line at once.
"Fräulein, do you remember what we discussed earlier today?" The Captains voice was filled with disdain at this obvious lack of discipline. That, however, only caused Maria to get more determined to help the children and be there for them as a true parent should be.
"Yes; but the children were afraid of the thunderstorm and I thought that if I..."
"No buts fräulein. Children, go to bed." The children left without a word, and Maria looked sternly at the Captain, thinking he was one big piece of anger. Remembering that this was probably the only time she had to bring up the question about the children's clothes, she jumped right into the task, not caring about being reprimanded for her disrespect of rules.
"Captain?" she inquired, before he had the chance to leave her room.
"Yes fräulein?"
"Would it be possible for me to have some more material to make play clothes for the children?"
"Nonsense fräulein, their clothes will do fine. Now I will go to my wife in Vienna and when I return I hope that you have been able to discipline my children, as well as yourself." With that, he closed the door to her bedroom and left her fuming at his words and actions.
She paced her room in anger for a while before she sat down next to her window, not knowing what to do about that difficult man. Suddenly she remembered what Frau Schmidt had said about the drapes in her room. She jumped up and started to measure them and finally decided that it would be enough material to make dresses for all seven children.
The happy feeling was gone as soon as she was in her bed though, the thoughts of her unhappy childhood pestering her mind as they always had when she was in bed. She sighed and rolled over, hugging herself tightly before closing her eyes to try to get some sleep. It was going to be another one of those lonely nights.