The Sound of Music and Nanny McPhee don't belong to me.

Of Scullery Maids and Would-be Nuns

"But Chrissie's fine, right?"

Cedric Brown nodded at his friend, Georg von Trapp in an absent-minded manner. "Chrissie's fine, they're all fine."

Cedric Brown and Georg von Trapp had met at a grief counseling group three years previously after the death of their wives. They both had been unwilling to join the group but surprisingly – although they had since given up on attending meetings – they had become friends. They discovered that they had a lot more in common than being widowers with seven children.

So now they met up every time they were in the same city, which wasn't so common, but they kept in touch via phones, emails and other technology.

This Thursday was special, Cedric and Georg were both in London for the weekend, for the first time in almost six months; Georg was meeting his partners in the Security firm which his owned, and Cedric was in town for work which unfortunately meant he had to meet with his Aunt Adelaide.

"So what is the problem?" Georg insisted. "I thought you said that Nanny McPhee was a great nanny."

"She is," Cedric assured his friend, "she's the best thing that ever happened to my children. She could teach your Fraulein Maria a great many things."

"I'm sure she would," Georg couldn't help the smile that broke out on his face. He smiled every time he thought of Maria. "But I wouldn't trade Maria for the world."

"There's that look again," Cedric told him.

"What look?" Georg pretended not to know what his friend was talking about. "Stop deflecting, Cedric, and answer my question."

Cedric sighed, he really didn't know why he was even worrying about it, Nanny McPhee had assured him that it would work out fine and it wasn't like it was his fault anyway. Why was he even still thinking about it? "It's Evangeline," he said at last.

"I thought you were thinking of marrying a widow with a ridiculous name," Georg remarked. "A Mrs. Quickly, wasn't it?"

"Yes, I am."

"So which is this Evangeline?" Georg stared at his friend, wondering when Cedric had even met this new woman and why he was just hearing about it only now, and then he remembered. "Isn't that the name of the girl who works for you, your scullery maid?"

Cedric nodded.

"Well, come out with it man," Georg urged him. "What's she done now?"

Cedric told him the whole of story again, he had told it before leaving out the part about Evangeline but now he told him everything. "I don't know why I'm worried," he said almost to himself, "Evangeline isn't a child, and Aunt Adelaide can't be that bad surely, can she? Surely being her daughter is better than being just a scullery maid."

"And you said yourself that Nanny McPhee assured you that she would be fine," Georg reminded him.

"So all this worrying is ridiculous, isn't it?" Cedric asked, forcing a smile and failing miserably. They sat at the table in silence and then Cedric finally said the thing that had really been bothering him about the whole Evangeline business. "She didn't even say goodbye."

000

"Georg, out with it."

"She left."

"Who left?" Cedric asked him.

"Maria," Georg replied softly. "Maria left two nights ago."

"Two nights ago?" Cedric was bewildered. "Wasn't that the day of your party?"

"Yes," Georg agreed. "She left during the party and I can't think why."

"Maybe you should tell me the whole story," Cedric suggested.

Georg recounted all the events from the last time he'd met Cedric, how he'd taken Elsa home to meet the children how he'd really bonded with his children again, the singing, the picnics, Max, and finally the party.

"It must have been something I did."

"Maybe she was needed back at the Abbey urgently," Cedric said.

"At night, in the middle of a party?" Georg snorted. "Highly unlikely."

"So you think she left because you danced together?"

"Of course not," Georg denied immediately. "That dance was perfectly innocent."

Cedric nodded in agreement and then said, "but she is a novice, a would-be nun, so maybe dancing with men is frowned upon."

"I highly doubt that, I mean she isn't a nun yet," Georg said, "I've tried asking the children if they did anything to her that was out-of-hand, but I couldn't exactly come out and ask them directly they'd only think it was their fault, and I don't want them to think that."

"And how is Elsa in all this?"

"Elsa," Georg repeated the name like it was something foreign and very far away. "She's fine, of course."

"Still going ahead with the wedding plans?"

"Yes," Georg, "but what has this got to do with Maria leaving me, I mean us, so suddenly?"

"Nothing," Cedric ignored his friend's 'slip', "Nothing at all. How are the children?"

"They're fine." Georg replied. Although everything is never going to be fine again, he added silently to himself. "Want to know the worst of it all?"

"Please."

"She left without saying goodbye," Georg said, "not even to the children."

"I thought you said she wrote a note?"

"She did," Georg agreed. "But she didn't say goodbye."

The two men looked at each other.

000