Somehow Better
Maria hurried down to the breakfast table. She was desperately late, as usual, and she hated to keep the Captain and the children waiting.
She approached the dining room and slowed to a less hasty pace before entering the room.
"Good morning, Captain… children," she said and she nodded to the captain before taking her seat, "I'm sorry I'm late. I must have lost track of the time."
"Maria," the Captain said, his eyes twinkling with fun, "Perhaps we should supply you with a more accurate time-piece in your room?" Freidrich snorted into his porridge and Maria grinned lightheartedly. She was so at ease with the children and the Captain. She silently thanked her lucky stars that the Baroness and Uncle Max hardly ever woke in time to eat breakfast with the family.
Her presence seemed to make the atmosphere more… strained… somehow.
"What are you all planning on doing today, children?" the Captain started and Maria glanced at him curiously. He almost never initiated conversation in the midst of a meal. She wondered what was so important that it needed to be stated during breakfast.
"Fraulein Maria said that we could ride our bikes to the hills and picnic," Marta piped up.
"And we could sing and play tag and ball once we get there," Gretl finished off.
Maria watched them with a bemused expression. It was sweet how they delighted in even the most simple of amusements.
"Yes, and we best get an early start if we wish to be at the mountain in time for lunch. I wouldn't want you to be hungry," she said with a defined wink toward Kurt who rubbed his stomach at the thought of lunch though they were currently in the middle of a meal.
Maria resumed to eating and continued to wonder what the Captain had meant by asking them.
"That is, of course, if you agree with the plans for today, Captain," Maria stated lamely and the children looked at the Captain, waiting for approval.
He looked up, as if he had been shaken from a daydream.
"Oh? Oh, yes, of course, it sounds like great fun," he said, glancing at Maria for just a second longer than was required and she felt her face grow hot. She broke eye contact with him to glance at Brigitta who was looking from her father to the governess curiously.
"Father," she started and the Captain pulled his eyes away from Maria to attend to her, "The party tomorrow night… at what time will it begin?"
Maria sighed in relief that Brigitta had not mentioned what she had just witnessed.
"Five o'clock. You'll have all morning and some of the afternoon to go on an outing if Maria wishes to take you on one, but you will have to be back at three to begin to get ready for the party." He was looking at Maria again now and she felt herself flushing.
"Yes, of course," she said. She really wasn't used to all this talking during the meals.
"Father," Brigitta began again, though she was looking at Maria, "Would you like to join us on our excursion today?" The Captain looked up from his food, glanced at Brigitta and then turned to Maria. So she had noticed.
"Would you object, Fraulein?" he said, "I'm afraid I shall be dreadfully bored lounging about the villa all day and the Baroness has an appointment at the couturier to have a gown made for the party tomorrow evening."
Maria felt her eyebrows ascend up into her brow, but she was excited at the same time. All day with the Captain!
"Why, of course, Captain. If that is what you want," she said meekly, trying to hide some of her excitement.
But the Captain saw the spark of enthusiasm in her face before she could wipe it off and he smiled at her wistfully before realizing he was making her quite uncomfortable and returning to his food.
~*~
"Fraulein Maria! Look at me ride!" Gretl exclaimed as her father helped her maneuver the bicycle and balance on the wheels. It was clear to any onlooker that the Captain was pushing the bicycle straight, but Maria knew that to Gretl, it felt as though she were riding alone. Maria remembered a small girl who used to climb trees over the nunnery walls and she smiled at the sight. Wistfully.
"That's wonderful, Darling!" she said and she glanced at the Captain who was watching her with a twinkle in his eyes.
"Gretl," he exclaimed proudly, "I don't think that any of your siblings knew how to ride alone when they were five! You're the best rider of them all."
Leisl who was standing nearby playing ball with Freidrich nodded happily at Gretl.
"Freidrich couldn't ride 'til he was seven!"
Gretl practically glowed with praise. She stepped off the bike and ran to Maria, her arms flung open. Maria accepted her into a hug.
"Fraulein Maria! I'm the best rider in the family! Father said so!" Maria squeezed Gretl tight and looked over the small girl's head at the Captain who winked at her as he approached the governess and child.
"Are there any more apples, Maria?" he asked and, flustered, she pulled a few out of the basket.
"Perfect," he said, claiming three of them, "Children!" he called in his deep, masculine voice, "Gather round! Leisl… Brigitta!"
When all the seven children had approached the scene, the Captain put on a short display of juggling before dropping an apple, becoming flustered and letting the other two fall to the grass as well.
"That's nothing," Kurt scoffed, "Fraulein Maria juggled without dropping a single one, and they were tomatoes. I'm sure tomatoes are harder to juggle than apples. Tomatoes splat!"
The Captain looked at Maria reproachfully.
"Care to put on a show, Maria?" he asked to which Maria looked both excited and appalled, accepting the apples from the Captain and juggling them flawlessly for nearly half a minute before catching them and taking a nice crunchy bite of one of them.
"Told you!" Louisa exclaimed to her father, who pretended to be dreadfully hurt.
"Well, I'll just have to find a field in which I am better than the dear Fraulein, though from what I have discovered of her, that seems nearly impossible. Nearly, but not quite. I will beat you yet, Fraulein Maria!" her said and the twinkle reappeared in his eyes.
Maria felt herself blushing and she hid her face behind Gretl's head.
"I suppose there must be something at which you can do outdo me," she said, playing words back at him jokingly, "Though I daresay you'll have a task finding one." She winked at him and the Captain laughed out loud, the children joining in, delighted at the laid back interaction between their governess and their father.
Maria could not remember a better afternoon… it was somehow different when the Captain accompanied them… somehow better.
~*~
"Did you have an enjoyable afternoon flaunting about among the mountains?" the Baroness asked at dinnertime, sarcasm apparent in her voice.
"A fine time, Elsa, however, if you do not mind, I find my meals much more approachable when I have silence at my table. I hope you had a pleasurable time at the couturier and I'm sure you'll tell me all about it after supper."
Was that coldness Maria sensed in his tone? She nearly squirmed with delight as she eyes the Baroness' pained expression. She hated to be rude, but the Baroness had been nothing but hardship since she arrived: singling Maria out for criticism, putting the governess down at any chance she got, and hogging Georg beyond all belief. Maria thought it was good that his children spent time with him that day.
As they finished up their meals, Gretl yawned sleepily.
"Gretl, darling, you've had a long day, would you like to go to bed early?" Maria asked her heart in her words.
She saw Elsa glare at Georg out of the corner of her eye, but she knew that the Captain would not object to her asking. Somehow, she knew it would be okay.
Gretl nodded.
"Fraulein Maria, I'm tired too. Father, may Gretl and I go to sleep now?" Marta asked. The Captain looked beyond Maria at the clock on the mantle. It was rather late for dinner. Elsa had come home scandalously tardily from the dress-maker and the Captain had graciously waited for her to arrive before beginning supper.
Georg nodded his consent and Maria stood to take the children to their room.
"Maria, that is unnecessary, I'm sure Frau Schmidt would tuck the children in. You need not leave a meal early."
Maria nodded, but got up to leave anyway, taking Gretl and Marta by the hand.
"I have finished my supper anyway, and I see no reason to disturb Frau Schmidt. I will only be a few minutes." She led the children out of the dining room.
She felt the Captain's eyes on her back.
Elsa noticed it too, the way he looked after her adoringly and she tapped her glass with a knife lightly to break his eye contact.
Maria was gone before she heard what the Baroness had to say.
~*~
"Maria," Leisl whispered as Maria put the older children to bed that night, "I had a marvelous day, thank you. Father was an awfully good sport."
"Yes."
"Did you see his face when Maria juggled better than he did?" Kurt piped up and Maria had to put her finger to her lips to remind him that Marta and Gretl were asleep in the next room.
She smiled to herself and Leisl caught her eye, grinningly knowingly.
Maria felt herself blush and she looked away.
"Sing us a song, Maria," Brigitta whispered from her own place in bed and Maria sang her voice just as sweet though she was singing softly.
The Captain walked by the door and stopped to listen to the muffled lullaby beyond the doorway.
Maria's voice.
He held his breath and nearly closed his own eyes. Her voice was enchanting. She was enchanting.
He heard the door opening and he snapped back to attention.
"Good evening, Captain," Maria said and she nodded her head in greeting.
"Maria," he said, nodding his head back, "I had a brilliant time today."
"As did I. And I'm sure the children did, as well."
"Yes…" he said looking beyond her into the room, "How do you get them so quiet. They used to whisper something fierce with the other governesses."
"The trick is to wear them out during the day," she said with a small wink.
"Ahhh, a marvelous piece of insight I shall have to retain."
They stared at each other in oblivious adoration for a few moments before Maria cleared her throat.
"Well, I best go to sleep now," she said and she turned to go to bed.
"Maria," the Captain called and she turned back to face him.
"Yes?"
"I found something at which I am entirely better than you." Maria looked at him curiously, bemused.
"And what would that be?"
"Blowing that blasted whistle," he said with a grin and his eyes flashed with what once was. He smiled warmly at her and she chuckled softly.
"You're right, Captain. You succeeded me shamefully at that."
And she turned to go to bed, marveling that he thought that far into it.
A/N: I dislike authors' notes at the start of stories, so I tactfully placed my here. I have never written an SOM fanfiction before and I'm afraid I wrote everyone dreadfully out of character. Please R & R and tell me what you think and how to correct anything I might have mistaken.
DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything and my friends have convinced me that no matter how much I want it, I will never wake up to find Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer sitting beneath my Christmas tree wearing a bow on their heads. Unfortunately, that honour belongs to Twentieth Century Fox.