Elsa Schraeder did not know who this man was.
He looked no different; he still appeared to be the same distinguished erudite Baron that Max had introduced her to in Vienna a few years ago. But something about him was different; something that had been different the entire time she had been in Salzburg. She was beginning to question whether she even knew Georg von Trapp at all.
She watched him cautiously pluck at the strings of the guitar. It had been a long time since he had played. He probably hadn't touched a musical instrument since his wife died. Elsa had certainly never seen him with one before.
A few seconds passed, until he got the fingering right, and then his voice joined in. That too was hesitant, but again only for a moment. By the time he had seated himself on the sofa beside Liesl, he was comfortable.
His smooth baritone voice floated across the room, the lyrics of an ode to his homeland filling the air. Elsa let herself get lost in the moment. It was a beautiful performance; Georg was just as talented as his children, playing effortlessly even after years of disuse.
As he sang, his gaze shifted and all at once Elsa realised Georg's eyes were no longer on his children, huddled in front of him on the floor, but rather on their governess.
Elsa glanced over at her. She was leaning against the wall, engrossed in the performance. Wearing a soft, flowing dress of blue chiffon, even Elsa couldn't deny she looked lovely tonight. While she did not have the kind of look that would turn heads in the high society soirees of Vienna, in a natural, youthful way Fraulein Maria could indeed be seen as pretty.
Elsa felt Georg's eyes on her as he reached the end of the first verse. She smiled, but that gesture made the something that had been niggling at her all evening all the more noticeable. This was the first time since Georg had taken the guitar that he had looked at her.
She had watched Maria hold the guitar out to him, announcing the children had decided they wanted to hear their father play. She didn't think he was going to take it. The Captain von Trapp Elsa knew certainly wouldn't have, even for the children.
Especially for the children; the children he'd never talked about beyond the fact that they existed. But here he was, granting the request and playing a song on the guitar for them.
What worried Elsa was the fact that maybe Georg wasn't actually doing it for them at all.
It had started right after the puppet show. By the time Fraulein Maria had emerged from behind the puppet theatre, all the children, along with Max, were halfway out the door. Georg's eyes had been fixed on the governess the entire time, and he immediately walked over to her, barely glancing in Elsa's direction.
He thanked her in a manner far too causal for an employer to give their employee. And afterwards they just stood there, staring at each other for a moment too long, before Elsa felt Georg take her arm and lead her out into the hall.
"Bless my homeland forever..." as he sang the final note, Georg looked up at Fraulein Maria.
The moment in the ballroom earlier was toying with the boundaries of impropriety, but it was nothing compared to this. For what seemed like an age, Elsa watched Georg's eyes, which were locked onto those of the governess.
He gave a bashful shrug before Max's voice brought everyone back to reality.
"Any time you say the word, Georg, you can be part of my new act," he declared. "The von Trapp Family Singers."
Georg gave a little laugh, but Elsa could see that he was only looking at her and Max out of the corner of his eye. Most of his attention was focused, once again, on Maria.
He hadn't sung the song for the children. He had sung it for their governess.
She had to get the attention back to her. When Max had finished talking, she stood up. An idea had formed in her mind.
"I have a wonderful idea Georg," she announced, walking over to stand behind the sofa. "Let's really fill this house with music. You must give a grand and glorious party for me while I'm here."
"Party?" Georg asked.
A jumbled chorus of pleas came from the children, all of whom were nodding their heads enthusiastically.
"Yes. I think it's high time I met all your friends here in Salzburg and they met me," Elsa concluded, as Georg turned his head to look at her.
"Don't you agree?"
The last question was almost a challenge. Elsa knew Georg didn't enjoy parties. He'd said as much on her first day at the villa. Though he had had escorted her to any event she wished to attend without complaint in Vienna, and was always a perfect gentleman, his companion knew he'd rather be somewhere else.
"I see what you mean," he conceded. His gaze was back on the children, who had started talking again, only to be hushed a moment later by Fraulein Maria, announcing that it was time for them to go to bed.
Elsa had trouble sleeping that night. Georg had taken a long time to join them upstairs for a nightcap after the children had gone to bed. And he'd seemed distracted even then, and retired much earlier than usual.
She wasn't able to bring up the party with him, but she knew he wouldn't want to talk about it. When he had agreed to the party, it went without saying that he was leaving her in complete control.
Elsa didn't mind though. Parties were her specialty. And in this situation it was exactly what she needed. To her it would be a small social gathering, but it would be lavish by Salzburg's standards. It would certainly be enough to prove to the whole town that she would be marrying Captain von Trapp.
Maybe it could even bring back the man she had met in Vienna.
From her first day at the villa things had changed. Little by little, the Georg she knew had disappeared. She had put it down to Salzburg, his natural habitat. Until tonight. Something had happened tonight that was bigger than just a location change.
It was Fraulein Maria. Georg had spent the entire evening looking at her. He had hardly looked at her; the woman he would be married to before the summer was over, spending the rest of the time looking at the children's governess.
The most aggravating part was that Elsa knew she shouldn't be bothered by the situation.
It was surely just a fleeting attraction. It happened with the best of men, and Elsa knew the stories of Captain von Trapp's rakish youth. She couldn't blame him for admiring Maria. The young woman was, as Elsa had thought earlier, quite attractive. And, on loan from the convent, the poor girl was surely clueless as to what was transpiring between her and her employer.
In time it would pass. By the end of the summer the little Fraulein would be safely ensconced in the Abbey with no knowledge of what the events of the summer had meant. Wedding bells would ring and she and Georg would marry. Just as they had originally planned.
But would he even be the same person afterwards? Or would he forevermore be a stranger with the face of a friend?
All it had taken to change Georg von Trapp from the man she knew into a complete stranger was a blue dress and a guitar.