Georg Von Trapp was enjoying the peace and quiet out on the terrace. It was very a rare opportunity that he had any quiet time alone in the villa, as the children were staying with his late wife, Agathe's parents. Nothing much had happened around the villa lately, some new neighbours moved in next door so there were moving vans driving up and down the road for the past two days, but other than that Georg had chance to relax and enjoy this time to himself. He rested his head back on the chair and closed his eyes, soaking in the sun rays, when suddenly he heard some rustling coming from the flower patch in the garden so he got up to see what was making the noise.
"What are you doing there?" He called grumpily to the culprit.
"I'm-I'm picking flowers to make mummy feel better." A little girl whispered back.
"You are on my property picking my flowers, which is not allowed!" He raised his voice a little which must have scared her for she started to run away.
"Little girl, come back here I am not finished!" He called after her as he followed the youngster who must have only been about Gretl's age. The girl kept running until she ran though an open glass door which led into the kitchen of the house next door to the villa.
'She must be the daughter of the new neighbours' he thought as he reminded himself to have a word with her parents about what she had been doing in his garden. He watched from behind a large tree in the corner of their garden as the girl went inside to talk to a woman who was cooking at the stove, she must have been the small girls mother, but she hadn't heard her come inside.
Her mother must have only been in her late 20's, she had short, strawberry blonde hair and a small apron tied around her slim waist as she stirred the large pot on the stove. She looked very flustered, as though she'd been working all day, and by the amount of boxes he saw around the room, he guessed that she'd been unpacking their belongings into their new house. Her daughter didn't have chance to speak to her mother for in the next moment a tall man with dark hair came bursting in the front door and storming into the kitchen, throwing his briefcase on the table.
"Maria!" He called at her. Well at least now Georg knew her name.
"Sebastian." Maria whispered to herself in panic as she heard him enter the room.
"Why isn't dinner ready yet? I expect it to be on the table the moment I walk in the door." He shouted at his wife who was still cooking at the stove.
"Well I was unpac-" She began to explain in a quiet voice but was cut off by who Georg could only assume was her husband.
"I don't care what you were doing, all I care about is why my dinner isn't on the table and why I'm not eating it! I come back from a long day of providing for this family and this is the thanks I get!" He moved closer to his Maria's face and grabbed her by her ear as he continued speaking.
"You had one job, and you can't even do that, maybe if you weren't so useless you would have finished school and gotten a job too!" He released her, spat in her face and then turned around and stormed upstairs.
The little girl timidly came out from behind the table in which she was hiding behind, and made her way towards her mother, tugging on the bottom of her dress. Maria turned and looked down at her daughter who was now holding a small bunch of pink and yellow flowers up for her to take. She crouched down to her level with a small smile as she accepted the flowers, "thank you sweetheart." She said gently as she stoked her little rosy cheeks before pulling her into a tight hug. When Maria had turned around Georg noticed that she had a large purple bruise across her cheek, he gasped quietly and brought his hand to cover his mouth as he thought of how she could have gotten it, from what he had observed from watching them, he guessed that it was her husband, as he seemed very aggressive and violent as he grabbed her by the ear and spat in her face just a few moments ago. Georg realised that he had seen enough, he shouldn't be here watching a private family moment so her discreetly made his way back next door to his own home.
A little while later, Georg was in his study, his mind drifting back what he had seen that afternoon. He couldn't help but think about it. The way that Maria's husband treat her made him feel sick to the stomach. From what he had seen of him, Sebastian seemed like a vile man who didn't deserve such a beautiful wife and precious daughter, he couldn't imagine what else he had done to hurt her. But he realised that it was none of his business, he couldn't just barge into their home and assume what had been happening, no, he had to keep his nose out. Georg hoped that it wasn't what he thought it was.