A/N: This 11 chapter story was published in my fan fiction forum, and now that I am done with it, I thought it was a good idea to publish it here as well. I changed the title, because after I finished writing it, I thought that, it would be much more appropriate. You´ll understand that in the final chapters.
Although I am still working without a beta, I had a lot of help from my friends there - lovethisstuff, silverwhitewinters, justapisces, bunny, Maria´s Georg, emmaliesl, adda, and everyone else who offered their comments and ideas. To all of you: I thank you all for your invaluable help and inspiration. As I said, still no beta, so please be kind if you come across some funny grammar or spelling. English is NOT my first language, and I try to do my best here.
Disclaimer: I do not own "The Sound of Music" or "Die Trapp Familie", or any of the other fiction or non fiction works mentioned here
Have fun!
Edelweiss
Prologue and Chapter I
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For everything there is a season,
And a time for every matter under heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die;
A time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
A time to kill, and a time to heal;
A time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh;
A time to mourn, and a time to dance;
A time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
A time to embrace, And a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to seek, and a time to lose;
A time to keep, and a time to throw away;
A time to tear, and a time to sew;
A time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
A time to love, and a time to hate,
A time for war, and a time for peace.
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
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As was the custom, Georg's graduating class sailed around the world in a schooner. They got as far as Australia and then went up the coast of China, taking measurements (for their maps, no doubt). They did not continue across the Pacific but went home the way they had come. They stopped in Egypt, where a fortuneteller grabbed Georg's hand and predicted, "You will have two wives, you will have ten children, you will see two world wars, and you will live to be one hundred years old." He was shocked at these improbable predictions, especially since he had not sought her advice in the first place. Ironically, all but the last one came true, though when given, each seemed more unlikely than the next.
Elizabeth M. Campbell, Introduction to Georg von Trapp´s To the Last Salute – Memories of an Austrian U boat Commander.
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The most powerful symptom of love is a tenderness which becomes at times almost insupportable.
Victor Hugo
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Prologue
Georg von Trapp lingered in his study, as he normally did after everybody had retired and the house was silent. He intended to stay there until he was overcome with lethargy - it was usually the only chance he had to get some decent sleep during the night, without waking up in a cold sweat, after having dreamed he was next to his beloved wife in that cursed hospital bed, holding her while she let out her last breath.
That evening, as it was not infrequent, his body was tired, but his mind was fully awake. Every little noise he head coming from every corner of the house was enough to put him in a state of alert. A clock tickling, a door carelessly left ajar, running footsteps…
Footsteps?
The unexpected noise was enough to bring him into a full alert state – a natural response after years of strict military training.
"Who the hell is up and about at this hour," he grumbled, as he started to follow the sound, making his way towards the source of the noise – the kitchen -, with the intent to scold whoever had disturbed his peace. His anger gave way to reason when he was half way there. Maybe a nightcap would help, he thought. Maybe the mysterious kitchen raider would prove not to be such bad company after all…
He wondered who his fellow insomniac could be. Max, maybe? Hardly likely. The impresario had the irritating habit of sleeping like the dead under any circumstances. In al likelihood, it was not Elsa either, since the Baroness would probably ask her own maid to fetch something for her if she needed something. The children would go to Fräulein Maria, who…
He stopped cold when he saw her there, sitting at the kitchen table, a cup of what looked like steaming hot tea in front of her. She wore that same bizarre nightgown he had the night she arrived, this time with a robe of an equally unspeakable color over it.
For the first time since he had first met her, the little Fräulein did not look well. She looked tired and overwrought. Her nose was red, as if she had repeatedly sneezed. The sight tugged at his heart, and he felt for the first time this absurd need to comfort and protect her.
"Hah!"
"Captain!" she exclaimed, clutching one hand to her heart. Clearly, he had spooked her.
"I was wondering who the other insomniac in the house was. Now I know. I must say that I am not surprised," he said abruptly, resorting to cynicism to drive away such inappropriate thoughts. "Planning a mutiny, Fräulein?" She made a motion to get up, but he stopped her with a gesture. "No, no, no. Stay where you are and enjoy your tea. In fact, I think I'll have one myself."
Fräulein Maria looked down. His attention was immediately drawn, not to the steaming cup, but to her hands. He had never paid any particular attention to her hands before – he never had any reason to. They were elegant, long fingered and not what he would have expected to find in a farm girl, probably used to hard work. Naturally, they were not exquisitely manicured like Elsa's hands. Fräulein Maria kept her fingernails shortly trimmed, and there wasn't the slightest hint of nail polish, or any other concession to vanity. The skin was marked here and there by tiny cuts and nicks, a testimony to her active life. In her right hand, just below her thumb, he saw the unmistakable imprint of a small child's teeth.
"Gretl," he thought, smiling.
"What sort of concoction is that?" he asked her, pointing to the warm liquid she was staring at so intently.
"An old family recipe. It's peppermint, honey and… hmmm… a few other things." She did sound bad, her voice hoarse and he grimaced in reaction.
His governess was suddenly overcome with one of her uncontrollable verbal outbursts, as she began to give him the complete recipe of the suspicious brew she was drinking. She began by naming an unlikely mixture of herbs and spices that could be appealing separately, but not together in the same tea cup. Whatever it was, a good dose of brandy would make it easier to swallow. He wondered what she would think if he suggested that. He wagered that not a single drop of alcohol had ever touched those virginal lips of hers.
Peppermint and honey…
He wondered if one could taste it in her lips. They were now moist and swollen because of the hot tea she had been drinking. For the second time in just a few minutes, he experienced another absurd reaction, this one entirely different than the one before. He no longer wanted to comfort her, he wanted to kiss her senseless now, kiss those moist, peppermint sweet lips that…
"Captain?" Her voice brought him back to his senses.
"I'm sorry, Fräulein, I was - far away. Did you just – uh - say something?"
"Yes!" She rolled her eyes impatiently. Apparently she could talk endlessly, incessantly and without any kind of control about whatever came out of her mouth, but she was not fond of repeating herself, he realized with a smirk.
"I was saying that I know I am not supposed to wander around the house after hours but sometimes I can't sleep and…" she swallowed, "I needed to do something about my sore throat, otherwise I won't be able to even speak to the children in the morning, let alone teach them how to yodel…" She stopped herself suddenly, looking slightly guilty, as if she was just about to betray a secret. He resisted the temptation to ask her why on earth she was teaching the children to yodel.
"That would be quite torturous to you, wouldn't it? Not being able to speak," was his biting remark.
"That won't happen, Captain. People like myself can hardly afford the luxury of being sick," she retorted absentmindedly. "That is why I always take good care of myself."
He clenched his fists at his sides, fighting the old temptation of simply yelling at her. What was it about that girl and her unique talent for disturbing him and stepping in his toes? Didn't she know that after three years of grief, sickness was still a delicate subject to him? Didn't she guess? His wife always took good care of herself and in the end…
"How could she know?" a voice in his conscience spoke, a voice just like Agathe´s. It was enough to soften him. "Calm down, Georg. She cannot know about what you have been though, it is not her fault. She speaks whatever is in her mind, things that simply are there."
He sighed.
"Everybody gets sick once in a while, Fräulein, it can hardly be called a luxury. Baronesses or governesses, social class has nothing to do with it. Even the aristocracy isn't immune to anything – no one better than I know that," he said, starting to open some pantry doors below his head, not without noting that her face had paled, as she obviously became conscious of her faux-pas. "Now, where the devil does the cook keep the tea cups?"
"Second door to your right," she said stiffly. "I'm sorry; I meant no offense to you. Only that since I always took care of myself, I would be in a lot of trouble if I were bed ridden."
"Then you should have been more careful before jumping into cold lakes."
"The boat tipped over," she defended herself, vehemently. "I did not jump."
"You did the second time." He kept rambling about the incident, all of a sudden finding her annoyance utterly… charming. "It is beyond me, how you managed to accomplish that. The water was calm, there was no wind, and the lake looked like a mirror. Even a mud-duck could manage to sail in those conditions."
Her answer was to roll her eyes and look heavenwards, then at him. "There were seven children with me on the boat. We were not sailing, we were rowing. And I have no idea what a mud-duck is."
"A shallow water sailor," he spat, impatiently.
She remained silent, while he prepared his own cup of tea, and then sat next to her. He took a large sip from his cup. The taste surprised him.
"This is…" Her eyes widened, expectantly, and he did not disappoint her. "… not as vile as I thought it would be!"
"Of course not! My aunt used to say "if it doesn't taste good, it won't cure you"."
"That is utterly absurd, of course you realize that!"
She shrugged. "She was a farmer's wife, not a doctor."
"Mmmm." A smile tugged at the corner of his lips. "I must admit that I wish I had her in my family while I was growing up because my grandmother used to say just the opposite," he chuckled. To his amusement, the governess shuddered in revulsion. "Tell me, am I detecting a slight taste of…"
"Just a few drops, for medicinal purposes," she clarified, quickly, undoubtedly afraid he would be angry at her for raiding his prized wine cellar as well. Not that she would have needed to do that – it was a well known fact that the cook was particularly fond of the brand of schnapps with which she had laced her tea.
"All a part of your – uh - family recipe, I assume."
"Certainly!" she exclaimed, slightly offended.
"You would make a fortune selling this to my sailors if you were around when we still had a Navy," he noted. "You would not believe the things we had to eat and drink while we were at sea. Calling it "tea" would be offensive."
He added some more tea to his cup, added one sugar cube and stirred it. When he finished, he noticed that it was her turn to be staring at his hands. Apparently, she wasn't interested in his Navy stories, because he had rambled on for about five minutes and she did not say a word. It was not the second time he had noticed that, and again the fact tugged at his pride. Was there anything about him that she would find interesting at all?
He tried another approach, wondering where that had come from: an almost obsessive need to talk to her, and to hear her talk.
"You also would not believe the things my grandmother would force down my throat whenever I fell ill!"
She raised a pair of laughing blue eyes at him.
"Really?"
It should have been a highly improper situation. It was supposed to be so – as incongruous and inappropriate as he could think of. The widowed master of the house running into the young governess of his children in the middle of the night…
What they should have done would be barely acknowledge each other's presence, and then quickly walk back to wherever they came from. What they should not have done. What he should not have done was to sit with her in a kitchen table, drinking tea and tell her a few stories his very eccentric grandmother… the same remarkable woman who, one day, had advised him that the best way to find out if a bride was suitable would be to place a pine cone in her chair during an elegant dinner party (1).
They talked until the small hours of the morning.
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Chapter I
Two weeks after the incident with the rowboat, life with the Trapp family had settled into a peaceful routine that was a perfect match to the unearthly beautiful countryside surrounding the villa in Aigen-bei-Salzburg. Maria's life had never been, according to her own definition, so interesting before.
The children occupied most of her time, as expected. She followed the schedule of activities with a few changes: music and singing lessons instead of Austrian military history, not to mention picnics instead of marches around the ground breathing deeply. No uniforms either – the Captain once more had lots of fabric sent from town, this time for the children, so that Maria and Frau Poppmeier had their hands full with sewing more appropriate play clothes for them. The sailor suites were banished, at least for the moment. Louisa had even suggested that they made a large bonfire with them, but the Captain, quite obviously, had liked the idea at all.
Little by little, she also had the opportunity to be acquainted with other members of the household staff. Her position as a governess did not make the job easier and she soon found out that at least one thing she had read about governesses was true. She did occupy a peculiar position in the house – she was not family, although she had most of her meals with them and rarely ate with the rest of the staff. At the same time, the other maids did consider her as one of their own, and thus were reluctant to become friends with her. Frau Schmidt and Frau Poppmeier were the notable exceptions. The latter because of her age and experience, and Frau Schmidt because she also occupied a prominent position as the housekeeper.
Maria soon discovered, for instance, that Frau Schmidt was a most interesting and whimsical character. She had been the first to give Maria some invaluable advice shortly after arrival, something that she would always be thankful for (2).
"Fräulein… Do you know how many governesses we had in the past years?"
"I'm the twelfth – the Captain told me as much."
"Allow me to give you some good advice, then – that is, if you want to keep your job until September. It will go easier for you, if you go strictly by the Captain's instructions. Order and discipline – that is what is most important to him. I dare say it is the only way he knows how to live now. He does not tolerate any transgressions in that respect, and I'm afraid that there is little or nothing you, of all people, can do about that. Others have tried and failed miserably. Why should you be any different? If you must know, in a few weeks – if you survive that long – it will be you who will be marching and breathing deeply, using that whistle to call your children. That is how the Captain is. One has to adapt to his ways, because changing him is impossible – unless you are some kind of miracle worker. Even the late Baroness had a hard time with him, sometimes."
"But…"
"Please, Fräulein, do try to understand. He had to follow rules all his life – that is how it is, not only in the military, but also in his family. In the war he was a famous officer, doing heroic deeds, all under water – which I can't imagine at all. Then came the defeat… But it was nothing compared to what happened to him when the Baroness died. Surely, the Captain loves his children very much – they are her children too, aren't they? However… he lost his connection with them when he lost her. He does not know how to reach them, nor they him. Very, very sad, indeed. The Baroness was such a remarkable woman, so full of life…"
Although Maria did not follow the elderly woman's advice in the end, it had helped her to understand the dark and brooding Captain von Trapp a little better. And it brought her closer to Frau Schmidt, who, together with Frau Poppmeier, became not only her mentor, but the only two people she knew she could count on in the house, in case she got herself into some kind of mischief again.
Frau Schmidt used to show up often for a chat and a cup of tea while she was sewing late at night with Frau Poppmeier. Maria was baffled when she learned that the housekeeper had a most unusual talent – fortune telling (3).
One evening, after the children retired, Maria found herself sitting in a small table, facing Frau Schmidt and her old tarot deck. Although the colorful cards, decorated with outlandish mythological figures fascinated her, naturally she had refused at first. In the end, she was not able to get out of it. Liesl, who was with them that day because they would be working on her dress, insisted.
"The von Trapps are a very superstitious lot, Fräulein," Liesl had said, "This is one of our little traditions. Everyone who is welcome in the house has to have the fortune read by Frau Schmidt." She winked, which gave Maria the distinct impression that she had just come up with that lame excuse.
"Hmmm…" was all Frau Schmidt said, as soon as the cards were laid on the table.
"Is there anything wrong?" Maria asked, worried. None of the cards on display alarmed her – there were no skeletons, no hanged men... Some of the cards were a bit outrageous, but that did not bother her too much.
"I thought you did not believe in any of this, Fräulein," Frau Schmidt observed slyly.
"I don't, but you do! And if it is so important to you, the least I could do is listen! I may not believe in the answer, but you will…"
"How very clever of you! You almost sound like the Captain, did you know that?" Maria shrugged. "In fact, he gave me a similar response a long time ago when I read the cards for him."
"He let you read the cards for him!?" Maria's eyes widened as she tried to imagine Georg von Trapp sitting in front of a tarot deck, waiting for his fortune to be told. She opened her mouth to question
Frau Schmidt further, in order to satisfy her curiosity, but the woman was looking at the cards spread in front of there, baffled.
"I don't understand, this does not make any sense at all. It's all… chaos, and disorder, and confusion!"
"Chaos, disorder and confusion? Well, that makes perfect sense to me!" Her life, with the exception of the peaceful years at Nonnberg, had been anything but ordinary and predictable.
"This is absurd. My readings are usually very precise. I ask a question, the cards answer me, it is as simple as that. In your case, when I try to make sense of it, I see things that should not be here at all."
"What things?" Maria had asked, now openly curious.
"No, my dear, I do not wish to disturb you any further. If they do not make any sense to me, you must believe me, they won't make any sense to you."
"Will I ever be a good nun? That is all I would like to know and nothing more," Maria reassured her.
"If you must know, the answer is… no," Frau Schmidt answered curtly, after a brief moment of hesitation.
Maria uttered an outraged little moan. "No? What do you mean – "no"?! But that is impossible, I…"
"Well, you wanted to know, didn't you? You asked for it, even though I said it would disturb you. You may yell and kick and scream, Fräulein Maria, but there is a man in your future."
"A what?" Maria shrieked. Behind her, Liesl giggled.
"A man. And not a father, or a brother, or even an uncle, if that is what you are wondering. A brave, honorable, handsome man – and that is all I will say. There is no doubt about that."
"Who?" Liesl asked, coming to sit next to Maria, who looked at her horrified. "Come on, Fräulein, you can't help but being curious about it! Didn't you hear what she said? He will be handsome!"
But Frau Schmidt only shook her head, as Maria rolled her eyes heavenward. "That is where craziness begins. What I see is so absurd even I don't believe in it."
"No, you must have read it wrong. That is why I do not believe in these things! You said you did not believe in your reading yourself, didn't you? You are right, it makes no sense at all."
"My cards have never deceived me, and I trust them completely!"
"She is right, Fräulein!" said Liesl. "Frau Schmidt saw in the cards long ago that father would live to be one hundred years old, see two wars, marry twice and father ten children (4)."
"There!" Maria exclaimed triumphantly. "None of these things happened yet, did they? Your father only married once, he only has seven children…"
"So far…" Frau Schmidt chanted, impishly.
"… and we all pray every night so that there won't be a second great war. Besides, he'll live to be a hundred or not, no one will know for quite a while, don't you think?"
"You are absolutely right, Fräulein!" A familiar deep male voice spoke behind them. "And there is something I never thought I would hear myself saying," he continued, speaking almost to himself.
Frau Schmidt broke the silence.
"Oh well, Fräulein, if you don´t want to, then you don´t. We can always try again in a few days, and maybe things will not appear so confused and illogical, but this time."
"No," Maria said simply, adamant in her refusal. Frau Schmidt, however, had never been a woman who gave up easily.
"What about one card only?"
"It's all right, Fräulein, I'll do it for you," the Captain intervened, walking into the room and coming to stand just behind her chair. "Trust me, this is the only way she will leave you alone," he said with a quick smile. Before she could stop him, the Captain reached for a card and turned it over.
"The Lovers" (5).
The Captain smirked and Maria felt herself flushing hotly at first, since the card depicted a half nude embraced couple. For a few embarrassing moments she felt every person in the room staring at her.
"No wonder Frau Schmidt was led to believe I'll never be a nun!" she thought. "I only wish she would stop seeing handsome men in my future. It is most… unsettling!"
Liesl, who was having a hard time controlling her giggles, was about to say something but she was immediately silenced with a look from her father. Frau Schmidt's expression was unreadable.
"Hah!" was all she said. "I think we are doing this the wrong way. You should take a card yourself, Fräulein, since it is you that I owe this reading to."
Of course Frau Schmidt did not need to explain the rest to Maria – it was the Captain who had picked the card, so its meaning was for him, and for him only. The lovers… Since he and Baroness Schraeder…
No, she did not want to dwell upon that either.
Maria watched closely as Frau Schmidt shuffled the deck once more, and handled it to her. She stole a quick glance to the Captain, who was standing silently next to her, and his look conveyed a very clear message, so that he hardly had to say the next words.
"Just humor her for once in your life, Fräulein. I guarantee that she will never leave you alone if you do not. I know that because it happened to me!"
"Captain!" Frau Schmidt explained, a bit shocked.
"All right," Maria moaned, defeated, and picked another card from the deck. And gasped.
It was "the lovers" again.
Next to her, the infuriating Captain chuckled.
"Interesting. Well, this has never happened before," Frau Schmidt muttered. "I am not sure what to make of it."
She did not let Frau Schmidt's fortune telling disturb her any further, in spite of the curious outcome, and in a few days, she had completely forgotten the whole incident – which had ended in laughter, when Max walked in and asked his fortune to be read.
The Captain…
Now he appeared at the strangest times out of nowhere just to defend her. On another occasion, Frau Schmidt's son-in-law, who sometimes helped Herr Schmidt with the gardening, had playfully tried to slap Maria's backside (6). She had successfully avoided it in the last possible instant, but the Captain saw it all. She never knew how the scene ended, for he had ordered her to run back to the house. If she thought initially that he would be angry with her, she had been wrong – he was not. He never mentioned the incident again, but later she was told that the Captain went for the boy with a vengeance, and yelled until the poor lad's ears were red. He also forbade him to set foot in the villa again.
Fortunately, she did not have to face his wrath again, not since the incident in the lake. There had not been any further confrontations (7) between them, since all the changes in the children's activities were approved by him. No fights, no name calling, no accusations. It was like a truce had been called, one that Maria did not know how long it would last. She could almost feel him cringing when he saw, for instance, his children climbing the trees in the garden or playing hide and seek in Agathe´s precious rose garden. Or during a rainy day not long ago, when they had to stay inside the house, and she had taught the children how to blow soap bubbles, so that they scattered all over the house, even in his study. Other than that, he rarely interfered now when she was taking care of the children, which should be enough for her to conclude that she was doing everything more or less right. Considering, however, that it was the Captain…
The Captain…
There were times she had the distinct feeling that he was avoiding her like the plague, only to catch him watching her and the children with a strange look in his face. Sometimes he ignored her completely, acting like she barely existed at all, only to call her moments later to ask for her opinion about something entirely unrelated to the children's upbringing.
"But Captain, I don't know a thing about breeding horses!"
"I know you know nothing, Fräulein, I think we have established that. However, I do like the workings of your mind at times. Curiously, you are able to have original ideas even about things you absolutely know nothing about."
Because of the "workings of her mind",as he called them, seemed to intrigue him, to say the least, sometimes, after the children were in bed, Maria would find herself in the middle of a heated debate with Georg von Trapp about a variety of subjects ranging from Austrian politics to gardening. The first time it happened he had surprised her in the kitchen, where she used to go for a nightcap before retiring. It became almost routine to them after that, those five minutes of talk with that incredibly witty man whose mind defied hers relentlessly. The last time had been a couple of days ago, and, oddly enough, ever since then, she missed these occasional short debates with him, she missed his wit, although his sarcasm and his dark sense of humor were, at times, a little too much for her to handle.
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The day after Frau Schmidt read the cards for her would be her first day off since she had been working at the Trapp Villa.
Not that she had asked for it. Two days ago, the Captain called her to his study, and, much to her surprise, he apologized to her, rather awkwardly, because he had quite simply forgotten to give her a few of days to rest. She tried to argue with him, to no avail. So now she had not one, but three days to herself – Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Now, it was only Friday morning, and she was already bored. The hours dragged, and she did not know what to do, did not have a thing that she could do. Boredom - or ennui, as Georg von Trapp elegantly called it, was a feeling that Maria was not used to. In fact, for as long as she remembered, her whole life had been a continuous struggle to fight it. Even in the convent, where chores kept her busy all day. When there were no chores to be done, she always found something to do, and that usually meant getting herself into some kind of trouble, minor or major.
What to do with her day?
It was raining lightly, and going to the mountains did not appeal to her in this kind of weather. The children were not at home, having been sent to Innsbruck earlier that day, for their monthly visit to their maternal grandparents. She had seen the Captain leaving very early in the morning, accompanied by Herr Detweiler and the Baroness, all of them wearing riding gear. She supposed that, considering that it had started to rain, they would be back soon, although to her, it would not make any difference.
And there she was, with seventy-two idle hours stretching ahead of her. No children, no chores… No sewing, since they had finished the children's clothes the day before. There had to be something around the house that she could do, without getting into too much trouble in the process – trouble which she had to avoid in order not to clash with her employer again. The Captain's household staff was not as large as one would have imagined in an aristocratic house, simply because – as she overheard him telling the Baroness once – he found it hard to tolerate too many strangers following him around everywhere and breathing down his neck. As a result, there were days when there was just too much to do and not a lot of people to do it.
With that in mind, she remembered the nursery, and the chaotic state the children had left it the day before, and decided to do something about it. The Captain had practically ordered her not to do anything, but she shrugged. It was not like she obeyed him all the time, was it?
As she headed towards the hallway, noise coming from downstairs attracted her attention. Forgetting all about the nursery at once, she run to the foyer and nearly collided with two of the maids, Franziska and Hilde trying to carry a ladder.
"Oh, I'm sorry. Here, let me help you," she gladly volunteered. She knew there had to be something she could do, and she was right about it. The poor girls could barely support the weight of the ladder, and they did need help. More than that, if they were carrying that ladder somewhere, there had to be something there that she could do to help them – even if that meant only carrying things around. ""Oh Lord, this is heavy! Where are the gentlemen in this house when we need them?" she muttered, but the girls only laughed.
Maria could not hide her surprise when they reached their destination.
The ballroom.
She could hardly believe her eyes. She stopped and stared at the open doors, absolutely aghast.
"Fräulein?" one of the maids asked, when she could no longer move towards the room.
"Ehm… ahhh… I thought this room was – ehm - not to be disturbed," she said.
"Yes, so did we, but apparently the Captain had a change of heart," the one called Hilde replied.
"You mean the Baroness changed his mind," Franziska retorted. "I heard her pleading with him the other day, to let her use the ballroom for a party."
"Really?" said Maria excitedly.
"Nonsense," the first maid continued. "He will never allow it. The Captain is not the type of man who is so easily manipulated, not even by the likes of that high and mighty Baroness Schraeder. If he wants the ballroom open it is because he wants it, not because some elegant lady from Vienna told him so! Even the late Baroness – may God bless her soul – even her could not make him change his mind when he did not want to!"
"I don't think I can disagree with that!" Maria muttered, more worried about carrying the weight of the ladder than about what the girls were gossiping about.
Franziska shook her head. "Well, he has changed. He is not the same since he returned from Vienna. Look at how much time he spends with the children now. Playing games, sometimes just talking to them for hours."
"Yes! Yesterday he was teaching Friedrich and Kurt how to fence," Hilde remarked.
Maria blushed guiltily, glad that the girls were so engrossed in their debate that they hardly noticed her anymore. She saw him and the boys from her bedroom window, and stood there watching them, for as long as the lesson lasted, unable to leave. Instead of yelling and scolding the boys after a wrong move, he laughed! She had never heard a man laugh like such, and most certainly not him. In fact, she never imagined he would be capable of laughing like that. It made him appear years younger, and oh, so achingly handsome! It brought her attention, for the first time, to the fact that he had dimples.
Wasn't it wrong, for her, destined to be a bride of Christ, to think about a man in such a way? Not any man, one who was not only her employer, but also an aristocrat, and probably Austria's most beloved hero? No she better not dwell too much on such inappropriate thoughts. If she insisted, she might be forced to go to confession, something that she hated, although, as a Catholic, she was obliged to. At the same time, she never saw anything nothing wrong in finding someone handsome or beautiful, man or woman. It was a statement of a fact, nothing more than that – just like appreciating a work of art. The fact that she had met so few people in her life that she could apply that adjective to was irrelevant. Certainly she had never met any men, in the flesh, she would call even passably handsome. What she knew of male beauty was from works of art, and from the few movies she saw in her life, although even Rodolfo Valentino failed to impress her with all his glory, dressed as an Arabian Sheik. Her friend Theresa, on the other hand, had literally swooned, and made quite a spectacle of herself. Maria could not help but imagine what Theresa would have to say about the Captain´s dimples…
At some point, the Captain obviously sensed he was being the subject of her close scrutiny, and he looked up at her window. The laughter did not die in his lips, as she would have expected it would. Instead, he kept smiling, and performed a graceful bow, as a knight would do to a lady watching a duel. Her heart fluttered curiously, and for a moment she failed to catch her breath.
"He is right, I must be too tired," she thought about her reaction.
All she could so was to give him a rather silly smile in return, and then step away from the window as fast as she possibly could.
"Baroness Schraeder has to have something to do with it," Franziska continued, bringing Maria's mind back to the present.
"Not the Baroness, silly. Fräulein Maria," Hilde said behind her, in a tone so mischievous that was enough to make Maria feel oddly uncomfortable. She stopped cold.
"I had nothing to do with it," she said, defensively, and in a louder tone of voice than she intended to.
"Oh yes, you do," giggled Franziska.
"Yes, he is not the same since you came, Fräulein. You don't know what it was like around here before, so you cannot possibly know."
"But… but… but all I did was to teach the children a few songs!"
"Just a few songs, indeed!" the girl muttered, rather scathingly.
"Oh, do be quiet, Hilde! There is no need to be so defensive. We are not implying anything," said Franziska with a wink. "Are we, Hilde?"
"What do you mean by anything?" asked Maria, annoyed because she had the distinct impression that she was supposed to know exactly what the maids were talking about, but she still had no clue.
Frau Schmidt appeared from somewhere behind Maria, saving her from further distress. "Enough chit-chat girls! We have plenty of work to do here today! The ballroom must be ready by tomorrow. Come on now, let us bring that inside. Hilde, you may go back upstairs after you finish this – Baroness Schraeder has just returned from her morning ride and she needs you. Franziska, you stay here and help."
The doors were fully open – all the doors, not merely ajar as they had been before, including the ones which lead to a garden maze outside. Frau Poppmeier was already inside, looking up helplessly at the crystal chandeliers, still hidden under dust cloths. For the first time, Maria saw the room full of light, even if the day outside wasn't exactly bright. There were all kinds of cleaning material scattered all over the floor. Several large boxes lay in the middle of the room, wrapped in brown paper, and she wondered if they were not the surprise Herr Detweiler had promised the children the day before.
"Now, there is someone who could help us," Frau Schmidt exclaimed, in her usual slightly mischievous tone, glancing towards Maria.
"Fräulein Maria!" Frau Poppmeier was smiling openly to her. "You do seem like a brave young woman."
"I like to believe I am," she admitted proudly, walking into the room.
The women looked up to the ceiling again, and Maria followed the direction of their gazes.
"We need to at least see the state these chandeliers are in. We have to remove the dust cloths and see if we'll have to call someone to bring them down in order to be properly cleaned."
"The problem is that no one," Frau Schmidt said, with an annoyed glance towards the younger maid who remained in the room, "is brave enough to climb up there."
Franziska protested. "But Frau Schmidt, I am with child!"
"That does not mean you are sick, are you?"
Maria jumped to defend the girl, who looked like she wasn't much older than herself. "Oh, Frau Schmidt, she is right. She should not climb up there in her condition. What if she has a dizzy spell and fell down the ladder? It could harm the baby."
"Dizzy spell indeed," Frau Schmidt muttered. "When I was pregnant with my first daughter, I worked until the day she was born! This because I wanted to, not because anyone told me to!"
Maria rolled her eyes. "All right. It shouldn't be a problem for me at all. I'll do it!"
"Really?" the girl smile, relieved.
"If the Captain told you to rest, it is what you should be doing, Fräulein – resting. You are not supposed to be working today," advised Frau Poppmeier.
"Oh, nonsense. I am sure the Captain would not allow a pregnant woman to climb a ladder just to clean one of his precious chandeliers!"
"She could be right about that one! Remember how protective he was of the Baroness whenever she was expecting…" Frau Schmidt exclaimed.
"Besides, this could be so much fun, so, in a way, it will be – ehm – restful, won't it?" She started climbing the ladder, and when she was half way to the top, she looked down to the three women below. "You must have more important things to do. You may leave this to me for the moment. If I need help, I'll call you."
Both the elderly women hesitated.
"Go, all of you. You must have more important things to do in this house. Besides, if the Captain waited so long to have this room reopened, he can certainly bear to wait another few hours."
"Well, she is right about that one," Frau Schmidt sighed. "All right then. Let me know when you are done with the chandeliers."
"Hm mm." Maria nodded.
"And do not touch those boxes," Frau Schmidt warned before she left.
"What are they?"
"I am not sure exactly. Something terribly expensive Herr Detweiler bought for the children. It is supposed to be fully assembled in this room by the time they arrive. The Captain is expecting someone from Salzburg to do that tomorrow morning."
Although Maria was curious about the mysterious boxes, she decided not to investigate them for the moment. She smiled, relieved – she had something to do, something useful, and, what made it even more wonderful, something that was not likely to get her into trouble.
At least that was what she sincerely hoped!
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A/N: (1) "The Baroness and the Pine Cone". (2) This dialogue, minus a few changes I made, can be found in the movie "Die Trapp Familie". (3) The idea was inspired by the Japanese anime version of the Trapp family story. In the Japanese version, the housekeeper – who happened to be a Baroness also – used to read the cards. She read them for Maria, and all she saw was chaos and confusion. I decided to take it a little further… (4) See the introductory chapter to Georg von Trapp´s "To the last salute", especially the excerpt quoted in the beginning of this chapter. (5) "LOVE is a force that makes you choose and decide for reasons you often can't understand; it makes you surrender control to a higher power. And that is what this card is all about. Finding something or someone who is so much a part of yourself, so perfectly attuned to you and you to them, that you cannot, dare not resist. In interpretation, the card indicates that the querent has come across, or will come across a person, career, challenge or thing that they will fall in love with. They will know instinctively that they must have this, even if it means diverging from their chosen path. No matter the difficulties, without it they will never be complete." Source - . - about the meaning of the tarot card "The Lovers". (6) Another situation inspired by something I saw in the Japanese anime version of the story. (7) See "Intermezzo I – Ignorance is Bliss".
