Disclaimer: I don't own the sound of music, never did and never will. Nor do I own the title, which belongs to J.M Barrie
A/N The plot of this story was born on the fabulous in one of our crazy polls. I decided to use one of their idea's and here it is. So I dedicate this story to two people: Janet for coming up with the plot and Jacqueline because I wrote this for her as a surprise.
"No, this will never do!"
Maria threw another unsuitable dress on her bed. She sighed when she picked up the next dress from the small pile of clothes that she had compiled on her bed and put it in front of her body. Looking in the mirror she could hardly repress a groan of annoyance, "Too thin for this weather".
Why was this so difficult? She had never been vain before she met Georg and every dress was as beautiful as the next. She couldn't imagine having a better wardrobe than she had now and Georg didn't mind what she wore, why did she? After all, it wasn't like tonight was the first time they were going out and he had made it clear that he thought she was beautiful no matter what she wore, he had even said that he loved her in the ugly brown dress that she had arrived in. A small smile appeared on her face as she remembered the moment he had admitted that. The last couple of weeks couldn't have been better, she had never felt so happy and it was all his doing. He kept surprising her with everything he did and she had never felt loved as much as she did when she was with him and though she still had to get used to calling him Georg instead of Captain and she hadn't managed to stop blushing whenever he said sweet nothings to her, the thrill of being loved and of loving him remained as exciting as it was on that first night and she hoped it would never disappear.
Tonight was another surprise. He had planned an evening just for the two of them, their last date as an engaged couple. No children and no Max, he had promised her. The wedding was two days hence and since she would spent her last night at the Abbey, she would be busy all day tomorrow to arrange all last minute details. She wondered what Georg had planned for her. Knowing him as she did, it had to be something special but how was she supposed to dress if she didn't even know what exactly she was dressing for? Nothing too formal he had said, but Maria had grown up at a farm and everything seemed formal to her. Giving up, she decided on the first dress she had tried on. It was a blue dress made of a shimmering material – it almost looked like satin. The V-neckline wasn't too revealing and the dress ended just over her knees. The half sleeves widened a little at the end which made Maria fall in love with the dress when she first saw it. At least he will like the colour, she figured. And it matched her shoes, she thought satisfied as she looked at herself in the mirror. She needed to have confidence in herself, and in him – in them. Tonight was going to be perfect and Georg would do anything to make it memorable.
Walking around the table for the last time, Georg saw to it that everything was perfect. It had to be. Tonight was the ending of an era and he wanted Maria to enjoy it to the fullest. Tomorrow was going to be a very hectic and nerve-wrecking day and he figured that the least thing he could do was to offer her a relaxing and romantic evening before all the madness started. She had done so much for him and his family and even though he had tried many times, he had never been able to explain to her how he felt. His lack of words caused him to express his gratitude by giving her everything he was able to give her: his home, his life. It was nothing compared to what she had given him and he didn't think that he would ever be able to repay her. It is not like she would let him anyway, she was too humble for that. She claimed that she had everything she would ever need: him and the children. He knew she was speaking the truth because he felt exactly the same way. He had never expected that he would love her as much as he did. Even when he had proposed to her he hadn't seen this coming. He was acting like a romantic fool and even though it wasn't like him at all he relished in it. It took all of his strength to remain a gentleman when he felt the passion fire up within him when they kissed, but he knew it to be worth the wait. She was worth the wait.
His children's excited chatter in the hall brought him back to the land of the living and he walked to the foyer to send them to their beds. He had promised them that they could stay up late at the night of the wedding if they would go to bed early tonight. He had bribed them as Max liked to call it, he saw it as a compromise. When he entered the foyer he opened his mouth to talk but he froze when he saw Maria descend the stairs in the midst of their children.
Absolutely stunning.
She had taken his advice and wore something simple and elegant and she looked positively radiant. He wondered how it was possible for a woman who he saw every day to captivate him as much as Maria did now. All she did was walk down the stairs and he couldn't keep his eyes off of her. It wasn't the way she was dressed that enchanted him, nor the jewellery she had borrowed from Liesl for the occasion that made her sparkle but her hesitant smile and her eyes that now made contact with his. He hardly noticed her relieved sigh when she saw his reaction.
When she stood in front of him he wanted to kiss her but he was fully aware of his children's presence. He settled for a kiss on her cheek. Even though he knew that she didn't always enjoy compliments he couldn't resist praising her appearance.
"Maria you look absolutely beautiful"
His comment was received with a smile that send a shiver down his spine. He knew he would do anything to earn one of those smiles. He really was nineteen again wasn't he?
"Why thank you Captain. You don't look too bad yourself either" She answered with an uneven voice, reaching up to brush over his collar. "Very dashing"
The children had been somewhat silent till now, accustomed to the private moments their father now regularly shared with their governess. More often than not he had tried to steal her away from them when they were out in the garden, always with an excuse that could clearly wait until later, but now that they were all present Liesl started to get a little uncomfortable, she felt like an intruder and figured they had better leave. She guided the rest of the group back to the stairs and to their rooms, realizing that they wouldn't be missed. When she turned around at the top of the stairs she heard Maria say goodnight and she answered with a smile. Everything she would say would be insignificant.
Finally alone, Georg offered his arm to Maria and led her into the dining room.
"Your dinner awaits you in the dining room Baroness" he said in a mocking posh tone when they entered the dimly lit room, filled with candles, and edelweiss and roses surrounded them. "The first part of your surprise"
Maria gasped when she looked around and saw the romantic dinner table that the maids had set for them. Two plates, one at the end of the table, Georg's seat, and one next to it where Marta normally sat. A phonograph was placed in the corner of the room and it played a soft and romantic tune. It wasn't anything exclusive that a normal restaurant couldn't offer but the romantic mood in a place that meant so much more to her than any restaurant ever could and the fact that the handsome man next to her was the only other person present besides her made this so special that she gripped his arm tight to keep from tripping.
"Georg… This is…" The intimate atmosphere made her feel light headed and she couldn't think straight. She didn't succeed in forming a coherent sentence. Why was it that every time this man did something for her she became an inarticulate mess?
"Perfect? Enchanting? Wonderful perhaps?" Georg finished with a playful tone in his voice. His relieve was apparent on his face but even though he was very glad that she liked his surprise he felt he couldn't pass up the opportunity to tease her a little. After all, it didn't happen very often that Maria was actually speechless.
Maria's cheeks turned crimson of embarrassment and Georg couldn't quite understand what she muttered under her breath but he believed it had something to do with "stubborn captains who needed someone to teach them a lesson". Her wry smile soon turned bright when she realized Georg offered her a chair and tried to cover up her awkwardness by saying in a mocking posh voice "Thank you Captain".
Georg grinned and took the seat next to her after he had seated her. He took the napkin of his plate and placed it on his knees. He saw that Maria had done the same and smiled at the thought of how much she had already learned about etiquette. Of course she hadn't been ill-mannered when she had arrived at the villa but it still showed that she had grown up in a poor family and wasn't at all used to the rules of the upper-class. Yet during the short time of their engagement she had grown accustomed to behaving like a baroness and he was sure that people who didn't know that she used to be a postulant-turned-governess raised on one of the many farms the mountains of Austria possessed would ever guess that she wasn't born wealthy. This was just another of the many reasons he could list for her to make the perfect wife, she was a natural at everything.
Knowing that everything that could go wrong would go wrong on an evening like this, Georg had discussed his plans with Cook and Frau Schmidt 3 days prior to make sure that everything went as smoothly as possible. Frau Schmidt had asked one of the maids to act as a waitress for the evening and she would bring in the food when they were seated at the table. When no maid appeared Georg tried to suppress his astonishment and decided to go to the kitchen to see where their food was.
On returning with the maid who brought the plates with food with her, he pulled a silly face which made Maria laugh. He realized that three months ago he would have yelled at the maid and most probably fired her on the spot. Incompetence wasn't something he could deal with in his household but all the trouble Maria had given him at first had made him realize that he needed to control his temper before things got out of hand.
"You know, if you would have just let me keep my whistle, I could have called for her without having to go through the trouble of leaving my wonderful company" Georg said as the maid returned to the kitchen still uttering sincere apologies.
His comment made Maria look up in mock anger but when their eyes met she couldn't contain her laughter. She knew he was only joking but she also realized that he would never let her live down all the things she said in their discussions.
"You are the one who took advice from a simple governess, aren't you?" She shot back.
"Well aren't you clever" Georg said amused, glad that she started to relax. "Now that we are both settled could I offer you some wine?"
"I did not!"
"Oh yes you did darling! You blushed when the children walked in on you toying with the puppets" She burst out laughing merely thinking about it. She had never thought she would see the day that Georg von Trapp would blush. Or play with puppets for that matter. "And I love you even more for it."
"I didn't! And I wasn't playing with the puppets either, I was merely examining them…" he trailed off knowing it was a lost cause.
"Sure you did, love, as long as you believe it yourself."
"You know, I just wanted to see what all the fuss is about, since you all had such a wonderful time with them…"
Silence consumed the living room and Maria sighed in pure happiness. "Dinner was lovely Georg, Cook's meals really are a treat compared to the food at the Abbey. I had a marvellous time."
"You're talking as if the evening is finished but I have a bit more planned than this, darling."
When she didn't respond he took her hand and squeezed it. "Darling?"
"You never cease to amaze me, you know that?" She said earnestly, looking him straight in the eyes.
The serious tone threw him off and for a second he didn't quite know how to answer to this sudden declaration. Maria had never been uncomfortable during their engagement, perhaps excluding the first day which had been unsettling for him as well. She had needed Georg to know how much she loved him and never been shy or afraid but blunt declarations of love like this hardly happened.
"Maria… what…"
Seeing his discomfort she stood up pulling him with her and flashed him a cheeky smile, "As this is my surprise and I call the shots tonight, I would love to dance with my handsome sea Captain."
"It seems I have no other choice, do I?" when he saw her stick her tongue out at him. He led her away from the table, to the adjoining room. He stopped in the middle of the room, "I am sorry it's no golden ballroom filled with people and an orchestra, bu…"
"Don't you dare apologize," Maria interrupted looking sternly at him, "just dance."
"Yes Ma'am" Georg said while saluting.
"Are you making fun of me?"
"Not at all darling, whatever gave you that idea?"
She put her hand in his and put the other on his shoulder and let him lead her into a gentle waltz. Memories of their previous dances came to mind. They all had their own charm for a different reason. The couple had rehearsed several dances for their upcoming wedding and she could still remember the difficulty of mastering them. Sure she could dance a simple Waltz and of course the Ländler, but she wanted their first dance as a married couple to be perfect, so Georg had offered to teach her, which led to nights filled with romantic dances. And then there was the first time they had danced after they had got engaged. It was their first date and they went out for dinner in a fancy restaurant. She had been very nervous but she had relaxed as soon as the melody washed over her and she had let him guide her over the floor. But the dance they had shared on the night of the Baroness' Ball was the most precious of all. It was the moment that everything became clear to her: she was in love with Georg. If she hadn't been petrified of her feelings, she would have seen that all of her feelings were clearly written in his eyes, just like he had been able to read all of hers.
Knowing that he loved her back, that they would be man and wife in two days, engraved this one in her memory as well. Their night was perfect and she couldn't wait for their honeymoon. She felt guilty for leaving the children behind, but Georg had put his hand over her mouth when she had told him, telling her that were glad that they would be unsupervised for over a month. "I am just afraid they will be totally unruly when we get back, darling", he had said. He had managed to arrange the honeymoon without her being there during one of the rare moments they had spent apart during their engagement, so she didn't even know where they would be going.
"Darling?"
"What?" His voice pulled her out of her thoughts, she had hardly noticed that they were still dancing. Giving him a quick smile, she laid her head on his shoulder and let out a deep, contented sigh, "It's nothing…"
Hugging her closer, he looked back on their engagement and he couldn't remember a time in his life when he had been more at ease than he had been these last two months. Loving Maria was so easy and he felt himself falling more and more in love with her every day. Even the threat of the Anschluss seemed farther away than usual even though it was growing more intense every day. Somehow, it seemed out of reach when she was near and he felt like nothing could harm him.
He kissed the top of her head and turned her around once more, both under the spell of the music.
"Where are you taking me?"
"Outside"
When the music stopped Maria had expected a lot of things, but Georg taking her hand and leading her outside wasn't one of them. He remained quiet until he stopped in the middle of the terrace.
"Well, here we are."
She looked over at him trying to figure out what was going on.
"Here? The terrace??"
The doubtful look in her eyes and the questioning tone of her voice made him smile "No not the terrace darling, look closer, or better said, further."
She scrutinized the terrace further but still could not place what Georg was hinting at and she opened her mouth to ask him when she laid her eyes on the dark lake in front of her. Out on the water lay their rowing boat as usual but on closer examination the boat looked somehow different. Walking closer to it she was able to distinguish a couple of blankets.
What was he up to?
He took her hand when he stood still next to her and turned to her.
"So, would you like to join me for an adventure on the water?"
The questioning look in her eyes and her pursed lips spoke volumes about the doubt on her mind.
"Well, can I trust you? How will I know that you won't let me fall into the water like your children did? I am not really looking forward to a swim tonight!"
"My, my, Fräulein, are we scared of a little water?" Georg said with a quasi stern look.
"No, but I am of leaches!"
He couldn't help but smile at the answer, "I promise I won't let you fall out of the boat."
Giving him one last glance she nodded "Hmm… Ok, but if we fall I will torture you until you regret it!"
"Looking forward to it already, my dear" Georg said in a teasing voice as he led her to the waterside and opened the gate for her, "you remember that I do know quite a bit about the water, I happen to have some experience in that area."
Smiling her brightest smile as she stepped into the boat, " Oh but you know I would trust you with my life."
For anyone else that might have sounded like witty retort but Georg heard the serious layer in her voice that made his heart swell up.
He got into the boat himself, sat down on the opposite bench from Maria and rowed away from the edge.
"So I get to see the master at work, then?"
"Oh yes, but rowing around the lake wasn't what I had in mind" he answered.
Maria opened her mouth to question him but Georg interrupted her.
"You will see when the time comes, just a little patience Fräulein."
After a couple of minutes he stopped the boat in the middle of the lake and pulled the oars back in.
"When I planned this night I wanted to include at least one of your favourite things so I decided that tonight would be a perfect night for stargazing. And what is a better place for that than on the middle of the lake with nothing blocking our view. Just us, the stars and the water."
The surprised and overjoyed look on her face was worth all his trouble and the smile and sparkling eyes would be forever with him. He moved over to her and sat next to her on the bench in the boat. He wrapped a blanket around them and pulled her closer to him. She laid her head on his shoulder and he heard her whisper softly.
"Thank you so much for this Georg, it's absolutely lovely."
He gave her a soft kiss on her forehead wrapping his arms closer around her.
"Do you know anything about stars or do you just like to look at them?"
A reflective look crossed her eyes when she considered the question
"My uncle's farm wasn't a place to really talk about such things" Her voice was soft and he could hear that it was painful for her to talk about it. He was honoured she shared the good and the bad with him but it pained him to see her eyes filled with misery. They had not really discussed their pasts thoroughly yet, the children kept them occupied during the day and the evenings were either spent with Max or together walking outside. Somehow they had silently agreed not to spoil their engagement with sad thoughts and depressing memories. They had their entire future in front of them and they did not have to rush anything.
Her voice became light again once she continued "I did say goodnight to my mother every night. I picked out a star and fantasized about her living on that star. It sounds foolish I know, but it made me feel closer to her."
"It's not foolish at all, darling"
When she turned her face to look him in the eyes he leaned in and gave her a soft kiss on the lips.
After he pulled away he tried to lighten the mood by changing the subject
"So do you want me to teach you about the stars? Or would you rather sit here and talk about something else like… oh I don't know… our honeymoon perhaps?"
When he saw her face lit up he continued, "I thought that might pull you out of your reverie. Would you like to know where we are going? Or would you prefer it to remain a secret?"
"Oh! I thought you wanted to keep it a secret, I don't care where we are going to, as long as I am with you…" she trailed.
"So you would not mind me taking you to the most romantic city in all Europe? Paris is lovely this time of year."
Her face resembled a deer in caught in the headlights of a car and she didn't really know what to say. Slowly a bright smile appeared on her face.
"Paris? Really?"
"Nothing but the best for you, my love" Georg answered in earnest, not even trying to hide his relieve that she approved of their destination. "So you like it?"
"Oh, I love it, it is beyond what I had expected! You really should not have done that."
"Hush! We both know that that isn't true."
She laid her head on his shoulder once again and wrapped her arms around him. She felt him hug her closer and looked up at the stars.
"You have made me the happiest woman on earth Georg."
He sighed in total relaxation and wrapped the blankets more tightly around them.
"Well that's what I am here for my love, and I will see to it that you will remain that way for the rest of your life."