Disclaimer: I wish.
Chapter 2
His eyes traveled down his wife's curves as she left her seat beside him and moved toward the front of the car. She carried herself like a queen, and yet he had seen her look equally natural scampering barefoot after the children, grown-up dignity set aside for a raucous game of tag. She seemed to him to belong to any setting, whether among the hills in a simple dress of her own making or wearing a smartly tailored skirt and jacket in a first-class train car. He chuckled to himself, knowing she preferred the former.
It had required a dance of wills to persuade Maria into putting together an extensive trousseau for their honeymoon. She declared that she had never had much need for a lot of clothes. What clothes she did have had always been perfectly serviceable, and though she recognized that her new standing would require her to look the part of a Ritter's wife, she had balked at the amount of money he handed her as she and Liesl prepared for their first shopping trip in town.
"Darling, it really is quite reasonable," he had explained, counting on his fingers for effect. "You'll need a few evening gowns, a coat or two for chilly evenings, some day dresses, shoes to go with them, and at least ..." he calculated, "seven suits."
"Seven??"
"Well, we will be away for over a month."
"Yes, but seven??"
Ultimately they had compromised. She bought four tailored suits, among the other items he had mentioned, and then insisted upon giving all of her old clothes to the poor. He successfully petitioned her to keep two: one a gauzy blue dress that he secretly determined never to allow her to part with as long as he lived; the other, a dress eminently suited for playing tag that he had first beheld clinging defiantly to her figure, sopping wet with lake water.
In one matter, however, he had stood his ground like a tyrant. He, Liesl, and Maria had strolled through several boutiques before they saw the dress: simple, elegant, stunning, the gauzy white veil forming a billowing train. He had seen her eyes widen and heard her breath catch before she turned away sensibly to look at other options.
He insisted she try it on. She demurred. He pressed harder.
"Don't try it on if you don't like it. Humor me with the truth, however. You do like it, don't you?"
She let out a sigh. "It's the most beautiful dress I've ever seen."
Her preference admitted, he proceeded to scrupulously ignore any and all pecuniary objections. Liesl, who helped Maria with the fitting, had taken up his cause quite readily and eagerly described to her father how beautiful her mother-to-be looked in the gown, while the object of this praise strolled beside them, arm linked in his, looking quietly radiant. Intrigued by the new light he perceived in his fiancée's countenance, he only half payed attention to Liesl. And then the answer struck him: at last, she knew that she was beautiful! A vibrant, almost triumphant laugh rolled from his chest, interrupting Liesl and causing both of his companions to look up at him quizzically.
"Father?" Liesl ventured. Her father was not generally prone to spontaneous outbursts of mirth.
"Forgive me for interrupting you, darling," he said, quickly stroking his daughter's cheek. "I'm just happy is all."
They continued on in a contented silence, and he reached over to cover with his own the hand Maria had tucked under his elbow. He vowed that that very night, and always, he would be sure to tell her how beautiful she was.