Chapter 4: The Princess
The children returned from their birthday party in time for supper with Maria, while the Captain and his guests stayed in town for the evening. Distracted by her charges' chatter about the day's events, she was able to set aside her troubling thoughts about the garden. After supper, they gathered in the schoolroom, and she settled down to begin work on Marta's sketch, while the children amused themselves playing cards or reading. Almost at once, Gretl and Brigitta began clamoring for their own drawings of their Fraulein.
"My goodness, what has gotten into you children? she laughed. "I don't think I got even a single compliment for my drawing skills in all my years of school. You children are quite spoiling me with all this praise! Can you possibly be the same children who left a frog in my pocket not even two months ago?"
"We love you, Fraulein," Marta began, while Gretl crawled into Maria's lap, " …and the summer will end, and…"
Louisa picked up, "…and then you will leave. You are the best governess we've ever had, and…"
"Do you think Father will marry Baroness Schrader?" asked Brigitta, abruptly. The room became silent, seven pairs of eyes looking to Maria.
Maria drew a deep breath. Cautiously, she said, "why do you ask, darling?" There was a great deal to be curious about when it came to the Captain's relationship with the Baroness, and it was hard for Maria to hide her own questions from the children. She reminded herself yet again that her job was to help them prepare for the next chapter in their family's life.
"Of course he's going to marry her," Friedrich scoffed. "it's perfectly obvious. Why else would he have brought her here to meet us?"
"I don't want him to get married," Gretl announced. "He's been married once, to my mother, and how can I have two mothers? "
Liesl shook her head. "No, Gretl, darling, Father should have a chance to be happy. I would not blame him if he got married again. And after all, nothing is going to bring Mother back. But - but I don't think he really loves Baroness Schrader. They don't behave like people in love..."
"Thank heaven!" exclaimed Kurt. "I wouldn't be able to stand it if they went around kissing all the time."
Pushing away a sudden, unnerving mental image of Baroness Schrader in the Captain's arms, looking disturbingly like the cover of Liesl's romance novel, Maria interrupted. "I'm sure your father will do whatever he thinks is best for you children. Marriage – well - it's serious business, children. A sacrament in the Church, remember. People get married because it's God's will for them, just like it's His will for me to … well, anyway. They get married so they can raise families. It's not like - well, like those awful romance novels you girls love. And try to remember, this is a private matter. It's not something we ought to be gossiping about."
"We're not gossiping," challenged Louisa. "This is our father. If he marries her, she'll be our mother! Doesn't it matter what we think?"
"I don't want another mother," Gretl interjected.
"Fraulein?" asked Brigitta. "How do you know so much about why people get married when you are not going to be married yourself?
"Well, you've got a point there. There's probably a great deal I don't understand. But I do know that your father loves you very much, and that he wants what's best for you. If he decides to marry anyone, it will be because he's sure she can be a good mother to you. I think you should give the Baroness a chance. She's a guest here. Try to get to know her, to spend time with her. I don't think she's spent a lot of time around children, and-"
Friedrich interrupted with a snort, and Maria turned toward him, her voice stern. "Try to remember your golden rule, Friedrich, will you?" Her voice softened. "For me?"
He ducked his head, ashamed. "But Fraulein Maria, do you – do you think she knows how to be a mother?"
"Hm. I'll have to think about that one," Maria said hastily. "Come on, now, children. That's enough talk of marriage." She deposited Gretl on the floor and took up her sketchbook. "I've got to get started on those sketches. Brigitta, why don't you read to us from that new book of fairy tales?"
Keeping in mind Marta's request for a long-haired Fraulein, Maria set to work on the sketch, but her mind began to wander back to the puzzle of the Captain's new-found attachment to his children, the desolate ruins of his first wife's garden, and his impending engagement to Baroness Schrader. She spent long minutes lost in her thoughts, only half-attending to the sketchbook before her, barely hearing Brigitta's voice reading out loud.
So when she stopped to survey her work, Maria surprised herself with what she had created: the image of a willowy young woman, her golden hair hanging in rippling waves to her waist, her blue eyes burning beneath thick lashes, her cheeks glowing as if lit from within, her lips curved in a mysterious half-smile. The woman's arms were lifted away from her body, as though she were about to be swept into-
This is not me! What was I thinking?, she thought, hastily turning to a fresh page in her sketchbook – but she was not quick enough.
"Oh, Fraulein Maria, you look like a princess! How beautiful! Thank you SO much!" Marta was thrilled.
"No, Marta. That is not me, for heaven's sake. Let me try again," Maria said firmly, folding the page to hide the princess drawing and determinedly turning to a fresh page. "I'm going to draw myself just as I first arrived from the Abbey, in my rough gray dress and ridiculous hat. I may even include the frog!"
Marta began to protest, but she was conveniently interrupted by a visitor.
"What have we here?"
"Father! Father! Why are you back so early? We've been…" They crowded around him, telling him about the birthday party, the younger ones asking if he'd brought them any treats. Her visit to the garden still fresh in her mind, Maria could not quite bring herself to offer her usual cheerful greeting; instead, she stayed focused on her sketchbook.
"Liesl, I brought you that music you asked for. Brigitta, have you taken the evening paper again? Er – Fraulein Maria? Good evening. Fraulein?"
She couldn't bring herself to look at him - the man who had so dishonored his wife's memory – but she somehow felt his eyes resting on her, his presence creating an uncomfortable silence until she had to say something, to break the tension. It seemed rude not to look at him. "Good evening, Captain. We didn't expect you until later. The children will be going to bed soon, I assure you."
"We came back early. Herr Detweiler stayed in town, but Elsa – I mean, Baroness Schrader – she had a headache, and..."
"Father! Look! Look what Fraulein Maria made for me!"
To Maria's embarrassment, Marta had taken advantage of the momentary distraction to retrieve the princess drawing, and was enthusiastically displaying it to her father. He looked perplexed for a moment, and then, as recognition dawned across his face, he examined the drawing carefully, his eyes lingering on it long enough that she felt her cheeks grow warm.
"Very nice, Fraulein," he said, his eyes not leaving the page.
"It's not very good, really," she protested, "and it doesn't look a bit like…"
Marta broke in. "Father, tell Fraulein Maria to let me keep it."
"Keep what, darling?" he asked, distractedly.
"The drawing, Father! Can't you order her to let me keep it? "
He chuckled. "No, sweetheart, I'm afraid that Fraulein Maria is not entirely under my command. Or anyone's, really." And then the Captain handed the drawing back to Maria, his face unreadable, and turned back toward Friedrich and Louisa, who were bent over a chess board. "Nicely done, Friedrich. Louisa, how do you propose to get yourself out of this?"
And so they sat for a half-hour or more, all nine of them in a golden circle of lamplight as evening turned to night. Brigitta put her book aside in favor of conversation; laughter and jokes somehow filled the room. The windows were thrown open to the night, and Maria could hear crickets chirping and the sound of leaves rustling in the evening breeze. She abandoned the task of sketching herself, and began to draw Friedrich and Louisa at the chess board, her pencil - as though it had a will of its own - somehow straying again and again to capture their father's stern profile, the look of pride on his face.
A sudden thought crossed her mind, as though carried in by the soft evening breeze. "I could stay right here, just like this, forever." It was a kind of contentment Maria had never felt. Is this what it was like when she was alive?
"Georg?"
Baroness Schrader stood in the doorway, looking even more pale than usual.
The Captain was on his feet in a moment. "Elsa? What happened to your headache? I hope we didn't' t disturb you."
"Oh, no. I was just - well, I am feeling better. Won't you come downstairs and have a drink with me?"
A long moment passed, while the Captain looked back to the cozy circle and then again at the Baroness. Maria could not bear to see him torn in two, so she intervened: "It's bedtime, anyhow. Come along, children."
He seemed to send a grateful look her way before taking Baroness Schrader's arm and disappearing down the hallway.
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Late the next afternoon, Maria found herself walking along the lake, an unexpected free hour on her hands. The Captain had disappeared just after teatime, and she had encouraged the children to spend an hour with Baroness Schrader. "Play a game! Sing for her! I'm sure she's anxious to befriend you. There are seven of you and only one of her, I'm sure it can't be easy."
She felt a pang of regret, watching Gretl crawl into Baroness Schrader's lap. Maria understood: the youngest girls had been so starved for attention for so long that they were easily won over by even the smallest gesture, the same way they'd clung to her from her first day at the villa. It would take the Baroness more time to win over the older ones, but isn't that what I want to see happen?
She had tried to use the free time to good purpose, planning the next day's lessons and finishing a small sketch of Louisa on the tennis courts, but she couldn't focus. The next thing she knew, she found herself walking along the lake shore, away from the villa, and toward the walled garden. Somehow, after last night, she felt as though she had to see it again.
Worried she would be missed if she stayed too long, this time, Maria did not walk around the garden before climbing the trellis. There's nothing to see back there anyway, with the gate locked tight, she reassured herself. She climbed up the trellis, more confident on this return visit, swung her legs over the top and dropped gently to the earth below.
And then she heard it, that sharp, unmistakable voice: "What are you doing here?"
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Sorry the updates are so slow – lots of business travel. I don't own the Sound of Music, but I love sharing it with my friends on Proboards and FB and I thank them for their support.