Disclaimer: not mine, don't own, all for fun

Chapter Twenty One

He dreamed he was in a large house with many rooms. There was music playing gaily from somewhere and he was roaming through the halls trying to find it. Each door he opened only led to empty rooms. The sound of each step he took echoed off bare walls. He caught glimpses of someone when he would turn around, someone who dodged out of his vision, laughing at him, not in a cruel way but playfully. There are so many doors, he thought to himself in the dream, if she would only stop and wait for me…

Slowly the music disappeared and the laughing turned to singing. The words were muffled and impossible to understand but the sound was mesmerizingly beautiful. He started to run after it but a dense wall of fog started to close in from every direction. He stumbled to the ground, confused to discover that he was no longer wandering in an empty house. He could feel the grassy ground beneath him.

She stopped singing and called to him, her voice bouncing off the mountainside. His sense of urgency grew, but he was frozen in place… there was too much fog and he was too afraid to take a single step in any direction. Yet he needed to find her…

"Wait!" Georg's eyes flew open and he sat up straight. He looked around and remembered he had sat down in his room to do some reading when the warmth of the fire and the effects of an empty scotch bottle caused him to drift to sleep. He rubbed his eyes and let out a low moan.

He used to have the dream every night right after Agathe passed away, but it had been so long since the last time that it unsettled him. It also unsettled him how the details seemed to have changed, more specifically… the singing. He was deeply disturbed that he didn't seem to recognize the voice as Agathe's voice. In fact he didn't recognize it at all. Still, one thing was hauntingly the same; he could never get to her before he woke up.

There is no point in making it more than it is, he thought as he stood up and stretched. A lot had happened since the last time he had that dream and could easily account for the changes. He knew he would go mad if he tried to make it mean anything. But that voice… the singing… it was like he could still hear it, even awake. He quickly straightened up and became alert.

He could hear it! He turned toward his door and strained his ears to hear. Somewhere in his house someone was singing. He pulled his watch out of his pocket and noted the time. It was well past bedtime. The audacity of that woman! Did nothing he tell her get through? He straightened his jacket and tie before opening his door to put a stop to it all.

He marched slowly but steadily toward the singing, the dark hall occasionally lit by a flash of lightening. He appreciated the storm raging outside. It matched the one raging in himself. If the combination didn't help governess number twelve to understand nature of her infraction, he feared nothing would.

He was glad to see that the door to her room was already wide open, all the better to catch her in the act of defiance. It also enabled him to hear something else that shocked him; there was laughter mixing with the singing. It was becoming obvious that despite Fraulein Maria's experience as a nun, she held very little sacred.

He stood quietly in the doorway and observed the melee. A few of his children were jumping happily on the bed while the others twirled and whirled recklessly about the room. He could not even begin to guess what had prompted such a display. No governess had managed to win his children's approval so quickly… or ever, for that matter. Then again, no governess had dared to defy his instructions so blatantly before she came along either.

"When the dog b-bi-bites… oh!" Maria whipped herself around quickly, nearly colliding into him. He found himself wondering how old she was. Until she nearly slammed into him, she blended in with the flock of children flying about the room so well he thought she was one of them. He glared at her, inwardly glad that she at least had the sense to look guilty and embarrassed.

Everything came to a silent halt. Quickly, and without a single word to each other, the children sped into their orderly line and stood at stiff attention. Their serious stares did little to hide their fear of the wrath to come. Maria watched with dismay, her shoulders slumping in frustration. She turned back toward the Captain.

"Fraulein, did I not tell you that bedtime is to be strictly observed in this house?" His voice dripped with the dare to deny it.

"Well, the children were upset by the storm, so I thought that if I…" she stopped and sighed. "You did, sir." She was simply infuriating. She managed to both answer the question and give an excuse. Moreover, she didn't seem to have an ounce of fear of him.

"And do you or do you not have difficulty remembering such simple instructions?" he tried again.

"Only during thunderstorms, sir." She gave him a triumphant look. He wasn't amused, but the children were. Kurt stifled a laugh, earning a disapproving scowl from his father and a few nudges from his sister. For a brief second the Captain considered that this was a clever move by his children to get the new governess in trouble, but something was different. They were on her side.

"Liesl," he barked, trying to regain the upper hand.

"Yes, Father?"

"I don't recall seeing you anywhere after dinner," he challenged. He watched his daughter's eyes dart to Maria for help.

"Oh, really? Well, as a matter of fact…"

"Yes?"

"Well, I… I was, I was…"

"Uh, what she means to say, Captain, is that uh, she and I have been getting better acquainted tonight," Maria interrupted, jumping a step between him and the children. "But it's much too late to go into all that. Come along, children. You heard your father. Go back to bed immediately." He wondered if she was mocking him by trying to reprimand them. They quickly made a run for it, Liesl stopping to give her a grateful smile before following the others out the door. The Captain watched them go. He turned to finish the confrontation with the governess.

"Fraulein, have you managed to remember that I'm leaving in the morning?" he asked evenly. She nodded, her eyes focused but slightly bewildered. "Is it possible that you remember that the first rule in this house is discipline?" Again, Maria nodded. "Then I trust that before I return you will have acquired some?" Finally he was satisfied, hoping he was witnessing her learn her place. As he turned to leave, he noticed that she still looked at him queerly, her gaze darting between his face and his hands.

He looked down and realized he had been twirling the mystery key between his fingers the entire time he confronted her. She looked as though she wanted to ask about it but he wasn't in the mood to explain anything more to her. He had given her enough to ponder. He quickly dropped the key into his jacket pocket and headed back out the bedroom door.

"Captain? Uh, I wonder if, before you go, I could talk to you about some clothes for the children…" He rolled his eyes. He had nearly escaped but she was unstoppable.

"Fraulein Maria…" he moaned impatiently.

"… For when they play. If I could just have some material…" she spoke faster and louder over his protestations.

"You are obviously many things, not the least of which is repetitious."

"But they're children!"

"Yes. And I am their father. Good night." He spun on his heals quickly and departed back down the hall, determined to have the last word.

When he reached his bedroom, he closed the door and stared at the suitcases already packed and ready for his early departure for Vienna. He had practically forgotten all about his plans until Elsa's telegram arrived at dinner. She agreed to return to Salzburg at the end of the trip. Just those few words meant she was finally considering his proposal. The one bright moment of this long and tiring day.

It started with the arrival of the new governess and slowly disintegrated from there. She had something to say about everything. While he tried to impress the importance of his rules, she just stared at him with a smile, as if she couldn't possibly take anything he said seriously and had very little fear for her job security.

Dinner was a veritable nightmare. She kept them waiting for a start. She went on about thanking the Lord for the meal, about gifts in her pocket, about feeling welcome and wanted… making the children burst into tears, all the while acting as though the entire scene was normal and fine. He half wished the children had chosen a bigger pine cone for her chair!

This last interlude was just as bad… no, it was worse. It was a bold disregard for everything he told her he expected. Exactly where does jumping on the bed and singing on the top of your lungs fall under the definition of decorum, he would like to know. Protecting the children at dinner was one thing, admirable even. But her cover for Liesl a few minutes ago was entirely inappropriate. He knew exactly where his daughter had vanished off to and he would have expected a higher sense of propriety from a nun than even a girl's own father, but she looked him in the face and lied anyway.

He suddenly remembered; she was not a nun. And she was once married. Now she was a governess. If he didn't have his own mysterious past to contend with, he might be inclined to find her a rather fascinating case. As it stood, he was willing to give her one more chance because nothing was going to stop him from going to see Elsa in the morning. Nothing. More than ever, he needed to see her… to be with her and convince her to marry him.

Before getting into bed, Georg opened the top drawer of his dresser and pulled out a small a velvet box and transferred it to a pocket of the small valise sitting by the door. He wanted to be ready if she said yes. He was tired of this feeling of limbo, of not moving forward. He was ready for his life to start again and it wouldn't until she agreed to marry him.

Down the hall, in the quiet darkness of her new room, Maria lay awake. She wondered what he was doing at that moment. When she married him, she was surprised to discover how easy and natural it was for her to share a bed with him. She slept better knowing he was there. She hoped being under the same roof could provide some of the peace she knew when he slept right beside her.

She knew she didn't give a good impression at all that day, but she couldn't help herself. And it wasn't entirely her fault. She didn't put that frog in her pocket or that pinecone on her chair. She could hardly be held responsible for their behavior on the very first day!

Not that she blamed them either. If she had to wear a uniform and march all day, she would be inclined to rebel, too. She still remembered what it was like to be a child starved for attention and even the smallest gesture of affection. If she searched her memory long enough, she knew she would be able to come up with a few pranks she pulled that would make a pinecone on a chair seem like a picnic in the park.

No, she may not have won her any favor with her Captain, but she would not be sorry about comforting them during the storm, or for keeping Liesl's secret. She knew he was a smart man deep down. Sure, he was angry now but he'd calm down and understand. He might even thank her. What is that saying? You have to crack a few eggs to make an omelet? She was going to crack as many eggs as she needed to help this family be happy. Perhaps it was selfish, and God forgive her if it was, but there was too much of her own future happiness at stake to do otherwise.

Maria turned over in her bed, still restless. It was a shock to see him holding that key, like seeing the past collide with the present. But unlike the shock that brought her to her knees at the abbey chapel floor, this shock gave her hope.

The moment she saw him holding that key, she was able to stop seeing the angry Captain and see her Smitty. She saw the man she loved clinging to a part of his life with her. And it gave her hope because it showed that he wanted to remember. She almost asked about it, but he put it away the moment he realized she saw it. He wants to remember, she thought, but he's also afraid.

"Oh, Smitty," she whispered into the night. "Don't be afraid. You are loved."

A/N: Another chapter done. Considering I'm writing on a laptop with a renegade touch pad that sends the cursor all over the place while I'm typing, I'm amazed it happened at all. A couple words of thanks… to a certain Canadian coffee shop chain for their yummy coffee and free wifi and not kicking me out for all the time I spend there. And for my new SOM fanfic friends that have helped with their brilliant insights… if you are a SOM fanfic writer and want to join a super group of people eager to talk ideas and help with input, PM me and I'll direct you.