Chapter 26

"Now what are we going to do?" Friedrich asked as the group stood around the picnic blanket watching the passed out Captain snore. He had one hand crooked behind his head in a make shift pillow while his other splayed across his chest.

"How can anyone sleep like that?" Brigitta asked handing Maria the unused linen napkins to put into the basket.

"I knew we should have left a half an hour ago. Now look, we're going to have to wait for him to wake up. That could be another hour." Kurt whined while he rubbed his feet next to his sleeping fathers form on the blanket.

The children had played hard all afternoon long and the Captain right along with them. His bruised ribs hadn't slowed him down one bit as he played catch with the boys and tag with the entire gang. Maria had been waiting for the Captain to get hurt again, but it was Kurt who came up lame with blisters all over his feet. It seemed the boy had outgrown his shoes and neglected to tell anyone.

"Aww Kurt, those feet look horrible." Maria slipped her own shoes off which were soft and more than slightly worn making them nice and wide, "put my shoes on." She told the boy, while the other eight children laughed at his predicament. "If you all walk down that hill over there," she pointed in the direction, "there's a little brook. You can soak your feet in the water, that'll help with the swelling."

Kurt continued to look at her shoes as if they were the most repulsive things on the face of the earth.

"Fraulein Maria," he whined, glancing in his older brother's direction, "I can't wear girl's shoes."

Maria rolled her eyes at the boy, men and their pride she thought.

"What's worse Kurt, swollen feet or wearing woman's shoes for five minutes?" She asked him. He thought hard for a moment, finally shrugging his shoulders and slipping the shoes on.

The nine children set off, with Liam and Friedrich helping Kurt as he limped his way across the meadow.

"Liesl, Louisa, watch the younger ones in the water, please." She called after them, the two girls waving their hands in acknowledgement of her request. "Just get your feet wet," she called after them. The entire group of nine turned back to her all of them with a satirical laugh shaking their heads at her last request as if it were the most ridiculous statement ever made. Why did she think they were not going to listen to her?

Checking her watch, Maria noted the time, ten after four. Like clockwork, she thought as she watched the sleeping Captain. The man falls asleep every day at four o'clock. She wondered if he regulated every aspect of his daily life like he did his naps.

Quietly she packed up the rest of the picnic supplies, folding the other blanket up; she leaned over the Captain and gingerly replaced his bent arm with the material. As stealth as she tried to make her movements, his eyes still fluttered open.

"Hmmm.." He murmured still half asleep, "Why is it so quiet?"

She couldn't help but laugh. Of course he would notice the absence of noise that nine children can make even when they are trying to be quiet.

"Shush, go back to sleep" She whispered over his face smoothing the stray hairs away from his forehead, "I sent them down the hill to the brook so you could nap some more."

He murmured something that she couldn't understand in his sleepy state and then moved to stand back up. She didn't get very far, however, as the Captain grabbed her by the mid-section pulling her down onto the blanket next to him.

Rolling them both onto their sides he snuggled close to her back, pulling her into him, sliding his knees up behind hers. They were a perfect fit. Taking her hand, he twined their fingers together and brought their joined arms around her front locking them together. When she tried to move out of the embrace he tightened his grip, pressing their joined arms against her chest so that she couldn't move.

"Stay with me." He whispered into the back of her neck, it was more of a demand than a question, and Maria wondered if he meant just for his nap or something else.

As much as she wanted to think that it was wrong, she couldn't help but feel how right it felt. Leaning into his strength she felt surrounded, warm and safe. For a moment she let herself believe that she wasn't alone in this world allowing the rhythm of his breathing to lull her into a sense of peace.

Relaxing into his cocoon, she let her mind rest for the time being. Slowly the circles of thoughts swirled into silence. For now she wouldn't worry about the threats or the move or her Aunt's and children's safety. For this peace of time she wouldn't scrutinize why the Captain hadn't told her that he was joining the English Navy. She would forget that back at the villa there was another woman that actually belonged in his arms. And she would stop fretting over how she was going to handle waking up each morning in two weeks with him on another continent.

Instead she focused on the moment. How his muscles massaged into her back with each breath that he took. How his exhale tickled the skin on the back of her neck and sent shivers down her spine. How his hand fit perfectly into hers resting innocently in the valley between her breasts and how his heart beat matched hers singing along to the rhythm of the nature that surrounded them.

"This is what I missed the most after Agathe passed." The Captain whispered behind her breaking the silence between them. "Waking up with her beside me and knowing that we had another day together. Had I known those days were numbered I would have appreciated each one more."

Maria let the silence fall back upon them. She wasn't quite sure how to respond to his confession. This was the first time the Captain had ever expressed his feelings to her over the loss of his wife and she suspected the first time that he expressed them to anyone.

"When Bill was sixteen he was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor." She finally said, figuring the best course of action was to confess a little herself. "His father took him to France where he underwent a new procedure, but that only bought us a little time. The doctors had said at best he had two years to live. We decided to live as much as we could in those two years, that's why we married so young. We didn't have the time to wait."

The Captain pulled her in closer to him as if he wanted to shield her away from the pain of her past. Placing a light kiss on the back of her neck he whispered into her ear, "You were so young Maria, and so brave." His words gave her the courage to continue her confession.

"The doctors underestimated him though, he lived another five years, and I appreciated each and every extra day we had together. Still, I would cut off my right arm just to have one more day with him. To hear his voice and his laughter, to be able to tell him about our children." She took a deep breath here before she continued, "That's what I missed the most after he was gone, not having anyone to share all of the children's accomplishments with. And all the worries that come along with them."

They both let out a melancholy chuckle at that. Children are wonderful, but along with all the great aspects of being a parent, it's the worry that the parents endure on their own.

Silence once again surrounded them, both lost back in their own memories of the ones that they created new lives with. Oddly enough the silence wasn't unsettling but welcomed and serene. In a way to Maria it was nice to talk to someone who knew exactly how she felt without having to tell them. Although different circumstances had brought both of them to this state, the outcome had been the same.

"I suppose," the Captain once again began the conversation, "that no matter how one loses their spouse, we're never truly prepared for it."

"No," she agreed, "we're just left behind to live with the pain."

"Not just the pain, Maria," he said nuzzling his nose into the base of her neck, "but also to find the courage to move on and let go." He raised himself up on his elbow, pushing her body down flat in the room that his absence made so that she now lied beneath him forcing her to look upon his face. Her one leg was twined between his two as he hovered just over her, smoothing some stray hairs back behind her ear.

Bending over he placed a chaste kiss upon her lips. "You make me want to let go, Maria." He whispered as his lips played against hers looking for some sort of compliance. "Until you crossed my threshold I cherished the pain, I fought moving on with tooth and nail. I used my grief to shield out the rest of the world, but you've healed me. Let me do the same for you."

He was dragging his lips all over her face, claiming each freckle for his own with feather light kisses. How she wanted to give in to him. To get lost in every sensation that his touch and words promised her. To let go of the pain that had been caged in her heart for years and to let it feel life and love once more, but still she held back.

"Come with me to England." She hadn't expected this plea from him as she lay in his arms. Her heart gave a little jump at the thought that he didn't want to lose her as much as she didn't want to lose him even if she knew that his request was impossible.

"Go with you to England?" She questioned him pushing him off of her so that she could look into his face. "And what? Wait on the shore side by side with the Baroness?" He physically winced when she brought up the Baroness, again making Maria wonder if he had forgotten about her. "Or will I have to stand in the shadows? While both of us pine over whether or not you're going to return from the sea? That doesn't sound like anything I want to do."

"The sea?" He repeated in confusion. Maria could see the surprise on his face that she knew about his intentions with the English navy, but she didn't care.

"How did you know?" He asked her figuring out the answer when she raised her eyebrows at him. "How the hell did your father in law know?"

"He's a very connected man." She answered.

He sat up running his fingers through his hair, his frustration visible in every line between his eyebrows. He looked vulnerable and lost, completely unlike the stoic man she had met her first day at the villa. Unable to look at him in this state, knowing that it was her that put him there, she got up and continued packing up the picnic belongings.

"I didn't ask for this to happen, Maria." He spat looking away from her. "I had my life all figured out until you walked into it. I was going to marry Elsa and join the English Navy. Put some meaning back into my life. It was regimented and ordered, and then you came along and turned everything upside down."

How dare he accuse her of turning his life into a state of chaos? It was he that was doing the turning, not her.

"Well, don't worry about that, Captain." She countered back in anger at his accusation, "You'll have your regimented life back in two weeks after I leave."

"Two weeks?" He said a little more than bewildered, getting up to his feet. "You're leaving in two weeks?"

"That's right." She reassured him, turning from him to grab the blanket that he had just vacated.

Suddenly he grabbed her by the arm twirling her back around to him yanking her against his chest.

"Like hell you are." He yelled and Maria was sure that they could hear him all the way back at the villa.

The argument would have gone further if it hadn't been for the children cresting the top of the hill, their laughter drowning the Captains next words in his throat. Pushing her away from him before the nine pairs of eyes could spot them, his final words were a whispered threat, "We'll talk about this later."

When they finally reached the villa, Maria needed to just get away from everyone for a few minutes. Again in the driveway after all of the children had filed into the house she and the Captain had argued over her moving into the main house for the next two weeks. And again she reassured him that it was safer for them to remain in the cottage instead of drawing attention to themselves.

Unwittingly they had argued in whispers all the way from the driveway, through the foyer, and were at the veranda doors when Franz had come to her rescue informing the Captain that he had a long distance phone call. Shooting the Captain a victorious smile she headed out the back doors and towards the cottage.

With great relief she found the cottage door still shut tightly and locked. With Liam's help she had rebuilt the inner workings of the lock this morning; the only problem was now whenever the door shut it automatically locked behind them. Countering that problem she had hid a key under one of the cobblestones in front of the door.

After using the key, she replaced it in its hiding spot and stepped into her kitchen. All was quiet in the house and she let out a sigh relieving some of her tension. How long had it been since she had quiet during the day? Months, maybe years. Feeling assured that her children and the von Trapp children could handle getting ready for dinner on their own today; she let the call for a nice hot relaxing bath lead her up the stairs to her bedroom.

Stripping out of her days clothes, she wrapped a towel around herself and readied the tub. Letting the water run a minute, she adjusted the temperature to extremely hot and searched her bathroom for her lavender bath salts. She wasn't surprised to find them missing once again as Lynn had grown a penchant to them in the past few months. Turning the water off she headed down the stairs annoyed at the delay this had caused, reminding herself to get the girl her own bottle.

Her mind was in a daze as she made her way through the house to the children's bedroom. There were so many unanswered questions swirling through her brain, she couldn't even focus on one to resolve. How was she going to tell the children about the move? How was she going to convince the Captain to let her take his children with her? Whenever she thought of this it lead to her wanting him to come along too, and she knew that he would never do that. Even if he did agree to it he would definitely refuse after he found out about her parentage, so why should she even try?

Plus there was no point of trying since he had already told her of his plans to marry the Baroness. When she remembered him saying this, the tight fist that had been in her belly reached up and wrenched her heart. She had fought back the tears that had wanted to fall when he had said it, but now as she reached her children's bedroom door a single tear escaped and trailed down her cheek.

Arguing with herself for being so weak, she wiped the tear away, and marched through the bedroom. Had she not been so lost in her own thoughts she may have seen the two sleeping forms in her children's bed as she made her way to the back of the bedroom to the bath that occupied it. It wasn't until she was at the foot of the bed and about to enter the bathroom that a slight movement under the blankets caught her attention startling her. Letting out a high pitched scream she awoke the two sleeping occupants of the bed causing them to sit upright, emitting screams of their own.

When everyone had run out of breath an eerie silence fell upon the room as the three undressed people tried to figure out what the hell was going on. It took Maria three looks upon the two different faces to recognize the Baroness and the Adonis gardener occupying her children's bed. Not only were they in the bed, they were both butt naked under her children's bed sheets. Maria was the first to break the silence as her biggest thought escaped her lips.

"My children sleep in that bed!"

The two fornicators looked at each other in surprise. The Baroness formed a face at their faux pas.

"We thought this was your bed," she said by way of apology.

"And that makes it better?" Maria yelled, as the Adonis was getting up out of the bed wrapping her children's sheet around his mid-section. She would have to burn it now, was all Maria could think.

"I always change the sheets, Maria." The Baroness explained as she wrapped the children's bedspread around herself also vacating the bed. Oh lord, Maria thought, there is going to be a bonfire of bed linens tonight on the lake. All who would like to attend may do so free of charge.

"Countess," the Adonis referred to her by her old title. Maria's family had long ago dropped the rank from their name after their move to America. There was only one family that had worked for Maria's father for generations that had always referred to them by their nobility title. The last having died the same night as her parents, he had been the head of their security, and in her father's way that night. It hadn't been only Maria's family that her father had destroyed.

"Please," the Adonis continued in English searching out Maria's eyes. When Maria actually settled her gaze upon them she was startled by their familiarity. The last time she had looked upon those very eyes they had been lying on her father's parlor floor with a dead stare coming from them. "Forgive me for this."

Remembering what her father in law had told her the night before about the gardener being one of his men, Maria slowly began to connect the pieces together.

"Daniel?" Maria questioned the gardener, recalling the man as a boy some fifteen years earlier. The last she had seen him he was a teenager at his father's funeral, frail and thin, nowhere near the mammoth man he was today.

"You remember me?" He asked beaming a smile at her. It was an awkward situation, standing here in her children's bedroom the Baroness naked under her children's bedspread, him naked under her children's sheet and her naked under her wrapped towel as they made their re-acquaintance. If they had been on a city street she would go to hug him, however, right now she thought better of it.

"I work for your father in law now," he said and then added as if she wouldn't know her own father in law's name, "Mr. von Helstin."

Groaning inwardly at being ousted in front of the Baroness, Maria shot the silent woman a look.

"It's alright Maria. I already knew who you were." The Baroness walked over next to her lover who placed his arm around her mid-section, drawing her close to his side, "Daniel already told me everything before we came to Salzburg."

"Oh," Maria said, finally turning ten shades of red at the situation they were in, "so this has been going on for…"

"Awhile," the Baroness finished for her. "What can I say," she shrugged her shoulders, "it was love at first sight." The two lovers shared a knowing smile with each other for a moment forgetting Maria was in the room. Continuing to stare into each other's eyes the Baroness went on, "I am so grateful that Vilhelm sent this wonderful man to spy on me." They shared a chuckle between them and Maria began to wonder if she should give them some privacy, when she remembered the Captain. Wasn't the Baroness supposed to be in love with the Captain?

"What about the Captain?" Again Maria's thoughts came out in voice. The Baroness let out a slow sigh and hung her head low.

"For a long time I knew that I loved Georg," the Baroness began to confess, "he is a good man, but it wasn't until I met Daniel that I learned the difference between loving someone and being in love with someone. I never felt like this before, not even with my husband. I was going to tell Georg when he came to Vienna, but then we needed to get Daniel here to you so…" The Baroness trailed off leaving Maria to put the rest of it together.

"Oh my God," Maria moaned loudly, "you need to tell him." Here it was Maria had denied her feelings for the Captain for many reasons the most prevalent one being the Baroness. And here was the Baroness romping around in her children's bed with another man. The whole thing was absurd when she thought about it.

"I know, I will, I just couldn't break his heart." The Baroness said as they all turned to a sound coming from the kitchen.

The three of them stood silent focusing on the sound, Daniel with his arm outstretched in a protective manner across both women.

"Maria." When they heard the Captain's voice coming from the kitchen six eyes became as wide as saucers.

"Oh no!" Maria whispered, "It's the Captain."

"Thank you for clarifying that, Mrs. Obvious," the Baroness said low into Maria's ear.

Shooting her a look, Maria wondered out loud, "How the hell did he get in here?"

"Probably the same way we did," Daniel said, ushering the Baroness towards the bathroom, "with the key under the cobblestone." Pushing the Baroness into the bathroom and handing her the clothes that he picked up along the way he finished, "that's really high security there, Countess."

"Stop calling me that." Maria whispered in annoyance. In a panic she looked around the room. There were clothes scattered everywhere. Helping Daniel pick up the garments, they began throwing them through the door narrowly missing the Baroness with each one.

"What are we going to do?" The Baroness kept asking over and over again.

"Maria, go out there and talk to him." Daniel instructed, "Keep him away from here."

"I'm in a towel."

"Well that should keep him distracted!" The Baroness said right before she slammed the bathroom door shut concealing herself as they heard the Captain enter the parlor room. In a panic, Maria and Daniel started to turn in circles looking for any remaining clothes, both of them taking off at the same time towards the closet, it being the only remaining place to hide. Tripping over each other they tumbled to the floor, with Daniel landing on top of a now very naked Maria, who had lost her towel somewhere along the way.

Crushed under a very heavy Daniel, with just a thin sheet as a barrier between their two naked bodies, Maria turned her head towards the bedroom door where she spotted two polished shoes standing in the threshold.

"What the hell is going on?" She heard the Captain shout, the force of which rattled the bedroom windows.

"Uh-oh," were her last words right before she passed out.

First let me apologize for taking so long to post this update. Right now is swim competition season, so I basically live at the pool. We have practice 5 nights a week and swim meets 2 days a week, so I'm at the pool every day for at least 3 hours a day since my children have two different practice times. Thank goodness after the end of this week we are done for the season, so bear with me.

Second, I had written this chapter three different times, (Sorry to TSom who beta read one of my versions and loved it, I just couldn't go with that version just yet)

Third, I apologize for any spelling or grammatical errors, I had no time to go back and re-read it again, so if there is any please over look them I just wanted to get something posted.

The Move to Mature is coming either the next chapter or the one after that so be on the lookout.

Thanks again for reading and please do review. They really help and mean a lot to me. Even if you don't like the story, you could tell me what you'd like to see!