The children clearly needed the adventure to her mountain. She could hardly keep up with them as they ran ahead of her, leaping and shouting with joy. Friedrich carried their picnic basket, thankfully, so she could keep a better hold on the little girls. When they finally made it to a stopping point, high upon the mountain, she took a deep breath and looked to the sky. She was definitely out of shape after two weeks of pure laziness, she thought with a smile.

They set up the picnic and ate quickly, rushing to get to the games they all brought with them. Maria found herself thrown into the chaos, jumping rope, playing ball, occasionally fixing one of the girls' hair when it fell out in the middle of the games. Finally, after a long while of burning energy, they all began to settle down, much to her delight. She sat upon the picnic blanket, picking up a deck of cards and beginning to sort them.

"Fraulein Maria, what did you do while we were away?" Kurt's voice found her as he sat upon the blanket to take a drink, his face flushed from exertion.

"Oh, I spent time missing you all, of course. Brigitta, you will love to know that I am very well acquainted with the library." The girl smiled in excitement; they would definitely be spending some quality time together in that room in the future. "I also met your Aunt Hede and cousin Nora."

"You did? No fair, we haven't seen her in ages."

"Maybe she can come back again soon. I didn't get to talk to her much, but I did get to play with the baby." The story sounded so nice to her ears that she nearly forgot how anxious she felt that day, or the Baroness reminding her of her place as the help.

"We wish you could have come with us. We weren't allowed to play much." The other children had joined them by that point, and she smiled at the sweet faces around her.

"That's alright, Kurt. You got to experience a beautiful place and spend quality time with your grandparents."

"You know why they didn't want you to come, right?" Louisa smiled, as if she were hoping to let out some big news.

"Louisa, you might hurt her feelings!" Kurt whined from her side.

"Well now you have to tell me." Louisa grinned even wider upon being given permission.

"Our grandparents believe we are all too old to have a governess, even Gretl. And they didn't want us to bring a stranger from the mountains who would steal their belongings." She opened her mouth in shock, but laughed before she could help herself, causing the nervous children to join her.

"Grandmother also said that she didn't need a nun judging the way she did things." She felt less amused by Brigitta's words, but maintained her smile so they wouldn't think her feelings were hurt. She never could understand why some people became so uncomfortable or guarded when they found out she was a postulant. As if that made her less of a normal person, or somehow should cause them to be on guard with her.

"Well that would explain why your father was so secretive about me staying behind."

"Did father miss us terribly?"

"I'm sure he did, Marta. Though I didn't see him enough to ask." Why did she feel the need to lie to the children, she wondered. They would have no reason to know or care how much time she spent with their father, but for some reason she felt the need to mention it.

They spent the rest of the afternoon talking and catching up, laughing and sharing stories of their trip to Venice. They packed up and began making their way home so they would be there in time for supper, everyone finally calm and moving at the same pace. Maria was very glad they had stolen away for the day. It gave her peace to know that everything was finally going back to the way it was supposed to be. Except her situation with the Captain...

She stayed up thinking longer than she should have after she returned to her bedroom the night before. Every word he said, every possible scenario they could live bounced around in her brain. She went from deciding she would never sleep with him again to thinking of ways they could be alone together, all in the same moment. Even after all the thinking, she still had no idea what she wanted to do. Well, she knew what she wanted to do, she simply wasn't sure what she was going to do. She knew she needed to resist the temptation of his arms.

And then they returned home, and she met the Captain's eyes across the dinner table. As much as she tried to tell herself she was strong enough to stay away from him, she felt weak, as if he were drawing her in with the spell of his smile.

No, she would not give in to her urges. The children were back, and they were her top priority. At the very least she needed to set a good example for them. At least, that's what she kept telling herself.