Maria pled exhaustion before the party ended and escaped to the villa. She sat for a while on the terrace, finding safety in the dark. There was only so long she could make that one champagne glass last and she wanted a clear head. The crowd had worn her out. She could smell the edelweiss and vanilla and wondered if it was all a dream and she would wake up in her narrow bed in the boarding house with only the memory of the perfume. And that the Baroness hadn't remembered her.

Her heart ached for the melancholy that shadowed the other woman's life. She had kept it to herself for far too long. Maria was willing to bet that the people who boasted of knowing her best, knew nothing of it.

Dainty footsteps echoed on the paving stones and Maria turned hopefully.

'Maria? Are you feeling alright? You left early.'

The concern in Elsa's voice made Maria's heart soar. She did care!

'I'm fine. I haven't drunk too much, I'm not tired, I just wanted a bit of solitude. I don't know how you do it all the time, being among the crowd so much.'

'Well, you tend to get used to it. Sometimes I'd like to just curl up with the radio more often on an evening but…'

Elsa stopped.

'I'm sorry, I didn't mean to sound ungrateful for my life.'

She smiled wanly. Maria frowned.

'Baroness, you don't have to be the life and soul of the party every evening. They can't expect that of you.'

'They can when I give such good dinner parties.'

Maria could see that the other woman was making an effort to sparkle. As if she couldn't switch off from her hostess duties. Maria wouldn't ask that of her.

'I'm sure your dinner parties are marvellous, Baroness. You really do make everything seem effortless.'

'You'll be attending the next one. I have a superb idea for décor and the menu.'

'I'd like that. But you work so hard on it. You don't need to try and impress me all the time.'

'I know these things don't impress you. I would have to work far harder to do that.'

Maria thought this was what it meant when rich people were unhappy. She moved closer.

'Was it the Baron that give you the edelweiss?'

Elsa looked surprised.

'Oh. No. That was a suitor that I had never intended to marry. He was sweet but not a match my mother could have envisioned for me.'

Elsa didn't say that she had hoped that the person who had given her that would have been the one before, that silly girlish nonsense again. But Maria seemed to sense her thoughts.

'I don't agree, you know, when people say that young love isn't mature. I think it can be, in its own way.'

Elsa didn't want to speak of the one who betrayed her, who had married quickly and cast her off, ashamed of their closeness.

'I think that it depends on the person.'

She closed the gap between them and steeled herself for whatever was to come. Rejection, affirmation, something was going to come out of it.

'I'd shocked you when I spoke so out of turn at the Prater. I didn't mean to be flirtatious with you. It was inappropriate and I apologise.'

Maria looked startled.

'I was shocked but I don't think for the same reason that you believe.'

Elsa wasn't prepared for that.

'What reason would you think?'

'I know you and Max think of me as naive. Unworldly. I know that I am, for the most part. It's just that when you replied so unexpectedly, I got a thrill because even though I had assumed correctly, what you said had initiated the possibility that…well I have known what it is like to feel this way about another woman, once. After it had ended I thought I had imagined that it had ever happened but I know it did. And I knew she'd never tell anyone about it. So I never did. I'd never heard anyone else mention it before and it felt like a sign, when you did. You must know that I'm terribly fond of you, Baroness. And I think, you might feel the same way.'

Elsa recalled Maria's reaction and thought that it now made sense. A discovery had provoked that blush and stammer, not horror. For this feeling to keep repeating itself with another, maybe it was a sign. Max had been right. He would be insufferably smug once he knew. Because now there was no turning back. She raised her hand and stroked her fingers through Maria's hair. Maria's hopeful expression turned to relief when she saw that she had won Elsa over. It just felt so right.

'Why do you wear your hair so short?'

Maria leaned into the touch. She very rarely had anyone touch her hair and it was such a pleasure.

'I'm just used to it. I've always been cutting my hair off with the kitchen scissors since I was a child.'

Elsa smiled at such frankness. Maria took advantage of the silence between them, leaned forward and firmly pressed a kiss, long and lingering with just enough promise. The intention was clear. Ignoring Elsa's gasp, she didn't rush it. She let the other woman relax into it and once she did, it was Maria's turn to feel her heart fluttering. Elsa slid her hand down Maria's jaw and took over with such slow intensity that Maria felt dizzy and clutched a handful of silk to steady herself. As Elsa slowly walked her backwards to the bed, Maria let herself fall into her arms, ready to be transported to heady heights of ecstasy. Elsa's steady hands slid down, rested on her hips, curved around her back. Maria could feel her cool hands through the thin fabric of the dress and felt the yearning twist in her belly. She wanted those dextrous hands everywhere, on her skin, in between her legs, inside her. Just thinking about it made her breath catch. She'd never done it before but it wasn't the first time she'd wanted it.

'Giving someone edelweiss is very romantic, did you know that? It's for lovers' murmured Elsa, her lips against Maria's throat. Maria closed her eyes and shivered. She hadn't known. But maybe that simple mountain flower had been the sign all along.