Chapter 7
Announcements
"Kurt! Let go of my headband!" Brigitta screamed as she chased her brother out of her bedroom.
They ran around the hallway, and collided into their older sister.
"Will you two knock it off?!" Liesl hissed irritably. "You'll wake the whole house!"
"Too late," came a groggy, annoyed voice behind them. Friedrich shuffled out of his and Kurt's bedroom.
"Kurt," Louisa added as she, too, stumbled sleepily out of her and Brigitta's room, "must you bother us every single morning?"
"Yes!" he said mischievously as he banged the headband on Brigitta's head. She shrieked and grabbed at him.
"Stop it," Louisa struck out at her brother, causing the headband to go flying. Brigitta ran for it, but stopped suddenly. The other children also stopped their fighting as they looked at what had caught her eye.
The door to the governess's room was shut.
"The door," Kurt started, walking towards it.
"But, it's only shut when a governess is in there," Liesl noted.
They all stared at each other, and then at the door.
"You don't think," Friedrich whispered, not daring to hope.
"Children!" their father's voice called down from the dining room. "Please come down to breakfast and wake whoever isn't alive yet!"
"Yes, Father!" Kurt yelled, but Louisa elbowed him harshly.
"Someone is there, stupid," she snapped. "You don't want to wake them up!"
"Well," Kurt shrugged as he headed towards the stairs. "If it's our new governess, she should be awake by now anyway."
"Good morning, children," their father greeting them warmly as they entered. Max had eaten early and was off to search for some talent he could help. Help was his word; exploit was the Captain's.
"Good morning, Father," they replied. Marta and Gretl still were wiping the sleep from their eyes.
Sitting down in comfortable silence, the children tried to be on their best behavior. Their father had not returned by the time they had gone to bed the night before. They knew it wasn't proper for them to ask him questions about such things, but it wasn't like him (at least, the new him) to be absent without any word.
"I hope," he began, sternly, but with a twinkle in his eye. "That whatever the incident was upstairs just now, the issue has been resolved."
Kurt and Brigitta looked guilty. "Yes, Father," they murmured.
The mention of the "incident upstairs" sparked Liesl's memory. "Father," she exclaimed. "Why is the governess's door shut?"
"Shut?" he looked surprised.
"Yes," Louisa added. "It's never shut unless someone is in there."
"Oh, so I see," he continued to look puzzled.
"Well, who is our new governess?" Kurt asked impatiently.
"We have a new governess?" Marta asked excitedly.
"New governess?" their father repeated, knitting his eyebrows in confusion. "I don't know anything about a new governess."
Liesl eyed him suspiciously. "Well, if it's not a new governess, who is it, then?"
To their surprise, he smiled. Slowly rising out of his chair, he looked at each of them. "Children," he said, suddenly serious. "You're not going to have a governess anymore."
"We're not?" they chorused.
"No," he answered as he walked to the entrance door. "You're going to have a new mother."
Suddenly, none of them felt like eating at all. Images of the Baroness Schraeder kissing them at Christmas and other "family" times invaded their heads and none of them liked what they saw in the least.
"A new mother?" Liesl repeated tentatively.
"Yes," he said. "We talked it over last night, and we're all going to be very happy."
A movement from the other side of the room caught his eye. He looked up and smiled warmly. Following his gaze, the children turned slowly around and saw the woman who was going to be their new mother.
"Hello, children," Maria said softly.
Within seconds, all seven children had flown out of their seats and attacked Maria with hugs and kisses.
"Is it true? Really?" they all asked through tears.
"Yes," Maria answered, peaceful happiness flowing through her. "If you'll forgive me for leaving you all so suddenly, I would be honored to be your mother."
"Were you in the governess's room all night?" Marta asked.
"Yes, darling, all night."
"Was Father there too?" Kurt asked, somewhat innocently.
"Kurt!" the Captain exclaimed, and Maria turned red. "Behave yourself."
The boy didn't quite know what he had implied but judging from the color Fraulein Maria, Liesl, and Louisa had turned, it wasn't good. "Sorry," he mumbled.
"Why did you leave?" Brigitta asked.
"Brigitta," Georg stepped in to join the crowd. He sat down on the floor next to Louisa and squeezed her hand. "Let's leave questions like that for another time."
"You won't leave again, will you, Fraulein Maria?" Gretl asked as she snuggled closer to Maria.
Rubbing the girl's hair, Maria let her happy tears fall. "Gretl," she said slowly as she looked at each of the children in turn, "and all of you, I promise that I will never leave you again, God willing."
Content with the new family they had formed, the nine of them sat there, on the floor of a castle dining room. The children spoke excitedly about their new future. Finally, they were looking forward to it.
Georg stood up after some time. "Well, if you'd like, hurry up and eat so we can spend the day outside together," he suggested. Then, with a wry smile, he added, "I say we go berry picking."