Chapter Six: The Ball
June 29, 1938
Well what do you know? I got my wish! The Baroness and Max went into town to settle arrangements for the party. The Baroness begged Father to go, but he told her he would rather stay with his children. She seemed upset and reluctantly left. Father seemed happy and asked us all at breakfast what we wanted to do. We decided to take a bike ride then hike outside and go out to lunch. The bike ride was pleasant, for the most part. The only problem was when Kurt tried to steal Brigetta's hair tie. He got really close to her bike. She saw him coming and swerved away. Kurt swerved to and fell down and scrapped his knee. Kurt was okay, if a little shocked and his knee was slightly scrapped. The funny thing was that Maria got over there even quicker than Father. Maria was there already making sure he was okay, just like a mother should. Father did get off his bike and kneeled down on the ground. Maria and Father both touched Kurt on the knee at the same time asking him if it hurt. There hands touched and they looked up at each other and smiled gazing into each other's eyes. The moment was broken when Kurt jumped up and said he was fine.
We decided to go and hike. It was a ton of fun. We hiked up a mountain. We sang songs and talked all the way up. When we were coming down we were discussing where to eat. Maria and Father were walking behind us and laughing about something. Maria turned and glanced back and tripped over an old tree stump. Father caught her. Instead of letting her go he just held her there for a minute. It might have just been my wild imagination hoping and wishing, but they looked like they were going to kiss. There faces moved closer together.
"I am hungry lets get a move on so I can eat." Kurt cried. Grrrrr. Memo to self to kill Kurt. He just does not know when to keep his mouth closed. Little brothers. Father pulled Maria up right.
"Yes I suppose we should go and eat." He said Maria smiled and nodded. So we ate lunch and talked about some interesting stuff. Near the end of lunch I just had to ask Maria something. I know it was unfair to ask her in front of the children, but they were not paying much attention to us anyways.
"Fraulin Maria? When are you going back to the abbey to become a nun?" I asked. Fortunately the children could not hear, but Father did. Father was sitting right by Maria. First he was sitting by me, but he had told Friedrich he wanted to see out the window so he asked if he could switch seats with him. Friedrich agreed, but Marta had an even better view out the window, did Father really want to see out the window? Or was there something else over there? Hmm…I noticed him flinch uncomfortably when I asked that.
"Oh I am not sure Liesl. I am supposed to go back around September I suppose." She said looking sad. "Then I will go and take my vows in September too. Then I will become a nun and that will be that." She gave me a fake smile that pleaded me to talk to her later about this. So the rest of the time we talked about other stuff. Father was however not listening. He was so happy until I mentioned Maria leaving us to become a nun. Strange I thought a few days ago he was about to fire her and tell her to leave that day. We had a fun time until we got home. The baroness gave us word she was to be home in an hour. So we ate dinner and started to talk about the party the next day. We were all very excited, except Father.
"I don't see why all of you like big huge party's anyways." He said.
"Father they are so fun!" I answered back to him.
"Fun, you call having to be polite to every single person fun. I absolutely hate it. Dancing with random people and talking to random people is not my idea of fun. I would much rather go and hike in the mountains." He replied. Maria shook her head.
"Captain the party will be fine. Since it is yours you will know everyone, anyways dancing is fun. You don't like to dance Captain?" She smiled at him. He was about to answer but she interrupted. "Now please stop complaining in front of the children. Let them have a good time at least."
"Oh you are right Fraulein maybe I will have a good time. And dancing is fine…if you like the person you are dancing with." He smiled at her and walked into his study. Oh I can't wait until tomorrow!
June 30, 1938
Oh what a wonderful evening! The only thing that would have made it better would be if Rolfe were there. Rolfe…well there is no time to talk about him right now I am too excited. The whole day we prepared for the party. Maria had here hands full with five girls who wanted to look there best. She spent the whole day upstairs making sure we looked presentable. She told us to go downstairs and she would be down in a few moments. We went down to the and watched from the outside balcony the people dance. I couldn't help but imagine Rolfe and me dancing. I danced with him until Brigitta came over and asked me whom I was dancing with. I told her nobody, but she is so smart. She knew I was dancing with someone. Then Friedrich came over and asked me to dance. We danced a little. He is so funny. I had to lead him. He never really learned how to dance. Maria came in and was overjoyed to see us dancing. A new song started to play and she told us it was an Austrian Folk Dance. Kurt demanded that Maria show him how. Maria refused at first, but then agreed. Kurt was much too small to dance. Maria tried her best to teach him though. It was funny seeing them try to dance together. I noticed Father come out to watch us. He laughed at Kurt and tugged on his white gloves. Why did he come out here? I thought he would be much to busy with his guests to worry about us. Anyway Maria told him not to worry about anything.
To my absolute surprise and delight he cut in with Kurt and Maria. He mumbled something like "Do allow me hmm?" Kurt stepped back and we saw the prettiest version of the Laendler dance ever. Well we thought we were going to see the prettiest version anyways. We stepped back and the two did a ton of graceful twirls. Maria was a wonderful dancer. Where did she learn to dance that good? They danced some more and Maria was blushing and Father was smiling. Then as they spun around their eyes locked. They gazed into each other's eyes for a while. They looked like maybe they were actually going to kiss. I was hoping…and then Elsa walked in. The two broke away and Maria told him she didn't remember anymore. Well I guess it is kind of hard to remember a dance when you are dancing with someone you are in love with. Yes I am absolutely sure of it now. They are in love. I have never even seen Father give Mother a look like that. That pathetic dumb Baroness! Grrrrrr…I hate her! Maria changed the subject and ran out with us to prepare our farewell song for the guests. Maria seemed a little flushed. I could tell she was still a little shaky. She gave us a few last second pointers and then we sang.
Our plan was for me in the song to ask Father if I could stay for dinner. Maria said that I was old enough and should be allowed to.
"Id like to stay and taste my first champagne. Yes?" I asked. He answered with a hard no. Darn. I knew we should have found another word for champagne. I had to carry Gretl up the stairs at the end. She was heavy! I remember the guests all-waving except for three. Father and Maria were gazing at each other again and the Baroness was glaring. I got ready for bed. Wow now I understand why Father is acting strangely. He is in love! Oh it would be so lovely if Maria got to stay here forever. I can't wait to see how the next few days unfold. Hopefully soon he will tell the Baroness to leave so he can marry Maria. Oh how wonderful would that be? They are in love! I can't believe it! I never thought Father would fall in love again. This is almost too wonderful to be possible. I can't sleep! How am I supposed to sleep? This is just way to exciting. I can't wait until Father tells us that he is going to marry Maria! Oh that will be so lovely.
P.S. Another thought, that makes me sure he is in love with her. Didn't Father tell her that he only liked to dance when he liked the person he was dancing with? Now I am sorry, but there was no one telling Father he had to dance with Maria. He really did not have to cut in with her at all. He would not have cut in unless he liked her; oh excuse me I mean loved her!
July 1, 1938
She is gone. She left. I forgot, she is going to become a nun. She can't get married. I don't feel like writing.
July 14, 1938
Well it has been two weeks since she left. I still do not understand. Father read us the note. It said she missed her life in the abbey too much. I don't understand at all. She didn't seem to miss her life at the abbey when she was dancing with Father. It is not fun at all without her. Father has not turned into a sea Captain yet, but he seems depressed. That spark that was in his eyes before left with Maria. Today Max tried to get us all to sing. We tried to sing "The Sound of Music." It did not work to well at all. Half of us were miserably looking at the lake while the other half was trying to sing. Father came out and looked at us. Yeah he could tell we were depressed. We asked him about Maria, but he kept changing the subject to pink lemonade. Now pink lemonade is very interesting, but really we wanted to talk about Maria. Gretl asked who our governess was going to be now. Father told us we were not going to have a governess anymore. We stared at him confused. Was he going to let me take care of them? That would be so wonderful and I would enjoy it, if we were not so depressed.
"No, you're going to have a new Mother." He continued.
"A new Mother?" I had to ask. What a new Mother? What did he mean by that. He walked over to the Baroness.
"Yes we talked about it last night. And were all going to be very happy. Hmm?" He said smiling at us. Umm no we are not going to be happy are you kidding me? Being the oldest I took the initiative to greet the new member of our family with a kiss. My brothers and sisters followed my led silently. Father got even more upset and told us to go and play. So we walked down to the lake.
Did he actually believe this would make us any happier then we already were? Gretl and Marta had tears in their eyes as we walked down to the water's edge. I am in total shock still. I never thought Father would be able to marry again. I just didn't believe he would marry the Baroness. Even though Max had told us they were close to an engagement I just could not picture them together. So we were only a little frightened of the fact that we might get a new Mother. Then Maria came. They just seem so perfect for each other. I never saw Father look at the Baroness the way he used to look at Maria. Actually truthfully I have never seen him even close to kissing the Baroness. The only thing I have ever seen him do to her is take her hand rather reluctantly after gazing at Maria. Is he trying to hide something by marrying her? That is not a good idea. What if Maria comes back or something happens and he is married to that witch. Then he will be sorry. That is all I can come up with though. Oh why did Maria have to leave? Surely the Baroness would have been gone by now and wedding plans would be made for Maria and Father. If she did not want to become a nun…oh no. I wonder if she has already become a nun. Father is going to regret this later when she finds out she is a nun and can't marry him. He should go to the abbey right now and get her. Hmm…maybe we can do that for him, but how he won't allow that. I know he loves Maria. This just stinks. I never want to go to another party. It ruins everything.
I have come to a conclusion. Father loves Maria. He is just marrying that white haired Baroness to cover up his feelings. She is kindov like pink lemonade, a cover up so he doesn't have to admit anything. Cover up…hmm. I've got it! We can tell him we went berry picking! All right I am going to talk to my sisters and brothers now!