~Sorry it took so long everyone! I have not had Internet access for a few weeks. The good part about it thought is I did put a few chapters up! I hope you like this chapter!
Chapter Nine: The News
July 15, 1938
Well now I have had sleep and it has been almost twenty-four hours since these events occurred, but I have to write about them because they are very interesting. I crept closer to the gazebo. I wasn't originally trying to spy, but I wanted to see if Rolfe was there. I crept close to the gazebo behind a bush. Then the figure turned and I saw it was my Father. I couldn't tell who the other person was, but then I heard him speak.
"Maria there isn't going to be any Baroness." He said.
"There isn't?" She asked. She took those words right out of my mouth. It is good she did or I would have screamed with delight. It was Maria's voice. They were together alone! Well alone that is excluding me. Now I feel bad as I right this. I glanced up at the sky noticing what a lovely night it was. The moon was shinning right on the gazebo and the stars were bright. Very romantic if you ask me. My attention returned to them when they continued to speak.
"No." My Father replied to her question.
"I don't understand." Maria said.
"Well, we've, um ... called off our engagement, you see, and, um..." He stuttered.
"Oh, I'm sorry." Maria answered. What? Am I hearing correctly? Father is not marrying the Baroness and Maria is sorry about this? I am rejoicing right now, I am sure she must be too…hmm.
"Yes. You are?" He sounded a little bit surprised she was sorry as well.
"Mm hmm. You did?" Did Maria think he would lie to her about something like this? I mean really come on. Then the best part came.
"Yes. Well, you can't marry someone when you're in love with someone else, can you?" Father said moving closer to Maria. Ahhhh!! I knew he was still in love with her. He pulled her toward him gently and then…they kissed! Finally!!!!! I was so overcome with joy that I tripped on a bush and let out a little yelp. Luckily, the two of them did not notice me, they were to content with looking at each other. I decided to stop spying because I just felt bad. I didn't feel the need to listen to them anymore. They deserved to be alone. Behind me I heard laughter and something about asking the children something. I glanced behind me and the two of them were sitting on one of the benches kissing again. I walked back up to my room and laid down. I assumed that Maria would probably not be back up to talk to me about Rolfe tonight. So I laid in bed thinking of how wonderful the future would be. I couldn't wait to find out if there was going to be a wedding.
I heard Max and the Baroness walking passed my door. I could tell it was them because the Baroness was sobbing and Max was trying to console her. She was crying and saying something to the extent of he is going to be sorry for marrying her instead of me. Um hmm. I am sure he will be very sorry. He will always regret dumping her to marry the person he loves more than anything. Yep that sounded right to me. I had a feeling that those would be the last words I would hear from the baroness.
I was still to excited to sleep. I couldn't wait until the morning. I wondered how they would tell us all. I glanced up at my clock; it was about two in the morning now. I still hadn't heard the doors open and father had to go by my room to get to his. Then I heard the door creak open. I heard laughter and footsteps coming up to my room.
"Is she asleep?" I heard my father ask.
"I think she is. Oh dear I told her I would be up here to talk about Rolfe. I suppose I got a little distracted." Maria sighed.
"Was Liesl okay when you gave her the telegram?" He asked.
"Yea you should have seen her face when I mentioned Rolfe. I think she is a little bit love sick." Maria said and the two of them started laughing before they kissed again.
"I am sure Liesl is fine, you can talk to her in the morning." Father said beginning to kiss Maria again. Maria pulled back.
"I suppose I should get some sleep before the children…" Father kissing her again interrupted Maria.
"Come, I don't want this moment to end. Lets go and take another walk." He said, gazing into Maria's eyes. She smiled and nodded. He kissed her again and they walked out of my doorway for another walk I suppose. When I was sure they were gone I couldn't keep my laughter inside any longer. Maria said I was the one that was lovesick? Ha! Well if you ask me I would say Father and Maria are about as lovesick as you could get. They didn't even look to see if I was awake. They just assumed I was asleep. Funny. It did make me feel go to know that Maria was thinking of me a little. Even if it was just one moment suddenly remembering she was supposed to talk to me about Rolfe. Rolfe… I had forgotten to look for him. Oh dear. Well to many interesting things have been happening here to worry about him.
I finally fell asleep. When I woke up the sun was brightly shinning. I heard Brigitta and Kurt arguing about something. Kurt insists on antagonizing Brigitta every morning. I rolled out of bed over to Brigitta's room.
"Kurt, must you pick on Brigitta every morning?" I asked. Kurt just looked at me and laughed. I rolled my eyes. "Lets get ready for breakfast alright?" Kurt and Brigitta nodded at me. Soon we were ready to go and eat. We went downstairs. Father was already up waiting for us. The Baroness was gone, much to the delight of my sisters and brothers. We began to eat. Marta was the first to cry out.
"Father where were you last night? You didn't even tuck us in." Marta looked up at her Father, five other faces looked up. He smiled and started to laugh.
"I decided to go berry picking Marta. I picked some delicious red blueberries. It has been so hot lately they turned red." Father said grinning. The children rolled their eyes. Of course they didn't believe him.
"No really Father where were you?" Brigitta asked clearly annoyed she could not figure it out on her own.
"Well children I did tuck you in. It was later than usual, but I did come and say goodnight…" He said. Unlike everyone else I had a good idea of where he was. The other children however were very upset at him not saying anything.
"Father come on, where did you go. You weren't with someone were you?" Louisa's eyes glared at him. Friedrich elbowed her.
"Louisa how many times must we tell you not to get into other people's business?" Friedrich whispered. Father glanced up at the time. He waited for a few more seconds then spoke.
"As a matter of fact Louisa I was with someone. We were discussing when to get married." Father said. Well my brothers and sisters looked like they were about to throw up. I tried to look sick too so he wouldn't suspect anything, but I was too excited.
"Father you were up that late with the Baroness…" Kurt could not finish.
"Is she still sleeping is that why she is not here?" Asked Marta.
"Father where is Fraulein Maria?" Gretl asked sadly. No one seemed to notice the grin on Father's face. He was enjoying this.
"Fraulein Maria? Who what was that name again?" He asked. Now he was enjoying this torment just a little too much.
"Maria, Father. The children want to know where she is." I supplied.
"Oh you mean Maria. You should have told me." He said. The children all nodded. They had clearly noticed that he called her just Maria and left out the Fraulein.
"Well I don't know to tell you the truth. She is probably still sleeping. She had a long night. I told her she could sleep in. Then again maybe she ran back to the abbey. Maybe the prospect of being your children's Mother scared her a little." He laughed and clapped his hands once. As if on cue, Maria stepped into the room and sat down.
"Good morning children, Good morning Georg." Maria glanced at Father and smiled at him. He smiled back at her lovingly. My brothers and sisters mouths were wide open. Then Maria picked up her hand and waved at us. This time all our faces dropped. On Maria's hand was a small, but beautiful ring. It was blue so I assumed it was a sapphire ring. We all gasped. Then Brigitta got a huge smile on her face.
"Wait a minute, Father Maria was who you were with?" Brigitta asked. He nodded and walked over to Maria and put his hand on her shoulder.
"Yes if it is alright with you children then Maria and I will be married next month." Father said. We were all shocked. Even me, I expected it, but I thought it was just to good to be true.
"You are in love! I knew it!" Brigitta cried as she stood up and threw her arms around Father and Maria. Soon we were piled up into a big family hug.
"Maria you are really going to stay with us forever?" Gretl cried happily.
"Yes darling, I will never leave you again as long as God allows it." Maria said. "So the answer is yes then?" She asked staring at me.
"Of course it is!" I cried and hugged her even tighter.
So what did we do for the rest of the day? Well logically we went berry picking! It was so much fun, except Kurt wasn't much help. He kept trying to throw strawberries in Brigitta's hair. Father and Maria were not much help either. They kept getting lost in each other's eyes. So for most of the time they just sat down and watched us, well you know mostly watched each other with the occasional glance up to make sure everything was going well. We picked thousands of berries, literally. We brought them back home with us. Maria said we should make strawberry shortcake tomorrow. We had a nice dinner. Then after dinner we sang. It was so wonderful to be singing with my family after dinner again. The world is wonderful. I have been thanking God every second I can for bringing Maria here.