The whole family had a different way of coping with their loss. Right after they had heard the news that their mother and wife had passed away, it felt like a dark cloud hung above the house.

It was nighttime when she passed away. All the children could feel that something was wrong, and weren't able to sleep. Liesl saw her father with a doctor going in and out of the room, with worried faces.

She sensed that it was amiss. Slowly she walked towards her father and held him tight. He wrapped his arm around her, and they stood there for several minutes.

The other children came in not much later. They could see by the countenance of their father's and sister's faces that it was amiss. Their father held his arm out, and the rest of the children joined.

After a few hours they tried to get some sleep. Their father took a bath, while the children were huddled together on the bed and fell asleep.

When their father came back, he smiled softly at the scene.

Their father had comforted them that night and the next day for a few hours, but after that he locked himself in his study. He chose to shut everything out of his life, that reminded him of her, Agathe.

Liesl tried to fill the void that her mother left behind. She comforted the youngest children, and helped everyone getting through the day.

The first few weeks all of the children were quiet, none of them knew what to say. After that they became bored, louder and desperate for attention. This slowly involved in problems.

The children had tried talking with their father, but every time they did, they were rejected. They grew bored and started to cause trouble around the house. They'd run around, chasing each other, making lots of noise and a mess. After a staff member resigned, their father had to take action.

He found them in the kitchen. Marta, who was three at the time, sat on the counter, playing with flour. Her hands, face and dress were covered in flour. Kurt, who was six, was mixing all sorts of food and ingredients in a big bowl. Friedrich and Louisa, who were nine and ten were chasing each other (as always), while throwing flour at each other. Liesl was the only one that wasn't playing or fooling around, she was supervising, making sure no one got hurt.

Her father stood in the doorway for a moment, observing the chaos that was going on. Liesl was the first one to notice him. 'Oh, I didn't notice you standing there father'. Everyone fell quiet and stopped what they were doing immediately. 'Line up please'. They did as they were told to, and formed a line.

'Whatever has been going on lately has to be put to a stop. Your behaviour has driven a staff member off. I will not stand for it. Do I make myself clear?' he said with a stern face. It wasn't as if they didn't expect this kind of response, but they were stunned to speak. Their father made a face, showing that he was waiting for a response from his children. 'Yes father.' all of them answered.

'Very well then. Go clean up this mess you made, and wash yourselves.' he said and walked away. He didn't have the courage and energy to discipline them further.

They started cleaning up. Not one said a word. After they finished they walked to the bathroom and washed themselves. It was almost dinner time, so they got downstairs, ready to eat.

After all these weeks their father still hadn't been able to join them for dinner. So they ate alone, the seven of them. Gretl was only one year old and required help. Liesl stepped up to the role of taking care of her siblings, and fed her. Fraulein Schmidt would sometimes help the children with getting ready, but also had to fulfil her duties during the day.

The youngest two, Gretl and Marta, were too young to go to school yet, so they needed someone to look after them, while the other children were off to school. Their father had arranged a governess to look after the children.

The children didn't particularly dislike her, they didn't particularly like her. She had to leave after three months, since she had to take care of her sick mother. Their father had found a new governess, which again took care of them.

This time it went differently. Their father had left the house for over two weeks, and they still hadn't heard from him.

Louisa and Liesl were hanging around in Liesl's room.

'Liesl, do you know when father is coming back home?' Louisa asked. 'No Louisa, I'm sorry. But I hope very soon.' she answered with a small smile.

'It's been over two weeks since he left. Seventeen days, to be exact.' Friedrich said while he closed the door behind him. 'How could we get him back home? I miss him. We've already tried sending him a letter.' Louisa said.

They all were silent for a few minutes, drifting away in their thoughts. Suddenly Louisa's face lit up. 'I got it! Remember how he finally faced us after we had caused trouble and we'd run a staff member off? He couldn't stay silent, and let us slowly break this house down. So he simply had to talk to us. It was a short moment, but it was better than nothing'.

Liesl and Friedrich looked at each other. 'So you're suggesting we should cause more trouble, so he has to come back? Are you mad? If he came back, catching us, causing more trouble, we'd be screwed.' Friedrich answered 'Do you have a better plan? Besides, it doesn't matter if we get in trouble, it means we get attention. At this moment I don't care if it's negative or positive attention.' Louisa said fiercely.

'Well…What are you thinking of, fooling around or actually running another staff member off?' Liesl asked. 'I don't know yet. I'm not sure if he would come home just to tell us we should behave. But I think he might come home to hire a new staff member, don't you think so?'. Both of them nodded.

'I'd suggest we all think about it, and how we're going to do it. We shall meet tomorrow again for further discussion.' Liesl said.

This was the beginning of a series of events, which caused quite some trouble.