Here's chapter 7, have fun reading it! And thanks Megs for being my pre- reader
Chapter 7: Another first
They arrived at the house a few hours after dinnertime, in fact, it was time for the children to go to sleep. Quickly they sneaked into the kitchen and fetched themselves some bread and after having eaten a little, they walked upstairs to tuck the children in. Everyone was asking how their day had been and what they had done, but Maria realized it was much too late to even begin about that and promised them she would tell everything in the morning. Just when they were about to leave, Brigitta sat up again and asked "Don't you want to know how our day was, Fraulein Maria?"
Maria knew she'd better also wait until the morning to hear about it, but she was rather curious, especially since Brigitta seemed to have a mischievous little glow around her. "Sure, tell me about it," she finally said as she walked back into the room.
"Well, we went out shopping," Brigitta began, but soon Louisa had cut in, "First it was fun, but after a while we got tired of it."
"The baroness didn't want to take a break," Brigitta went on, rolling her eyes, "but everybody wanted to sit for a minute. Besides, we were hungry too."
"So we found a restaurant, and when the baroness went t the ladies' room, we put pepper in her tea," Louisa filled in, not able to hold her smile back.
"You did what?" Maria asked unbelievingly, yet both she and Chris couldn't manage not to laugh. She knew she normally had to be against it, but somehow she just kept coming back with the thought 'Better her than me…', which made her laugh even more. "Hadn't your father noticed it?"
"Oh no, Liesl, Friedrich and Marta had been keeping him busy. So Kurt handed me the pepper pot and the rest is history" Louisa smiled proudly.
"Anyhow, when she came back, she drank of her tea, and it was simply hilarious!" Liesl exclaimed the first time that evening, "She sprung up, spitting everything out, but she bumped into this waiter and got a few drinks over her. Then that waiter fell and the plate with spaghetti flew on a couple sitting further in the restaurant."
And Brigitta went on, she just had to tell them the best part, "Top of it all, father was laughing with her!"
"Well afterwards, the shopping day was just ruined, especially since the baroness looked like awful with her mascara ran out over her face, so we went home… Quite a relief for us."
Maria watched the three girls lay down, as Brigitta put on a night lamp and took the book from under her pillow and still smiling, she and Chris moved backwards and turned off the lights. "Well I'm glad you had a nice day. Goodnight girls."
"Goodnight," the sisters choired.
"Don't keep it too long."
"We won't," Louisa replied, "at least not if Miss bookworm over there remembers we're here too," she went on more louder so that her sister would've heard her.
Then finally the two had left the room, and all of the children had been put into bed. Maria was heading towards her bedroom, but before she even had a chance to bid him goodnight, she was stopped by Chris.
"You're not going to bed now, are you?"
"Well yes," Maria answered him, not quite sure why he was asking.
"But it's still early," Chris protested, not ready yet for the both of them to close their day.
"I always retire after the children have been tucked in."
Chris shook his head as to object to her daily routine and took her hand in his. "Come with me and sit down stairs for a little while."
"I don't know," Maria hesitated, what was possible there for her to stay a little while longer? She knew that the captain, the baroness and Max would be sitting there too somewhere, and to be just with them as a servant… it just felt awkward.
"Do it for me… please?" Chris pleaded, those same puppy-eyes as always and a potty mouth that never had failed to do its work.
"What about yesterday?" Maria tried, "It was early too when you went to sleep."
"That was merely because I was tired of the trip. Now, will you come?" Again he let his potty mouth do the trick, and slowly he saw Maria cave in. "All right, but only tonight!"
"Ok, fair enough," he smiled triumphantly as he guided her downstairs. All the while Maria wondered why he could always persuade her so easily. No one else could do it but him, for as far as she could remember and she wondered why that was.
Once downstairs, they saw the captain, the baroness and Max standing in the hallway, just talking, ready to move into the sitting room. As soon as they had spotted Maria and Chris, Max and Georg turned around, both smiling politely, though there was something in Georg's smile, something different than usual and Maria had noticed immediately.
"Why, here are our youngsters," he said, cheerful as ever, "Won't you join us in the sitting room?"
"Sure Max," Chris answered. The two of them were surely getting along just fine, and even now it seemed as if they had known each other as long as Maria and Chris had.
Max let Elsa go first, followed by himself and then Georg. When Chris came to the door, he stepped aside and bowed graciously. "After you, Madame."
Georg had been watching the whole thing, he thought he was going to be sick in one way, but in another he could smash himself over the head for not thinking of that himself. Nevertheless, when he saw Maria walking in with that adorable smile he forgot everything around him, especially Chris, that was until he entered the room too, and somehow Chris seemed very much to get on Georg's nerves, even though he did not know why.
Since Elsa en Georg took place on the couch, and Max on the armchair in the corner of the room, Chris decided that the stool in front of the piano was a nice place for him, especially because he had sat on such a stool quite often. And Maria simply sat down next to him since unless she'd sit on Max's lap, there was no other place available. The stool wasn't exactly big, and Maria had to lean on Chris in order to sit a bit comfortably, which annoyed Georg enormously to see them sitting so closely to each other. And he wondered why that was.
"What a nice time we had together today, right darling?" Elsa began, trying not to think of the awful tea and the whole scene that had taken place in the restaurant. The children had kept telling her there probably had been some mistake in the restaurant, and although she probably knew better, at the end she was bound to believe them. And besides, before the restaurant it had been a pretty good day… She was still waiting for Georg's reply, but he, however, wasn't exactly following the conversation as he was busy with his own mind.
"Georg?" Elsa tried, yet the captain seemed to be far away and she hated it when she was ignored like that, especially around servants, "Georg!"
Finally snapping out his thoughts, he turned back to Elsa. "Pardon?"
"I was saying what a lovely time we had together today," Elsa repeated, a hint of annoyance visible in her voice, yet it didn't seem to have an impact on Georg, as he answered quite absentmindedly. "Yes, quite lovely."
"We really should do it again some day," Elsa went on, not really knowing who she was trying to impress. Georg wasn't listening, and she didn't really care for Maria's and Chris's opinion, did she? It didn't really matter either, because the captain, who again hadn't listened, was unconsciously focusing on those two across the room. "Tell me Fraulein, how was your day?"
Alone with Georg was different Maria thought, they could talk openly and just have wonderful conversations, but now she didn't know how the act, it was as if she had come into another world of some kind, now it all seemed so made… "Well we had a wonderful time, sir."
"Tell us about it." Georg continued, curious about how they had spent their day.
"We went to the hills," Maria went on slowly, but soon she forgot her company and just remembered those great moments with Chris earlier that day and it showed in her voice, "First we sat around, talking about our youth when all of the sudden we remembered a song we used to sing."
"Yes, we had a great time singing." Chris said amused, still hearing Maria's laughter in his mind.
"Then I beat him in our race to our old tree house. I was always the fastest one." Maria chuckled, especially because she knew he'd try to defend himself again and in her mind she was already counting down as to when he'd say it. '3…2…'
"I was just out of shape."
'…1' Maria smiled, she knew Chris far too well. He was still the same from the old days, and when she thought about it, so was she, or at least in his presence she was… "You're never in shape if we have to believe you."
"Anyway," Chris said ignoring Maria, "we climbed into the tree house and stayed there for nearly two hours or so I think."
For some reason Georg felt a bit worried and jealous too, what had they been doing there that long?
"And then we thought we'd better head home." Maria stopped immediately. 'Home? Did I really say home? Oops…' Her face reddened a bit and quickly she tried to correct herself, "I mean back to the house."
Elsa had noticed her slip, though she too was wondering what they could've done in a tree house for two hours, and the thought of the little governess and Chris rather amused her, especially because she noticed how different Georg acted in her neighbourhood. She realized that maybe Georg had gone further than just seeing her as a governess, maybe even further as a friend, but by the looks of it there was a good chance something would happen between Maria and Chris, and that was exactly what she was hoping for.
"It sounds like you had the most interesting time together." Elsa smiled dryly. Her saying didn't do much good to Georg, in fact, he was sorry he ever brought the subject up.
"Funny if you come to think of it. We really hated each other when we met." Maria said a bit dreamily. She didn't notice everyone was listening intensely, even Elsa, but Georg the most. Somehow he found her so fascinating and loved to know these little stories.
"I think we were like 9 or something. My dad was giving this birthday party for my mum, the whole neighbourhood was invited. It was outside, near this beautiful lake. The meadow was decorated wonderfully and I'll never forget my mother's face when she was leaded there by my father, her eyes closed and when suddenly everyone shouted Surprise! Then the town-musicians were playing the laendler. So my cousin and I started dancing, not really knowing how it went, but just having a great time, when all of the sudden he comes shouting we weren't doing it right," she told them as she pointed at Chris, a faint smile on her lips.
"Yes, I remember… How couldn't I, you got so angry you started calling me names and pushed me away," Chris filled in amused.
"Well, after the party I was glad he was away. But then I found out my mum had arranged piano lessons between the two of them. He had to come by every day for at least an hour," as she was telling that she pulled an extremely annoyed face, still knowing exactly how she felt when she found out.
"In the beginning we didn't do much but shouting at each other and calling names when her mother left the room, but slowly we became friends and after a while no one could keep us apart," both Chris and Maria smiled at the thought, and how the both of them regularly sneaked out to make the neighbourhood unsafe.
"Do you mind if I play a little?" Chris then asked, motioning to the piano behind him. All this talk about their youth and his piano lessons had given him an itch, an aching to play, something he hadn't done in a long while.
"No not at all." The captain answered simply.
Chris turned over on the stool, stretching his fingers playfully before directing his attention to Maria. "Come on, duckie, I'll guide you on the piano."
"I don't know," she again hesitated, but Max looked up very interested, and she spoke for all of them when he said "That would be lovely!"
Maria glanced from Max, to Georg and finally to Chris, and finally gave in. "All right then."
Chris started playing the tunes of 'If'. It was a song very dear to them, as he used to play it a lot during his piano lessons and almost always was accompanied by Maria and her mother.
Maria let out a small sigh as she stood up to stand next to the piano, where she let her hands rest on the wooden material, and where she had a nice view over Chris as he was playing.
If a picture paints a thousand words
Then why can't I paint you
The words will never show
The you I've come to know
If a face could launch a thousand ships
Then where am I to go
There's no one home but you
You're all that's left me too
And when my love for life
Is running dry
You come and pour yourself on me
Her thoughts wandered off to Georg, but she didn't dare to look into his direction, so she just kept focused on Chris. Of course Elsa was delighted to see Maria gaze at Chris like that, she simply couldn't hide her smile and in a way she felt triumphant, especially when Maria slowly walked back to the stool and took place next to Chris, laying her arm on his shoulder, softly leaning on it and smiled as Chris looked her right in the eyes. Though it delighted Elsa, it only irritated Georg and tried to look away, let her voice calm him down again…
If a girl could be two places at one time
I'd be with you
Tomorrow and today
Beside you all the way
If the world should stop revolving
Spinning slowly down to die
I'd spend the end with you
And when the world was through
Then one by one the stars would all go out
Then you and I
Would simply fly away
A sound of clapping interrupted the silence after the tune ended. It was Max who started it, a second later followed by Elsa, but it took Georg a while to realize the song had ended. He turned his head back into the direction of the piano and found out that Maria and Chris both were sitting back in the same position as before the song, yet not for long anymore, because not long after Maria got up and bid everyone goodnight, and Chris of course following her. As soon as they were out of the room, Max couldn't hold himself any longer.
"Don't you think they would make a lovely couple?" He began enthusiastically.
"You read my mind," Elsa replied, glad others thought that way too. Now if only Georg would see the reality, everything would be just fine for her, but to her dismay he kept quiet, and frankly he only seemed more in thought after Max's sudden outburst. But Elsa just couldn't leave it that way and decided to know for sure it her suspicions were true. "It wouldn't surprise me if you soon would be out of a governess, darling."
This was the last thing Georg wanted to listen to, it bugged him too much, and he tried to get out of it nonchalantly. "I'm rather tired. I think I'll be heading upstairs now. Goodnight."
With that he got up and left the room, leaving Elsa and Max behind, and it confirmed Elsa's thoughts. Though she thought she wouldn't have much to worry about, after all, Maria and Chris seemed to be so thick. The two of them falling in love was just bound to happen.
Georg figured that Maria had become so much more to him than a friend. He realized that he slowly had begun developing feelings for her, and now with the arrival of Chris, he knew for sure. That's why the mere thought of them together, having a history and so many memories together, that's why Chris most of all irritated him. And at the moment his thoughts wandered more off to Maria, than to Elsa… Actually most of the time Maria occupied his mind instead of Elsa. And he also knew that there might be a truth in what Elsa and Max had been saying. Maria and Chris have had a lifetime together, the two of them were so close, it made Georg envy them. He wondered if he should do something, and if so, would it be the right thing to do? After all, he was still with Elsa… And who was he to stand in their happiness? Who knew, Chris may be the one for her.
Quietly he went up the stairs to make his way to his bedroom, but as he walked in the upstairs hallway, he saw Maria and Chris across the hall, embracing one another as they said goodnight. And even though he was considering giving them a chance, the sight of them together was much harder for him to see than he thought it would be.