Update: My Word program is not correcting my typos and that's one reason for the bad spelling. Is it really that bad in the other chapters? How am I doing otherwise, are the sentences correctly built? If someone would want to beta me I would be thrilled, I'm doing it on my own right now and it's easy to miss things when you've written the text all by yourself.
Surprise! New chapter up already. :-) About the chock instead of shock, chock is the Swedish word and I guess my mind is a little bit confused. :-P Out of character, you think? ;-) Hopefully you will enjoy this chapter as well as the others. Thank you for reading and reviewing!
Chapter 7
The children had been standing like statues with gaping mouths at the scene played out before them. First their fathers confession about loving fräulein Maria, then the departure of the Baroness and, to top it all, Maria had heard it all and was now running to her room with the Captain at her heels. The children stood alone in the study, trying to process what they had just witnessed.
"Wow."
"I know what you mean Brigitta." Louisa replied, hoping that this would turn out to make Maria their mother.
"Liesl?" Liesl turned to look at Kurt, who had spoken.
"Yes?"
"What just happened? I don't quite understand."
"I'm not sure actually, but I think father expressed his true feelings, sent the Baroness away, shocked fräulein Maria and then ran after her to either take it back or ask for forgiveness."
"Hmm... No, I still don't get it." Liesl sighed and rolled her eyes.
"Boys..." she muttered before scooping Gretl up.
"Are you alright?" Gretl nodded at her sister.
"I didn't like the shouting though."
"Neither did I Gretl, neither did I." While kissing Gretls cheek Liesl decided to go check on her father and fräulein. After all, Maria seemed to have returned and there was no chance of letting her away again.
"I'm going to check on fräulein Maria. Do you want to accompany me?" she asked the others. The girls nodded while the boys found something very interesting down in the carpet.
"You don't want to see fräulein Maria?" Liesl asked with a frown.
"Well, it's not that we don't want to see her. We just can't cope with all the hugs and kisses."
"No, you're right Kurt. It's rather disgusting." Friedrich agreed.
"All right then boys, we'll just go see her without you then." The girls went as a united troop to their fräuleins bedroom, trying not to walk too fast. When they reached the door Liesl found it quite odd that the only sound coming from inside were muffled noises.
"Maybe I should enter alone at first to see if she is decent." The others nodded at her and she tapped the door lightly.
"Fräulein Maria?" No response whatsoever made her open the door. While pushing it open she could hear strange sounds, it almost seemed like two people were in there making out. 'Making out? That can't be right' she thought and then thrust the door open as something clicked inside her head, swiftly closing the door behind her to prevent her siblings from seeing anything they shouldn't. Her mouth dropped open and her cheeks flushed at the sight before her. Sprawled upon the bed was her father and fräulein Maria in a very daring position with him half on top of her. They were quite at it and both had their eyes shut while kissing and touching the other greedily. Liesl couldn't believe her eyes. She suddenly found her presence rather awkward and as she couldn't stand there, staring at them appalled, she decided to put a stop to it before they did anything they would regret later. Taking a deep breath she decided to act as if she just came through the door, opened it and then let her thoughts out.
"Father? FRÄULEIN! What the hell are you doing?" Maria and Georg leapt apart and were on opposite sides of the bed within the second. Their faces blushed a crimson red and the eyes betrayed their feelings since they were filled with passion and love.
"Liesl" the Captain murmured while looking at his suddenly very interesting shoes. Maria cleared her throat and looked at the girl.
"Hello Liesl. May I help you with something?"
"What are you two up to? What just happened in here not one minute ago?"
"Well, I... We..." the Captain stuttered, not at all used to this sudden lack of words.
"Your father wanted to apologize to me and ask me to stay." Maria said hesitantly, not sure of how much the girl actually saw.
"Cut the crap. What I just saw was more than an excuse for sure. It looked like you were making out to me, something I'm not very proud of walking in on!" If Georgs and Marias faces could get any more colourful they would be on the verge to purple right now. 'Ah, not as subtle as presumed' Maria thought while trying to smother a wrinkle in her dress.
"Now you two are going to behave properly and tell the kids what happened downstairs for a start." Liesl put her hand to the doorknob but suddenly turned with a stern look in her face.
"And NO touching!" With that she opened the door and acted towards the children as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened at all. Maria and Georg stood in shock before finally coming to their senses. They had just been yelled at by a sixteen year old girl! Gretl stood right outside the door and flung herself onto Maria.
"Fräulein Maria! It's so good to have you back. I've really missed you." Maria kissed Gretl on the cheek.
"I've missed you too Gretl."
"Why did you leave fräulein Maria?" Marta asked, eyes wide with happiness at the return of their beloved governess.
"Well... I just had to think for a while and when I'd dwelled enough on my problems I decided to return to you." Somehow her eyes had wandered from Marta to Georg and she spoke the last words directly to him, her eyes meeting his.
"That's enough about me I should think. Now, how have you been? You did behave nicely when I was away, did you not?"
"What do you take us for?" Louisa said with a smile.
"You don't think we're the kind who would play tricks on people, do you?" Brigitta asked while raising her eyebrows, making them all laugh. The boys were naturally intrigued by all the laughing and, despite having their image to protect, joined the family when they all hugged each other.
"How about some dinner? Or are you not hungry today?" Georg chuckled.
"Hmpf. Not hungry! For how long have you known me father?" Kurt asked with a frown, causing laughter to once again break the silence. The children left for the dining room with Kurt at the front and Liesl in the back to help the little ones. Georg smiled at them and then turned to look at Maria. She blushed slightly and looked away from him, shy to meet his eyes all of a sudden.
"After you fräulein" he said while gesturing for her to begin to descend the stairs. At the bottom Georg took a gentle hold of her arm to stop her and she turned around to face him.
"What?" she managed to whisper, completely lost in his eyes.
"Nothing really. I just wanted to do this." He kissed her passionately and when he could feel her respond he deepened the kiss eagerly. Suddenly Maria remembered that they were standing in the middle of the hall and ended the kiss abruptly. She looked at him and got a mischievous glint in her eyes.
"Let's eat Georg. If you're nice you might even get dessert." She winked at him and entered the dining room while Georg was left like a statue in the hall. Did he really hear what he thought he heard?