Disclaimer: As I have been day dreaming about the Sound of Music during school I realized that I don't own the Sound of Music…
I Trust In My Heart-
-Chapter Five: The Morning After
The bright morning sun shone high in the blue sky as a single gray cloud made its way towards the von Trapp villa.
The rays penetrated through Maria's curtain despite the fact that they were made of thick material. Maria groaned as she felt the warm rays hit her face, waking her from a peaceful sleep. She didn't want to get up. Last night was the best night's sleep she had gotten in a while. And even though she had hardly slept a wink it was still…perfect.
She pulled the comforter up over her head, refusing to succumb to the beckoning of the day. She stared into the darkness of the warm material. Sound from the below told her that the children and Captain were up.
Maria smiled. The Captain. Georg. Her smile grew.
Knowing she couldn't stay in bed, and not really wanting to, Maria rolled onto her side and looked at the clock. 9:15! She was already late for breakfast! Without another thought Maria jumped out of bed and into her armoire (literally). She hastily opened the doors and grabbed a dress. Dressing in a record time.
Ten minutes later Maria was heading down the stairs, taking them two at a time. She ran lightly over the entrance hall, nearly slipping when her shoes came into contact with the slippery floor. She paused just outside the door way to the dining room and recomposed herself.
With one last flattening of her skirt Maria walked into the room, smiling. Everyone was already eating.
"Good morning, children."
"Good morning, Fraulein Maria." they chorused together, happy that Maria was once again joining them for breakfast.
"Good morning, Captain."
"Good morning." he replied, nodding and smiling. "Do tell me, Fraulein." he continued on as Maria began to sit in her chair. She paused, looking up. "In the short time you were away did you forget when breakfast was?" he asked, a sly grin on his face.
Maria looked at him, almost taken aback before realizing that he was teasing her. "Well, no sir. I'm afraid I over slept. I do apologize."
"Not staying up late, were you?" he asked, smiling even more. Maria blushed.
Leisl choked on her juice she had been drinking. Everyone looked at her. "What?" she asked, wiping her mouth with a napkin.
"Alright, Leisl?' Maria asked.
"Just fine." she said, catching her breath, looking from her father to Fraulein Maria.
"I hope you didn't wait to long for me." Maria said, not offended that they began eating without her.
"That's why we started." the Captain said, causing everyone to laugh.
Maria did a quick self prayer, and began eating.
She looked around the table as she ate, looking at all of the children. Their faces had broad smiles on them. None of them seemed to have a care in the world. She looked over at Georg and saw him wink at her. Instead of smiling like she would have done, a thought Maria wanted to forget entered her mind.
What if the children weren't happy about her engagement to their father? They hadn't been happy about his one to Baroness Shraeder. So what would make her, Maria, any different? 'Because they love you."The Captain's words rang in her ears, followed closely by her reply: 'As their governess.' She realized that Georg hadn't fully comforted her about her concern last night. What if the children weren't happy. What if this engagement were to ruin the friendship, the bond, the relationship she had with these children that she loved so much? What if they hated her for it!
"Father?" Fredrick's voice brought Maria from her thoughts.
"Yes, Fredrick?"
"Where's Baroness Shcreader?" the boy asked. His question made his siblings look around. It was true, the Baroness, who usually joined them for their meals, was no where in sight.
Maria looked up, and met the Captain's eyes. She gulped and he put down his fork.
"Children." he paused, looking all seven of them in the eye. "Baroness Schreader returned to Vienna last night."
The children stopped eating, and looked at each other. All of them except for Leisl, who looked between her father and Fraulein Maria. The two were staring at each other.
"Left?"
"Yes, she did."
"When will she be coming back?" Gretl asked.
Georg looked at his youngest daughter. "The Baroness won't be coming back, Gretl."
The children tried to suppress their grins. Leisl still looked back and forth between her father and Fraulein Maria. Her Father was looking at the children, answering their questions. Maria was looking at the table.
"Forever?" Marta asked.
The Captain gave a small laugh. "Forever."
Gretl contorted her face as she thought. "Father?"
"Yes, darling."
"Does that mean that we're not going to have a new mother anymore?"
Maria felt herself go numb as the words came out of the child's mouth and some of her siblings giggled at her, seemingly, obvious statement. She looked down at her lap, but was soon drawn back up as she felt Georg's eyes on her.
"Well." he said, making those who were giggling stop. "What if I told you children that someone else was going to be your mother, instead of Baroness Schraedar?" he asked, as he stood and walked to the opposite end of the table.
"Who, Father?" Brigitta asked, but had a feeling she knew the answer as her father continued walking towards Fraulein Maria.
Georg stopped behind Maria's chair and placed his hand on her shoulder. Maria was certain her face was a ghostly pale. "Fraulein Maria." the Captain said, simply.
"Fraulein Maria?" Louisa asked, in disbelief.
The Captain nodded smiling, while Maria gave a meek nod.
"Children. With your permission, Fraulein Maria and I would like to get married." he said, feeling awkward at asking his children such a question.
There was a split seconds moment of silence before Leisl realized she needed to say something, instead of letting the situation get awkward. "Of course we give you are permission, Father!" she said, feigning as much joy as she could.
Maria looked at Leisl who was making her way towards the couple, secretly signaling to her siblings to do the same. She wasn't successful.
"Yes!" Fredrick said, smiling too big.
"How wonderful!" Brigitta said.
The others agreed.
Slowly each child came forward and gave Maria and the Captain a hug, smiling as best they could.
Once everyone was seated again, Maria looked at everyone's faces. They were smiling, but it didn't quite reach their eyes. And Maria had spent enough time with these children to know they weren't happy. She did they best she could to keep her eyes dry.
And what was left of the meal was spent in forced conversation.
Five minutes later everyone was standing in the entrance hall having just finished breakfast.
"Maria. Children. I must be going, I have a few errands to run in town. I shall be back after lunch." he said. The children nodded.
"Have fun, Father." they said together.
There was a small silence.
"Children, why don't you go upstairs and get anything you want to do for the day, and I'll meet you outside." Maria said, quietly not really looking at them. They nodded, and headed upstairs.
"Are you alright?" the Captain asked, once the children were out of hearing range.
Maria felt like hitting him. Was she alright! Of course not! "Yes." she nodded.
"Maria. Maria look at me." the Captain said, taking her chin in his hand and lifting it to look into her eyes. He smiled gently and stroked her cheek. "They'll come around. It's just the shock."
Maria nodded. "Of course they will." she said, not believing what she was saying.
The Captain kissed her and momentarily Maria forgot all her worries. But all to suddenly the bliss ended as he pulled away. Maria slightly groaned, not wanting to go back to reality, but she quickly blushed at having done so. The Captain smiled.
"As much as I hate to say it. I really must be going." he said.
Maria nodded, resting her head on his chest. "I'll see you after lunch." she said into his shirt.
The Captain stepped away and kissed her one more time. "I'll see you later, darling."
"Yes. Bye." with another swift kiss he was gone.
With a sigh, Maria slowly made her way outside to wait for the children.
The von Trapp children didn't get their items for the day right away. They all silently trudged into Leisl, Louisa, and Brigitta's room.
Louisa was the first one in, she made her way straight for the window and stared out it. Slowly each one came in, until Leisl closed the door behind her.
Once she heard the click of the lock, Louisa turned to her brothers and sisters.
"Of course we give you our permission, Father!" she mocked in a sickly sweet voice, clasping her hands together at chest level.
Leisl glared at her younger sister. "And what was I supposed to say? No!"
"YES!" Louisa nearly yelled.
There was a silence, no one was looking at each other, except for Leisl and Louisa who were having a glaring contest. Louisa lost.
"Look it's not that I don't like Fraulein Maria." she paused. "It's just. She's our governess! Why can't we be a family and she stay with us, but not marry father!" she said in frustration, sitting on the window sill.
"Because they love each other." Leisl said, sounding tired.
"Oh how romantic!" Fredrick mocked.
Leisl shot him a glare. "Look, I'm not happy with this either. But I couldn't say no. Don't you remember what it was like when Mother was alive? How Father acted? Well he's like that again, and it's because of Maria. And I could tell, the way they looked at each other."
"What do you know about love?" Louisa asked, not looking at her sister.
"Enough to know that that's what is between Father and Fraulein Maria. If you would have seen them, you would agree." Leisl stated, not leaving room for explanation.
"Wait, when did you- last night! You saw them last night, didn't you?" Louisa questioned. "That's what you saw outside the window when I came in." Leisl nodded. "And you didn't say anything!"
"Of course not! I could have seen it all wrong! And besides I didn't know what was going on, in case you've forgotten Father was supposed to be engaged to the Baroness last night." Leisl sighed. "It would have been wrong for me to say something."
Louisa huffed and stared out the window.
"Is she crying?" she asked to no one in particular, squinting her eyes against the sun to see better.
"Who?' Kurt asked as he and the rest of the children, stood and walked over to the window.
"Fraulein Maria." Brigitta said, standing next to Kurt.
"Well, now I feel awful!" Louisa said, throwing her arms in the air.
There was a group sigh followed by silence.
"We weren't exactly enthusiastic, were we?" Louisa asked.
"I guess not." Fredrick said. He paused unsure of what to say. "Better Fraulein Maria than Baroness Schrader."
"Better Fraulein Maria than anybody." Leisl said.
Louisa groaned. Without saying anything, she got up and walked towards the door.
"Where are you going?" Kurt asked.
"Outside."
Maria sat under a tree, looking into the lake. How could she have been so blind? Sure, she knew that they could react this way. But deep down she never really believed that they would. But they had. She should have known. She should have believed herself.
They didn't want a new mother. They didn't want her…
"Fraulein Maria?" a quiet voice asked.
Jumping slightly, Maria wiped her tears away and looked up to see Louisa standing over her. She sniffled once, "Was there something you need, Louisa?" she asked, weakly.
Louisa looked around, she seemed nervous. Slowly, she nodded. Maria patted a spot on the ground next to her. Louisa sat down, not looking at Maria, but an interesting spot on the ground. Maria looked at Louisa, waiting for her to talk. When she didn't Maria sighed quietly and looked back to the lake.
"Oh, Fraulein Maria! I'm sorry!" she said, still looking at the ground.
Maria was taken aback. "What?" she said, before she could stop herself.
"I'm sorry." the girl said more quietly.
"What for?"
"For how we acted at breakfast, for how I acted."
Maria was surprised. She had never seen this side of Louisa before. 'Louisa I don't know about yet, but someone has to find out about her!' she remembered yelling to the Captain. And now, seeing this. Maria wasn't quite sure what to do.
"Oh, Louisa. It's alright." she said, patting the girls' hand and rubbing it comfortingly.
"But we were awful!"
"No, you weren't."
"Yes we were."
There was a silence.
"It's…it's not that we don't li-love you Fraulein, honest, but, but-"
"Only as your governess." Maria said, smiling slightly and nudging the girl with her elbow.
Louisa gave a small laugh and nodded.
There was a silence.
"It's just." Louisa paused.
"Yes."
Louisa didn't usually open up to people, but for some reason she felt she could right now.
"Mother's been gone for so long." her voice was quiet, almost a whisper and meek. "And…and…it just feels like, like having a new one would mean that-" she paused. "That we'll all forget her and that she doesn't matter anymore." her last sentence was so quiet that Maria had to strain her ears just to hear it.
Maria was suddenly filled with a feeling she couldn't quite describe. She looked at Louisa. The girl was looking at the ground, hiding her face. Suddenly she let out a sob.
"Oh bother!" she cried, trying furiously to control her tears.
Maria laughed inwardly at Louisa's frustration of crying. "Oh, Louisa." she said, taking the girl into a comforting hug allowing her to cry on her shoulder.
"I would never ever let you forget your mother." she whispered into Louisa's hair. "If anything I would want to help you preserve that memory. I know the importance of keeping that memory, it's special. And your mother will always matter. Not matter what. She was your mother! She'll always hold a place in your heart." she paused. "And even though I didn't know her, in mine."
"Really?" Louisa sniffled, looking up.
Maria softly smiled. "Yes. She's the reason all of you are here, and for being able to spend time with you all and having you near me, I'll be forever thankful." Maria said, hugging the girl, once more.
They stayed like that. Louisa ok with being able to rely on someone for once. It wasn't so bad.
After a moment of silence, Louisa sat back looking at Maria, smiling.
"You know something?"
"What?" Maria asked.
"I think I can get used to you being my mother." Louisa said, smiling.
A huge grin enveloped Maria's face. "I'm glad to hear it." she said, ruffling the girls hair. "Come on, let's find your brothers and sisters.
Maria stood and held out her hand, helping Louisa up. Together they walked back to the house Maria's arm around Louisa's shoulder and Louisa's arm around Maria's upper back.
Author's Note: There you go! Chapter five! I think it turned out well, I'm quite pleased with it! Let me know what you think!
Megs: Glad you like the Feed the Birds thing! I was hoping for it! Thanks muchly!
Emartin: Yeah! Glad it was romantic…I was unsure if I was capturing it right…so thanks! Glad you liked the beginning bit too…Thanks bunches!
Kelsea Scarlett: Just wanted to say thank you for the first line of your review. I truly appreciate it, it means a lot! Sorry bout the few typos…bad habit of not proofreading…but I'm going to as soon as I finish here! I know what you mean about Doci…..etc. I watched the movie over and over again and finally got it lol…Thanks mucherly!
Thank you all so much for taking time to read this! Until next time!
Your humble author,
The Lonely Goatherd