Some of my favourite stories have been about this time period. I'm a bit apprehensive about this because the expectations are so high, and the romance and angst have been so perfectly and creatively done in many stories. By contrast, this story is rather playful and a little silly. I started this last year as an exercise in character voice and didn't plan to share it, but I hope it brings a smile to your face during these tumultuous times.
I was inspired by a Shadow and Bone story I'd read to format it this specific way - a series of letters to Maria. Warnings - erratic and weird chapter lengths, if you squint there might be a plot but it's meandering, and I really have no idea if I'm doing the characters justice.
Take care everyone and stay safe. xx
Dearest Fraulein Maria
xxx
(from a stack of letters tied up with string in Fraulein Maria's carpetbag)
Reverend Mother
Nonnberg Abbey, SBG
August 3, 1938
Dear Reverend Mother,
Thank you for sending word that Fraulein Maria is back in your care. I am relieved to hear she has returned safely, and she is well in body. I was as dismayed as you to learn she had chosen to leave in the middle of the night. Getting lost in the darkness would have been the least of my concerns. Please convey my deepest regret to Sister Sophia, who had the misfortune of answering my earlier inquiry. I understand and respect that Fraulein Maria is in seclusion for the time.
Addressing your question, I did not send her back. Fraulein Maria expressed her immediate wishes to return to you and resume her postulancy. I can only guess she found the villa to be unsuitable and did not care for the idea of staying on until summer's end. The children themselves knew nothing about it, though I did question them to be certain. They are very fond of her and, so I believed, she of them. Though she and I had some early misunderstandings – she was much too bold to keep strictly to her role as merely the governess and nothing what I expected from a postulate – I felt we had reached a satisfactory arrangement. She has helped my children and my family immensely. Fraulein Maria will say she prayed for us, that she was doing God's work (in that case, I should have tried for a governess from the Abbey much sooner). I apologize, that was irreverent. Perhaps there was divine intervention, but there was certainly the matter of her obstinacy and her audacity, her interminable optimism. Sometimes I wonder whether she brought this family back together by sheer force of will. While I do not know why she was in such a hurry to leave, I do know that given the chance, I would have arranged to discuss her concerns. I would have requested the opportunity to address them.
At this time, it is not necessary to send another governess. My children could not possibly believe a replacement would measure up to your initial choice and would endeavour to make life miserable for the poor woman.
Please kindly relay to Fraulein Maria our best wishes for her future. She had been a valuable member of our household, and the doors of the von Trapp villa remain open to her… should she ever wish to return.
Respectfully yours,
Captain Georg von Trapp
xxx