Her Father's Daughter
by Bluebird88
Disclaimer: The Sound of Music is the property of Rodgers and Hammerstein, 20th Century Fox, and various script writers and producers. No copyright infringement is intended. Several lines from the movie are quoted at various points throughout the story. If it sounds familiar, it probably isn't mine.
Chapter 6: Caught!
Tuesday morning came, and with it Marta's seventh birthday. They had decided to celebrate the day with a special lunch in her honor, and to let her open her gifts then. It was a good thing, too, Louisa thought. Marta may have been the shyest of the von Trapp siblings, but today she could hardly contain her excitement. All morning, she had been darting surreptitious glances at the smile pile of wrapped presents on the table in the corner. By the time lunch arrived, Louisa was beginning to seriously doubt whether her sister could have waited until dinner.
After they had eaten a lunch consisting of all of Marta's favorite foods, it was finally time to open presents. Louisa could not resist teasing her sister a bit first. "Well, should we go back upstairs, then?" she asked, moving as though to stand up. Marta's eyes widened in alarm.
Fräulein Maria took pity on her. "Don't tease your sister, Louisa," she scolded, though her eyes were laughing. "Our birthday girl hasn't yet opened her presents!"
Marta straightened up, looking like she was trying not to seem too excited. Louisa grinned at her apologetically. She knew her sister didn't want to seem greedy, but of course she was looking forward to her presents!
Marta unwrapped her gifts slowly, carefully tearing through the paper and savoring each surprise. Father had left her a beautifully illustrated book of children's stories. Trust Father to find something educational! Still, he'd attached a nice note to it, wishing Marta a happy birthday and telling her that he was proud of how grown-up she was becoming. Liesl had read it aloud to Marta, and the little girl had swallowed hard, a shy smile lighting her face. Seeing that, Louisa could almost forgive Father for being away on Marta's birthday again.
The next gifts on the pile were from Louisa and the rest of her siblings. She and Liesl had spent several evenings after Marta had gone to bed sewing a new outfit for her doll that matched one of Marta's favorite dresses, and they had all pooled their money to buy her a set of art supplies, knowing how much time their sister hand spent lately drawing ladies in fancy dresses and ballerinas in pink.
Marta had let out a muffled squeal at the doll dress and was running her hands lovingly over the thick drawing paper, new paints, and freshly sharpened colored pencils. "Thank you!" she cried over and over, hugging everyone she could reach.
Fräulein Maria's gift was last. Louisa wondered when in the world her governess had had time to find a gift for Marta. The mystery was solved when Marta finally unwrapped it, revealing a set of homemade paper doll clothes cut from thick paper. Marta picked up each outfit slowly, admiring the pretty colors and intricate detail, and Louisa was surprised to see that her governess was really quite a talented artist. The last item in the stack made Marta's eyes light up even more. Nestled in the tissue paper was the doll itself. It was drawn to look like Marta, with large brown eyes and its dark hair in braids, and was wearing a frilly pink dress complete with a matching parasol.
Marta was so excited, she could hardly form the words to thank Fräulein Maria. Louisa looked at the scene around her, and found herself wondering when Father would be back. For the first time she could remember, she almost hoped that he would stay away longer. As much as she wanted to see him again, she was sure that he would put a stop to all the fun they'd been having.
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Two weeks had passed since Marta's birthday party, and the days had begun to take on something of a pattern. After breakfast, which was much livelier in Father's absence, the children went upstairs to work on their lessons. Fräulein Maria had explained that though she did think it a good idea that they devote some time to their schoolwork, she saw no reason that it should have to take them all day. She asked them to spend only a few hours each day studying, and even then she did her best to make it fun.
She made games out of their math problems, told exciting stories about the events in their history lessons, and let the little ones work on art projects that illustrated the stories they were reading. She even arranged for the older children to have weekly contests with each other, and though Brigitta always seemed to win the spelling bee, Louisa was most often victorious in geography.
Under Fräulein Maria's guidance, the children no longer dreaded the dull mornings spent upstairs in the schoolroom. Louisa now found that the time passed quickly, and she found herself actually looking forward to their morning lessons.
After they had finished with their schoolwork, the children and their governess would spend time on the von Trapp grounds. They played tree tag and capture the flag and all sorts of ball games, jumped rope, went on hikes and waded in the creek, and even had a water fight once.
In the afternoons, Fräulein Maria took them all over Salzburg. They saw puppet theaters and art museums, listened to musicians practicing, and explored the Austrian countryside. More often than not, they had their lunch outdoors, and all the children grew to love the warm, casual atmosphere of their daily picnics.
Maria had begun to take requests from the children as to the afternoons' activities. When Louisa's turn came, she knew exactly what she wanted to do: climb trees! She had half expected the governess to refuse, but Fräulein Maria had thought it a wonderful idea.
The next day, Kurt surprised them all with his request. "Let's take that old rowboat out on the lake!" Louisa turned to stare at him. "What? It's always been in the old boathouse, but we've never taken it out! I don't see any reason why we can't!"
After some cajoling, Fräulein Maria agreed, and they dragged the old boat out of the boathouse, and, after dusting it off and testing it for leaks, pronounced it fit for sailing.
They made certain to stay near the edges of the lake, where the water was really quite shallow, since the younger girls were not strong swimmers. The older children had all learned to swim at a young age, but after Mother died Father had insisted that none of the children go near the lake. Despite this directive, they had taken the opportunity to teach Marta to swim during one of Father's many trips away, during one of the periods between governesses. As a result, Marta could at least float long enough for someone to come help her, but Gretl had been too young to learn. Now, Fräulein Maria made the older children swear to look after their youngest sister in case anything should happen to the boat.
The children proceeded to spend the next hour rowing around the lake, laughing and singing a very off-key, disjointed version of do-re-mi, giggling, splashing, and generally having some of the most fun they'd had since Mother had died. Once again, Louisa found herself thinking that it was too good to last.
Sure enough, their revelry was destined to end much sooner than any of them had expected.
When the boat again came within sight of the house, the children saw Father standing at the back gate, a very elegant blonde woman clinging to his arm. Louisa and her brothers and sisters, apparently remembering Fräulein Maria's advice that they show their Father how much they loved it when he was home, all stood up at once to wave to Father.
Fräulein Maria got in on the act, clasping her hand to her heart dramatically and crying, "Oh, Captain! You're home!" in a voice worthy of a theater actress. She swayed with such force that the boat rocked precariously before flipping over backwards, dumping all the children into the cold water.
As she had been instructed to do in case of such an occurrence, Gretl clutched the side of the boat until Louisa spotted her. She quickly swam over to her sister and carried her out of the lake.
Father was glowering severely at them all, but no one paid him much attention. They were too busy giggling and shouting to realize immediately just how much trouble they were in.
"Come out of that water at once!" Father demanded, his voice just short of a roar.
Not even Father's anger, however, was enough to dampen the children's sprits. Spluttering and giggling and chattering excitedly, they made their way haphazardly up the steps. Father threw open the gate, and the children climbed up, their wet sandals sloshing against the stone patio and their soaked skirts weighing them down, dragging them back into the water. Louisa helped Gretl up the steps, then spread her arms and exclaimed, "Oh, I'm soaked to the skin!"
Suddenly, the children heard a sound it seemed they'd not heard in ages – the long, insistent tweeet! of Father's whistle. Even after weeks of such relaxed standards, the children knew to respond quickly to that sound. Without even consciously thinking about it, Louisa fell easily into her spot in line. Still, though, they didn't display the kind of military discipline Father was expecting. "Straight line!" he barked, and they obeyed immediately, snapping to attention.
Finally, it dawned on Louisa how much trouble they were in. If there was one thing Father absolutely would not stand for, it was being embarrassed in front of guests. Of course, he would not have tolerated their behavior today in any case, but with the baroness looking on? Louisa would bet all her savings that Fräulein Maria would be gone within the hour. She felt a sudden surge of resentment towards her father. Why did he have to come back and spoil all their fun?
Father stalked over and walked down the line of children, glaring all the while. When he reached Louisa, he stopped, reached up a hand, and yanked the kerchief off her head. She flinched, but didn't otherwise move or speak. Father, holding the kerchief with the tips of two fingers as if he were holding a dead rat by the tail, addressed his children. "This is Baroness Schraeder," he announced, nodding at her, "and these," he paused again and gave a tight-lipped smile, "are my children." Louisa almost flinched again at the suppressed anger in his voice.
The baroness had apparently decided to pretend not to notice anything amiss. "How do you do," she said graciously, nodding at them all. Louisa managed a weak smile in return.
"All right," Father snapped, "go inside, dry off, clean up, change your clothes, report back here." He paused, but no one moved. "Immediately!" The children rushed off, sandals slapping against the wet stone as they hurried into the house.
They made their way slowly up to their rooms, talking in hushed tones.
"Is Fräulein Maria going to be fired?" Gretl demanded immediately, her eyes wet with tears.
"We can't know for sure," Liesl responded helplessly, putting her arm around her.
"I don't want her to be!" Marta wailed. "She's the nicest governess we've ever had!"
"Maybe Father won't fire her," Kurt said, looking hopeful.
"Don't be an idiot!" Louisa returned angrily. "Of course he's going to fire her! Didn't you see how angry he was?"
"Louisa!" Freidrich broke in. "There's no need to be nasty."
"It's not fair!" she burst out, her voice breaking slightly. "The one governess who was actually nice, and Father's going to get rid of her! Just like all the others! We probably won't even get to say good-bye."
No one had anything to say to that. "Well," Liesl finally said with a sigh, "Whatever Father decides, there's nothing we can do about it now. We'd better not make him any angrier. Let's just go get changed, like he said."
"Into our uniforms," added Brigitta sadly, and Louisa nodded. Definitely, she thought, no more play clothes.
A/N: Feedback is very much appreciated!