m & g

"You've been very quiet since we left the house."

"Perhaps I am afraid of your driving?"

"I beg your pardon?"

"Well, there was that one time, on our way to…"

"That was not my fault, and you know it," he waggled a finger at her. "Friedrich conveniently forgot to tighten the lid on that jar of grasshoppers he had secreted in his pocket." He paused and cocked his head to the side, clearly considering something.

"You know they've been so well behaved lately we might want to start frisking them again before we leave the house." Maria gave a hum of thoughtful approval before he continued.

"Where was I? Oh yes, when they made their escape Gretl screamed at such a high pitch I am certain dogs in the area howled in pain. It startled me! I may have, may have, swerved...a bit," he gave a haughty little sniff. "It was justified under the circumstances, I'm fairly sure I had a mild heart attack. I regrouped nicely though."

"You did, but after you said those words that I hadn't actually heard strung together in a sentence. Let me see.."

He held up a hand, "Don't repeat it, I beg you. I had not been, inspired, to use that phrase since my sailing days."

"Maybe not the whole phrase but I recognized one of those words, because you had said it before, but rather under your breath."

"I have never...when?"

"That night a few days after we got engaged. I came to tell you that Louisa's hair was back to normal after the blue ink and, well, we laughed and, then...you know," she whispered feeling the blush burn. Would she never stop blushing in front of him?

"And as I was leaving I realized I'd left the towel I had been carrying behind and heard you say it, to yourself."

Georg remembered the scene well. He seemed to have near perfect recall where Maria was concerned. Perhaps because his thoughts turned to her so often. It had been so heart achingly wonderful to have someone else to share his children with. To share himself with, that he couldn't help but revel in it.

Laughing over the blue streaks in Louisa's hair had resulted in his reaching up to stroke the side of her cheek and inform her that some of the ink had made a mark on her as well. As soon as his fingers had touched her skin the laughter had stopped and his heart had started pounding. Before he could collect himself he was leaning in and pressing his lips to her temple, across her cheek, to the corner of her still upturned mouth, feeling her breath stutter against his cheek.

Suddenly his arms were full of her as she responded by leaning in, balancing on her toes and sealing them together head to toe. Georg was applying increasingly desperate kisses to her lips, his hands slipping up the bare skin of her neck and into her hair as his mind quickly calculated the odds of whether or not he would break anything of value when he swept it all off the desk. Realizing where he was actively steering his fiancee of only seventy two hours he had gently pushed her back a bit and stammered an apology, which she would have none of. She had simply given him a kiss on the cheek, told him she enjoyed their "talk" and hoped to "chat" again soon and walked out. He had a very clear memory of leaning a hand on his desk, worrying his swollen lower lip with his teeth, and realizing the uncontrolled depth of his desire for her. He had let out an ungentlemanly word to help ease the tension he'd built up in her arms.

"So I did…," he mumbled, glancing over to find her eyes shining at him. Clearing his throat of the sudden tightness he felt there he sought to lighten the mood. "What can I say my love, I find you very very tempting."

"Me? Tempting?"

"Would you prefer tantalizing?"

"No, I…"

"Fascinating?"

"Hardly..."

"Intriguing?"

"I…"

"Fetching?"

"That's ridi-"

"Appetizing?", he leered, grinning with pleasure at the freedom to tease her.

"Georg!" She covered her cheeks knowing they were painted with a scandalized blush he was so aggravatingly able to summon at will.

"How can a woman who is unafraid of a fearsome naval captain be afraid of a silly little party?," he asked with a smirk. "And don't look so shocked, I know you. And you have been twisting that handkerchief from your handbag into oblivion since I started the car."

Maria tried to take a deep breath but she couldn't seem to get enough air in. "I am scared. I don't want to make a wrong move or say the wrong thing to the right person and have you made a laughingstock for choosing me."

Maria couldn't help but see herself in stark comparison to the lovely and elegant Baroness Schrader, who was clearly the sort of woman that he had been expected to marry. She was certain there was scandal enough he had been shielding her from already. They had been going out into society very gradually, and deliberately she realized. Strategic as always, he was introducing her to his closest friends first, who would support him and in deference support her as well, and slowly bringing her out amongst those people who might judge her, harshly. Georg had tried to give her time to practice but she wasn't sure she'd had enough. Could ever be truly ready. Some things simply needed to be faced, ready or not.

"I know," she said patting her hand on his arm, unsure whether she was comforting Georg or herself. "I'm being silly and probably making this much bigger in my head than it will be in person."

"Would it help if we sang about your favorite things?"

She let out a laugh at that and felt a bit of the heaviness that had settled on her ease.

"Probably not, but thank you for offering."

He reached across to take her hand in his. "Love, you have nothing to fear. There is nothing and no one that could make me change my mind about you."

"I feel as though we are all playing a game and I haven't been told all the rules," she said a little sadly as she tangled her gloved fingers into his bare ones, glad he had slipped them in his pocket before starting the car. He was always so warm. She resisted the urge to wrinkle them both by curling up on the seat next to him and burrowing in.

"Rules?" he smirked. "Darling," he said with a shake of his head, "When you've been told the rules you don't follow them."

"That's not-"

"You follow your heart and I don't want you to change that. Or anything else about you."

"You should have listened that day when I told how much trouble I'd been at the abbey."

He gave her a sly wink. "I've grown rather fond of your rebellious streak."

"But Georg, these people, your people; they are sophisticated and lovely and always know the right things to say. Especially when they say unkind things but manage to make them sound polite."

"Sweetheart…"

"And the women, they seem so comfortable flirting with all the men and flattering them into foolish puddles and I just can't seem to do that."

"Lucky for you I like women who enjoy shouting at me and make sure I know my place, without using a whistle."

"Georg you are ridiculous tonight, and absolutely no help," she exclaimed as she let go of his hand and made a good show of looking exasperated, but he could hear the laughter in her words.

"See, your irritated with me and I am fighting an impulse to pull the car over and kiss you until…"

"Stop," she said sternly but she was fighting a smile and he knew it.

"You've already met my closest friends, they were enchanted. Their wives took to you immediately, had you bundled off into a corner not ten minutes into being introduced and you had them all giggling like school girls. You never did tell me what story you told them?" He asked with a raised brow, hoping his blatant reminders of her success would outlay her fears.

"Oh, they asked about life in the abbey, how quiet it must have been compared to running herd on seven children and I told them the abbey could be surprisingly loud." He raised a brow and pinned her with a look that said he know the abbey had been a quiet place until she had arrived.

She ducked her head under his scrutiny and wondered, not for the first time, if he could read her mind. "Well, I told them of the afternoon Sister Berthe went into my room and found the baby goat... She opened the door and the goat ran out, knocked her down and proceeded to careen through the abbey until another postulant, Hannah, managed to distract him with some carrots… But not before he spoiled the evening mass and had drunk most of the holy water from the sacristy. Oh, don't try and hold back it was funny, well not then but.. There was a Bishop visiting, he came back all the time after that. Said we were such an exciting Abbey."

Georg laughed aloud at that and made a mental note to ask her more about her life at the abbey.

"You see darling, everyone knows everything about everyone at these sorts of parties. You'll be a hit simply by being new and you'll intrigue them by being unknown," he frowned as the last bit tumbled out of his mouth and he saw the light in her eyes begin to fade and her brow furrowed, the little line crinkling between her eyebrows. He'd said the wrong thing somewhere in there.

"What if they hadn't? What if Ben or Christoph or Max had disapproved?"

"I find that quite impossible to even consider. But I would have walked away from them without a backward glance," he said suddenly serious, his hand reaching over to cover hers. "Or in Max's case thrown him out of the house. I don't think he is ever going to leave..." Georg let out an extravagant sigh and shot her a grin before turning them onto a small private road. He shot a look over his shoulder to make sure there were no cars behind them and slowed down to a stop.

"Maria," he paused to make sure he caught her eye and held her gaze. "I love you. Selfishly, I want to show you off. I am proud of you. But if you don't want to go in we won't, we can close ourselves into the villa and I'll...build a moat around it. Actually, sealing ourselves into the bedroom has merit," he gave her a wicked smile and she gave him the same look she gave the children when she caught them in trouble.

He tipped her chin up with his hand, "I don't give a damn what other people think of me, or you, or the decisions we make. This, " he gestured between the two of them, "is the only thing that matters. Have confidence," Georg whispered as he leaned in and pressed his lips to hers and she felt the determination in his kiss as he pulled away.

Pulling her wrap closer around her shoulders and taking a deep breath she seemed to absorb his words and gave him a smile.

"Last chance to change your mind," he offered. But she shook her head as he started the car down the road again.

As the lights of the house began to appear in front of them Maria felt the dreadful twin sensations of having a light head that threatened to float away and heavy lead rock sink into her stomach, keeping her grounded to her new reality. She watched as they joined the cue of cars waiting to spill their elegant passengers out into the glittering swirl.

m & g

A special thank you to lemacd for the advice about keeping it public-even though I haven't yet managed to get them to the "public" part...

And thank you to all of you who have read or reviewed :)