A/N:

What if the Captain, after breaking up with Elsa, waited another day or two to talk to Maria in the gazebo? A little bickering in this chapter, as Maria decides to speak up.

As for your reviews, what can I say: Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Disclaimer: I don't own The Sound of Music, etc.

"The cause is hidden, but the result is known." [Lat., Causa latet: vis est notissima. Ovid, Metamorphoses (IV, 287).

Maria had no choice but to wear the infamous blue dress once more that evening.

After the night of the ball, she swore she would never ever put it on again, but she hardly had a choice. Dinner the previous night had been particularly formal, because of the Captain's recent engagement. But tonight she was planning to wear her other good dress, the one she had worn the night of the party, but she discovered a tear just under the right arm. She could sew it, but that would make her late to dinner, and she did not want to be late. Not when his eyes would follow her every move.

In fact, she thought that she would not be able to bear dinner that night. Her mind firmly made up, she went to look for Captain von Trapp, finding him in his study.

"Captain, could I have a word with you, please?"

He raised his eyes form the letter he was reading, and gave her his full attention. "Yes?"

She bit her lips, loosing her nerve for a brief second. Whatever he had been reading in that letter, he had not liked it at all. "May I…"

"No, you may not."

"But…"

"No, Fraülein!" So he was back to the old Fraülein treatment again. Maria found it oddly comforting.

"That is not fair; you didn't even know what I was going to ask!"

"Yes, I did. You will attend dinner tonight, no excuses."

"How could you possibly…" The Captain nodded towards Franz, who was pretending to be busy rearranging a crooked painting on the wall. Only then she realized that they were not alone.

"Oh," Maria moaned, meaningfully, understanding his silent message. It seems that the butler's nasty habit of gossping was common knowledge.

"Franz would you excuse us, please?" The butler nodded and left silently. The Captain turned his attention to Maria again. "I knew what you were going to ask because I know you better than you think, especially considering your unscheduled flight to the Abbey."

She shrugged, "Oh, well, that is good, at least."

"Now, why is that good?" It was strange, he thought. Wasn't she going to fight, tooth and nail, to change his mind, as she usually did?

"For a moment I thought you saying no just out of habit!"

There it was, he thought, with a half smile. He knew she would not give up so easily.

"I beg your pardon!"

"No begging necessary. But I might as well ask. Are you saying no only because I am the one doing the asking?"

"Fraülein!"

"Well, Captain, I'm sorry, but it seems that you do take pleasure in challenging me."

His mouth fell open. "Pleasure in challenging you? I? You are the one who is always…" How had she done that? She had placed him in a defensive position, while she was doing the attacking. He closed his eyes, and shook his head. "Of all the absurdities I've heard you blabbering in this house, this is the most…"

"Outrageous? Preposterous? Ridiculous, nonsensical, irrational, ludicrous... Or any other word with more than three syllables I will gave to look up in the dictionary? If nothing else, at least I am improving my limited commoner´s vocabulary."

His eyes narrowed into slits, and his expression turned dangerous. Maria stepped back. Again, she had gone too far. She felt compelled to do just that – to push him too far. It was something she had not been able to avoid. And the reason was not entirely unclear to her. He was much too disturbing when he was not yelling at her. She'd rather face his anger than that something she could not quite understand. Because she knew anger, and she could deal with it, and leave unscathed. What she did not know and could not deal with was something else – something that she had become conscious, for the first time, that night when he agreed to sing for her and the children, and for the last time earlier that day, when he touched her hands. That, whatever it was, was beyond anything she had ever experienced.

He rose from his desk, and walked towards her, and Maria force herself to hold her ground. She looked up to him. He came to a stop so close to her that the toes of their shoes almost touched. He spoke then, his voice barely containing his anger.

"I – said - no!" He said the words slowly, his voice merely above a whisper, but the tone was dark and menacing. It was the Captain at his worse - that she had learned so far. When he spoke suavely like that, he could inflict more fear than when she shouted. The men he commanded knew that very well.

But with that Captain she could deal just fine.

Maria crossed her arms in her chest, in an unconscious gesture of self defense. But she remained there, holding his gaze. It was a battle of wills none of them was willing to loose.

His next words surprised her.

"You do not like me very much, do you?"

Her eyes widened. But she had gone too far to start acting like a coward now.

"At this moment, not particularly, Captain."

He stiffened slightly, looking away. Odd, she thought, but there was a look in his eyes. He looked… offended. Hurt! It was puzzling, why would he care, she was just - the governess.

"I see. In fact, I don't think like you very much either right now," he fired back.

Maria gaped in surprise. "Well, good."

"Good!" They spoke at the same time.

"You are not giving up that easily, are you?" he asked, still in that menacing tone, his lips now turned into a dangerous half smile.

"Not in a million years." She took a deep breath, and repeated her request once more. "May I please be excused from dinner tonight?"

"No, you may not."

"Why?"

"I have an important announcement to make, and I would like you and everybody else to be there, that is why. And, like I said before, after dinner, you and I will have a little talk."

"But…"

"No but´s. You may not want to talk to me now, but you will once you listen to what I have to say to you and to the children. Besides, you do have to put a stop to this."

"Put a stop to what, Sir? I have never skipped dinner before. I might have been late a couple of times, but…"

"Stop running away!" Maria stilled. "You told me once that being outspoken was your worst fault. Well, it is not. Running away when things are just starting to become difficult for you to manage, that is your real problem."

"I do not…"

"Yes, do you. You always did. That much I know about you. Your family made you miserable, and you ran to the first convent you set your eyes upon."

"How do you know that?" But he wasn't even listening.

"You were miserable there too and you were sent here. But we made you unhappy and you ran back there again, to your sainted Abbey, even though it was making you sick. Yes, the Reverend Mother told me about your headaches. The same Reverend Mother who was not easily fooled and must have sent you back to face whatever and whoever made you a nervous wreck, because I honestly doubt you would have made that decision on your own."

"Wait!!!"

"And, alas, you are still miserable. But I will not permit it to go on. I must end it, and I think I have the power to do that. You will not run again even if I have to lock you in the attic. You will stay and listen to what I have to say to you first. Only afterwards you'll be free to leave, if that is what you want to."

Maria was appalled, and not only because he had been speaking so fast that he was making her dizzy. Anger overcame all other emotions. How dare he? How could he know? If he knew, if he only knew. How dare he command her to stop feeling what she felt?

"It is nice to see you at a loss for words for a change," he continued. "Get used to it. It will happen again soon enough, so be prepared. I want to see the look in your eyes after I say what I want to say after dinner."

"Oh, but you won't, Captain von Trapp," she began angrily, her voice rising in volume and lowering in pitch, as she recovered her self confidence. "Because I will not be there…" She nearly shouted the last words.

"Oh yes, you will!"

She ignored him. "… and because my eyes are my own and you have no business looking into them ever… again…" Tears came to her eyes, she could not go on. She turned to leave. "I will not be there," she repeated.

"You will."

"I won't. What are you going to do this time? Ask me to pack my things this minute and return to the Abbey?"

It was her turn to leave him speechless.

That was it. She would leave in the morning, no matter what.

A/N: The "my eyes are my own" line is from the real Maria's book.