A/N: The story is set in that pleasant interlude between "Edelweiss" and "The Ländler". It takes place after "Underneath her wimple", and it begins about one week before the ball.

Disclaimer: I absolutely do not own "The Sound of Music".

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"Jealousy is the great exaggerator."

Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller, The Conspiracy of Fiesco, 1783

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"For a nun in training, you do lead a very colorful social life!" The Captain spat, as soon as they were back in the car. He slammed his door, making her wince. "Hold on to this for me, will you?" he said, handling her the book he had bought at Hans and Peggy´s shop to her lap. The blue roses he placed carefully on the back seat of the car.

He cares more about the book than he does about the roses, she thought. Otherwise, he would have me holding the fragile blue flowers, and would simply have thrown the book to the back seat. What is it with that book? She thought, staring at the brown, leather bound volume for a moment.

Her fingers burned, and she felt tempted to look inside. Her conscience warned: remember what you saw when you disobeyed his orders the last time? The memory was enough to warm her cheeks again. She certainly could not allow that same situation to repeat itself now. She was, once more, alone with him in the car and there would be no place to hide from him.

Well, I will worry about it later. But she would worry about it, the cool leather making her fingers itch to open the book. In the meantime, if her employer wanted another fight, he would get one.

"Well, Sir, forgive me for being repetitious, but as I said earlier– more than once, in fact - we do not spend all our time in contemplation at the Abbey. The nuns are cloistered, but the postulants and the novices work. And while we work, we meet people. I would not call that a social life. It just comes naturally." He said nothing, and she continued her chatter, trying to make her point. "Take you, for instance, Captain. I refuse to believe that while traveling all over the world, you have never met any nice young women."

The Captain thought for a moment about some of the nice young women he had met before his marriage – and decided against making any specific comments. The little Fraülein had blushed enough for one day. "Women are not allowed in submarines, Fraülein, and for a good reason!"

"Why?" she asked, exasperated.

That is all I need – a feminist nun, He thought He kept his eyes on the road, and gripped the steering wheel tightly."Don´t try to change the subject, Fraülein. The undeniable fact is… that the little… fiddle player was…" He searched for the right words.

"Captain, he's not…" She looked at him expectantly. He cut her off.

"Well, he was flirting with you." He couldn't look at her. He was approaching the turn in the road that he had taken earlier today. The one on which he had gotten to know a little more about Maria, and had lengthened their trip to Salzburg. He considered his options as she gave him yet another dressing down today.

Her eyes grew larger. How could the Captain think such a thing? "He was not! And he is a violinist, not merely a… fiddle player. A very accomplished musician, I might add, who has just been awarded a scholarship to the…"

"He was flirting." He spoke markedly, which was also a sign that he was in a dangerous mood. Curious man, this sea captain, she thought. If he speaks at normal speed, all is fine, but if he speaks as fast as lightining, or distinctly, as he just did, then brace yourself for what is to come! The problem was that, with Maria, he always seemed to speak at those dangerous speeds.

"He was just being nice to me. He is a very sweet boy." She sounded a bit dejected, almost as if he had offended her. Well, she needs to know the truth, he thought.

"Oh, is he?" He chanced a glance over at her. She had such passion in her eyes. Not passion for the young man, that was obvious, even to him. She continued to speak and he realized what he was seeing in her eyes; it was a passion for him to understand her.And I do want to understand her, the little voice in his head cried. The little voice must have been the navigator of the car, because as he looked at her, he turned onto the same winding road he had taken earlier that day. Prolonging their trip once more… prolonging his time away from Elsa, away from the children, and away from prying eyes.

"Captain, Werner works in the market all day selling flowers and still helps his mother on weekends, and attends music school at night. He does not have time for flirting. And if he did, he would not waste it on me. He knows I am dedicated to a higher purpose in life."

He did not have to be told about young Werner´s merits. He knew the boy quite well – or better, Agathe knew him. One day they had been walking in downtown Salzburg, and had heard him play the violin. Agathe, who also played the instrument, was immediately drawn to the sound. Ten-year-old Werner Meyer was playing, while his mother sold flowers at the market. The sight tugged at Agathe´s tender heart, but so the boy´s magnificent music.

"Listen to him, Georg," she had said. "Even if I practice all days for the next 20 years, I won´t be able to play like that. And he is just a little boy!"

They became the Werner´s sponsors – although the boy himself did not know that – and he was awarded a scholarship to one of the most prestigious of all Salzburg´s music schools. He was a fine young man, with a bright future. But that did not give him the right too…

"He does not need 'time' necessarily Fraülein, all he requires is the opportunity," he said briskly, only to interrupt his own thoughts. "Which he seized in grand fashion, by the way. He did not have to hug you, did he?"

"Captain, I am going to be a nun, and there is nothing or no one with the power to stray me from that path. Not Werner Meyer, not Frau Schneider, not her poor philandering son, whatever his name is" she said exasperatedly, then added with a huff, "and least of all you!" Tears were threatening her eyes. Unwilling to let the Captain see that she was upset, she turned her attention to the countryside. Feeling them beginning to spill down her cheeks, she turned her back squarely to him, and hastily wiped them away. She would not let him see her cry.

Me? Why would she name me in the list of suitors? He fought hard not to press the brakes firmly at her statement. He looked at her, daring her to argue with him. "And why should I of all people want you to stray you from your path?" He asked irritably. "If you want to be a nun, then be a nun. As long as it does not interfere with your work with my children." She said nothing. He knew her well enough to tell that she was angry. Her tone of voice said as much – she was nearly been yelling at him. "You certainly know what you want from life, don´t you?" he asked, thinking that, maybe, he had pushed her too far.

"Yes, I do." Her tone was still angry, but with a touch of sadness. He saw her wipe furiously at her face, and realized that she must have been crying. I've upset her more than I thought. He continued to glance at her, all the while she kept her attention to the hills. He gave her a few moments to compose herself, and when he felt she was ready, he continued their conversation, this time gently, as if in apology.

"If you know what you want out of life, then I suggest you hold on to that. It is a precious gift. Most of us poor souls are completely lost."

She was startled by his soft tone, and she turned to look at him. "Even you, Captain?"

He looked her straight in the eye and answered pensively, "More than you know," He kept her gaze for a moment longer, and then turned his eyes back to the road. After a few moments of silence and berating himself for making her cry, he felt as if he needed to justify his actions. Whether it was justifying them to her or himself, he wasn't sure. "Fraülein, please try to understand that you are under my care and protection. I gave the Mother Abbess my word that I would keep you from any harm. If I seem a bit…"

"Unreasonable?"

He smirked. "I was going to say worried."

She let out a small chuckle and he continued. "The Mother Abbess is a formidable woman. I don't wish to have her angry at me. If Sister Berthe has you kiss the floor when you have a disagreement, I would hate to see what the Reverend Mother would do to me if I let anything happen to you." He turned to her and gave her a small smile, then looked back at the road.

Werner Meyer harming her? The thought was ludicrous to Maria. Even more ludicrous was the idea of flirting with him. It was the furthest thing from her mind. She had never thought of the boy as anything other than a friend, and she knew that the feeling was reciprocal, and, more than that, she could prove it. She was tempted to tell the Captain about Werner´s girlfriend, who lived in Hallein, and who he was planning to marry as soon as he graduated from the music school. However, she knew the Captain´s moods well enough now to conclude that, if she gave him that small piece of information, he would start another argument. Let him think whatever he wishes to think, she thought. One year from now he will hardly remember my name.

The thought saddened her. Turning her head, she found herself studying him for the second time that day. Would he really dismiss her so easily from his mind that he wouldn't remember her name? And once she became a nun, would she really never see the children again? She felt a little part of her die inside at that thought. Although they had only spent a few months together, the children meant so much to hear. And she had so much more to teach them, to teach him how to be a father. He needed to be a father to his children, but not a father to her. She wasn't his responsibility, and he needed to know that. "Oh, but I can take very good care of myself, Captain. I´ve been doing that all my life."

That silenced him – at least for a while. Her mind could now occupy itself with other matters.

Maria continued to look at him for a few moments, then remembering their conversation from earlier in the day realized she needed to look at something else. No, he didn't look at all like a sea captain, and yet… he looked very much in command. Maria stared down at her own hands, only then realizing that they were clutching the book so hard that her knuckles were white. She relaxed, but not completely.

The book.

She could not help but wonder if it was anything like the book she had seen in the antique shop. The Captain wondering why she had been silent for so long looked over and noticed the direction of her gaze. He could very clearly read her thoughts.

"Go on," he taunted softly. "Open it! You are dying to do it, so just – do it!"

She looked up sharply. "You told me specifically not to, Sir."

"But you still could not resist taking a peek, could you?" Her face went beet red. "Never mind, that should teach you to trust my better judgment now and then. Yes, Fraülein, it appears that sometimes I can be right. " He looked at her again, taking the book from her lap, his hand grazing hers in the process. He kept one eye on the road and the other on the book. A smile graced his lips as he turned it over and handed it to her. "This one is quite harmless, I assure you. Go on, satisfy your curiosity. You won´t get burned this time."

She hesitantly opened the leather bound book. Her eyes widened.

"Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, by Jules Verne," she said in wonder. The very first big book she had read, her favorite as a child.

"It is a rare first edition. I have been looking for it for years. If you wonder why I went to Hans and Peggy today, it was to fetch this book, and not to buy Elsa´s diamonds. If the outing had only been for her treasure, I would have gone to somewhere more… conventional."

Maria´s eyes looked at the opening lines.

"The year 1866 was signalised by a remarkable incident, a mysterious and puzzling phenomenon, which doubtless no one has yet forgotten."

The Captain continued with his own reminiscences. "You know, it was reading this book that made me realize I wanted to command submarines. Have you read it?"

"Oh yes, but… a long time ago, when I was a little girl." Her eyes were still glued to the pages, taking extra care with them.

"Did you like it?"

"Oh yes. This one, and The Mystery Island were my favorites."

"Odd choices for a little girl. I thought you were more… the fairy tale type."

She looked up at him and smiled. "I was a very odd little girl."

He returned her smile with a genuine one of his own. The drive to the villa continued in silence, as they were both lost in their memories - his of the dream to be a submarine captain, and hers of wanting to marry one.

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A/N: As usual, Mellie´s beta work was essential to make this story what it is now. Thank you, Mellie! And to all of you, reviewers, especially to TrapperII and Maria´s Georg for their comments.