Disclaimers, acknowledgements, notes, warnings, etc: Please see Chapter 01.
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The Sound of Music Chronicles
Part I
The Twelfth Governess
Chapter 20
Observing bedtime
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"Man frames his judgment on reason; but woman on love founds her verdict;
If her judgment loves not, woman already has judged."
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Captain von Trapp had indeed left her a detailed schedule of the children's activities – twenty-five manuscript pages in a bold handwriting. There had been no time for Maria to read it all before her first meal with the family; in fact she had only read what would be pertinent for the evening. She even wondered if there was such a thing as a dictionary of naval jargon, because she most certainly would need one. For instance, instead of simply stating the time before each scheduled activity, he had divided the day in seven time intervals (1): First watch, morning watch, forenoon watch, afternoon watch, first dogwatch and second dogwatch. She was thankful for the term "afternoon watch" – it gave her an indication that the next two were for the evening activities of the children. Mercifully, she had skimmed these segments while mending her dress.
After the initial dismay at the absurdly intricate set of instructions, Maria had to admit that it was not so complicated after all – on the contrary, it had a logic to it that was simply flawless. It also did not allow the children any free time to play, and she thought she would have to talk to the Captain about the problem as soon as possible… That is, if she managed to keep her job long enough for a conversation.
The Captain's timetable determined that after dinner, the children were required to read for one hour, and at nine, each child should be in his or her bed, with the lights spent. No visiting in each other's room was allowed.
Convincing six of her charges that it was time to go to sleep had been a challenge to her. Convincing them that they needed to read before hand was a completely different matter – it was the next world war. The children simply didn't care for their father's choice of reading material. Not that Maria could blame them, it was simply ghastly. The Captain's choice of book to broaden his children's horizons for that evening had been so boring that by the time Maria had finished reading the first page, the youngest ones were already yawning. Maria herself was yawning, and she had believed at first that getting them to bed would not require too much effort. She was wrong - all it took was her to say that it was time to say good night and they were fully awake again.
Louisa, as usual, was the first one who hinted she would rebel against the order.
"I am not sleepy," she whined.
"Neither am I!" said Marta, yawning. The other children – four of them, since Liesl was still missing – were frowning at her.
"Oh really? One moment ago you were falling asleep while I read your… ehm…" she cleared her throat, gazing at the title of the 872 pages book, "Treaty on the History of the Imperial and Royal Austro-Hungarian Navy." The title alone was enough to make her yawn. Naturally she understood that the Captain probably wanted his sons and daughters to know as much as possible about the country he had fought for so bravely. But a treaty with 872 pages?
"Hmm – something else I'll have to talk to him about – there must be a better way," she mused. Then she spoke to the children, trying to sound as firm as she possibly could. "I'm afraid you have no choice – it's your father's orders, my dears. You must go to bed now."
Friedrich had crossed his arms over his chest.
"Make us," he challenged.
Maria sighed deeply.
"I could." They looked at her as if preparing for battle. "But I won´t." It wasn´t her imagination, they looked disappointed. "Children, let us wave a white flag, just for tonight. A truce. You know what that is, don't you?" Friedrich uncrossed his arms, and she took it as a good sign. "You must all be exhausted after preparing all of those pranks – dirt in my carpetbag, a frog, shoes and hat in the tree, the flooded bathroom… and whatever other surprises I am sure you have in store for me tonight. Oh, and let us not forget the pine cone."
"So?" Louisa asked, insolently.
"So let us make a little pause, shall we? You'll be all rested so that you can start planning what you'll do to me tomorrow. There is nothing like a rested mind to bring new ideas and – you know - inspiration…"
Her argument was enough to convince them. Maria followed the line of children, as they made their way to the Captain's study. Friedrich knocked, and they went in to say their goodnights, while Maria remained outside, by the door. In fact, she did not know what to do, if she was supposed to follow them inside or not. In any case, she was simply too tired to face the Captain again, and felt that her temper would flare very easily if he acted in that same insufferable manner again.
The children marched upstairs, and Maria more or less followed their lead, taking each child to their respective rooms, first the girls, then the boys – that too, she remembered from the Captain's schedule.
"Are you really a nun? I don´t believe it," Louisa challenged her."
"You don´t because I am not. But I will be, before the year is over," she answered calmly.
"But you are not old and mean, you do not have a sour face and you do not smell funny!" exclaimed Marta.
"Oh? I did not know all nuns were like that," Maria smiled. "Because they aren´t, that I can assure you."
"She is talking about the sisters at the Ursuline School, Fräulein." Brigitta clarified.
"I see," Maria said simply. The school for girls was known for its high academic standards, but the nuns who taught there were notoriously severe.
"I don´t know," Kurt said, not so easily convinced.
"Why?" Friedrich asked his brother. "You don´t think father is trying to trick us, do you?"
"Why would your father trick you, Friedrich?" Maria asked, amused.
"He might want us to be afraid of you!"
Her jaw dropped – did the Captain know how incredibly perceptive his children were?
"Well, he used to play tricks on us, when mother was alive!"
"He was funny!"
Maria looked heavenward – after spending half a day in his house, she had already drawn many conclusions and could imagine many things about Captain von Trapp already. An irascible, arrogant, stubborn martinet. A handsome devil, although that was a mere detail that had nothing to do with the rest. Funny certainly was certainly not a word she would use to describe him. If she were not so determined to obey their strict bedtime, she would start asking them how exactly their father used to trick them, but she made a little mental note to leave that for later.
But Captain von Trapp a practical joker? Not in a million years!
"Where is Liesl?" she asked, after Marta and Gretl were already tucked in bed. The other children gathered at the door waiting to be dismissed to their bedrooms.
"Outside," answered Kurt. "Ow!" The boy yelped as his brother elbowed him in his ribs.
"Are you sure? It's beginning to rain." Maria looked outside and noticed that it had begun to sprinkle, but a full storm was on the horizon. "Someone should go after her."
"Yes, but there was a telegram delivered to father," added Brigitta, meaningfully.
"What does it have to do with anything?" Maria asked.
"Keep your nose out of everyone else's business, Brigitta." Louisa glared at her then at Maria, hoping that her sister would keep her mouth shut. She instantly guessed what was going on in the children's minds. Yes, she hadn't complained about their tricks to father, but that didn't mean they could trust her with their secrets.
"I don't understand. What does it have to do with your sister?" Maria asked again, confused.
"Rolfe is Liesl´s..." Gretl shouted from the bed.
"Sshhhh Gretl!" The other children protested. "Not so loud! If father hears you, we´ll all be in trouble!"
"Gretl, please. It's time for bed." Maria looked down at her youngest charge. She kissed her forehead, and shooed the rest of the family out of the younger girl's room. She then looked to Brigitta and Kurt for more answers. It was obvious to her that Louisa and Friedrich wouldn't be supplying many answers for her this evening about their eldest sister's whereabouts.
"Now who is going to tell me? Who is this Rolfe?"
"The telegram boy. He comes here often." Kurt chimed in.
"Yes, and sometimes there is really a telegram and it is actually for father." Brigitta added.
"What?" Now Maria was very confused.
Louisa looked slyly at Maria.
"She means that Liesl is in the gazebo with the telegram deliverer. They are in love," she rolled her eyes when she said the last words.
"Hmmmm," hummed Maria. "Now, that is interesting!"
"So there is indeed a gazebo," was the first thing she thought, remembering what the bus driver had told her. Although she could not wait to have a look at it, the idea of the sixteen year old daughter of Captain von Trapp there, alone with a telegram deliverer, worried her. Following the Captain´s lopsided logic, if anything happened to the girl, it would be the governess fault, and Maria was only beginning to realize that perhaps those children needed her more than she needed them.
"Does your father know about it?"
"Are you joking? He would have Rolfe keelhauled and Liesl sent to a convent – no offense, Fräulein," said Friedrich.
"Oh - erhm - none taken!"
"You are not going to tell him, are you?" It was a question, a request and a veiled threat, all into one, coming from Louisa.
"No, I won´t unless I absolutely have to," Maria reassured them. She saw no reason at first to betray Liesl´s secret to the Captain. Yet, deep inside she was worried – it was the first indication that she was out of her depth. Being responsible for those children meant that she would have to guide them in the best possible way. How would she be able to say anything to a lovesick sixteen year old if she had had never been in love herself?
"I don't understand," Brigitta said, puzzled, as they made their way to her room. "Rolfe Gruber is such a know-it-all. No one can stand him. Louisa calls him a know-it-some. I don't agree."
"You don't?" asked Maria.
"I think he is a know-it-nothing. And still he has Liesl and her silly girl friends all swooning over him."
"He thinks he is king of Salzburg just because he wears a uniform," said Friedrich.
"Does he?" Maria asked.
"It is not even a real one, like father´s Navy uniforms. It´s a telegram deliverer´s uniform!"
"That is silly, I have to agree."
"And he has the black spider etched in his bicycle. I've seen it."
"The… black spider, Brigitta?" Maria inquired.
Friedrich offered her an explanation, lowering his voice. "It is how we call the Nazi flag, Fräulein." Then he turned to his sister. "You must not tell father, Brigitta, otherwise there will be trouble. You know how he feels about them. We don't need him any more mad than he already is because of politics."
Maria said goodnight to Louisa and Brigitta, who occupied adjoining rooms. Then she started following the boys, who were walking towards theirs.
"Fräulein, what are you going to do?" asked Friedrich, when he noticed her following them.
"The same thing I did with you sisters. Make sure you are all tucked in,"
The boys exchanged an annoyed glance.
"We are boys, Fräulein," said Kurt.
"Obviously!" She gestured for them to continue into their rooms.
"Yes. We do not need… tucking," added Friedrich, with a striking resemblance to his father's cold and stoic tone.
Maria shrugged, deciding that she had battled enough – at least for the moment. She wished the boys good night, saving their budding masculine pride for the moment, and made her way to her own room, in the opposite wing of the house.
"Come in," she said, Maria not bothering with the fact that she was already in her nightclothes. It was the housekeeper, carrying a small pile of bolts of fabric.
"Frau Schmidt?" Maria said, questioningly, at the same time rushing to relieve the elderly woman of her burden. "Here, let me help you. What is all this?"
"For your new dresses, Fraulein Maria. The Captain had these sent out from town."
"Oh, how lovely!" was her excited exclamation. "Oh, I'm sure these will make the prettiest clothes I've ever had."
"One of our upstairs maids, Frau Poppmeier is also a very accomplished seamstress. If you need any help, please feel free to ask her – I already told her you might do that. Sewing is her passion, and I am afraid she has only made sailor suits lately."
"Oh good, then she won´t mind working on something more… creative. Thank you, Frau Schmidt. I will certainly need Frau Poppmeier´s help for what I have in mind," she said, pensively.
"Yes? And what do you have in mind, Fräulein?" asked the housekeeper.
Maria answered her with another question. "Tell me, do you think the Captain would get me some more material if I asked him?"
The housekeeper was clearly taken aback.
"How many dresses does a governess need?"
Maria shook her head vehemently. "No, not for me. For the children. I want to make them some play clothes."
"Play clothes?" the woman asked, walking towards Maria's window.
"They just can't be children if they cannot get dirty. There should be a law about that somewhere," she added, mumbling.
"The Von Trapp children don't play. They march. That is the law here, at least. It has been for the past three years."
"Oh, surely, you don't approve of that?" Maria frowned. "They need to run outside in the sunshine, they need exercise, fresh air, and by that I do not mean just… march around the grounds breathing deeply," she quoted. "Or following this timesheet like if they were in active duty," she added, glancing at the handwritten pages splayed all over the tiny desk in her room.
"Yes, I know what you mean." Frau Schmidt stared at her, pensively. "Ever since the Captain lost his poor wife, he runs this house as if he were on one of his ships again. Whistles, orders. No more music, no more laughing. Nothing that reminds him of her... even the children."
"But it's so wrong! He is not driving the memories away; he is just making it more painful to remember!"
For a moment, the housekeeper looked like if she were very tempted to reveal something about the Captain´s past to Maria, but she simply shook her head and smiled.
"How do you like your room? There'll be new drapes at the windows."
"New drapes? But these are fine," she protested.
"Nevertheless, new ones have been ordered. Captain's orders."
"Oh, but I really don't need them. " Maria bit her lips, as an idea occurred to her. "Do you think if I ask the Captain tomorrow about the material...?"
"Save yourself the trouble. Fräulein. He's leaving for Vienna early in the morning. He will most likely be gone by the time you and the children will have your breakfast."
"Oh, yes, of course. Well, how long will he be gone? Maybe when he returns I will be able to take care of that."
"That all depends. The last time he visited Baroness Schraeder he stayed for a month," Frau Schmidt replied meaningfully.
"Oh, that long!"
"I shouldn't be saying this - not to you, I mean I don't know you that well. But you are different from your eleven predecessors and… oh well, I have said more than I should already. I like you!"
"Thank you!" exclaimed Maria, happily.
"If you ask me, the Captain's thinking very seriously of marrying the woman before the summer's over."
"Really?"
"You know, it might be too early to talk about it, but I think there is finally something happening. She is lovely lady, a real Grand Dame, so they say…"
"Oh, that would be wonderful! Well, the children will have a mother again!" was Maria's excited exclamation. "That should make everything right. No wonder the children were so curious about her at the dinner table."
Frau Schmidt looked straight at her. "Do you really believe that?"
"Yes, of course!"
"Hmmm. Well, they say that the Captain is really making progress with the Baroness and we shall hear those wedding bells pealing very soon," the housekeeper said, lowering her voice, as if savoring a delicious piece of gossip. "Now that I think of it, it is a big gesture of trust in you if he would really go to Vienna now."
"Ehm… why?"
"It is very unlike him, to leave the children in charge of a new governess and leave immediately, especially one like you…" Maria's eyes widened. "No, I don't mean you are inadequate, quite the contrary, you handled those welcome pranks quite well. You´re just…"
"Yes?"
"Unconventional. Peculiar." Maria´s eyes widened at the woman´s choice of words. "I´ll be honest, Fräulein, better women than you have run long before the pine cone incident. That was an original one, by the way. Anyway, it just that… you are not like the others. Not at all. Certainly not what one would imagine for a governess in such an aristocratic household. Yet, he will leave you here in full charge…" Maria was about to ask the housekeeper about the other ladies, but the woman spoke again. "Well, I should probably retire now."
A sudden thought then occurred to Maria. "Just one more thing, Frau Schmidt, please. After that I won't take more of your time."
"Yes, Fräulein?" Frau Schmidt turned around to face Maria.
"Where can I find a nice vase?"
"A nice what?"
"A vase. And flowers, of course."
"Yes, I know, but it's such an unusual request for this time at night. What do you have in mind, Fräulein?"
"I was thinking that the children could send a gift to the Baroness," Maria explained. "And what could be better than a vase planted with some of our local flowers?"
"You are most definitely not like the others, Fräulein… There is a shed by the rose garden, where our gardener keeps his tools. I am quite sure you'll find all you need there. However, I must tell you – you won't find too many flowers around here. The garden is sadly neglected, I am afraid," Frau Schmidt gave her a meaningful look. "There is a small greenhouse next to the shed; my husband – who is a gardener, by the way – takes care of it. Maybe you´ll find something there too."
"I see. Well, I'll see if I find something. I am sure I will."
"Forgive me for asking, but when are you planning to do that? As I said, the Captain is leaving early tomorrow, there is no time."
"Frau Schmidt, the most valuable lesson I learned in the Abbey it is to make time whenever I need it!" she exclaimed proudly.
After all, she did have all night, didn't she?
A/N: (1) Standard Navy watches are: First Watch - 2000 to 2400; Midwatch - 0000 to 0400; Morning watch - 0400 to 0800; Forenoon Watch - 0800 to 1200; Afternoon Watch 1200 to 1600; First Dogwatch 1600 to 1800; Second Dogwatch - 1800 to 2000 (Source – WWII Naval Dictionary – valoratsea website