A Time to Clash

"Got you!" cried Georg, swooping up Brigitta in his arms, ending the chase. She laughed as well as groaned, letting her father twirl her around for a moment before setting her down in his triumph.

"No fair, Father!" said Brigitta, bending over to catch her breath. "You always catch us but we can never catch you!"

"Yes, that certainly is not fair, Brigitta," said Louisa, with a mischievous glint in his eyes. "I say we make this game more fair for us."

"Oh-ho, and what way is that?" asked Georg, not noticing how he was becoming surrounded by his offspring.

"GET FATHER!" cried Louisa, and in the next moments, all seven of the children had rushed to Georg and pinned him to the ground with tickles and playful rough-housing.

Everyone laugh, but Georg's hearty laugh was the loudest of all as he playfully wrestled and tickled his children back.


Unbeknownst to the Von Trapps, there was a witness to this carefree familial happiness in the nearby tree. From her safe hiding place, Maria saw and heard everything, the feeling of shock never quite leaving her.

The moment she had seen the Captain coming up over the crest of the hill, the memories had come back right away at lightning speed. It felt like a needle-stick straight to her heart. But as quickly as the flashbacks came, like lightning, they went away just as fast when she could better see the expression on his face.

Throughout her two days of actually seeing him, Maria had never seen anything that resembled a positive emotion on his face. The closest he had ever come had been when she had sat on the pinecone on her first night there. His tone of voice had been teasingly innocent, while his face and eyes showed his amusement. But even then it had been guarded.

The man she was seeing now held none of his amusement or pleasure back, walking hand-in-hand with Marta and Gretl. He smiled often and chuckled too. But it wasn't until all seven of his children tackled him to the ground that he laughed fully. It was a rich and joyous sound that held nothing back.

Hearing that, watching him as he ate and played with his children, and seeing how the children positively glowed around him…was this really the same man she had encountered three weeks ago? Was this the same family she had encountered nine weeks ago?


"Father," said Liesl in a quiet voice, touching her father's arm. "May I talk to you privately?"

A little taken aback at the serious tone in her voice and instantly alert, Georg replied, "Of course, Liesl. Let's go sit somewhere."

Georg looked around and spotted a tree nearby, and decided that would be good. Before following her father, Liesl looked over her shoulder at her siblings, who were packing up all of the picnic things. They all shared a look of understanding and determination. Liesl nodded to them and followed her father and sat beside him in the shade of the tree.

"How are you faring, my Liesl?" said Georg, squeezing her hand and looking closely at her. After what she had heard yesterday and seeing how distressed she had been, he was worried about his oldest.

"I'm getting better, Father," said Liesl, squeezing his hand back before folding them in her lap. "I can't deny that hearing those things yesterday was a shock and very hurtful. It was rather difficult to pretend to the others that nothing was bothering me…so, eventually, I gave into their questions and told them what happened as gently as I could."

Seeing the look of disappointment on Georg's face, she pleaded, "I'm sorry, Father, but I just couldn't lie to them and let them worry."

"I know, it's all right, Liesl," said Georg. "It just pains me still that this has happened as is affecting you all."

Liesl nodded, and took a deep breath before continuing. "Well, we all had a long talk yesterday evening about what we can do to help make this right."

"Liesl, you and your siblings do not need to do anything, because you have done nothing wrong," said Georg firmly. "The blame for this situation falls entirely on me."

"No, Father, it falls on the Baroness. She had no right to spread awful lies like that, especially when we know you would never do something like that."

Georg could not ignore the unpleasant feeling of his stomach twisting in a guilty way. Though he knew the rumors were false, Elsa'd had a reason he could not forgive himself for…

Thankfully, Georg did not have time to be silent as Liesl continued. "As much as we tried, we could not find anything that we ourselves could do…" For the first time, Liesl looked nervous. "But we did think of something that you could do."

Looking at her in surprise, Georg asked, "What, Liesl?"

His eldest child took another deep breath. "We think that the best solution is that…Fraulein Maria becomes a permanent part of our family…by marrying her."

Safe to say that Georg looked as shell-shocked as he had twenty years ago when he realized an enemy submarine was much closer than his calculations had anticipated. For a moment, Georg didn't know what to say to his oldest daughter. And thankfully, Liesl again did not leave her father to be silent.

"I know this sounds radical, Father, but just hear me out. It really does seem like the best possible solution. It would make everything legitimate, so people could no longer talk about you and Fraulein Maria. And there is a bigger reason why we all agree this would be best, Father.

"We want her back in our lives. We write her and visit her sometimes, but…it's not enough, especially for the little ones. She is the first mother they have ever known, and she filled that gap for the rest of us when we least expected it. You don't know what that was like to have again, Father. For the first time in years, I had someone I could really talk to, who I could confide in and not have to put on a strong face for. She's become my big sister, best friend, and a new mother for me. I will never forget Mama, and I'll always love her, but she's gone. We have this second chance now. I don't want to lose her, and neither do all of us. We need her, Father, and we love her as much as she loves us."

Georg listened to this in silence and in awe. He took no offense to anything she said because it was all true: Maria had filled that gap in his children's lives when he'd been so remote. But it wasn't until hearing the conviction in Liesl's voice that he really understood how much she meant to all of them. He was also filled with a great and bittersweet compassion for Liesl: his eldest child was truly no longer a child. Maria's words echoed back in his mind:

Now take Liesl: she's not a child anymore. One of these days you're going to wake up and find she's a woman; you won't even know her.

In that moment, as he'd done when he'd hugged Liesl that day three weeks ago, he felt the truth of that statement profoundly.

After taking a moment to compose himself quickly, Georg took both of Liesl's hands in his and looked directly at her. "Elisabeth," he began, using her full name, "you have proven yourself to be anything but a child for a long time, and you've shown that to me again. So I'm going to be honest with you: I've thought of that solution myself, and so has Max. I agree that it would be the best thing for you children, and for the situation we all find ourselves in. I even went to the abbey this morning to speak to the Reverend Mother.

"But, I do not want you all to get your hopes very high. Think of Maria and what she wants. She wants to dedicate her life to God; marrying me would destroy that dream for good. And do not forget that she not only would become your mother, but also my wife. We don't know each other, and the two days in which we have interacted have been fraught with friction to say the very least, and I take full blame for that. I am sure she loves you children with all of her heart, but remember how difficult a choice we are giving her. What would you do if you were in her shoes?"

Thinking about this, Liesl drifted into thought, and realized that she did not have a straight answer to give: she really didn't know. Understanding, she nodded.

Georg squeezed her hands again. "All we can do now is wait and live, wait to see what happens and live our lives to the fullest no matter what anybody says."

Father and daughter got up and embraced, while above them, a young woman was silently crying.


"Oh, no!" cried Liesl as a big gust of wind blew her delicate sunhat right off her head and down the hill. "Wait there, I'll be right back!" With that she ran after the hat.

But when she began to run down the hill, Liesl realized that her hat was about to be caught by someone else. She only managed to stop herself from colliding with him just in time, as he managed to grab the hat from the wind's grasp.

"Oh, I beg your pardon!" said Liesl, and then her breath caught in her throat. She had nearly collided with and was now standing barely a foot away from a young man. He was older than her, probably in his early twenties. He was quite tall, taller than her father even, of a skinny build with gracefully long limbs. His head held a mass of dark brown curls, and his hazel eyes reflected the kindness of his smile.

"Are you the one this hat is running away from?" he asked in a quiet, kind and rich voice, holding out the hat for her to take.

She let out a nervous laugh and nodded, reaching out for the hat. Their fingers brushed each other's as she took it back, and Liesl couldn't deny she felt a little jolt go through her. When Rolf had taken her hand, it hadn't felt like that. "I'm sorry about that, the wind just swept it away."

"It's no trouble," said the young man, still smiling. "I'm just glad I was in the right place, Fraulein…"

"Elisabeth, but everyone calls me Liesl," said Liesl, holding out her hand for him to shake, eager to feel that pleasant jolt again.

"Then hello, Liesl," said the young man, taking her hand in his long-fingered, warm one. "I'm Dominik."