TWO

"Yes, I do imagine Christoph Steiner will have quite some tales to tell!" Max continued the conversation to Elsa as the sound of Georg's footsteps disappeared into the villa, "I'm sure he will delight in regaling you with scandalous stories when he finds out who your husband-to-be is: if Georg will let him of course!" he laughed, rubbing his hands together.

His playful tone did not sit well with Elsa Schräder. Georg was not her husband-to-be - not yet - and this worried Elsa more than she was willing to admit.

"Max, you know as well as I do that Georg is not my husband-to-be: not officially."

Max noticed with some amusement that her tone was far more caustic and biting towards him than any he had ever heard her use with Georg. He watched as her eyes flicked away from him and back towards the open door to the ballroom.

"And I do not believe that Christoph Steiner would have anything more frightful to tell me than that which Agathe had already confided in me," Elsa continued, "We were the best of friends, you know."

She barely heard Max's amused retort that there were some things that even Agathe Von Trapp had not known about her husband's early life in the Navy - instead her thoughts inevitably returned to her usual source of frustration - Captain Von Trapp.

She had always suspected that he would be reluctant to propose. After all, he had lost his heart so completely to Agathe Whitehead that at first she had wondered whether there was anything left of it for him to offer to her. No, that wasn't exactly what was irritating her.

It was more the fact that every aspect of her relationship with him - all the flirtations, innuendos, and far-too-chaste kisses - rather paled in comparison with the stories Agathe had once told her.

She had never heard anything about the intimate aspects of their marriage of course – Agathe would never have been so indiscreet – but she had heard plenty – in fact far more than she had ever wanted to - about the beginning of their relationship. In fact, Elsa had been present at the very moment the couple had first set eyes upon each other, and had seen for herself that from that evening onwards, Georg Von Trapp was a taken man.

Agathe had confided everything in Elsa during those early days, most particularly her worries about Georg's character. After all, handsome young sea Captains often had notorious reputations, and whilst Georg Von Trapp's was not the very worst, no one could have named him a saint. That had always been part of his appeal though, especially to Elsa who had secretly harboured a fancy of her own towards him.

Thankfully the future Baroness Von Trapp had been worrying in vain - it had soon become clear that Georg Von Trapp had eyes only for his new beloved, and that heartbreak was the very last thing which young Agathe Whitehead needed to worry about.

Elsa could still remember the twang of jealousy it had caused her at the time, especially when Agathe had come to her for advice before her marriage, telling her that the passion that she saw in Georg's eyes and felt in his embraces scared her - not that he would ever compromise her of course, but just that he might not be able to keep his restraint until they were married. She had told Elsa with shining eyes how he made her feel, and how she was not at all sure that she would be able to resist giving into that desire herself if they were not careful.

All of this had mildly annoyed Elsa at the time - after all, Baron Schräder, who she had become engaged to a few months after the announcement of the Von Trapp wedding, had never wanted to marry her for love, and whilst she had never really had any serious complaints about the physical side of their relationship, she had never known anything like what Agathe was describing.

In the end, after her marriage, Agathe never brought up the subject, and until now Elsa had assumed that the matter would not bother her again.

Now however, all was very different, for it was she, Elsa, who was supposedly the subject of Georg's desires. From the moment she had arrived at the villa she had expected and hoped that she would begin to see the side of the Captain which Agathe Von Trapp had known so well. After all, she knew that she desired him more than any man she had before - she had desired him from the moment they had met all those years ago, and meeting him again after they had both lost their spouses had revealed to her that she still found him just as irresistible as when she had first lain eyes on him.

"You look terribly thoughtful, my dear," Max's voice cut into her thoughts.

"I was just thinking of our dear Agathe," she replied, half-truthfully, shaking her head slightly, "I wish we had not allowed ourselves to drift apart over the years…." She paused for a second before turning to face Max, "Do you think I ought to be worried?"

"Worried?" he feigned ignorance, "Whatever about?"

"You know perfectly well what about!" Elsa replied, "Georg, our 'engagement'," she lowered her voice to a whisper, "His seeming infatuation with... with that governess!" she could not bring herself to say Maria's name.

Before arriving at the villa, Elsa had just about convinced herself that Georg's lack of romantic fervour was simply because he was older and wiser and not some head-strong young man with a raging libido, but watching him with Maria had planted new and disturbing doubts in her mind.

And that, she decided, was the real reason that the summer months were becoming unbearable.

There were times when she saw Georg watching the young woman with something akin to the fire she had seen in his eyes when he had looked at Agathe. Lustful - that was the only description that she could find for some of the gazes which Georg fixed on the postulant and never a description that could be honestly applied to any of his appraisals of her.

Max sighed. "I don't know," he replied honestly, "And I don't think that he knows yet either."

"Oh Max!"

Max placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, but removed it a second later with a laugh when he saw her expression change to one of determination.

"I have seen that look before," he teased, putting his arm around her and pulling her towards him, "And usually just before some master scheme of manipulation!"

"You know me too well," Elsa replied sardonically. No, she would not lose Georg to a mere governess, a woman who was as far away from Austrian aristocracy as she herself was from becoming a nun. She just could not bear that.

"Have faith, my dear Max," she continued leaning closer to him and whispering in his ear, "I have a few more tricks at my disposal yet!"

He laughed again, "Just where do you learn these things, my darling?" he asked.

Elsa replied with a coy look and tapped the side of her nose teasingly.

"Well I pray that I am never on the receiving end of one of your schemes!" he joked.

"Oh you would see straight through it Max, you know that perfectly well!"

"And Georg won't?"

"He is an intelligent man..." she mused with a rather wicked gleam in her eyes, "But he lacks that kind of intelligence..."

The impresario laughed and squeezed her shoulder affectionately, "You mean he is not as devious as you...?"

"Or you!"

They shared a laugh and Max was pleased to see a renewed confidence in Elsa's countenance – he only wished that he could share it. As preposterous as it seemed however, Max was becoming increasingly suspicious that Georg's feelings for Maria ran far deeper than a mere infatuation. Whether the Captain would ever choose to act upon them was another matter, but Max had the uneasy premonition that if Georg came to realise that he loved the governess, no amount of backlash from society would prevent him from acting with his heart.

Still, there was no point worrying Elsa with his fears yet, he decided - it was clear that Georg was still in denial of whatever deeper feelings he might have, and perhaps, if he continued to remain so, Maria would leave the villa in September as intended.

"Let's go and check your dress, my dear," he said at last, choosing to change the subject.

"How scandalous, Max!" Elsa teased him, smiling mock-flirtatiously, "I am appalled that you would consider entering my bed chamber, un-chaperoned!"

Max simply laughed, taking Elsa's hand in his own and leading her into the house.

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Georg had not been in his study for very long when the temptation to take a walk in the grounds of the villa became too strong to resist. The study was almost unbearably hot with its dark mahogany furniture and thick curtains and carpet - the moment that Georg had walked in he had found himself almost gagging in the heat, and had immediately removed his jacket and tie. He chose not to sit at his desk, as the chair was directly in the path of the sunshine, and instead took a seat on the couch in front of the fireplace with a large stack of bound papers which he intended to examine. After about ten minutes of reading, however, Georg had to conclude that he was taking in nothing.

Letting out a sigh he irritably pushed the papers onto a side table and ran his hands across his face and into his hair. Unsurprisingly perhaps, a discourse on torpedo-manufacturing just could not hold his attention in such heat, and, he was loathe to admit to himself, when his mind seemed completely distracted with the tantalising possibility that just out in the grounds….

Once again he was forced to reign in his thoughts. Whether Maria was swimming with the children or was watching from the safety of dry land was irrelevant and he knew that he most definitely should not be so interested in which it was. Certainly he would not even have given the matter a second thought if it was any of the children's former governesses in the same situation, expect perhaps to raise an eyebrow that they had permitted the children to go swimming in the first place.

It gave him a sudden pang of guilt when he realised that he had now given far more thought to what Maria might, or more particularly might not be wearing at that exact moment than he had to what Elsa would look like in the dress that he had spent all morning collecting. No, he would not give the matter a single minute of further thought, he told himself firmly, picking up his papers again... and yet...

A few minutes after that Georg found himself striding across the foyer of the villa and towards the terrace. He was disgusted with himself, even as he attempted to rationalise what he was doing - it was much too hot to stay inside, he would have still been outside anyway if it was not for the fact that his conversation with Max and Elsa seemed to enter dangerous territory every time the subject was changed, it was his duty as their father to ensure that the children were indeed perfectly safe… all rather pathetic reasons, he could not help but think, and none of which made him feel any better about the way he was acting. He was sure that he would regret his deplorable lack of self-control later.

As soon as he stepped out onto the terrace, Georg heard the sounds of the children's laughter coming from towards the lake. He could hear excited squeals and yells, and as he made his way down the steps and towards the water's edge, splashes and more laughter. He felt his own face break out into a smile as he saw his seven children, all wearing the same expression of blissful happiness, and all absolutely soaked to the skin. They were not out far at all; just about up to the older children's waists. He noticed with pride that Liesl and Friedrich had Gretl and Marta on their shoulders, and that Louisa was holding Gretl's hand - his youngest daughter had always been the most nervous around water. Kurt was holding a football, and Georg watched in amusement as he sent it flying towards an unsuspecting Brigitta who only just spun around to catch it in time after a warning shout from one of her sisters. All in all it was the most perfect summer scene that Georg could ever have hoped for - perfect, that was, except for the obvious absence of Fraulein Maria.

He had been sure that she would not actually be swimming with the children. After all, she had arrived with just a single dress, and he had not given her anything at all appropriate to make a swimming costume out of. He suspected too that constructing appropriate swimwear for herself out of a set of drapes was probably beyond even Maria's tailoring skills. Despite this a part of him still felt disappointed, though he instantly denied it. And at least he would have no new visions of Maria plaguing his dreams that night, he thought darkly.

The children were so absorbed in their game that they had not seen him, and Georg turned away from the lake, intending to head back into the house before they began pestering him to join them in water. He was honestly quite tempted though.

Before he could take a single step back towards the house however, his eyes finally fell on the figure of Maria, sitting in the shade beneath one of the trees just a few paces from the gazebo. The sight of her caused him to falter and immediately he felt his heartbeat quicken. She was wearing a beautiful dress that he had never seen before- it was a pale pink colour with short puffed sleeves and was made of a light, flowing fabric. He supposed that it belonged to Liesl and that Maria had borrowed it to wear in the hot weather.

The words that he had spoken to Baroness Schräder just a short while earlier immediately ran back through his mind: 'what is a divine dress without an equally radiant woman to wear it?' The compliment seemed far more real now - Maria did look radiant. Her face was flushed in the heat and the sunlight glinted off her hair - she looked absolutely beautiful.

He watched as she leaned forwards from the tree slightly and looked across the lake at the children, seeming oblivious to his presence. Her face broke into a smile as she watched them playing for a few minutes before returning her attention back to the guitar that she was holding. She seemed to be struggling to play something - he watched as she strummed several notes, listening carefully and then humming a tune. Whatever it was she seemed determined to get it right, and frustrated with herself that she could not find quite the right notes.

Georg took a couple of steps closer, moving to stand beside another tree just behind her. From there he could hear as she sang the verse of a song quietly under her breath, strumming her fingers back across the strings of the guitar.

"Edelweiss, Edelweiss, every morning you greet me..."

Georg's heart swelled with affection as he listened to her trying to play the song that he so loved, and one that to him represented something quintessentially Austrian.

"Small and white, clean and bright..." she sighed loudly as she missed a note on the guitar. He supposed that she had only heard the song the one time that he had played it to her, and it touched him that she should go to such great effort to play it herself.

"Small and white, clean and bright..." she missed the note again and sighed even more loudly this time. Georg felt another smile spread across his face, and before he could even think about what he was doing, found himself stepping out from behind the tree towards her with the words,

"Let me help you with that."