Chapter 7:We all have Dreams

Maria and the Captain spent the rest of the evening quietly getting to know their new hosts. Mikesh's estate set so far back from the main village provided a tranquil respite from the past two days. Though the house itself was rather large and spacious, it was decorated in soft tones and comfortable furnishings that just begged the new guests to feel at home in her walls. The house, however, was a mere reflection of her owners, for Ana and Mikesh were gracious hosts that made their new guests feel like family before dinner had been over.

Ana, who was days away from delivering her and Mikesh's first child, had been so delighted to have another woman to talk to. She had kept Maria all to herself the entire evening. The Captain had barely been able to say two words to Maria from the time they had walked into the house until it had been time to retire for the night. However, he had spent the entire time observing Maria and Ana together. The two women had sat on the settee in the parlor knitting some baby booties and chatting together while he and Mikesh drank brandy in the arm chairs in front of the fireplace. Every now and again Ana would squirm in discomfort and place Maria's hand on her bulging belly to feel the baby's movements.

Every time he had looked over at them they were giggling over something. It was odd seeing Maria in this light and he couldn't help but question her vocation choice. Imagine this woman, who was so full of life and energy, chained behind the walls of an abbey. He tried to imagine her in his head as a nun. Living a hard life full of rules and locked away from the rest of the world. Try as he might to bring the image into his mind, he simply couldn't conjure it. Instead he kept seeing her there on that settee with her own bulging belly knitting booties for her own child.

By the time his second glass of brandy was gone, it was their child in his mind. And it was him sitting on that settee with Maria, and she was placing his hand on her belly. The fantasy was so real to him that his palm actually tickled from the phantom touch.

"I must be boring you Georg." Mikesh broke him out of his reverie.

"Sorry," the Captain took a deep breath and pushed back into his chair, "I was just thinking…"

Mikesh looked over at the two women, "Yes, well I suppose that sight is a bit more interesting than my ramblings of political unrest."

The Captain gave his friend a knowing smirk for having been caught staring. "Your wife is very beautiful." He said, trying to recover some dignity.

"As is yours…" Mikesh quipped. The Captain raised his eyebrows at his friend and tipped his head to the side letting the man know he didn't think his little joke was funny at all. Mikesh, however, hadn't changed since their days in the navy together. He was a good sailor, a strong leader when needed to be, but insubordinate to the end. "Does she know?"

The Captain rolled his eyes towards his once lieutenant commander, not really wanting to take the bait, but since there were no other distractions in the room had no choice, "Know what?"

Mikesh let out a wide grin for the opened door and replied, "That you are in love with her?"

The Captain choked on the sip of brandy that he had just taken. Then looked over at the two woman on the couch, who were now both focused on him in his arm chair.

"Are you alright, Captain?" Maria asked starting to get up from her seat. He quickly raised his free hand to her to stop her advancement while placing his glass on the table next to him and shooting Mikesh a menacing look.

"I'm fine…fine." He cleared his throat to cover Mikesh's chuckle. "The brandy has a bit of a bite to it. That's all."

"Oh", Maria nodded her head in that little Maria fashion that she always did when she only half believed him and gently smoothed her skirt then sat back down.

"So Maria," Mikesh began cutting the Captain a sideways glance in answer to his death stare, "You've listened to Ana and I's tales of life thus far, but I'm curious. What is it that led you to life in an abbey?"

"An Abbey…you're a nun?" Ana questioned in that heavy accent that the Captain had found out was Portuguese. "I thought you were his governess."

"Well, yes I am his governess. But I'm a postulant from Nonnberg Abbey, only on loan for the summer." Maria gave her new friend a beaming smile, "I'm might be making my vows this fall."

"Oh," Ana replied then looked over at the Captain. At this her eyes went wide and she covered her mouth with her hand while expelling an even longer, "Ohhhhh" once it all hit her. For a long moment the room went silent while three pairs of eyes drilled into Maria. Ana finally broke it with a final, "A nun? Really?"

"Yes a nun." Maria replied clearly agitated. But this time the Captain didn't come to her defense, for he too, wanted to know…WHY! What led you down this path, you mysterious little imp? However, Maria's statement just hung in the air. She clearly wasn't going to go into any more detail. He had learned over the past few weeks with her that as open as she was with love, she was just as closed off personally. A few times, when they were alone together, he had opened up to her as he would no one else. Yet when she left his presence he had realized that she had somehow had always avoided revealing anything too personal to him.

"Did your parents make you enter the Abbey?" Ana, who was braver than he, questioned Maria. "Back in my country, it was customary for parents to make the first born daughter enter into the secular life and the second born son." She winked over to Mikesh, "Thank goodness I'm the third daughter. But my oldest sister refused anyway."

"No," Maria stated running her hands along her legs smoothing the material that was already laying flatter than a pancake, "My parents died when I was seven."

Ana covered her mouth at the news while the Captains heart went out to Maria. Orphaned at the age of seven…no wonder she had been so hard on him. And thank goodness for that.

"I'm so sorry, Maria." Ana said with Mikesh agreeing in the background. The Captain, however, remained silent. He found with Maria sometimes it was the silence that said all that was needed to say. So while she thanked the two who had consoled her verbally, she held his gaze and knew the thank you was for him too. They sat in silence for a moment, holding onto that eye contact like a drowning man a lifesaver. So much was said between the two of them sometimes in these little looks that he already knew what her answer was going to be at Ana's next question. He didn't know why…he just knew.

"So you were sent to the abbey to live as an orphan?"

"No" both he and Maria answered at the same time. Though hers was verbal, his was just a word bouncing around in his head. "I was sent to live with my Aunt and Uncle." Maria replied still keeping eye contact with him. There was this plea in her eyes that he couldn't quite understand. Then, as if realizing she had said too much, she shook her head breaking eye contact with him. Immediately she put a smile on her face and a lift into her voice. "When I was frightened or lonely I would run to this tree that sat by the abbey walls. I would climb the tree and look down into the abbey and see all the nuns in there. They all looked so happy and loved, I just knew that was the life I wanted when I grew up." She shrugged her shoulders at this. Although she had tried to change the mood, there was still this ominous shroud around her words that made him wonder. What had she been frightened of and what had made her run?

"And are you happy there?" Mikesh questioned her this time.

Maria shrugged her shoulders again, "I suppose I am." She sat pensive for a moment, "I know I'm happy that it led me to meet the Captain and his children. They're such wonderful children."

"Hah!" The Captain couldn't help but expel. When Maria cut him with dagger eyes he went on to explain, "I don't think the previous governesses hold your same evaluation, Fraulein." He teased.

"They were just looking for your attention, Captain."

"Yes indeed, and they had gotten it…in all the wrong ways." The Captain went on to tell the tales of the children's pranks on all of the former governesses. All the way to Maria's pinecone on her dinner chair the night that she had arrived at his house.

"You knew?" She simply stated meeting his eyes again. He gave her a little shy shrug, while thinking in his head, "it was the moment I fell in love with you." Whoa…he yelled in his mind. Where in the world had that come from?

"Well, Maria," Ana began, except because of her accent whenever she said Maria it came out Marias with a heavy accent on the "s", "if they don't let you take your vows because of …..well you know…the marriage thing, you will come live here with us. I would love your help with the bebe."

"I thought you didn't want any help." Mikesh said to his wife, "That's why you don't allow any servants to stay in the house."

"Oh meu deus, I don't want just any help, Mikesh. I want Marias. She's a friend. And I'm all alone here in these woods of yours. Away from the world. I would love to have a friend stay here with us. You know I don't have servants cause that's what I once was."

Mikesh raised his eyes to the heavens as if asking for silent help, "But darling…" He was cut off before he could continue by his wife's loud "oi, my back". That's when it was decided Ana should retire to bed as should the rest of them.

The Captain and Maria had a long and trying day ahead of them tomorrow. After speaking about the abbey with Mikesh and Ana, a new knot had formed in his stomach. Not only had he called Max and the children from Mikesh's house, but he had also phoned his lawyer and the Mother Abbess. They were all scheduled to meet the day after next at the abbey to discuss how to resolve the matter. Needless to say the Reverend Mother was quite upset by the entire thing. He had never felt so small in his life explaining what had happened, not even when he had told Elsa. Deep down he knew the worse had yet to come and he wasn't looking forward to it. Keeping Maria unscathed through the entire thing was his main priority, even if it meant having to lie bold face to a nun and a priest, he would do it. May God damn his soul forever, but his conscience at least would be at peace.

Maria was given a room upstairs, while the Captain took the room downstairs that would have been the servant's quarters if Ana had allowed any in the house. The other upstairs bedroom had already been transformed into a nursery for the impending baby. He didn't mind being away from everyone else though. He needed some time alone to gather his thoughts and come up with a game plan for the next few days.

He lay there in bed for a while just listening to the sounds of the night. Suddenly a crash of thunder shook the house killing the silence he had just been enjoying. Hmmm…he thought, Midas' tooth had been right. It was going to rain. And heavy at that, as the sound of the rain slammed against the windows of the room like a thousand tiny fists. Which brought his mind back to his revelation from earlier about the pinecone and Maria's first night at his house. How he had found all of his children in her room that night seeking her comfort during the thunderstorm. With her dancing around her room and charming is children…and him…if he was going to be honest. He remembered how he had lingered there in her room after the children had scurried off. He had been so stern with her, but really he was just reacting to the strong urges he was fighting inside of himself, even then. She was there in that oversized garment, and even while his tongue was lashing at her, his body had wanted to grab her and feel for itself what she was hiding beneath all of those layers of fabric. He remembered grabbing the doorknob and pushing himself against the door fighting his anger with her for not following his rules and his desire to own her right then and there. Now he wondered had it only been desire or was there something more to this feeling inside of him?

That is how sleep took him. Thinking scandalous thoughts, again, of his Faulein. Even after discovering just this morning that he had acted inappropriate with her the night before. Which is probably what led to the strangest dream that he had had in a very long time. He and Maria were in a room, somewhere…his house maybe? She was dressed in the same nightgown from that first night of the thunderstorm at his house. Only the gown was made of glass in the middle where her stomach would be. Only this wasn't her stomach, it was a bulging belly filled with a baby. A tiny infants profile curled up like a C and sucking its thumb.

Maria was also barefoot and in his dream he kept worrying about her cutting her feet on the glass that littered the entire floor. For a moment he had thought that the glass of the windows that surrounded the room they were in had broken, but when he looked he saw the windows still held their clear glass and the sun shown bright through them. Though the room they were in was dark in comparison. Then he inspected the shards of glass on the floor and found they were broken pieces of stained glass and Maria's feet bled from them but she wasn't in pain. No, no pain at all for she kept dancing around the room while the baby in her glass belly bobbed up and down.

In his own hands he held a paint brush and a can of paint. Apparently he was getting the room ready for something. "Our baby." His dream Maria happily told him as she danced around some more and his dream self chastised her that she would hurt the baby.

Just like he had thought, the glass in her belly suddenly burst when Maria did a final dancing turn. At the same time the cuckoo clock on the wall began to strike the hour. Only it didn't "cuckoo", it chimed instead, "Captain, Captain, Captain," over and over again. Meanwhile his dream self was on the floor now cutting his hands up looking for the baby that had just burst out of Maria's belly. But he couldn't find it and the Maria in his dream didn't even help him to look. Instead she stood over him and tapped incessantly on his shoulder in time with the cuckoo clock, "Captain, Captain, Captain…"

A sudden realization struck him and he sat up in his bed, half-awake from the dream. It wasn't the cuckoo clock that had been saying, "Captain," over and over again. But the real Maria. And she was in his room and in a panic.

"Captain," she yelled at his sleepy self, "the baby is coming." Oh my God, he thought still half asleep. She is pregnant. But how had the baby come so fast? Had he Rip Van Winkled the last nine months? Not yet having left the dream behind he reached out and touched her stomach where the baby should be growing big and strong. Before Maria could jump back from his groping, his hands fell on flat fabric and he panicked.

"Maria, where's our baby. Have you dropped it?" He wrestled himself out of the sheets and began searching the floor for his and Maria's lost baby as he had in his dream only moments earlier. Meanwhile a confounded Maria stepped back from the crawling Captain unsure of what to do. Hearing Ana scream from upstairs, she gave the Captain a violent push on his shoulders and tapped his head trying to wrestle him awake.

"Captain, wake up. Ana has gone into labor and we need to help her."

Finally wide awake the Captain stood up then quickly sat back down on the edge of his bed rubbing sleep from his eyes and the dream out of his head. His eyes wandered to Maria's flat belly and fleetingly he had a feeling of disappointment wash over him. But he hadn't the time to worry over it for she was yelling at him again.

"Captain, please. We must hurry. The storm has knocked out the phone lines. Mikesh left to retrieve the doctor from town," they heard Ana let out another cry from upstairs, "but I don't think she's gonna last until they get back." She grabbed his hand and pulled him from his room, towards the stairs. "The baby is coming right now. We're going to have to deliver it."