A/N: Just wanted to say thank you for reading and commenting/reviewing. :)
Chapter 3 – My Favorite Things
Liesel slipped out of the back door of the house and quietly shut it behind her. Grinning in delight, she pranced through the moonlit gardens, making her way towards their prearranged meeting place. "Hans!" she called as she came near the gazebo, and Hans stepped out from behind the tree. They embraced joyfully, as young lovers tend to do, but after a few moments, Hans pulled away. "No, Liesel," he said anxiously. "We mustn't."
"Why not, silly?" Liesel asked.
"I don't know. It's just that…" Hans stammered.
"Isn't this why you're here waiting for me?" Liesel asked shyly.
"Yes, of course," Hans answered. "I've missed you, Liesel."
"You have?" Liesel questioned. "How much?"
"So much that I even thought of sending you a telegram just so I'd be able to deliver it here," he said bashfully.
"Oh, that's a lovely thought!" Liesel said excitedly. "Why don't you? Right now?"
"But I'm already here!" Hans laughed.
"Please, Hans, send me a telegram," Liesel encouraged. When Hans looked at her perplexedly, she flounced away from him. "I'll start it for you," she decided, as she made her way to a stone bench. "Dear Liesel…" she began, sitting down.
"Dear Liesel," Hans echoed. "I'd like to be able to tell you how I feel about you. STOP. Unfortunately, this wire is already too expensive. Sincerely, Hans."
"Sincerely?" Liesel inquired pointedly.
"Cordially?" Hans offered, and Liesel turned her back to him.
"Cordially," she sniffed.
Hans tried again. "Affectionately?" he asked sitting down beside her, and Liesel turned his way once more, throwing out her arms and embracing him. "Will there be any reply?" he murmured into her ear.
Liesel thought briefly and released him to look him in the eye. "Dear Hans. STOP," she began. She smiled and then threw her arms around him once more. "Don't Stop! Your Liesel," she finished impishly. She embraced him for a few seconds more and her smile faded. "If only we didn't have to wait for someone to send Mother a telegram," she said wistfully. "How do I know when I'll see you again?"
"Let's see," Hans answered, rising from the bench to pace and think. "I could come here by mistake," he reasoned. "With that telegram for Colonel Schneider. Schrader and Schneider are close enough for it to be a reasonable mistake. He's here from Weselton, staying with…" Hans trailed off, knowing he had said too much. He looked at Liesel. "No one is supposed to know he's here," he admitted. "Please don't tell your Mother."
"Why not?" Liesel questioned.
"Your Mother's so, so Arendellian," he answered.
Liesel laughed. "We're all Arendellian," she replied.
"Well, some people think we ought to be Weselton, and they're very mad at those who don't think so," Hans stated. "In fact, they're getting ready to…well, let's hope your mother doesn't get into trouble," he finished vaguely.
"Don't worry about Mother," Liesel assured him. "She's a big naval heroine. She was even decorated by the Queen herself."
"I know," Hans said reassuringly. "I don't worry about her. But I do worry about her daughter."
"Worry about me?" Liesel asked. "Whatever for?"
"Well," Hans said. "You're such a baby!"
Liesel took almost immediate offense, but she decided to give Hans a way out before she got angry. "I'm sixteen," she informed him. "There isn't much 'baby' left in me."
Hans heard the snappish tone to her reply. "No, not a baby," he corrected. "You are definitely, um, mature. But your life is an empty page that men will want to write on."
"To write on?" Liesel echoed naughtily, leaning in much closer to Hans.
Hans leaned back, a little alarmed at her forwardness. "You are sixteen, going on seventeen," he reminded her, slowing leaning back to upright. "So it's time to think. You had better be wary,be canny and careful because fellows will fall in line, offering you anything and everything to make you choose them."
"Well, obviously," Liesel said dismissively, drawing closer to him. "I'm a Schrader-Von Trapp. My family is wealthy, titled and my great-grandmother is the Queen. If that weren't reason enough, Mother and Father were a stunning couple, and they made equally beautiful daughters."
Hans laughed. "Well, you have no shortage of your family's famous pride," he said affectionately. "But maybe you aren't as assured and proud as you appear. Maybe you are timid and shy of things beyond your ken. I think you need someone older and wiser telling you what to do. I am seventeen going on eighteen; I'll take care of you."
Liesel's haughty right eyebrow arched so high that Hans swore it disappeared. "Well, you are welcome to think that, sir," she said frostily. "But you would be wrong, stunningly wrong. I need no one to take care of me. Not you, not another one of those silly governesses that Mother keeps insisting on hiring, not even my mother herself. No one. Is that clear?"
Seeing her face, Hans backpedaled quickly. "I was only joking, Liesel," he pleaded, even though he had been halfway serious. Liesel turned away from him and he reached out for her hand. She took his, giving it a solid shake before she dropped it and marched back toward the house. Hans reached out again, this time for her shoulder, and the apologetic look on his handsome face made Liesel soften a bit. She took his hand in hers as thunder rumbled in the skies over their heads. Drops began to fall and they made their way toward the covered gazebo that was a few steps away.
Once inside, they brushed off the drops that had fallen on their clothes. Liesel studied Hans briefly before speaking. "Yes, I am sixteen, going on seventeen, but I'm anything but naïve," she said. "I am sure there will be people that will tell me I'm sweet, but I know better than to believe until they've gotten to know me better."
"I know, Liesel," Hans said apologetically. "I was just trying to be the big, strong man who would protect you."
"I don't need one of those," Liesel said firmly. "My mother is one of the strongest-willed and most independent woman in Arendelle, and she taught me well. I don't need a protector. I need a best friend." Liesel's eyes grew wistful. "Mother and Father were the best of friends," she reminisced. "Only Father could ever make Mother laugh. They loved each other, and they loved us. I want some like that to share my life with, not someone who wants to take care of me."
"I will be whatever you want me to be," Hans promised. "Just allow me to be with you, to get close to you. Don't be too independent." Liesel looked at him and then smiled. "Dance with me?" Hans requested. "The storm makes for such lovely music." Liesel nodded and held out her hand.
Their dancing started out as a simple waltz, but soon they picked up the pace, using the whole of the gazebo to perform even more intricate steps. They twirled off benches and stepped in time with each other and the storm, the joy at being with one another showing in their faces. Hans spun Liesel in a circle and she laughed. Finally, after several minutes of spirited dancing, they broke apart and sat on benches opposite one another, panting slightly.
They both got up and spun, ending up facing one another at the far end of the gazebo. A brief pause happened, but then they both spun away from each other. Once again, though, they ended up facing each other, but once again, they spun away. After they had spun to face each other a third time, Hans decided to be bold. Just as Liesel was falling away again, he grasped her arms and kissed her full on the mouth. He smiled mischievously and then bolted for the outside and his bicycle. Liesel stood stunned for a few seconds before a smile spread across her face. She touched her lips in wonder and dazedly left the gazebo to wander back to the house.
AAAAAAAA
Thunder rumbled outside seconds after the lighting crashed, and Anna-Maria hurried over to close her windows before rain could get into her room. There was a polite knock at her door, and Anna-Maria turned around from the window she was closing. "Come in?" she asked hesitantly. The door opened, and Anna-Maria smiled. "Frau Schmidt," she said warmly.
The older woman strode over, several bolts of material in her hand. "For your new dresses, Fraulein Anna. The Captain had these sent out from town," she explained, handing Anna-Maria the cloth.
Anna-Maria inspected the cloth admiringly. "Oh, how lovely," she said. "I'm sure these will make the prettiest clothes I've ever had," she said excitedly, and Frau Schmidt smiled indulgently. "Tell me," Anna-Maria continued, tucking the material under her arm. "Do you think that the Captain would order me some more material if I asked her?"
"How many dresses does a governess need?" Frau Schmidt asked with mild disapproval.
"Oh, not for me, for the children." Anna-Maria explained hastily as the other window in the room started to bang against the wall from the severity of the stormy wind. Frau Schmidt went to close it, and Anna-Maria continued to explain. "I want to make them some play clothes," she finished.
Frau Schmidt turned to her. "The Von Trapp children don't play; they march," she stated as she closed the window.
"Surely you don't approve of that?" Anna-Maria questioned.
"Ever since the Captain lost her dear husband, she runs this house as if she were on one of her ships again," she said sadly. "Whistles, orders; no more music, no more laughing. Nothing that reminds her of him, even the children."
"But that's so wrong!" Anna-Maria said, aghast.
Frau Schmidt shrugged, knowing there was little that could be done. "Do you like your room?" she asked, deftly changing the subject. Anna-Maria nodded and smiled enthusiastically. "I've ordered new drapes for the windows," she said.
"New drapes?" Anna echoed. "But these are fine."
"Nevertheless, new ones have been ordered," Frau Schmidt said.
"But I really don't need them," Anna-Maria protested.
Frau Schmidt politely ignored her. "Good night, now," she said warmly.
"Frau Schmidt," Anna-Maria said suddenly, stopping the housekeeper's exit. "Do you think I could ask the Captain tomorrow about the material?"
"Well, she's leaving for the Southern Isles in the morning," Frau Schmidt reminded the new governess.
"Oh, yes," Anna-Maria murmured. "Well, how long will she be gone?"
Frau Schmidt glanced around nervously, making sure there was no one else in the hallway. "Well, that depends," she replied, "the last time she visited the Baron, she stayed for a month." She looked around again. "I shouldn't be saying this, not to you, anyway, seeing as I don't know you that well, but if you ask me, the Captain's thinking very seriously of marrying the man before the summer's over," she divulged.
"Oh, that would be wonderful!" Anna-Maria gushed. "The children would have a father again."
Frau Schmidt looked like she wanted to guffaw at the naivety, but she kept her response to a mild chuckle. "Yes, well, good night," she said, and she turned to leave.
"Good night!" Anna-Maria called after her, and shut her bedroom door.
Anna-Maria took off her robe and laid it on a chair before she knelt beside her bed to pray. She crossed herself and clasped her hands, beginning her nightly ritual of conversing with the Maker. "Dear Mother," she began. "Now I know why you've sent me here: to help these children prepare themselves for a new father, and I pray this will become a happy family in thy sight. Please bless the Captain, Liesel and Friedrich; please bless Louisa and Brigitta, Marta and little Gretl. And oh, I forgot the other boy. What's his name? Well, please bless what's-his-name," Anna-Maria concluded. "Please bless the Reverend Mother, Sister Marguerite, and everyone at Nordfell Abbey." Anna-Maria paused, sensing movement behind her. She turned to see a soaked Liesel tip-toeing across her room, a trail of water highlighting her path from the open window to the middle of the bedroom. Anna-Maria smirked. "Now dear Maker, about Liesel," she said. "Help her to know that I'm her friend, and help her to tell me what she's been up to."
"Are you going to tell on me?" Liesel asked anxiously.
"Shh," Anna-Maria chastised. "Help me to be understanding so that I may guide her footsteps. In the name of the Maker, the Daughter, and the Sacred Spirits, Amen," she finished, crossing herself as she named her Deities and crossing her arms to look at Liesel when she was done speaking.
"I was out taking a walk," Liesel explained hastily. "And someone locked the doors earlier than usual, and I didn't want to wake everyone up, so when I saw your open window…" Liesel paused, seeing the non-judgmental, almost-amused look on Anna-Maria's face. "You're not going to tell Mother, are you?" she realized.
Anna-Maria sighed and got up from her knees. She walked over to the window and looked down. "How in the world did you climb up here?" she asked, astonished at the distance between her window and the ground.
"The drainpipe," Liesel answered. "It's how we always get in this room to play tricks on the governess. Louisa can make it with a whole jar of spiders in her hand!" she said proudly.
Anna-Maria's eyebrow rose. "Spiders?" she questioned, and Liesel nodded enthusiastically. She sighed and made a mental note to check her bed later. "Liesel, when you were out there walking, were you all by yourself?" she asked. Liesel hesitantly nodded. Anna-Maria smirked. "So your sudden disappearance from dinner had nothing to do with that 'nice young lad Hans' that Kai mentioned was delivering the telegram?" she continued and Liesel's mouth dropped open.
"You're smarter than other governesses we've had," Liesel mumbled, looking down.
"Maybe just more observant," Anna-Maria replied with a smile. 'You know, if we wash out that dress tonight, no one would notice it tomorrow," she hypothesized. Liesel looked up and smiled shyly. "You could put this on," Anna-Maria continued, going to her wardrobe and pulling out a robe. "Take your dress into the bathroom and put it to soak in the bathtub. Come out here and sit on the bed, and we'll have a talk," she instructed, flipping on the light and leading the soaking wet teenager into the bathroom before exiting to give Liesel her privacy.
Liesel glanced down at the robe and looked back up at Anna-Maria. "I told you today that I didn't need a governess. Well, maybe I do," she said with a soft, shy giggle. Anna-Maria smiled at her and closed the door.
Anna-Maria went back towards her bed. Just before she climbed in, however, she glanced at the bedroom door, remembering what Liesel had said about spiders. She didn't really have a problem with one spider, but a whole jar of them was something else. She hesitantly flipped up the bottom of the comforter, but there was nothing there. A quick peek under the top also yielded nothing, so she breathed a sigh of relief and went to climb in. Just then, her door was flung open and a terrified-looking Gretl stood behind it. "Gretl?" Anna-Maria questioned. "Are you scared?"
The little girl shook her head, but another flicker of lightning and crash of thunder had her running for the safety of Anna-Maria's arms. Anna-Maria returned the embrace, and she knelt down to look Gretl in the eye. "It's okay to be afraid," Anna-Maria assured her, picking her up and sitting them both down on the bed. "You can just stay right here with me." A small voice in her head reminded her about the Captain's rule about bedtime, but Anna-Maria ignored it. Gretl needed comfort now, not rules. "Where are the others?" Anna-Maria asked.
"They're asleep; they're not scared," Gretl answered, burying her face into Anna-Maria's chest when the thunder crashed again.
With the crash, the rest of the Von Trapp girls, Louisa, Brigitta and Marta, appeared in her doorway. Anna-Maria chuckled, and tapped the top of Gretl's head. "No? Look," she requested, and Gretl looked up to see her sisters. "All right, everybody, up here on the bed," Anna-Maria ordered good-naturedly.
"Really?" Marta asked incredulously as they all ran towards the bed.
"Well, just this once," Anna-Maria decided, and all of the girls climbed in. "Now all we have to do is wait for the boys."
"You won't see them," Louisa pronounced. "Our brothers are terrified of girls." Another crash of thunder pealed and the girls hid. As it was ending, though, Louisa was proved a false prophet when the boys came running through the doorway.
"Well, apparently, they are more scared of the storm then they are of us," Anna-Maria hypothesized with a grin. "Are you boys here to join us?"
"Um, no," Friedrich stuttered, blushing slightly at her attention. Anna-Maria hid a smile at what appeared to be the beginnings of a crush. She would have to be careful with Friedrich so she didn't break his heart. "We just wanted to make sure that you ladies were all right," he explained.
"That's very thoughtful of you, Friedrich," she complimented him.
Friedrich blushed even further. "It wasn't my idea; it was Kurt's," he deflected.
Anna-Maria smiled. "Kurt! That's the one I forgot!" she said excitedly. "Please bless Kurt," she asked the Maker as more lightning flashed and thunder rumbled through the bedroom, causing the boys to jump on the already-crowded bed.
"Why does it do that?" Marta asked plaintively after it had passed.
"Well, you know how when you rub your feet on the carpet, you can touch someone and shock them? And how there is a little crackle afterwards?" Anna-Maria inquired. The children nodded, all of them fans of this particular prank. "Well, that's what lightning and thunder are, only much, much bigger. The lighting is the shock, and it makes the air move so fast that it crackles. There is just so much shock and so much air that the crackle is really big, and we call it thunder," she explained.
The explanation was simple to understand, but it didn't really make the noise any less frightening. The storm raged on, and the children hid their faces again. "Well, when anything bothers me, and I'm feeling unhappy, I try to think of nice things," Anna-Maria continued, coaxing the children into revealing their faces once more.
"What kind of things?" the children asked simultaneously.
"Well, let me see," Anna-Maria answered. "Nice things. Daffodils, green meadows, skies full of stars." She thought some more, remembering a song that her mother had sung to her long, long ago. "Rain drops on roses and whiskers on kittens," she said, speaking the line before singing the next. "Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens," she sang, and the children broke out into smiles at her sweet voice. "Brown paper packages tied up with strings; these are a few of my favorite things."
The thunder crashed again, and Marta and Gretl disappeared under the covers. Anna-Maria flipped the comforter back and continued the song. "Cream colored ponies and crisp apple strudels; doorbells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles. Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings; these are a few of my favorite things," she sang, and the children slowly lost their fear, paying more attention to her than to the storm. "Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes, snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes; silver-white winters that melt into springs; these are a few of my favorite things!"
The thunder sounded again, and the children cowered with it, but Anna-Maria rolled with it and continued the song. "When the dog bites, when the bee stings, when I'm feeling sad; I simply remember my favorite things, and then I don't feel so bad," she sang in conclusion, and the children smiled and giggled.
"Does it really work?" Marta asked.
"Of course it does!" Anna-Maria said emphatically. "You try it. What things do you like?"
"Pussywillow!" Marta responded.
"Solstice!" Louisa added.
"Bunny rabbits!" Gretl offered with a giggle, and the rest of the children giggled with her, grabbing pillows and smacking each other and Anna-Maria with them.
"Chocolate frosting!" Brigitta said.
"No school!" Friedrich replied.
Liesel emerged from the bathroom, coaxed to come out from all the noise she heard. "Pillow fights!" Kurt said boisterously, throwing a pillow towards Liesel to prove his point.
"Telegrams!" Liesel answered, catching the pillow and throwing it back.
"Birthday presents!" Louisa said.
"Any presents!" Brigitta countered.
"Yes!" Anna-Maria agreed. "See what fun it is?" She began to sing again. "Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens…" she started, hopping off the bed when the window blew open and began to bang against the wall. She continued to sing as she closed it, and turning around, she saw seven expectant faces. She smiled and went back to them and the bed, still singing.
Just outside the doorway, Elsa stood quietly watching the frivolity. It was much too early for her to go to bed, and the sound of singing and laughing had been difficult to miss. She had come to the room to see what the commotion was about, and she had been stopped dead in her tracks at the sight of her children, smiling for the first time in ages and happy, listening rapturously to their new governess. Elsa's heart had warmed at the sight; it had been so long since she had seen her children truly happy, and she was truly happy to see it.
Elsa's eyes left her children to look at her new governess, and in spite of her heart's reluctance, she felt something she hadn't in a very long time. It wasn't love; it couldn't be, not this soon, but it was affection that she simply couldn't deny, an affection borne from Anna-Maria's interactions with Elsa's unruly children. In spite of her assertion to Fraulein Anna that there was nothing wrong with her children, Elsa knew of their mischievous ways, and she knew they had played their pranks on Fraulein Anna. Frau Schmidt had told her about the frog, and Elsa had found the pine cone lying on the dining room carpet after everyone had left the room. And yet, here Anna-Maria was, singing to them, calming their fears of the storm as if none of it had ever happened. Such kindness was rare, and it made a part of Elsa long to know more about this woman. Quickly, though, her mind rebelled against her heart. It had nearly killed her when Georg died, and she couldn't risk feeling anything like that again. The ice froze back into place, and she marched into the room, intent on castigating Fraulein Anna for breaking her rules.
Anna-Maria twirled around, playing with each of the children, "…these are a few of my favorite things. When the dog, ba, bites…" she stuttered to a halt, coming face-to-face with an ice-cold and stone-faced Captain. The children's eyes widened, and they ran to the other side of the room, getting quickly into their line. Anna-Maria glanced at the children and then at the Captain. "Uh, hello!" she perkily, gamely trying to pretend nothing was wrong.
"Fraulein, didn't I tell you that bedtime is to be strictly observed in this house?" Elsa asked coldly.
"Well, the children were upset by the storm, ma'am, I, I thought that I…" Anna stammered, trying to explain herself. Seeing it was having no effect on the steely gaze, she gave up. "Yes, you did, ma'am," she admitted.
"And yet you seem to have difficulty following such simple instructions," Elsa accused angrily.
"Only when frightened children are involved, ma'am," Anna responded tartly.
They stared at each other heatedly for a few seconds, but it was Elsa who ended up having to look away. The earnest anger in the governess' gaze made that damnable affection well up again, and Elsa had to turn away to maintain her poise. "Liesel," she barked, and Liesel jumped.
"Yes, Mother?" she replied.
"I don't recall seeing you anywhere after dinner," Elsa said coolly.
"Oh, really?" Liesel said as innocently as she could. "Well, as a matter of fact…"
"Yes?" Elsa prompted.
Liesel faltered and Anna-Maria came to her rescue. "What she would like to say, Captain, is that she and I have been getting better acquainted tonight," Anna-Maria explained hastily, and Liesel nodded enthusiastically. "But, it's much too late to go into all that," Anna-Maria said hurriedly. "Now children, you heard your Mother, go back to bed immediately," she encouraged, waving them towards the door and smiling at them all as they passed.
Now alone with the Captain and feeling vulnerable, Anna-Maria reached for her robe, using it to cover the somewhat thin material of her nightgown. That, of course, drew Elsa's attention to her governess' body, and she frowned as attraction joined the affection she was already fighting. "Fraulein," Elsa began, "you have managed to remember that I am leaving for the Southern Isles in the morning?" Anna-Maria nodded. "Is it also possible that you remember that the first rule in this house is discipline?" she continued. Anna-Maria nodded again. "Then I trust that before I return, you will have acquired some," she concluded pointedly, turning towards the door.
Anna-Maria scowled after her, annoyed at the insult, before she remembered what she had wanted to ask the Captain. She knew it really wasn't the time, but she was already in trouble, and she figured one more request couldn't hurt her standing very much. "Captain!" she called, and Elsa turned back toward her. "I wonder if before you go, I could ask you about some clothes for the children," she stated. "For when they play, if I could just get some material."
Elsa rolled her eyes. "Fraulein Anna, you have asked questions about their playtime before," she said. "And as I have said before, their time is better spent doing other things."
"But they're children!" Anna-Maria protested.
"Yes," Elsa agreed. "And I'm their mother," she stated pointedly. "Good night." Elsa left, shutting the door behind her.
Anna-Maria stared after her in stunned outage before flinging her robe away in anger and frustration. She took a deep breath to calm herself and then sat down in one of her chairs by the window. She stared out it, thinking, and absentmindedly, she undid the curtain to keep her hands busy. It fell before her eyes, and she studied it, remembering that Frau Schmidt had said these were to be replaced. She reached out to feel it, and she smiled. It was thick but not rough, and it would do nicely for play clothes. The next thought would be if she would have enough material for seven, but looking around the room, she saw she had six eight-foot lengths of curtain. She smirked and wrapped herself up in the green and white draperies. "I simply remember my favorite things, and then I don't feel so bad," she concluded with a defiant look towards the door.