A/N: I hope you like this new development - I'm going to try and update quite regularly. I've also changed the summary slightly to give a better idea of what this story entails. I'm currently setting the scene but do not fear, it will soon become AU.
She was stood before him in his study dressed in that ridiculous nightgown again, her eyes as wild as her fury as she dared to reprimand him for the way he ran his household.
She was ranting in full force, hardly allowing him to get a word in edge ways and it filled him with a blinding rage.
"That's quite enough out of you Fraulein!" He bellowed, storming out from behind his desk to square up to her. If this woman wanted a fight, he'd give her a fight. But his threat was drowned out by her verbal assault as she continued to shout over him fearlessly and his blood pounded in his ears as he thought of the many ways he desperately wanted to silence her, "I said that will do!"
Her poisonous words echoed around him as she continued her passionate monologue and he took several long and intimidating strides towards her, scowling dangerously and invading her personal space like a lion poised for attack until eventually she was backed against the bookcase, her confidence wavering.
He took immense satisfaction in having this effect on her but she still wasn't silenced. Her words finally faltered when he stepped so close they were toe to toe and he noticed her chest suddenly heaving, the pulse thundering at her throat as his hands moved of their own accord, bunching the material of her infuriating nightgown in his fists. Agonisingly slowly he dragged the material upwards as his steely eyes bore into hers, driven by the overwhelming compulsion to finally stuff the garment in her mouth and silence her for good. So hellbent he was on shutting her up, he barely recognised how utterly ludicrous his behaviour was, his knuckles skimming her torso as he brought the material higher in his efforts to intimidate her.
To his bewilderment, the Fraulein's eyes didn't convey the fear he'd expected but instead darkened with something unreadable, and his breathe caught in shock when she raised her arms apprehensively into the air as if inviting him to pull the garment over her head. Thoughts of silencing her long forgotten, his heart began to thud in his ribs as he realised what she was allowing him to do, and the room suddenly pulsated with a new and dangerous charge. He felt an intense pull of anticipation in his groin and he watched, perplexed, as his hands acted independently of his body and pulled the nightgown slowly up, removing it from her supple frame and dropping it to the floor at their feet.
Before he could grasp what was happening, his eyes were raking over her naked form hungrily, finally able to see the delectable curves that only moments ago were hidden under that frustrating tent. It was this that had driven him crazy, he realised, his mouth watering as he drank in the sight of her milky skin, her full breasts just longing to be touched and tasted. She looked at him unashamedly as their eyes met again and before he knew it he was giving in to the raw desire pulsing through his veins and pinning her to the bookcase with his entire body, capturing her mouth with his own in a desperate rush of heat and frustrated lust. She moaned deeply into his mouth at the sudden contact as their tongues danced frantically and he instantly hated his own clothes as much as he detested her nightgown, wishing to be rid of them in his desperation for skin on skin contact where her heaving breasts were pressed against his shirt.
"Captain," she gasped urgently against his swollen lips, causing his head to reel as her nimble fingers clawed at his belt buckle impatiently, "please..."
Georg awoke with a violent shout in the guest room of Elsa's villa, twisted and sweating in the sheets as the intense arousal from his vivid dream still pulsed through his entire body. Well, that was certainly one way to silence the Fraulein! He thought, completely baffled by the route his subconscious had taken. What the hell had just happened?!
He hadn't had a dream so lustful in years and he felt the anger rising in his chest at the fact it was the little Fraulein that had had such an unwelcome effect on him. It had all seemed so real and it entirely unnerved him as he tried to shake the imaginary taste of her sweet tongue still on his lips. He'd had an active two weeks at Elsa's villa - a welcome distraction from the vexing situation back at home. He hadn't heard from Frau Schmidt at all regarding the conduct of the new governess and yet number twelve and her damned nightgown were suddenly invading his sub-conscious?! It was absolutely maddening!
He glared at the clock on the far side of the room and realised with another surge of irritation, that he had overslept. He never overslept. But then again he never did feel at home enough in Elsa's villa to sleep peacefully. Coming to think of it, he rarely slept peacefully in his own home these days either. Even now, when caught in the confusing interlude between asleep and awake, he would roll over in his bed searching for Agathe's warm and comforting body, wanting desperately to pull her close against him and tell her how deeply he loved her - only to feel the overwhelming emptiness of reality engulfing him when he clutched at nothing but thin air.
He would lay awake for hours then, torturing himself with memories that he would later force himself to bury deep within. And once or twice, very rarely, he would truly let go and allow himself to feel. He would allow himself to sob for her, sob for his children, deep racking sobs of all-consuming grief for their loss and what it had done to them. He would sob until eventually he felt too ashamed of his weakness and he would adopt the authoritarian mask once more.
Pushing thoughts of Agathe aside bitterly and hauling himself out of bed, he made a quick effort of getting dressed, wanting to rush through a pot of coffee and clear his foggy mind before he, Elsa and Max were due to make the trip back to Aigen in an hour's time.
He realised with annoyance, as he descended the stairs, that he'd even managed to out-sleep Max, who happened to be waiting for him in the hallway with a self-satisfied smirk on his face.
"A little too much brandy last night Georg?" He teased, stroking his moustache absentmindedly and fixing his friend with a smirk, "your discipline is slipping my friend! Elsa got so tired of waiting for you that she has decided to forgo breakfast and elope with me instead."
The double meaning of the impresario's joke was not lost on Georg. It was true that he had been courting Elsa for rather a long time now and she would soon grow impatient of his apparent inability to make an offer of marriage. If she was indeed growing tired of it already, as Max had suggested, she'd certainly never show it - if there was one thing Georg knew about Elsa Shraeder it was that her aristocratic sophistication left no room for wearing her heart on her sleeve.
"Max you are outrageous!" The woman in question sashayed out of the breakfast room and looped her arm through Max's, laughing gracefully at his witticism and fixing Georg with a flirtatious smile.
"That's certainly one word to describe him.." Georg muttered, earning another titter of laughter from Elsa.
"Well how else would you describe me Georg?" Max teased, "Other than wickedly intelligent, irresistibly charming and dare I say it, devilishly handsome?" He raised his eyebrows suggestively at Elsa and flashed her a wicked grin, causing her to throw her head back in laughter again while Georg rolled his eyes.
He descended the rest of the stairs and greeted the graceful beauty with a peck on her cheek, flashing Max a playfully warning look, "I'd describe you as a very charming sponge, Max, nothing more, nothing less."
The impresario grinned satisfactorily, "I take that as a great compliment!"
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The boat rocked dangerously on the water of the lake but its eight occupants were having far too much fun to notice. It was a beautiful sunny day in Aigen and Maria conducted her charges with vigour at the head of their musical vessel, while the children sang and laughed and shouted without a care in the world.
She had decided to set herself small and achievable goals in fulfilling God's will at the von Trapp villa and she couldn't help but feel proud of what she had so far accomplished. Her first goal had been to win the trust and respect of the seven little von Trapps and her second goal had been to teach them to sing for the Baroness. Not only had she managed to achieve her first goal since the night of the storm, but she had also gotten to know each and every one of these fascinating children as individuals - understanding their needs, learning their characters and memorising their little dispositions - from Kurt's constant hunger and Friedrich's pensive maturity, to Briggita's book obsession and Leisl's penchant for romance.
As for her second goal, the children's enthusiastic rendition of Do Rei Me was proof enough that she had accomplished something wonderful. Not only had they turned out to be naturally gifted, but singing seemed to have opened up a whole new world previously unknown to them - a world of joy and confidence and affection.
She beamed with pride and sang even louder until suddenly the children's crescendos were replaced by excited shouts of 'father' as they stood and began waving frantically towards the shore. She whirled around to locate the source of their excitement and that's when she saw him.
The Captain.
He had returned! She noted how he was standing almost casually, leaning against the balustrade with the Baroness beside him waiting for them to return to shore. From a distance he looked quite relaxed in his demeanour and it filled her with happiness. The Baroness must have had the calming effect on him that Maria had anticipated. She couldn't wait to show him just how far the children had come and how much they had achieved in such a short space of time. How proud he would be of the way they had blossomed! She could already imagine the beaming smiles of pride that would grace the children's faces in light of his imminent praise. Maybe he would see just how much they desperately needed him. In her enthusiasm, she jumped up to greet him, "Oh Captain! You're home!"
Georg was absolutely seething with unrelenting rage. He watched, dumbstruck, as all seven of his children and his godforsaken governess tumbled, as if in slow motion, from his boat into the murky lake beneath them. As he frantically counted each head that popped above the water, he realised, with a jolt of dread, that it was indeed his children that Elsa had spotted climbing trees on their drive back to Aigen. Climbing trees and falling in lakes for Gods sake?! Had they marched around the grounds breathing deeply even once in his absence?!
"Come out of that water at once!" He bellowed, becoming increasingly more irate when his commands seemed to go unnoticed, all with Elsa as witness to his children's abominable behaviour. There was only one thing he knew would put a stop to this utter madness. Bringing his boatswain whistle to his lips, he blew it louder than he thought possible, the deafening noise seeming to silence not only the children but the breeze and the birds as well.
"Straight line!" He barked, achieving the desired outcome immediately. Taking in their disheveled appearance with a look of disgust and tugging the headscarf from Louisa's sopping hair, it dawned on him that he recognised the material of their bizarre attire but he couldn't think for the life of him where he'd seen it before.
It was now an absolute certainty to Georg that a mutiny had taken place in his absence. Number twelve had clearly commandeered his children and the eight of them were quite simply hell bent on utterly humiliating him. Leaving the Fraulein as second in command had been a terrible mistake as he had known it would be from the start.
Through teeth clenched so tight he thought his jaw might break, Georg introduced Elsa to his little liabilities and dismissed them abruptly, appalled by the sight of them. He noted almost instantly that, amidst the mayhem, the Fraulein had fixed him with a scrutinising scowl riddled with judgment. She was disappointed in him and the fact that this bothered him left him entirely enraged. How dare she silently chastise him in such a way!
She had the nerve to walk away from him then, when his furious glare would have frozen any other person to the spot.
"Fraulein you will stay right here!"
Even Elsa sensed the danger in his voice and quickly excused herself as the governess turned calmly and collectively to face him, her chin pointed in defiance. Despite himself, Georg's breath hitched unexpectedly at the distracting sight of her soaked dress, which clung to her form like silk, evoking suppressed images of her naked body pushed up against his bookcase.
Before he could stop them, his eyes were drifting lower of their own accord and he inwardly reprimanded himself for noticing that her breasts betrayed how cold she was in her dripping wet state. He felt the same sudden pull in his lower body that he'd felt in his dream and he turned away from her angrily, pacing the length of the veranda to distract himself from her appearance.
He had intended to denigrate her for her handling of her charges, to put her in her place and make it clear that play clothes and boat rides and tree climbing were unacceptable. He had planned to deliver this speech with the utmost effectiveness. But before he knew it the tables had turned and it was as if his dream was unfurling around him as she began to chastise him furiously for his treatment of his children. One after the other the harsh words tumbled from her mouth with reckless abandon - Leisl was turning into a woman before his very eyes, Friedrich wanted to be a man like him, Kurt pretended he was tough while really he was hurting, the little ones just wanted to be loved - and he found that he was shouting right back at her in his desperate attempts to block out the truth. Still she raged on, and he wanted to slap his hands over his ears and squeeze his eyes tight shut like a vulnerable child to keep her poison at bay. He wanted to beg her to stop, beg her to understand - of course he loved his children, could she not see how much it pained him? He loved them so much he couldn't bare to look at them. He wanted Agathe..
"ENOUGH!"
Maria was finally shocked into silence as she looked upon his broken face, his eyes blazing with anguish, his features contorted in torment as his chest heaved. It was the very first time that she spotted real, raw emotion in his eyes but as quickly as she had seen it, it was replaced by the infamous scowl again. Almost instantly, he was firing her on the spot and as she recalled the pain that had just flitted so briefly across his features - all by her doing - she realised she entirely deserved it.
Georg had had quite enough - the sooner number twelve returned to the abbey, the better. He would not be challenged in such a way in his own home by this mere slip of a girl and, as he demanded that she pack her bags, he watched her face finally fall in defeat. Well good, he thought, life was full of disappointments and the sooner she learned that, the better.
"What's that?" He snapped as the sound of a distant melody, something familiar, reached his ears, piercing the angry tension emanating around the veranda.
"It's singing," she murmured sadly.
"Yes, I realise it's singing but who is singing."
"The children," she breathed, fixing him with such a look of anguish that he felt his chest entirely constrict.
The children?