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chapter 7

The sun soon raised giving life to a new day when the first weak beams caressed the bridge of the deep valley and brought warm, comforting light to it.

There was silence in the small area where the family was nestled, their bodies still entangled even though the alpine cold of the night was long gone.

A toss, a stir, the awakening of the senses – a flock of birds chirping and flying above their heads, a brook splashing healthily nearby, the wind, softened, blowing through the tree leaves – opening the eyes would only confirm such beauty.

Another stir and a familiar groan, the awakening of the heart.

Maria could recognize it immediately when her husband was about to wake up. The rhythm of his breath would change, his head would nuzzle into the pillow or rather into her for the past months, and his closed eyelids would slowly begin to flutter.

Laying with her head on his chest she couldn't see his face, but she was certain his eyes were about to open and reveal that spectacle of nature.

"Good morning, darling" she spoke, keeping her voice soft both consciously and unconsciously

And soon, as a confirm to her senses, she felt the familiar pair of lips exploring her head along the path that the tip of his nose was tracing.

"Good morning, my love" his voice replied, low, still hoarse from sleep.

A soft moan escaped them both when his lips stopped their grazing and instead started to lay kisses onto her golden hair as she tightened her grip of him, revelling in the sweetness of his first kisses. New and familiar as morning dew.

"How did you know?" he asked, convinced he was the one having the priority on spotting her awakening relying on the changes of her breath alone

"We have been sleeping together for over a month in our bed in Paris" she replied, her eyes closing for a while at the idyllic sight of their honeymoon suite.

The double bed was the first thing she remembered – hundreds of oddly shaped pillows covered the majestic headrest, the softness of the mattress where he leaned her when they consumed their love for the first time, the heavy and warm damask duvet in striking contrast with the thin, white sheets in which she used to wrap herself in to rush opening the door with cheeks red from embarrassment. The softness of the carpet under their feet and the cold touch of the gold and red walls where he pinned her also came to her mind and then the nightlamps, the largest bathtub she'd ever seen and the lovely balcony outside their room. The view of the Eiffel Tower from there was simply breathtaking, never the same whenever they would sit down at the little table set out there to enjoy a rare moment of peace from their restless touring and the just-as-restless desire for each other.

What a dream it had been.

She could have spent hours dreaming of it over and over again, but something brought her back to reality and made her gasp in surprise.

"You're right, we've spent quite some time into that bed" Georg's voice teased naughtily, muffled since his lips had began peppering kisses over the length of her neck

"Cheeky!" Maria gasped again when he caught her lips into his.

He offered her a deep, hungry kiss that was far away from the little ones they would exchange whenever the children were around.

In one swift motion, she was pinned under his weight, the elbow initially sustaining him easily sliding behind her back so she could be completely wrapped into him.

"Apparently not enough time to make up for now" he spoke right before nipping at her earlobe

"Are we still talking about the bed?" her hands brought him back to eye level.

As her fingers kept tangling and unkempting his hair, they got lost into each other's gaze, his filled with lust and desire, hers sharing the same feelings in a more ladylike manner, painfully aware that not the time nor the place were right for them.

Georg rolled them over the grass and the soil, so that now she was on top of him, his arms hooked to her neck and shoulders and she unable to stop their physical teasing, delivering an open mouth kiss to his nose and then grazing her lips against his.

Millimetres apart, their lips barely touching, a distance painful enough that after a quick flick to her eyes, his hands cupped her cheek and brought her to close the distance by pressing her against his own eager lips.

"We sure are" he resumed their verbal conversation, "soil and dirt are definitely not the place I would want my new bride to sleep in" he continued, kissing her cheek

"A bed is the very last thing I could complain about right now"

"You should complain instead" Georg took a deep breath at the sudden lump formed in his throat, "and I would agree, totally. I'm allowing you to sleep in the middle of nowhere. I should provide you with a proper bed … a proper house …" he continued.

The kissing and teasing suddenly stopped as the provocative expression in his face vanished and left space to one of sadness and frustration. His arms lost their strength, holding onto her rather than holding her.

Maria couldn't bear to see him like that, none of what they were going through was really his fault.

She displayed a little smile on her lips, her elbows planting firmly in the soil so that her gaze wouldn't move from his, hoping he would read the deep understanding in her eyes.

"Listen to me darling, I don't need a house. And I mean it. A house without the people you love inside it is nothing, empty and meaningless as that odd cafe in Paris, remember?" the couple shared a short soft giggle remembering that strange place, "except from my childhood's, I never really had a house either. My uncle's shack, the Abbey, even the Villa … more or less I have loved those places dearly but never as much as I love you and the children. And I am lucky enough to have you right here with me".

As those honey words poured from her lips, directly spoken from her golden heart, Georg lost himself into the blue ocean of her eyes. He had sailed the stormiest seas and instead this one was calming, cradling him into its arms and soothing him until all he could feel within himself was love. Sheer, endless love for the woman that loved him back with a ferocity he didn't believe possible.

"I don't need a house, I have a home already Georg. You, are my home" she finished.

Her eyes, her eyes, her eyes.

While the world should have stopped and stared at her sight, he felt as though they were made just to look at him. They sparkled with the restless intensity of her love, reminding him once more that these were the only pair of eyes he would love for the rest of his existence. Because only in them and in them alone he could find himself back.

A smile, inebriated by her love, rose on his lips making relief curse through her veins. She succumbed at the gentleness of his touch when he brought her cheek on his shoulder, his trembling hand rambling to tangle his fingers in the hair at the small of her head. They were holding each other just like they did that far away first night in the gazebo, when they confessed each other their love.

And it felt just like renewing that promise again.

"All my life- I have sailed seas and crossed lands, working hard to build a house that I loved but didn't belong to. And then you came, opening my eyes to the realization that I, too, belong to you. That you are my home".

His voice broke the silence - it was moved, troubled with emotion, overwhelmed by the power of his feelings for her – but he echoed the last words with such intensity that she knew right there he had listened and truly understood her, feeling her words vibrate in his darkest depths.

The same one she had brough to the surface and turned into sparkles of love.

For his life, for his family and now, more than ever, for her.

Trees – tall, short, thick, thin, full of green leaves, dead and consumed.

Grass – outgrown, tall to the knees, absent at all, burnt, flourishing.

Occasional flowers, bushes and pebbles but that was all.

All they had seen for three long days now.

No sign of enemies but no sign of life, either.

Endless hours of exhausting walk towards an unknown destination, food supplies gone, and berry bushes disappeared.

Hot sun in the morning, annoying breeze in the afternoon, freezing cold at night.

Sore feet and starving stomachs all getting through because of their guidance both in the flesh and the spirit.

Their beloved mountain girl.

It had been her suggestion to climb sticking to the path the brook had traced, conscious that villages of farmers always used to pop wherever a source of water was.

But sometimes, not even she was sure anymore of what she was doing, the more the time passed, the more she felt as though they were the only people left in the planet. The other option being they were completely lost and wouldn't find a way back in time to survive.

Both scenarios appalling enough to make it impossible for her to allow them into her mind, not even for the smallest amount of time; instead, she had to guide them through those mountains to bring them home and do it without any waste of time brooding and troubling herself about it all.

Yes, that was her only option.

During one of those frequent moments of family perdition, Maria had offered to free Georg from Gretl's tight grip and take the little girl on her own shoulders.

She had been an angel for the entire trip, always so gentle in her adjustments not to unbalance her mother and hooking her little hands around her neck being careful not to pull the collar of her coat too high and constrict her breathing.

While walking, she was leaning her soft cheek into Maria's hair and focusing her watchful eyes on the way the water crushed against the boulders in the brook, being utterly mesmerized by the sight.

"Mother? Remember that man with the funny moustache we met before the picnic?"

"Yes, darling, why?"

"Do you think he's escaping too? Perhaps we will meet him again!" the little girl cheered, this time pulling the collar definitely too much.

Maria coughed as her throat got squeezed but soon released an amused laughter to echo her daughter's giggles. She never expected her to remember.

A few minutes passed by when Georg was back at his wife's side.

"And who is this mysterious man, darling?" he asked, directing his question to Maria before Gretl could answer in her place

"He's very old, has a big funny moustache and is very good at whistling. We even invited him for the picnic, but he was fishing as said no" the little girl explained.

Georg remained quiet after her clarifications, observing Maria's amusing reactions. She knew the awareness of this new stranger would have troubled him to some extent and was trying so hard both not to giggle and not to look at him, wishing she could see his own face.

But eventually, she succumbed to her needs and turned to him with big, laughing eyes and a wide, bright smile.

"An old man would never find attractive a younger woman that has roamed about Salzburg dressed up in nothing but some old drapes" she giggled, teasing him in a way he could have just brought his daughter down and chased her through the mountains to tickle her.

But while the thought began to tempt his mind, a choir was heard from the bottom of the row.

Doe a deer, a female deer; re a drop of golden sun …

The children were humming Do Re Mi, it was the first time they sang since the night of the festival.

Before they could even realize, the nine voices were perfectly tuned and were singing full voice in relief.

How come they didn't think of it earlier?

The cheerful sound of their voices directed their steps further and further along the way, quickening the pace of their steps to the rhythm and giving them back an energy they thought was lost until some minutes before.

It was simply delightful to see Georg singing along with the same overwhelming enthusiasm Maria was bringing them in, holding the younger children's hands and trotting with them along the way.

And that will bring us back to do!

Once Maria was practically out of breath, the entire family burst into a joyful laughter. The most genuine they had enjoyed in long days and seeing the children so happy was bringing indescribable comfort to their parents' hearts.

That was the home that she and Georg had been tearfully talking about that morning.

Maria gestured with her hand to be followed but instead Georg promptly stopped her by taking Gretl's back on his shoulders, claiming that he had to make further investigation about the moustached man. In reality, he was aware that Maria must have come out of that activity far more drained than him and helping Martha at the bottom of the row seemed to be an easier task, most likely useful to save her energy for the following hours of climbing.

They followed the brook till when, right after noon, something far in distance attracted Georg's eyes and he was forced to stop on his steps, petrified and struck by the sight displayed in front of his eyes.

Further down than where they were now, stood a small structure. He couldn't be certain whether it was an actual building as it was so far away that he couldn't see properly. But if he wasn't having a vision, he was sure those dark spots were most likely windows.

After few seconds of utter paralysation, his feet began moving again and straight towards whatever was ahead of them. The more they approached, the more the strange sight came into focus. Those were definitely windows and a bell tower could be seen on the front, it must have been a church. Georg looked back to his sons, the first ones to spot the structure, confirming them that it was where they were heading, and relief seemed to spread to everyone's heart as they hiked up to the spot where Georg stood and were able to notice it as well.

The hiking was finally over, the small descent was embraced easily by the entire family, and they reached the base in no more than half an hour.

The church was the closest thing to a luxurious resort they had seen in days, a source of inexplicable relief and comfort.

White, wooden beams surrounded it's every side as well as the bell tower, the roof seemed to be strong and solid under the light grey tiles it was made of and in its complexity, it seemed warm and welcoming.

They family was approaching it with highly paced steps when Georg's brows furrowed and his arms spread wide to keep the rest of them right behind his shoulders.

Still no voices were to be heard from there and it could mean both a blessing and a curse. He couldn't let the entire family in without considering the potential danger.

He had to be careful. He had to preventively enter, consider if the pastor could be someone to be trusted and then would have asked him some information.

But until then, any other move was out of the question.

"I'll go, Georg" Maria's voice spoke from behind him, "this is most likely a village church and farmers usually do not look favourably upon stranger, especially those of higher classes" she explained.

His eyes almost rolled back at her statement. Higher class? Yes, he was a baron, but he looked all but one – his clothes were dirt with soil, his cheeks unshaved under wild hair and he smelled. He felt the person least resembling of a baron.

"Your attitude. People would recognize it from miles away, darling" she tired to soften her statement.

Georg totally saw her point if her words were true, but he just couldn't see what she was seeing, and it was hard to believe in such circumstances. Especially when each of their action could threaten them and put them in danger.

No, he couldn't leave her such a responsibility.

"Georg, please, I'll be careful. We cannot risk to waste our only opportunity".

He hated to admit it, but she was right.

No houses no chariots were in sight, this really was the only opportunity of safety. Otherwise, they would have had to start climbing again, which would have happened even if whoever was in that church wouldn't have accepted them.

And if there was one person in the entire world that could endear even the toughest of hearts, that was Maria.

He had to trust her.

"Alright, but we won't be more distant than a few feet from the entrance. And if anything happens just scream as loud as you can, okay?"

"I won't need to" she comforted him with a soothing look in her eyes.

He had to trust her.

Yes, but how could he? They would have been apart from the first time since the beginning of the escape, and anything could have happened then.

His arm extended, his hand reached for her cheek and cupped it, trying to impress the feeling of her soft skin against his palm and commit it to memory.

"Be careful" he recommended her softly one last time

"I will" she smiled at him, fondly, before kissing his palm and then letting it go.

If he wasn't already in tears, it was only because she had answered him, and he was echoing those words into his mind in the hope this self-sooth would get him through.

Maria's feet traced a short path to the entrance in front of which she stopped. There was a little stair with very few steps that awfully creaked under her as she made her way up there, making her wish she weighted no more than a feather.

Her face got close to the tall window, eyes squinting to peer through it.

Nothing.

All she could see was engulfing darkness.

She knocked at the door, gently at first then more insistently.

Nothing.

Almost naturally, she pushed on the door handle and discovered it open. Her gaze quickly flicked to her husband, his expression clearly surprised as much as her own even if she couldn't see him properly. She nodded reassuringly and that was the last gaze she offered him before the creaking sound of the door completely opening made her disappear into its darkness.

The minute she was out of his sight, Georg's heart began to pound into his chest, he was so trying to remain calm and composed but yet he had to be ready to react and protect her had any danger occurred.

Seconds flew by painfully, she had entered the church no more than five minutes ago but it seemed like an eternity.

Nothing.

His breath became frantic, cold sweat began to drip on his forehead, his stomach began to twist and turn as never before.

And still nothing.

It couldn't take so long if there was nothing to worry about. Or maybe it was a good sign, she had found the pastor and she was just taking some time to explain the situation for as much as she was allowed. But still, it couldn't take so long, they had planned on saying no more than their aliases and that they needed some food.

"Oh Father, look, Mother's back!" Brigitta's voice piped from a short distance behind him.

Georg's eyes flicked up and wide open and then the heavenly sight of his wife came into focus. How silly had he been in not seeing her earlier, she was already halfway through the path that divided them, he was so absorbed into his own thoughts and worries that the sound of her feet running over the grass had been hardly audible to his ears.

In a few, long steps they were close again and they threw themselves into each other's arms as if it had been years they'd been apart. Maria had never ever doubted about her return, she knew everything would have been fine, but Georg's eyes were undoubtedly watery, and she knew how hard it had been for him letting her go.

He pulled back from the hug only to better look at her sweet features – her beautiful eyes, her pretty nose, those sweet freckles he adored, the pair of lips he longed to hiss fiercely.

But for the time being, he had to settle for just a little peck on her lips before his attention could fully concentrate on her words.

"It's empty" she said breathlessly after the run, "I've walked to the rear as well but there's absolutely nothing there, it must be abandoned".

This was the very last thing he would expect.

It made totally sense since there was no other sign of life in the foreseeable surroundings, but it was making him feel a complete idiot having worried so much about an empty place.

Shaking off the confusion in his brows, he led the family of nine back where Maria had been minutes before. She had left the door open so he entered the place first, closely followed by the others.

It was true, that place was utterly empty.

One of the tall windows was broken so a thin beam of light pierced through the crack but all it allowed to see was nothing but endless layers of dust and a couple of shabby benches left. Not even the altar was there anymore and all the few pieces of furniture that usually stood in a church were missing. It must have been abandoned for many, many years.

"We can stay here for the night" Georg stated, looking around

"Darling, a village shouldn't be too far from here" Maria pointed out.

Yes, it was an optimal place for a break after such a long day, but they desperately needed some food, they couldn't go without much longer, especially she and Georg.

And it was also true that there was nothing else but nature in sight but both the brook and the church couldn't mean anything else than the presence of some sort of life there.

"There won't be any village, Maria" Georg's voice lowered, his tone serious and conscious.

Blowing away the most superficial layers of dust that began floating into the air in the form of a thick cloud, a small engraving on the wall appeared.

He remembered the name of that church and what had happened to it. There had been a village of farmers there once and among them a dear friend of his eldest grandmother. But one day a terrible fire overwhelmed the place, burning all the houses and killing most of the animals. What was left of the locals had to move somewhere else, many of them seeking a family to be welcomed into, just like the Schmidts that later became the lineage of the Von Trapp family housekeepers.

The children didn't immediately recognize the connection with Frau Schmidt, but Maria did, and her heart felt enormous compassion for that good woman, she couldn't suspect her family had such a past behind their shoulders.

But what really felt like a stab to her heart was the realization that her children wouldn't have had something to put between their teeth for the several long hours to come. She didn't dare to complain about her own need to eat, which in truth was much more urgent than the children's and even Georg's in a way since she hadn't touched a bite from all the anxiety of the Festival night, but if she ever found a single crumble of something eatable, she wouldn't have hesitated to give it to them. She had no doubt about it.

Yet she was grateful, what had once been home to many, was now a shelter for them. They had found one at last.

Author's Note: Hello everyone and thank you for taking time to read this chapter. I wanted to take on from the last scene we see in the movie with this one, it was fun giving it a new perspective. I hope you enjoyed it and I'm looking forward to read your reviews.

Get ready for next week's chapter!