The Lonely Goatherd – Chapter 3

That night, Maria slept fitfully. Her conversation with the Captain the day before kept playing over and over in her mind as her sleep was plagued with bizarre dreams. From baronesses to marching sailors and blowing whistles, the thing that held all her crazy dreams together were the memory of his eyes; his deep blue eyes that sparkled with laughter before changing to be as dark and wild as the sea on a stormy day.

Maria finally awoke from her restless sleep covered in a thin layer of sweat.

All morning Maria tried to put the Captain out of her mind but as hard as she tried, she could not. Apart from the lingering thoughts of her dreams about the handsome Captain the night before, she felt terrible about foolishly misjudging him and she wondered whether there was any way she could apologise and make it up to him. She wanted to go and try and find the Captain, unfortunately Sister Berthe kept her extremely busy for the remainder of the morning and so she couldn't escape for several hours.

Then, just before lunchtime as she finished folding the last of the clean bed sheets and was putting it away in the linen cupboard, Sophia came and found her. She was carrying a large brown paper package tied up with string.

"This was just delivered for you Maria."

Maria frowned wondering two things: what could be inside the package, and more importantly, who could have sent it to her? There was no note or card on the package. Aside from the other nurses at the hospital, so didn't know a soul in town apart from the Captain, but after what had happened the day before, she really didn't think he would have sent her anything.

Taking the package from Sophia, Maria quickly undid it and immediately gasped. Inside were many rolls of beautiful material. Cloths of cream, beige or dark brown, as well as patterned materials of orange and brown stripes or tiny red and green flowers imprinted on a white background. But at the bottom of the pile of material, almost hidden out of sight, was a pale blue fabric. Light and almost shimmery, it was the most exquisite material Maria had ever seen in her life.

"Oh…" she breathed as she fumbled through the package of fabric once again. "These will make the prettiest clothes I've ever had."

"But who sent it?" Sophia asked.

Maria didn't reply. She knew the Captain had sent it after their conversation the previous day about how she wanted to make some new clothes for herself since the only dress she had was the ugly grey dress. But Maria didn't know why he had sent it, unless he had forgiven her for her foolish remarks and sending the material was his way of holding out an olive branch.

"Perhaps you have a secret admirer?" Sophia laughed. Maria just shrugged and gave a weak smile in return. Maria rewrapped the material back in the brown paper and tucked it under her arm.

"Sophia? Would you mind covering for me for a few hours this afternoon? There's someone, err… I mean something I need to do."

"Sure, but can't it wait until tomorrow when you have your day off?"

Maria shook her head. "No, I'm afraid it can't." After thanking her friend, Maria went and placed the material in her tiny cell of a room at the back of the hospital and got changed out of her nurse's uniform. Maria sighed to herself as she redressed in the stupid, ugly, grey dress hoping it would be the very last time she'd have to wear it. Then she slipped out the back of the hospital and headed down to the docks to find the Captain.

But to her surprise, the shipping port was almost deserted. The previous day when she'd been there with the other nurses, there were many ships docked at shore. Now all the ships were gone. Only a few men wandered about the docks moving pallets of crates or sweeping up. She squirmed slightly as one man walked past her to scoop up a dead cat, which was lying in a nearby gutter.

Maria was despondent. "Oh help," she exhaled deeply as she flung her arms up on top of her head. It appeared as though the Captain and his ship had returned to sea and she didn't have any way of contacting him or knowing how long he'd be gone.

Maria was about to turn back and return to the hospital when a thought struck her. Pivoting the other way, she headed into town towards The Lonely Goatherd.

XxXxXxXxXx

The tavern looked different during the day. There were no drunken sailors loitering about or throwing up outside, and while the tavern didn't appear to be open for business, the front door was wide open and music came from within.

Just as Maria was working out whether she should knock or just stroll on in, a barmaid came through the front door with a rag cloth in her hand and began to wipe and clean down the front windows.

Maria approached her. "Excuse me, I was wondering is the Baroness inside? I was hoping to speak to her."

"She's rehearsing," the barmaid replied, looking Maria up and down with disapproval. "What's it about?"

"Err…" Maria hesitated. "It's uh, a private matter."

The barmaid scrutinized Maria for a moment before she inclined her head towards the open doorway. "Go on, but I'm not sure she'll speak with you though."

Maria thanked the woman and made her way inside. She blinked several times as her eyes adjusted the dim light. Without the crowds of sailors and all the smoke, the tavern appeared larger than it had the other evening and for the first time Maria saw there was a small stage at the back of the room. She stood just inside the doorway out of sight and watched the spectacle being performed on the stage. There was a row of can-can girls in frilly knickers kicking up their heels and gyrating their hips as they pranced about the stage. And there in front of them was the Baroness. She was dressed in yet another red number but this one was long and sheer with a split in the skirt that went from her toes all the way to her hips. Her bosoms were pushed up so much that they were practically exploding out the top of her dress and her platinum blond hair was piled on top of her head in a torrent of spiral curls.

The Baroness sauntered seductively about the stage before stepping forward to sing in a smoky, sultry voice:

"Girls in white dresses with blue stain sashes, snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes, silver white winters that melt into spring, these are a few of my favourite things…"

Maria smiled to herself as she recognised the tune of My Favourite Things. She remembered how the Reverend Mother, who used to visit the orphanage where she'd grown up, used to sing that song every night to her and the other children to get them to go to sleep. Although she couldn't never have imagined the Reverend Mother in her black nun's habit, dancing to that song quite like how the Baroness was moving to it now! Watching the can-can girls in front of her, suddenly Maria's brain switched the can-can girls for her memory of the Reverend Mother so that her brain was now filled with the mental image of the Mother Abbess prancing around in frilly knickers, still with her wimple on her head!

Finding the thought absolutely hilarious, Maria began to giggle uncontrollably. She stuffed one hand into her mouth to muffle the sound of her giggles and thankfully she managed to control her hysterical laughter just as the rehearsal was concluding.

As the song finished and the dancers froze in their final poses, Maria felt compelled to applaud. The Baroness looked up to see Maria standing by the front door. She gave her a hard look before turning back to her dancers behind her.

"Thank you girls," the Baroness gushed to her dancers. "But I think that's all the rehearsing we'll do for now." The Baroness left the stage and swept in dramatic fashion towards Maria.

"I'm sorry, we're closed my dear," she told Maria coolly.

"Yes, I know that," Maria replied cheerfully, not put off by the Baroness's icy demeanour.

The Baroness didn't reply but stared at her up and down, noting, with her lips pursed in disgust, Maria's ugly grey dress. She tutted in disapproval under her breath at Maria. "If you're looking for work, I'm afraid I don't have anything at the moment," the Baroness informed her.

"Oh no, I'm not looking for a job," Maria replied with a small laugh. "I already have one. I'm a nurse at the hospital."

The Baroness looked confused. "Well dear, how can I help you then?"

"I was just hoping to speak to you about something, uh… in private."

The Baroness just inclined her head towards one of the nearby tables, and then spun on her heel and slinked towards the table, the deliberate sway of her hips was very noticeable in her tight, red dress. Her slim, lithe figure made Maria feel very conscious about the ugly grey dress she was wearing.

Usually Maria wasn't the type of person to suffer from nerves but as she followed the Baroness to the table, she felt her normal confidence wavering. Suddenly her bold and daring idea to come to the Baroness for help finding the Captain didn't seem so brilliant anymore. She silently hummed a few lines of another song she knew, I have confidence, in her head as she sat down. Unsure how to begin the conversation about the Captain, Maria decided to stall for a few moments.

"I liked your song," she commented to the Baroness, nodding her head towards the stage.

"Why, thank you," the Baroness said sweetly, her manner towards Maria warming considerably. "That song, in particular, is very popular whenever there is a thunderstorm," the Baroness's eyes gleamed in wicked delight. "And I do find the men need some sort of entertainment with the war being as dreadful as it is, they need something to, ah, take their mind off what goes on out there."

Maria, remembering everything Lieutenant Detweiller had told her the day before about the Captain losing his ship and all his men at sea, felt even guiltier about her flippant remark to the Captain the day before.

"Yes, of course," she replied, biting down on her lip for a second. Trying to brush off how uncomfortable she was beginning to feel, Maria continued with a laugh. "But, I have to admit, I've never seen anyone sing that particular song just like you did. You see, I remember the Reverend Mother of Nonnberg Abbey singing that song…"

"The Reverend Mother?" the Baroness replied at once, sitting upright in her seat. "Of Nonnberg Abbey?"

"Do you know her?" asked Maria in surprise.

"No, not know her, but of her," the Baroness smiled. "I've lived some of my life in Salzburg. I believe she is a very kind and generous woman, or so I'm told."

"She is," Maria agreed.

"But how do you know her?" the Baroness asked. "Are you a nun?"

"A nun?" Maria tried her hardest not to laugh out loud. "No, not at all. I would be a terrible nun! I'm sure all I'd want to do would be to escape the Abbey to run up into the mountains to sing all day long. I'd probably wear curlers under my wimple and waltz on my way to mass and whistle on the stairs, not to mention I'd always be late to everything, except for every meal," Maria smiled. "No, I fear that if I were to ever join the Abbey, all the nuns would probably make up a song about what a problem I was then soon ship me off to be, oh I don't know, a governess for some wealthy, handsome man with seven children, or something ridiculous like that." She laughed. "No Baroness, the Reverend Mother used to visit the orphanage that I grew up in."

"So you have no family?"

Maria shook her head sadly. "No, they all died when I was young."

"I have no family either," the Baroness admitted in a quiet voice. "My husband died several years ago." Her eyes grew dark for a moment and she stared intently at a spot in the center of the table before blinking several times then looked back at Maria. "Anyway, you don't need to know any of that. You still haven't told me what you wanted to speak to me about err, err…" the Baroness squinted as she tried to recall Maria's name. Maria realized quickly that she hadn't introduced herself.

"Maria, my name is Maria."

"Maria?" the Baroness paused to think, like she was trying to remember where she'd heard the name before. She glanced down and scratched her chin before her head snapped up and she looked directly at Maria. "You're here about Georg?" she asked Maria almost accusingly.

"W-what?" Maria stammered, wondering how the Baroness knew. "Yes, I am. But how did you know?"

"He told me about you," replied the Baroness bluntly. "And you upset him very much yesterday."

"I know I did," Maria admitted softly. "But I didn't mean to. I'm far too outspoken, it's one of my worse faults. I just keep finding myself saying the first thing that pops into my head. Anything and everything I think and feel! So I was hoping to find him and apologise for what I said."

"Well, you can't," the Baroness replied matter-of-factly. "He left today."

Maria's heart sank as her worst fears were confirmed. "Yes, I figured that," sighed Maria. "I went down to the docks just now and they were deserted. Do you know when he'll be back?"

"That all depends. Last time he was at sea he was gone for a month."

"Oh I see…" Maria's voice trailed off and she absentmindedly began to twist the corner of the napkin that had been left lying on the table with her fingers.

The Baroness didn't speak but reclined back in her chair, crossing one leg over the other and draping her arm casually on the back on the chair next to her. She scrutinized Maria for a few moments. "You're quite taken with him, aren't you?"

Her question took Maria by surprise. "Perhaps," she replied, a little guarded.

The Baroness uncrossed her legs, sat up straight and pulled her chair in closer to the table. She placed her elbows on the table with her chin on her hands and leant forward. "Maria, I am terribly fond of Georg and I will not have you toying with him. He's been through a lot over this past year and the last thing he needs is having his heart broken too."

"I know!" Maria exclaimed. "Lieutenant Detweiller told me everything about what happened with the Captain and his men and his ship and I feel terrible for what I said and how I upset him yesterday. That's why it's so important that I apologise to him. I didn't know or understand what had happened to him, but now I do. I was thoughtless with what I said and I'm sorry."

The Baroness studied the look of desperation on Maria's face, the pleading in her eyes and faint blush on her cheeks. "Are you in love with him?" she asked her.

The Baroness's direct manor shook Maria. "I don't know… I don't know!" She stood up and pushed the chair back away from the table. "How can I even make that sort of judgment when I barely know him? Yet there have been times that we would look at each other… Oh I could hardly breathe! Baroness, there is something about him that intrigues me yet unsettles me at the same time. I just don't understand him. He is a complete mystery."

"Yes, he's no ordinary man," the Baroness agreed. There was an awkward silence as Maria didn't quite know what to say next. Then the Baroness stood up as well and faced her across the table.

"Look Maria, you seem like a nice girl and I can tell that you care about Georg. But I can't help you in this matter. Georg is a very determined and stubborn man. He has built high walls around himself to protect himself after the awful disaster of the Agathe and I don't think he's going to let those down easily."

"But…" Maria began to protest but the Baroness put one hand up to stop her.

"But I value the effort you are making to try and make things right between you both. However, I can't guarantee that Georg would even wish to speak to you once he is back in town, but I will let you know when he gets back. The rest is up to him."

Maria nodded slowly then extended her hand to the woman. "Thank you Baroness, I appreciate that."

The Baroness shook Maria's hand and smiled in return. "Please, call me Elsa. I have a feeling we are going to be seeing a lot of each other in the future."

A/N: Thanks everyone for your reviews. Please let me know what you think of how the story is progressing!