Chapter Eight

Maria opted to let Georg take his space, besides she knew he was worried about Brigitta settling into a new house all alone. She was too. She was worried about her grandchildren. How were Annie, PJ, and Edit going to handle the news? Georg was always a very supportive presence, a strong sense of calm and control accompanied him wherever he went.

It was that very characteristic Maria missed those long, lonely days and nights after she gave birth to Johnny. Everything made her life so incredibly chaotic, as if her head were constantly spinning. Whenever she had felt like that before, she could reach out and Georg would be there to steady her, to calm her as she often would steady and calm him. They just knew. They knew.

Late August 1937

"Maria…"

"Maria…"

"Fraulein Maria…"

Maria was beginning to regret that was her name in the weeks leading up to the wedding. She heard her name being called constantly, all for seemingly unimportant reasons. Maria wanted nothing more than to marry Georg. She loved him more than anything in the world. Their upcoming wedding was another story.

Maria had always believed a wedding was simple. A man and woman met, fell in love, he bought a ring, she bought a dress, and they lived happily ever after. She was wrong. Apparently a wedding was more like a summit meeting requiring logistical planning and strategizing beyond anything she had ever imagined. It was overwhelming to say the least.

One particularly demanding day full of seating charts, dress fittings, and Gretl fussing about wearing a bow sent Maria from the drawing room to the sanctuary of her own bedchamber before she could lose her temper. Not more than ten minutes later, she heard a knock at the door.

Maria cleared her throat to disguise the tears in her voice, "Come in."

Maria expected to see Frau Schmidt or Liesl, so she was surprised to see Georg standing there. It was considered highly inappropriate for Georg to be alone with Maria, nevermind in her bedroom, but he had said several times he would be damned before he would take orders in his own house, from anyone but Maria anyway.

Georg didn't speak, he only held his arms out for Maria to snuggle into them. He really didn't have to speak, his very presence conveyed security and calm.

"Georg, I'm so sorry," Maria sighed after a moment in his arms. "It just got to be too much. I feel…anxious, I suppose, so in demand when all I really want to do is marry you and start our life together. No rules, no chaperones, no ridiculous pretenses, just us. Our family."

Georg was quiet, letting Maria speak and have her emotions as he held her tight and rubbed her back in slow, gentle circles. When Maria finished, he finally said "I want that too, Darling. I really do. I can't understand how hard this is for you. All I can do is be here, that's all. I am here, Maria. We're going to be married, life partners, a team. I'm here, use me. Let me help and we will work all of it out."

Maria sighed and laid her head against Georg's chest just like she did the night he proposed. "I don't want to put any of this on you. These are my duties. You have enough to deal with given that your work is so hectic. Seeing to this house, our children, the wedding preparations…Other wives can handle these things. I…"

"Darling, other wives do not have to plan a wedding with seven children hanging on their skirts," Georg reminded her. "And my work should never interfere with this." He moved his finger back and forth between them as he pulled back to meet her eyes. "You and me. Nothing should come between us, all right?" Georg kissed Maria's lips softly. "Now, what if I were to help with the children while you take a hot bath, get some rest, and finalize the menus with Frau Schmidt and put that bit of it behind you, hmm?"

The strain on Maria's body nearly melted at Georg's sweet offer. She nodded slowly in agreement. Georg gave Maria a kiss then moved to take his leave. "Georg," Maria called after him.

"Yes, Darling?" Georg smiled as he paused at the door.

"I love you," Maria declared with a smile.

Georg winked and offered Maria a boyish grand. "I love you, too."

1963

Georg wad amazed at how little personal property Brigitta had. She had her clothing, some basic toiletries, and that was it. Every pot, every dish, every sheet had been either wedding gifts or marital money. "How much are they going to pay you at the law firm?" Georg asked pointedly.

"$1.25," Brigitta replied. "Minimum wage to start off with. I don't know what the court is going to say, if Peter will have to pay me anything, and Papa, I'm scared. What if what Mother said is still true? What if I end up trapped with Peter for my children. I can't lose my children, Papa."

Georg nodded and pulled Brigitta in close to him. "I know, you won't lose your children. I won't let that happen, okay? I'll speak to John and we will figure this whole thing out. You aren't willing to stay in the marriage though? So, I don't misunderstand."

"I will if I have to," Brigitta replied. "I'll stay until Edit is 18 and on her own then I'll leave, but I don't want to stay married and I won't for any other reason than keeping my children."

"Do you have a lawyer?" Georg asked. "Lawyers are expensive."

"I have an appointment day after tomorrow with a lawyer in the firm, but…I know it is and i have close to $1,000 still left over."

"I'll have to speak with your Mother, but if there is something you need, I'm sure we can provide some kind of help."

Brigitta smiled at Georg, "I'm sorry that this brought a lot of upset for you and Mother. I hope you have been able to talk things over."

Georg made light of it. "Don't worry about that. Your Mother and I have had our difficult times too as was revealed yesterday. We will talk, I assure you. Now, I'm here to help you. What else can I do? Light bulbs or…I can fix us some lunch provided you have tuna."

"I actually do and I think I'll take you up on that," Brigitta replied. "I should have done 15 years ago."

"Uhh," Georg corrected. "You had that 15 years for a reason and we don't know what that reason was but I can tell you that Annie, PJ, and Edit are part of it. They are part of you and part of Peter, you remember that, always. Yes?"

Brigitta found Georg's words quite profound. "Yes."

The children were as blindsided as Peter by Brigitta's decision to end the marriage. Annie only knew one other kid at school that had divorced parents and they reportedly fought all the time. Brigitta and Peter didn't even argue, that scared Georg more than anything because it signified to him that they didn't even feel enough for each other to get angry.

That gave him a little relief about the situation with Maria. They could still have a major explosive argument and an even more explosive reconciliation. There were feelings there, on both sides, he knew that.

As Georg drove home, with memory of his very confused grandchildren in his mind, he tried again to figure out when it was. When had he and Maria been far enough apart that she would consider leaving him and ending their marriage? She loved him, he knew she did and he loved her, he never stopped not since day one.

Maria was preparing dinner when Georg got home. She looked at him and smiled at him though she said nothing. Neither did he. On the ride home from Louisa's after helping Brigitta get her kids into her car, Georg had been prepared to confront this issue, but now seeing Maria all of the hurt and anger resurfaced and he didn't want to talk to her.

Maria was upset as well. She had hoped Georg would clear his head and they could talk, but he seemed to be still angry. She sighed and kept frying the cutlet.

When dinner was ready Maria called to Georg to come and eat. She wasn't going to indulge in this behavior. They had arguments and other problems in the past and they always fought it out. With that one exception, but Maria knew now that issue had been more from her than from them. She wanted Georg to understand that, but she didn't know how to explain it to him.

When Georg came to the table he did speak, but his tone was so businesslike it was as if he were "Captain" again and not her beloved.

"We need to talk about Brigitta," he said flatly. "She is in over her head with this divorce situation and I know she will need substantial financial help."

"What's substantial? She said she was getting work and we will look after the children, she won't have to pay for any of that," Maria replied.

"She owns nothing, Maria," Georg replied. "They have their clothes and some personal items, that's all. She doesn't even have her own sheets. She is using Liesl's. I intend to help her as much as possible."

"I know," Maria replied. "You think I'll object to that?"

"You objected to the whole thing," Georg replied. "She needed some support from you and she got torpedoed for her trouble."

Maria sighed, "I wanted to make sure Brigitta understood how complicated things in a marriage can be. Even working at it, even giving 100% every day, things can get hard and you can lose focus. I wanted to.be sure that's not what happened to her because it did happen to me and if I didn't wake up and see what a fool I was being, how wrong I was to even consider…where would we be?"

Georg shut his eyes. "I don't want to talk about this now. We need to focus our energy on Brigitta. I might have to start lecturing again temporarily for some extra funds…"

"No," Maria replied firmly.

"Excuse me?" Georg replied. "What do you mean no?"

"I mean you are 73," Maria reminded him. "You have worked in one form or another since you were 14 until retirement and you deserve that retirement. No."

"I'll be the one making that decision," Georg grated out. "If that's what Brigitta needs then I will do what I need to do."

"And what about us? The time we have finally been able to spend alone? That we never had before, what about that?"

"That," Georg replied. "Well, honestly Maria I'm surprised you mentioned that. It seems you only stayed married to me because you didn't want to lose the children, I was the lesser of two evils? Well, the children are grown now. What's stopping you?"

Maria shook her head, but she refused to let tears fall. "I love you, Georg," Maria replied. "Loving you was never the problem and if you will listen you would come to realize that I was the problem then, me, myself. Instead, you've chosen to be obtuse and stubborn, licking your wounds instead of healing anything. I want to talk to you but not when you are behaving this way. I love you, Georg, but there have been times when I haven't liked you very much. I'm afraid now is one of those times."

Maris threw her napkin down onto her plate, stood up, and headed for the bedroom leaving Georg to clean up the supper dishes by himself.

A/N: Sorry for the late update, life got in the way last week. Plus, I have no idea what has been up with the site lately. No email alerts, no traffic data…Still I am going to stay committed to telling my stories. Lmk what you think. About half way through now.