Hello FF friends - I am still alive! It's been a wild term with too many students, so there has been little energy for writing. DOMH is still unfolding, and I hope to get a new chapter up over the holidays. In the meantime, I found this 3/4 complete l'il ditty in my files and thought I would polish it off for the festive season. I thought of flipping it to a holiday-themed story, but I like it just as it is. There's still lots of dribble and sentimentality, and really, that is what matters most. Happy Holidays to everyone :)

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"Georg, darling. What is this?"

Maria turned to Georg with the Trapp family Bible in her hand. She set it down carefully on the side table and gently lifted the dried petals of what appeared to be a daisy off the page.

Georg looked over his shoulder from his place on the sofa to see what his fiancée had found. He stilled almost immediately. A small smile graced his lips, and a soft whistle filled the room as the air flowed between his teeth.

Maria studied his handsome face. She knew that look already: the one where he was caught up in a memory. She loved his Agathe for all she had given him: the children, her husband to be, her life now - the life she was meant to live! She felt no jealousy of his first life; it only enriched her.

"Those are daisy petals, my love", he replied wistfully

"Did they belong to your mother? To Agathe?" Maria inquired.

"No, Maria. Those are all mine." Georg answered with a dry chuckle.

Maria gave him a knowing smile and decided to hold back on teasing him for being sentimental. She was much too enamored by this side of him. Who could have imagined that the stern martinet she met on the first day had a heart like this?

Georg rose from the sofa and approached her from behind, wrapping his arms around her waist, nuzzling his chin into the space between her neck and shoulder. It was a place that he quickly learned brought him great comfort. After a while, he reached around to lift her hand, grasping one of the delicate petals gently between his fingers.

"This one…" he sighed.

Georg didn't move for a time, and it concerned Maria so much that she awkwardly turned in his arms to face him. Looking up at his face, she could not help but reach out and run her fingers along his jawline.

Georg kissed her tenderly between her brows, and with his arms still encircling her, he directed her towards the sofa.

"Come. Sit." He asked more than demanded.

He set the petals back down on the Bible that Maria had placed on her lap before holding both of her hands in his.

"The day after you stormed into our lives...the morning I left for Vienna...well, I came across one of the first daisy blooms of the season. It was pushing through the gravel alongside the garage. A place that barely saw full sun all day. After studying it for a time, I bent down and I plucked it from the earth. You know, it was the first time I had stopped to appreciate a flower blossom since Agathe had died. Thinking back on that day, I know that you had something to do with that. You, my Maria, the brave daisy, pushing through the fog that had settled over this household. You thumbed your nose at me, disregarded my authority, and then you tamed the wild things at dinner. Hours later, you had them eating out of your hand during the thunderstorm."

Maria felt her cheeks blush at his words. It always made her feel warm inside to know she affected him so much on her first day.

"You," Georg continued, "the whirling dervish that blew into my life the day before had turned things on its head. Plucky. Persistent. Bright. White. Like the first daisy of springtime, a sign of change. Of course, I could not have ever imagined what changes lay ahead of me in that moment; I was busy being angry with you for the chaos you had wrought in so little time. I remember chastising you for your innocence, your naivety, your spontaneity, and your lack of fear. Needless to say, in those early hours, I honestly didn't believe you'd last long in the hands of my children and I was ok with that; but by bedtime, I wasn't so certain. How ever did you manage to gain their trust so quickly? I'll never understand…actually, I understand now, but that is another story for another day."

Georg trailed off with a soft smile before lifting Maria's hands to his lips.

"Anyway, my love. For some unknown reason, I carried that daisy with me to the car. It felt wrong to toss it onto the gravel. I had seen daisies a thousand times before, but something about this one was different. Something was simmering in the back of my mind, deep in my heart - and I needed time to process that. At first, I blamed my mother. She used to talk about daisies all the time - how they represented new beginnings, innocence, purity, joy, cheerfulness…loyalty, trust, and an ability to keep things secret. But why now? The first flower I had appreciated in four years?"

"The daisy sat on the dashboard for a while," Georg lingered for a moment as if caught in a memory, "but a gust of wind caught it and it blew off and away since the top was down on the Horch. I remember laughing to myself as I drove, assuming it was a sign that the children had got to you, and expected a message from home upon my arrival that they had chased you off. But alas, there was no message when I arrived in Vienna!"

He fixed Maria with a stare that made her insides melt. Trying to fill the awkward pause and keep things centred in the moment, Maria spoke up.

"So, if the daisy blew away, love, what is this one?"

"Maria, darling," Georg replied. "There have been so many daisies in my life since you came to the villa! Elsa's garden was dotted with them. Every time I looked out the window or went outdoors, there they were, and somehow they were reminders of you. Even though didn't know what it meant or why. Some days I would look upon them with awe. Others with anger, agitation…but the constant was always awe.

While I was away, we took a trip with Max to Hrad Devin for a concert. The sides of the slopes were covered with daisies, the white of the blooms contrasting against the green grass surrounding the old castle. Exposed and steadfast, bobbing in the wind. Then, the day we returned to the villa...daisies along the roadside as far as the eye could see! Again, I thought of you. I could not understand why back then, although with the gift of hindsight, it's quite obvious!"

Georg threw his head back in a great laugh. Maria loved that laugh, how his eyes smiled and dimples graced his handsome face. She had so many questions, but Georg was seemingly far away as he retold his story and she didn't want to wreck that. With a resolve she didn't know she possessed, she sat patiently and watched him carefully as he continued.

"Do you remember that day when we took the children on a picnic on the mountain? The day the girls made daisy chains and Louisa made you a princess with a crown of daisies?" he asked.

"These petals are from that day, Georg?" Maria inquired.

"No," he replied. "But that was the day I first understood. Really understood. You were the daisy- although far more than a symbol of purity, innocence and new beginnings for me and my family. You were loyal, kind, vivacious, persistent, and so much more to me than a mere employee. I felt something shift in my heart that day, but foolishly pushed it aside as mere infatuation. Besides, what would a beautiful young woman want with a washed-up old sailor? Why would a man my age who was courting a wealthy widow even consider such a departure from what society expected of me?" Georg booped Maria's button nose with his pointer finger before kissing her lips.

Maria giggled as she playfully twisted in his arms.

Georg's countenance changed before he once again continued.

"Maria, my darling, from that day forth, I never thought of you the same way. I paid attention to you in ways I hadn't before. I saw the way you would look at me sometimes when you didn't think I was watching. I observed how you carefully listened to my words when we spoke. I lived for the gleam in your eyes when you smiled. When I watched you play with the children, I observed that you always climbed trees by leading with your left foot, and on days when you actually decided to wear stockings, they were always knee highs!" Georg laughed with a blush of his own.

"You stirred your tea after adding two sugars and a dash of milk; always with your right hand, thumb and middle finger on the teaspoon. You always left a bite-sized piece of streusel on your plate for a good while before finally finishing it with a look of satisfaction. A look that still haunts me to this day! I was smitten even then! You had captured me, my little daisy."

"Then one evening," Georg paused to think. "I was asked to sing for you. It was for you, Maria, even though the children asked through you. I chose the song that reminded me of Austria, another clean and bright flower - an Edelweiss. That night, a song about a flower made all those things I had learned about you come into clear focus. I had fallen in love with my governess while the woman I was courting was living under my roof! What a damn mess!"

Georg pushed his body back against the sofa and put his elbows on his knees, lacing his fingers together and putting his chin atop them. He didn't turn his head, but still managed to lock eyes with Maria.

"During those crazy days between the puppet show and the party, there was one day in particular when you had taken the children on a bike ride to get them out of the villa after days of rain. You returned with a daisy tucked in your hair over your ear. You had worn it to dinner but pulled it out and set it on the table when Gretl noticed it. After you and the children had scrambled to clean up after dinner, Elsa soon left the table with a headache and Max went to make a phone call. I sat there with my wine, and I looked across the table at your empty place. There, I spotted the daisy. I stared at it for a while before I got up from the table and stealthy pocketed it and took it to the library. Alone with the daisy, I removed the petals one by one."

Georg held his left hand in his right and as he grasped the ends of each of his fingers he whispered:

"She loves me...

She loves me not…

She loves me…

She loves me not…

She loves me…"

Georg opened the bible again.

"As you can see, I put them here after I plucked them," Georg said pointing to the page.

Maria followed his long fingers to the top of the page. Her eyes scanned the words and she sat silent. Big, fat tears threatened to fall from her eyes, but she forced them back as she read aloud.

"John 15:13 - 'Greater love hath no one than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.'"

Georg turned to face Maria again before continuing.

"You put me first even though I was a boor. I treated you with disregard that first night as I fought against the feelings that had overwhelmed me. Although I was an ass, you continuously toiled by laying down your life for me, although not a friend...yet. You didn't give up. You helped the children to heal, and by doing so, you brought me back to life. Even before we had 'this'," Georg gestured by opening his hands around Maria's face. "I knew I would always treasure the gifts you gave me. I knew that even then," he said with a smile.

Georg turned the pages in the bible a few pages ahead and pointed again.

"This one," he said pointing to another petal, a good deal longer than the others, but slightly misshapen.

"This one has a different story. The morning after Elsa and I announced our engagement to the children, I was about to go into town to buy a ring even though my heart wasn't in it. On my way to the car, I found another daisy alongside the garage. It was very late in the season for daisies: this one had struggled through the heat and dry conditions, and yet it still blossomed. I looked down upon it, feeling my insides quaking, my heart broken, raging with anger that you were gone and had chosen God and not us; not me. I picked it from its place and threw it on the ground. Walking away, I turned back and looked at it in sadness, tears filling my eyes."

"I walked back over and picked it up. Even though you were gone, I could feel you were still there with me - all the things that daisies had come to mean to me last summer: Plucky. Bright. Loyal. New beginnings. And so, with a heavy heart, I did it again:

"She loves me…

She loves me not…

She loves me…

She loves me not…

She loves me…"

"This petal, my Love, is that final petal. The one that confirmed you had loved me. Somehow, although you were gone and I had made the stupidest decision of my life, this daisy brought me comfort. I grasped it in my hand and turned to go back to the villa. I did not go to town to buy a ring, instead, I put this petal in the Bible beside the other one from earlier in the summer. I felt calm for the first time in over a week. Well, 10 days to be precise."

As I sat alone in the library, I thumbed through photos of Agathe and others of the children when they were babies. I found the stack of photos that Kurt had taken this past summer. Pictures of happy faces, the children, memories of summer, memories of you…"

By this point, Maria could no longer hold the tears back. She remembered those 10 days so vividly. The pain so acute even now, despite everything she now possessed, everything her fiance had promised her. He, too, was hurting that day she returned unannounced. She recognized the pain in his eyes now as she thought back to those moments on the villa stairs: "you left without saying goodbye..."

Georg spoke again, interrupting her musings.

"Well, hours passed while I sat alone, lost in my thoughts. A rap at the study door revealed a rather upset Frau Schmidt who had come to tell me that the children were nowhere to be found, and dinner was almost ready. Well, I am sure that you know how the rest of that day went." Georg said with a sad smile before picking up Maria's hand and kissing it once more.

Maria lifted her hands to Georg's face, cupping his jaw in her hands and losing herself in his crystal blue eyes.

"You, my darling Georg, are a sentimental softie." Maria cooed. "Do you have any idea how much it means to me to know that you saved these? To know that this one, although it's imperfect, gave you hope for a new start in a time of sadness and angst for both of us. I do declare that at the very moment you tossed the flower on the ground, I am quite sure that is the exact moment when the Reverend Mother told me that I must come back, and that was why you stopped to pick it up again."

Georg leaned in and kissed Maria as if his life depended on it. Maria relished the heat of his body through his suit, the pressure of his lips on hers, the way he sunk his hands into her hair.

When they paused for obligatory oxygen, Maria pushed his chest away a little bit before speaking.

"I too, have a secret of my own, Georg."

Maria rose from the sofa and made her way to the shelves of fiction in the library. Her fingers caressed the spine of several books until Georg saw them still over one particular volume, purple leather with gold embossing. She looked over her shoulder at him with an expression that made his heart flip.

She returned to sit behind him the book on her lap. Smiling, she turned to him. Ever curious, Georg turned the book so he could read the title on the spine. In gold letters, slightly worn, but definitely legible - Jane Eyre.

Maria promptly flipped open the book to chapter 15, the second last page. There, pressed between the pages was a dried Edelweiss. Underlined in grey pencil Georg read the lines out loud.

"You have saved my life: I have a pleasure in owing you so immense a debt. I cannot say more."

"Georg, the day we all went to the mountain, minus the Baroness, of course; the trip you have already spoken of. That day, you gave me an Edelweiss on the train ride down the mountain, do you remember?" Maria asked.

"Of course, my Love. Look at us! We are both sentimental as you saved it as well, among the words of Mr Rochester!"

"You, too, my darling Georg, you have saved my life - although not from a fire in my bed!" Maria laughed. "You brought me the life that I was meant to live. I have a pleasure in owing you so immense a debt. You have told me on several occasions that I had saved you - today included. Although I never said so to you, I also feel so strongly that you had also saved mine. The gift of your friendship. To be treated as your equal. The master and the governess. The torch I carried for you. Then, it was nothing but a dream, but it's a fairy tale now." Maria giggled.

"Jane Eyre seemed appropriate somehow, for every good, true, vigorous feeling I had gathered impulsively around you!" she continued

"You, my darling Maria", Georg whispered as he placed a gentle kiss on her lips, "are always full of surprises! The edelweiss and this daisy represent our new beginnings and shared affections. Medieval farmers used to say that spring would not arrive until one could set a foot upon twelve daisies. You pulled me from my winter of sadness and brought me into the light, gave me a new start, and for that I will always be in your debt. I dare say that I will cherish the rest of our lives together, the good times and bad. And just think of the of many pleasures that we will share as we repay our debts to one another!" Georg said with flirtatious grin.

Georg rose to his feet and looked down on Maria. He bent over and removed the worn copy of Jane Eyre from her fingers, and closed the book, trapping the Eidelweiss in the embrace of Jane and Edward. He grabbed both her hands and pulled her up and into his arms. He held her tightly and thanked God for his blessings as he breathed in the scent of her hair that reminded him of love, sunshine and, of course, daisies.