A/N: Same disclaimers apply from the first chapter. I hope everyone enjoys it. :)

Chapter 2 – I Have Confidence

Anna-Maria shuffled forlornly out of the convent, delaying her exit by listening to the sounds of the sisters singing and by looking at all of the pictures and artifacts that the abbey had to offer. "When the Maker closes a door, somewhere She opens a window," Anna-Maria said, trying to convince herself that the life she had always wanted was not dying with her every step out of the abbey. She took a few more steps. "I wonder what this day will be like?" she thought. "What will my future be?"

Anna-Maria opened the gates she had come to, and with a hesitant pause, she walked out of the convent and closed the gate behind her. "It could be so exciting, to be out in the world, to be free," she decided. "In fact, my heart should be wildly rejoicing. I've always longed for adventure, to do the things I've never dared. But now that I'm actually facing it, I'm so scared I don't know what to do with myself." She looked back longingly at the abbey before her natural optimism reasserted itself. "A Captain with seven children," she mused. "What's so fearsome about that?" The seven children, her fears pointed out.

"Oh, I must stop these doubts, all these worries; if I don't I just know I'll turn back," Anna-Maria chided herself as she walked through the streets of Arendelle to get to her bus stop. "I have to find the courage that somehow I don't have anymore. I have to be able to follow rules for once in my life, and I have to face my mistakes without defiance." She nodded, staring determinedly at the horse fountain she had found herself in front of. "And while I show them, I'll show me," she stated, splashing the horse with his own water.

Her good spirits returned, Anna-Maria marched off towards the bus. "Let them bring on all their problems," she challenged. "I'll do better than my best. I have confidence they'll put me to the test, but I'm make them see I have confidence in me." She boarded the bus, and her thoughts continued to race about what the day had in store for her. "I will be firm but kind, and all those children –heaven, bless them– they will look up to me and mind me," she decided.

The bus came to her stop, and Anna-Maria disembarked with vigor, stopping suddenly as her guitar got stuck in the doorway. Blushing slightly, she un-wedged it, stumbling a bit as she made her way down the stairs. Once she was outside, the bus closed its doors and drove away, and Anna-Maria waved at the driver enthusiastically. Turning down the gravel road, she spied the address she was looking for, and she skipped down the path towards it. "I have confidence; I have confidence," she repeated over and over to herself, completely believing it until she stood in front of the imposing gate that guarded the entrance to the magnificent, but forebodingly large house that stood behind it. "Oh help," she breathed.

Tucking her guitar under her arm, Anna-Maria reached for the gate's handle, and after turning it, she pushed the heavy gate open. Once she was inside, she backed up to shut the gate behind her, and she studied the house for a few seconds more before her confidence came back. "I have confidence in confidence alone," she declared, and in a fit of spontaneous emotion, she went running off towards the front door of the house, stumbling on the gravel a bit before stopping at the front door and ringing the bell emphatically.

The door opened as Anna-Maria caught her breath, and she straightened up as a white-haired older lady came into view. "Hello!" she chirped. "Here I am!" At the lady's puzzled look, Anna-Maria continued. "I'm from the convent," she explained. "I'm your new governess, Captain!"

A look of understanding passed over the older woman's face. "And I'm the old housekeeper, Fraulein," she said with wry humor twinkling in her eyes.

"Oh," Anna-Maria said embarrassedly, as a blush covered her cheeks. "Well, how do you do?" she asked, taking the other woman's hand and shaking it energetically while giving the lady one of her brightest smiles. The housekeeper's response was a raised eyebrow before she dropped Anna-Maria's hand and went back into the house. "Hm," Anna-Maria commented, picking up her things and following her.

The front door led to a white-tiled landing. To the left and right, graceful staircases wound upwards to the upper floors where intricate metal railings lined the outside hallways and where the bedrooms presumably lay behind the doors. In front of Anna-Maria, six steps with a grey carpet runner descended into a receiving area where white scalloped doorways and tall white doors promised parlors and sitting rooms behind their pale façades. Columns connected the bottom floors to the upper floors, and above it all was a crystal chandelier that sparkled with the intricate handiwork that it took to create it.

Anna-Maria looked around, her mouth dropping open at an opulence that she had never seen before. She had gone from being a farm girl to a potential nun, and neither one of those lifestyles ever came near the type of grandeur that she was seeing. "Uh, wait here, please," the housekeeper requested, looking at Anna-Maria quizzically as the dazed young woman followed her down the steps into the receiving area. The housekeeper went through a doorway off to the left, and Anna-Maria set her things down on the floor as she continued to look at the house in astonishment.

In spite of the housekeeper's admonition to "wait here", Anna-Maria found herself wandering deeper into the receiving area, looking in wonder at all the beauty around her. She looked into the doorway the housekeeper had disappeared into, but seeing nothing, the redhead twirled around and went to one of the doorways on the right, peeking through the crack to see what might be behind the door. Nothing was visible, and when her curiosity got the better of her, Anna-Maria opened one of the double doors to glimpse inside.

What she saw was a grandly appointed ballroom, and her mouth dropped open again as she stepped inside. Even with the poor natural lighting, Anna-Maria could tell it was magnificent, with elaborate paintings, sculptures, tapestries, mirrors and gold leaf covering the walls. It looked like a ballroom in a palace, and Anna-Maria gave into her temptation to curtsey to some invisible aristocrat. Next was a bow, and just as her head was nearest the ground, the door flew open, slamming against the wall and sending sunlight flooding into the room. Anna-Maria startled and stood up at once, her surprise and slight terror evident on her face.

A woman stood at the doorway, tall, fair and impeccably dressed in a grey suit. The blue lapels of her blazer offered some color to the ensemble, but the finely-tailored and severe cut of the coat and the matching skirt spoke of an authority that dared not be challenged. At the end of her impossibly-long legs were black heels, and even in the muted light that concealed some of her beauty, she was a goddess whose very presence rendered Anna-Maria speechless.

After a moment's awkward pause, the woman moved away from the doorway and Anna-Maria came back to herself. She smoothed down her dress as best she could and hurried across the ballroom to its door, skittering across the doorway nervously to stand back in the receiving area. "In the future," the aristocratic woman said sternly as she started to close the doors, "you will kindly remember that there are certain rooms in this house which are not to be disturbed."

Anna-Maria took a deep breath. "Yes, Captain. Yes ma'am," she stuttered. The Captain glanced her way before firmly shutting both the doors.

The woman turned back to her, and Anna-Maria found herself unable to do anything but stare. Her blond, almost white, hair was painstakingly braided and coiffed into a bun that sat at the nape of her neck. Her eyes were blue, a deep but icy blue in a shade that Anna-Maria had never seen before but now found herself adoring. A few lines of age surrounded those eyes, but those were one of few indications that Captain von Trapp was any older than Anna-Maria herself. A quick survey of the Captain's body, a survey that Anna-Maria's traitorous eyes made without her permission, revealed a toned and trim body with perfect curves, and Anna-Maria quickly snapped her eyes back to the Captain's face before her wandering eyes could get her into any more trouble.

"Why do stare at me that way?" the Captain demanded.

Anna-Maria winced; apparently her too-long looks at been noticed. "You don't look anything at all like a sea captain, ma'am," she said truthfully.

The Captain's biting reply was immediate. "Well, I'm afraid you don't look very much like a governess," she countered with a false smile. Anna-Maria frowned briefly at the jab, and her jaw tightened almost imperceptibly at the polite insult. She was mere seconds away from speaking when the Captain spoke first. "Turn around please," she ordered.

"What?" Anna-Maria asked, perplexed.

"Turn," the Captain simply repeated, and Anna-Maria haltingly did as she was bid, not liking it but realizing that the military woman was doing what came naturally, namely inspecting her newest sailor.

Elsa regarded the young woman who was reluctantly pirouetting in her receiving room, taking in everything about her form and bearing. The young lady was a spitfire, of that there was no doubt. Her hair, though hidden underneath an unattractive hat, was fiery red, and from the little Elsa had seen, the potential nun had an attitude to match. Elsa felt a tug of something in her chest, and although she didn't like it, she had more than enough life experience to realize what it was: attraction and intrigue. Elsa found this young woman physically attractive, and she was spirted enough to be intellectually attractive as well, which made her instantly intriguing.

Only one other person had ever sparked her interest like that, Elsa mused as she continued to inspect, and that had been her husband Georg. Elsa Schrader, the 1st Baroness Schrader, had been headstrong and entitled from the moment she was born, a consequence of being the Queen of Arendelle's youngest granddaughter and the daughter of one of the country's most decorated naval captains. She was also a heartbreaker, leaving a trail of male and female suitors in her wake. She had to mature quickly when her parents died in an accident when she was eighteen, and her newfound maturity had led her to the Royal Navy.

Being a granddaughter of the Queen did have its perks, and Elsa started her career as a commissioned officer. Soon after she joined, the Great War started, and it was in some of these great battles that her reputation for intelligence and bravery was cemented. It was also in these circumstances that she met Georg, and the one-time heartbreaker had been instantly smitten. With the permission of the Queen, they had married when Elsa was nineteen, and within the year, she had become pregnant with her firstborn, Liesel. Elsa thought about resigning her commission, but Georg, ever incisive and empathetic, knew how much serving in the Navy meant to her and happily resigned his commission instead, becoming their household's caregiver.

After Liesel's birth, Elsa returned to the Navy, and when she did so, she took Georg's last name as a way of thanking him for all he had done for their family. She was under no obligation to do so, but it only seemed right, and Commander Schrader became Commander von Trapp. Years passed and the war raged on, and with each passing battle, Elsa's military reputation only grew, especially since for many of the battles, Elsa had been pregnant. She and Georg had never quite gotten over the lust of their early years, so practically every time she was granted leave, Elsa was either giving birth or conceiving another child, sometimes both on the same leave, as was the case with Friedrich and Louisa and Kurt and Brigitta.

By the time the war had ended, Elsa was a Captain and she and Georg had seven children. Soon after the war's end and Gretl's birth though, Georg became ill, and the finest doctors in Arendelle could do nothing to save him. He died in Elsa's arms, and she was left with both a broken heart and with seven children who adored their father but who barely knew their mother. She retired from the Navy to care for her children, but she realized quickly that she was no parent. The only thing that had made sense to Elsa was for her to run her household like one of her ships, leaving any true nurturing to the myriad governesses that she had hired over the last three years.

None of them had been anything like what she saw before her eyes now though. The young woman was lovely, even in a hideous dress that did nothing for her form, and the feisty, rebellious attitude, though chafing to Elsa the Captain, was enticing to Elsa the Woman. Elsa sighed. "She's barely older than Liesel," she chastised herself. "And she's lived her entire adult life in a nunnery. Stop being a fool." Out loud, she gave another command. "Hat, off," she said, and her potential governess took off the ugly hat. Elsa took in a sharp breath. "It's the dress," she decided. "You'll have to put in another one before you meet the children."

"But I don't have another one," Anna-Maria protested. "When we enter the abbey, our worldly possessions are given to the poor."

"And what about this one?" Elsa inquired.

Anna-Maria glanced down at herself. "The poor didn't want this one," she admitted. Seeing the Captain's disapproving look, she continued. "Well, I would have made myself a new dress, but there wasn't time. I can make my own clothes," she finished proudly.

"Well, then I'll see that you get some material," Elsa stated, taking another long look at the unsightly dress. "Today, if possible." Elsa strode out into the middle of the room. "Now, Fraulein…," she paused, looking at the young woman whose name she realized she didn't know.

"Anna-Maria," Anna-Maria finished helpfully.

"Anna-Maria?" Elsa questioned.

"Well, um, my first name is Anna," Anna-Maria replied. "The 'Maria' part was added when I entered the abbey."

"Fraulein Anna, I don't know how much the Mother Abbess told you," Elsa began.

"Not much," Anna-Maria interrupted pointedly.

Elsa ignored her. "You are the 12th in a long line of governesses that have come to look after my children since their father died," she stated. "I trust that you will be an improvement over the last one. She stayed only two hours."

"What's wrong with the children, ma'am?" Anna blurted out, alarmed.

The Captain's glare was icy. "There is nothing wrong with the children," Elsa said coldly, her protective instinct flaring at once. "Only the governesses." Anna gave a huff of skepticism, but the Captain continued. "They were completely unable to maintain discipline; without it this house cannot be properly run. Please remember that, Fraulein," she ordered.

"Yes, ma'am," Anna-Maria said at once.

"Every morning you will drill the children in their studies," Elsa said. "I will not allow them to dream away their summer holidays. Each afternoon, they will march about the grounds breathing deeply. Bedtime is to be strictly observed, no exceptions."

"Excuse me, ma'am, when do they play?" Anna-Maria asked in concern.

Elsa ignored the question. "You will see to it that they conduct themselves at all times with the utmost orderliness and decorum. I'm placing you in command," she finished.

"Yes, ma'am!" Anna-Maria replied with crisp sarcasm, even adding a salute.

Elsa looked at her in shock, but Anna-Maria only offered her a challenging smirk in return. Elsa frowned and then reached for her whistle, blowing a loud, sharp note. It was Anna-Maria's turn to be shocked, and she looked at the Captain with wide eyes and a slightly open mouth. Another long blast from the whistle started a stampede on the floor above her head, so Anna-Maria took cover under one of the balconies. Doors opened and shut, but within seconds, there was a lineup of children at the railings. Anna-Maria counted them, but there were only six, not seven, and there was a noticeable hole in the line.

Two whistle blasts caused the children to turn, and a series of them caused them to march down the staircase and stand in a line. One last toot and they stood at attention, still only six of them and still with a noticeable gap. Behind them trailed a younger sibling reading a book. Elsa wordlessly held out her hand for the book, and her daughter handed it over. Sometimes it hurt to even look at Brigitta she was so much like her father, but Elsa managed a loving tap with the book as her daughter got to her place in line.

"Now, this is your new governess, Fraulein Anna," she stated, and the children gave Anna-Maria a sidelong glance. "When I sound your signals, you will step forward and give your name. You, Fraulein, will listen carefully. Learn their signals so you can call them when you need them." A series of blasts too quick for Anna-Maria to follow sounded, and one-by-one, the children introduced themselves. "Liesel, Friedrich, Louisa, Kurt, Brigitta, Marta," came out in rapid succession. The youngest child, a girl, stepped forward on her signal, but didn't give her name. "That's Gretl," Elsa supplied. She handed Anna-Maria a whistle. "Now, let's see how well you listened," the Captain requested.

"Oh, I won't need to whistle for them, Reverend Captain," Anna-Maria said, before realizing what she had said. She decided to press on. "I'll use their names. Such lovely names," she concluded in admiration.

Elsa sighed. "Fraulein, this is a large house, the grounds are quite extensive, and I will not have anyone shouting," she said tightly. "You'll take this, please. Learn to use it. The children will help you," Elsa stated, and Anna-Maria reluctantly took it. "Now, when I want you, this is what you will hear," she said, putting the whistle to her lips and playing a unique sequence.

Anna-Maria's outraged response was immediate. "No, ma'am; I'm sorry, ma'am," she shouted over the sound of the whistle. "I could never answer to a whistle. Whistles are for dogs and cats and other animals, but not for children and definitely not for me," she said indignantly. "It would be too…humiliating."

"Fraulein, where you this much trouble at the abbey?" Elsa asked in controlled exasperation.

"Oh, much more, ma'am," Anna said with earnest honesty.

Elsa nodded her head and dropped her whistle. She turned to leave, and she had only gotten a few paces away when a shrill blast sounded from behind her. She turned around in irritation, and Anna-Maria gave her a challenging, unapologetic smile. "Excuse me, ma'am, I don't know your signal," Anna-Maria said pleasantly.

Elsa glowered at her. "You may call me 'Captain'," she said, annoyed, glancing at Anna-Maria one more time before she left the room.

Anna-Maria watched her go, a small smirk of defiant amusement on her face as she put away the whistle she would never use. After she had left, the children began to giggle nervously amongst themselves; they had never seen anyone stand up to their mother like that. Anyone from the Navy deferred to her automatically because of her rank, and anyone from the general populace deferred to her because she was a Baroness and Her Majesty's granddaughter. Fraulein Anna didn't seem to care at all about either.

Anna-Maria stood before them, and the children instinctively straightened up and stood at attention. Seeing their still posture, Anna-Maria sighed a bit. "At ease," she said, figuring the military command would work, and it did. The children relaxed somewhat, placing their feet shoulders' length apart and clasping their hands behind their back. "Well, now that there's just us, would you please tell me your names, and how old you are?" Anna-Maria requested, signaling what seemed to be the eldest child, a girl.

"I'm Liesel," she said, stepping forward. "I'm sixteen years old, and I don't need a governess,"

"Well, I'm glad you told me, Liesel," Anna-Maria said with a hint of a smile. "We'll just be good friends."

She stepped back and her brother stepped forward. "I'm Friedrich," he said. "I'm fourteen, and I'm impossible."

Anna-Maria laughed. "Really?" she questioned. "And who told you that, Friedrich?"

"Fraulein Josephine, four governesses ago," he replied, and Liesel nodded in agreement as he stepped back.

The next daughter stepped forward. "I'm Brigitta," she said, not saying anything else about herself, even the age that Anna-Maria had asked for.

Anna-Maria's eyebrow rose. She knew this wasn't Brigitta; Brigitta was the dark-haired girl who had been reading when she came in. The blonde's little ruse was also being undermined by her sibilings' not-so-subtle giggling. "You, um, didn't tell me how old you are, Louisa," Anna-Maria said with a smile on her face.

Louisa looked down, embarrassed to have been caught, as the real Brigitta stepped forward. "She's Louisa; I'm Brigitta. She's thirteen years old, and you're smart," the child complimented her. "I'm ten, and I think you dress is the ugliest one I ever saw."

Anna-Maria glanced at her dress as the younger boy spoke up. "Brigitta! You shouldn't say that!" he admonished.

"Why?" Brigitta challenged. "Don't you think it's ugly?"

"Of course," he answered. "But Fraulein Hilda's was ugliest." He stepped forward. "I'm Kurt; I'm eleven, and I'm incorrigible."

"Congratulations," Anna-Maria said cheerfully without missing a beat, causing Kurt to sputter in surprise.

"What? Incorrigible?" he clarified.

"I think it means you want to be treated like a boy because you act like a boy," Anna-Maria answered, and Kurt nodded in friendly agreement.

The second-to-youngest daughter stepped up to Anna-Maria, tugging on her pocket shyly. Anna-Maria looked down and smiled. "I'm Marta, and I am going to be seven on Tuesday, and I'd like a pink parasol," she said in a clear, sweet voice.

"Well, pink's my favorite color too," Anna-Maria fibbed. Blues and greens were typically her favorite colors, but the little girl was so sweet that Anna-Maria wanted to share something with her. The little girl stepped back, and the littlest girl stomped her feet in childish impatience. "Yes, you're Gretl," Anna-Maria acknowledge. The little girl held up five fingers. "And you're five years old?" Anna-Maria asked. Gretl nodded. "My, you're practically a lady," she said, causing Marta and Gretl to giggle.

Anna-Maria took a deep breath. "Now I have to tell you a secret," she confessed. "I've never been a governess before."

Judging from the sly, crafty looks that now came over the children's faces, that had been the exact wrong thing to confess, Anna-Maria decided. They gave her a few pieces of incredibly bad advice before Gretl shushed her older siblings. "Don't you believe a word they say, Fraulein Anna," she said, speaking for the first time.

"Any why not?" Anna-Maria prompted.

"Because I like you," she answered, and Anna-Maria smiled.

The white-haired housekeeper who had answered the door for Anna-Maria came bustling into the receiving area. "All right now, children," she said as she clapped her hands. "It's time to go outside for your walk, Mother's orders." The children quietly complained, but she turned them towards the door. "Quick, quick," she encouraged, and the children slowly shuffled off towards the door. "Fraulein…Anna?" she said, and Anna-Maria nodded. "I'm sorry I was so short before, but I'm Frau Schmidt, the housekeeper."

"How do you do?" Anna-Maria said politely, reaching out to shake her hand again, this time a little less enthusiastically then she had at the door.

"How do you do," Frau Schmidt responded, returning the shake this time. "I'll show you to your room. Follow me." She picked up Anna-Maria's bag as she started to climb the stairs, leaving Anna-Maria to grab her guitar.

Anna-Maria followed Frau Schmidt up the stairs, noting that the children seemed to be pausing at the front door. Just then her pocket started moving, and Anna-Maria realized why they hadn't left yet. She carefully set down her hat and guitar and reached into her pocket, drawing out a decent-sized frog. She looked at it, and it looked at her, and she rubbed its slippery head affectionately before heading down the stairs. She handed the amphibian to Friedrich. "Please make sure it gets back to its pond," she requested mildly, enjoying the dumbstruck look on the children's faces as she went back up the stairs to follow Frau Schmidt.

"You're very lucky," Frau Schmidt commented, frankly impressed at Anna-Maria's non-reaction. "With Fraulein Helga it was a snake."

"The Maker loves all creatures, great and small," Anna-Maria responded cheerfully, and she winked at the children as they walked out the door, disappointed that their prank had failed.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

The family von Trapp sat around dinner table somewhat patiently as they waited on their new governess. Loud steps sounded out in the hallway, and they all turned as Anna-Maria appeared at the door. She stopped, smoothed down her dress and casually walked to her chair, even though she could feel the Captain's beautiful blue eyes watching every step. "Good evening," she said to the Captain. "Good evening," she repeated to the children.

"Good evening, Fraulein Anna," they said in unison.

Anna-Maria sat down without looking, and she jumped up immediately with a loud exclamation as something hard and pointy assaulted her backside. The children giggled, and looking down, she saw that it was a pine cone.

"Enchanting little ritual," Elsa said in polite annoyance. "Something you learned at the abbey?"

"No, um, it's um," Anna-Maria stuttered, looking around at faces that expected her to tell on them. Knowing that would play right into their hands, she patted some feeling back into her posterior and brushed aside the pine cone. "Rheumatism," she lied badly, sitting down.

The children looked surprised, but everyone picked up their forks and began to eat. Anna-Maria looked around in disapproval before addressing the Captain. "Excuse me, Captain," she said. "But haven't we forgotten to thank the Maker?

Elsa stopped chewing and rolled her eyes; she hadn't had much use for the Maker ever since Georg had died. But, their new governess was one of Her devoted disciples, so to be polite, she set down her fork. The children followed suit, and everyone folded their hands. Seeing as the Captain didn't seem to be clambering for the invocation even though she was the head of the household, Anna-Maria took it upon herself to give the blessing. "For what we are about to receive, let the Maker make us truly thankful, amen," she recited.

"Amen," the Captain intoned, her eyes never leaving Anna-Maria's.

"Amen," the children echoed.

As everyone started to eat, Anna-Maria spoke once more. "I would like to thank each and every one of you for the precious gift you left in my pocket earlier today," she said sweetly.

The children looked around nervously, and Elsa knew a pointed remark when she heard one. "What gift?" she inquired.

Anna-Maria glanced around at stricken faces. "It's meant to be a secret, Captain, between me and the children," she said, and the children breathed a soundless sigh of relief.

"Well then," Elsa said crisply, her deep irritation showing, "I suggest that you keep it a secret and let us eat."

Anna-Maria continued on blithely as though she hadn't heard a single word the Captain had said. "Knowing how nervous I must have been, a stranger in a new household, and knowing how important it must have been for me to feel accepted, it was so kind and thoughtful of you to make my first moments here so warm and happy and pleasant," she said warmly. Anna-Maria glanced up at the Captain and smiled, and Elsa smiled back with one of the most insincere smiles that Anna-Maria had ever seen.

It didn't take long for Marta to start crying. Brigitta and Louisa followed shortly thereafter, as did Gretl and Kurt. Anna-Maria smirked a bit before focusing in on her dinner. Noticing that all of her children save two were crying their eyes out, Elsa turned to her new governess. "Fraulein," she said, and Anna-Maria focused her attention on her employer. "Is it at every meal or only at dinner that you intend to lead us all through this rare and wonderful new world of indigestion?" she asked acidly.

Anna-Maria glanced around. "Oh, they're all right, Captain," she assured the older woman. "They're just happy." Elsa scowled as a chorus of crying answered her words.

As all this was going on, a bicycle messenger rode up to the von Trapp mansion. Parking his bike near the door, the young man rang the bell, and Kai, the family's long-time butler, answered the door. "Ah, Hans, good evening," he said.

"Good evening, Kai," Hans replied. "I trust everything is under control?"

"Yes, yes," Kai assured him.

"Good," Hans answered.

Kai looked around him and stepped out of the house, shutting the door behind him. "Are there any developments?" he asked, stepping closer to Hans.

"Perhaps," Hans said coyly. "Is the Captain at home?" he asked,

"She's at dinner," Kai replied.

"With the family?" came the odd, slightly unnecessary question.

"Yes," Kai responded with a quizzical look.

"Please give her this telegram at once," Hans requested, handing him a small square of paper.

"Certainly," Kai agreed and went back into the house as Hans collected his bike and rode to his next appointment. Kai went straight to the dining room and handed the telegram to the Captain. "Telegram for you, ma'am," he said.

Liesel looked at Kurt, and he silently encouraged her to ask. "Kai, who delivered it?" she asked.

"Why that nice young lad Hans, of course," Kai replied with a knowing smile.

"Mother, may I be excused?" Liesel asked, and Elsa engrossed in her telegram, merely grunted an approval. Anna-Maria looked at Liesel critically but said nothing, knowing she would just get herself into even more trouble.

"Children," Elsa announced after she had finished reading, "in the morning I shall be going to the Southern Isles."

The table broke down into a cacophony of childish exasperation. "Not again, Mother," was the phrase most often heard until a stern look from Elsa quieted them down.

"How long will you be gone this time, Mother?" Gretl asked plaintively.

"I'm not sure, Gretl, not sure," Elsa replied, pretending that the sorrowful tone had gone unnoticed.

Liesel got up to refill her water glass, and Louisa spoke up. "To visit the Baron again?" Louisa asked accusingly, and Friedrich shushed his sister frantically.

"Mind your own business," he hissed.

"As of a matter of fact, yes, Louisa," Elsa answered.

"Why can't we ever get to see the Baron?" Marta questioned.

"And why would he want to see you?" Kurt added.

Elsa put down her cake fork. "It just so happens, Marta, that you are going to see the Baron," Elsa informed her daughter. "I'm bringing him back with me to visit us all." Elsa took a breath and a sip of her wine. "And Uncle Olaf," she added with an eyeroll.

"Uncle Olaf!" the children said with excited happiness.

Well, whomever this "Uncle Olaf" was, the children seemed to adore him, mused Anna-Maria as she finished her cake and watched Liesel slip quietly out the door.