Georg wasn't surprised to find himself parked around the corner from Nonnberg Abbey.

Last night, after spending most of the past week feeling miserable over the disappearance of Maria he had finally confronted the truth; there would never be a future with her. So he did the only thing he could and went through with his original plan to marry Elsa.

He had never made a bigger mistake in his life.

The children needed a mother. He knew that. They had needed a mother for the better part of five years. But unlike governesses, not anyone would do. In fact, since Maria he'd realised that not anyone would do when it came to governesses.

And, as much as he cared for Elsa, she was not the person he needed as mother to his children. But at the time, and even now, he didn't know whether he had any other option.

He and Elsa had agreed that they would tell the children just after lunch the next day. They would have finished their studies by then and Elsa suggested they could spend could spend the afternoon together 'as a family'. Georg found it highly improbable that Elsa would want to do that for a second, and it turned out more or less like what he predicted. He was sure the ball game earlier had been Elsa's pitiful attempt to try and bond with his children. Luckily the children had been less than enthusiastic and it had ended very quickly.

Unfortunately, the minutes that followed were anything but pleasant. Even he knew he was lying when he announced they were 'all going to be very happy'. He knew they were doing their best to be polite but it was clear that they were anything but happy. The scowl on Gretl's face and the less than enthusiastic expressions from the rest of them had not gone unnoticed, and when they all walked over to kiss Elsa's cheek it was definitely awkward, and as soon as all of them had finished he'd hurried them off.

Immediately after that, he'd excused himself and disappeared inside the house. But he quickly realised he wasn't going to get the privacy he needed here, and had jumped in the car and drove.

He hadn't known where he was going, but now that he was here, it wasn't a surprise. He'd come here because she was there. The woman he loved.

As Maria left the Abbey she felt completely different from how she felt the last time she had left, and yet, at the same time exactly the same.

When Sister Margaretta had entered her room and announced that the Reverend Mother wanted to speak with her, Maria knew she couldn't refuse, no matter how much she might want to.

And she wanted to refuse very much.

She knew what the Abbess would ask her. She would ask her why she had turned up in the middle of the night, a full six weeks before her time as governess for the children of Captain von Trapp was due to finish. Why the next morning she had been behaving so uncharacteristically. Why she had requested seclusion.

All the questions Maria didn't want to have to answer. Because they all led back to one thing: the man she loved.

Maria had never been in love before. She had never even considered the possibility of it ever happening in her life. But after a week in seclusion she had come to the realisation that the Baroness must have been right.

She could barely even admit it to herself. She didn't think she'd be able to cope if she told the Reverend Mother. And she knew that one way or another, it would come out if she had to speak to the Abbess.

It had been a very unusual experience for Maria. She had thought it would be painful to talk about it. And, at first it was. But as she continued – for some reason once she started she found herself unable to stop – it had gotten less painful. She would never say it was a pleasant moment, but looking back, it had been very cathartic. The Reverend Mother assured her that what she was feeling was not wrong, that she had to go back, find out and ultimately follow her heart. It was then that Maria finally let herself wholeheartedly believe, for the first time, that what she was feeling was love.

As she left the Abbey and headed towards the bus stop, Maria felt excited and nervous and a whole mix of other emotions all at once. She didn't know exactly what her future would be, but she knew that she was following her heart, and she was ready to try.

She was ready to see if her future contained the man she loved.

Georg didn't know how long he stayed where he was. All he was doing was sitting in the car, with his back straight against the seat. The engine was off and his eyes were unfocused. Nothing was able to catch his attention.

Until a young woman walked around the corner. He noticed that. As soon as he saw that, he couldn't keep his eyes off her.

He hadn't noticed because of the guitar case and carpetbag she was carrying; though he would recognise those anywhere. It wasn't the blue-green travelling dress she was wearing; he had never seen that before. It wasn't even her short strawberry blonde hair the shone so bright in the summer sun.

It was all of these and none of these.

He just knew. He knew because it was Maria. His Maria. The woman he loved.

The corner she came around meant she had just left the Abbey. The direction in which she was heading indicated she was going to the bus stop.

He had to follow her. What he had lost that night, what he had been trying to escape from when he left the villa had, bizarrely enough caught up with him. He knew he needed to act now. He hadn't acted the night of the party and she had left. He wasn't going to let this girl get away again.

Turning the engine on he drove round the corner in pursuit of the woman he loved.

I wrote this story as a birthday present for charleybec and she insisted I share it all with you. I've written the whole thing, so I'll be posting a chapter every couple of days or so.