Notes: This story takes place a few months after 'A Conspiracy of Blood', three days before the aniversary of Elena de la Vega's death and a few weeks before Diego and Gilberto's birthday.
This story is the result of constant nagging from a friend, leiasky, who refused to write this story herself.
This is part 1 of a 3 part story. And yes, she is nagging me about finish these as well.
An invitation to a kiss
The day was hot, the sun at it's high point in the clear blue Los Angeles sky. Still no one was taking a siesta from the afternoon heat in the little pueblo. All eyes were glued to the scene playing out before them. Two brothers, identical twins, were fighting over one woman, who stood off to the side crying for someone to stop them.
Victoria Escalante stood next to Diego de la Vega on the porch of her tavern watching with her customers as Sancho Ramirez threw a hard punch that sent his twin to the ground with a hard thud. Pablo Ramirez spit the blood from his mouth and smiled sarcastically up at his brother.
"You call that a punch little brother? It's as weak as your ability to take care of her."
"I won fair and square Pablo. Rosa is mine!" Sancho snarled bitterly. "And you will stay away from her or I will kill you!"
"You'll have to if you go anywhere near my fiancee again!"
"PABLO NO! PLEASE SOMEONE STOP THEM!" Rosa cried from the side lines. She looked to the people around her, but no one answered her call for help. Her eyes fell on Sergeant Mendoza, who like the others of the pueblo was stunned at what he was seeing.
The Ramirez twins where always so close. They were handsome and full of youthful fire. They were practically inseparable, always looking for a good time. Where one was the other would not be far behind. They often had little arguments over who was older, smarter and or stronger. Their playful bantering and little squabbles never did much damage to anyone in the pueblo. They often laughed at each other during their mock battles and would usually walk away with a smile and some minor bruises. But not this time. . .
Things had changed. Their lives had gone in different directions since Rosa Santiago had come into the picture. The sweet, soft spoken senorita had won both of the twin's hearts. Her quiet beauty had dazzled them when they first met, and they began living their lives as young men should when thinking of starting a family. They became respectable farmers and courted her with the same youthful excitement. Their charms had dazzled her and soon Rosa found herself in the middle of two highly competitive brothers. Due to the inexperience of her youth, she did not discourage their pursuit of her. Torn at first over which brother she liked more, she gave them a task to fulfill and promised to marry the winner. To her dismay, she found that she was not in love with the winning brother, Santiago. Her heart had been won long ago by Pablo, the older of the twins. Hoping that Santiago would understand, she broke her promise and agreed instead to marry Pablo.
This is why the twins now fought. Only the brothers and Rosa knew the reason for this new battle, for the contest had been a secret.
"Someone is going to get hurt," Victoria Escalante said more to herself than anyone else. She looked around, her eyes scanning the people of the pueblo and knew that no one was willing to step in to stop the Ramirez twins battle. Finally her gaze fell on the tall man standing next to her. She sized Diego de la Vega up. He was much bigger than the twins, who greatly respected him. He could talk some sense back into the feuding brothers. "Diego do something."
He looked down at her briefly in disbelief and then returned his attention back to the fight with a hidden concern. "What do you want me to do? This is a matter of the heart, I can tell them to stop but they're not going to listen to me."
"They're going to hurt someone, OOooooOOoo," Victoria covered her mouth in a sympathetic show of pain when Pablo's fist knocked his brother to the ground next. Rosa began sobbing into her hands begging them to stop. "Diego please, Rosa is beside herself with worry."
"Victoria. . . ?" he met her stern look and saw the disappointment rush into her eyes yet again. How he wished she would not look at him that way. Just once he wished that she would look at Diego with the same love and affection that he saw in her eyes as Zorro.
"You're not going to do anything?" she questioned, the disappointment in her voice was like a knife cutting into Diego's heart. Victoria turned to Ignacio de Soto next. "Alcalde are you just going to stand by and watch them beat each other to death."
De Soto gave a casual, disinterested shrug of his shoulders and faintly smiled while he watched the battle continue. "Senorita your concern is noted but matters of the heart are out of my jurisdiction."
"Indeed." Victoria huffed heatedly, then scanned the pueblo rooftops for a sign of hope. With a disappointed sigh she moaned, "Oh where is Zorro when we need him?"
"I don't think that even he would know what to do about this," Diego mused with a feigned little smile. It seemed that his lady love was disappointed in both his personas today. He was not having a good day.
Finally having had enough of watching the twins battle, Victoria set her jaw as the disappointment turned to anger. "Fine then if no one will help, I will stop it myself."
With that, she started for the heart of the fight.
Concern for Victoria's safety prompted Diego into action.
"Victoria wait," he followed after her and caught her by the arm to pull her back with a heavy sigh. "You stay here and I'll see what I can do."
She smiled at him, it was sweet and it made him feel better. He could show her that Diego de la Vega was just as worthy of her love as Zorro. But then that would be the end of Zorro and that was someone that the Los Angeles pueblo could not do without. He could not do too much that might give him away. Diego gave her a small look of uncertainty before turning to face the squabbling pair in the center of the pueblo. He straightened his pristine bolero jacket, squared his broad shoulders and walked with purpose into the center of the fray. Probably not the smartest thing Diego ever did, for the next blow that was thrown from Sancho hit him squarely on his left cheek. The force of the blow sent him around to face Pablo who's on coming fist struck him in the same spot. Diego was sent gracelessly to the ground, where he landed painfully on his backside.
For a moment his head spun, he was unused to being struck so hard, not once but twice. This small embarrassment not only hurt but it also helped to keep up his image of being a person of low tolerance to physical confrontation.
"OOooOOoo!" Victoria winced and then felt an immediate twinge of guilt for her friend. He was not a fighter. Nowhere near as gallant and strong as her beloved Zorro. Again, she scanned the rooftops for him. But he wasn't there. Where was he?
Diego briskly shook the buzzing from his head and then got rapidly to his feet. He was not in any mood to let this continue. His cheek hurt and his pride had just suffered another public blow. He grabbed Sancho's wrist as he let fly with his next attack on his brother. Sancho's heated glare instantly fell on him.
"Let me go Diego!"
Victoria's attention snapped sharply back to her good friend as he intervened. She saw once more the man Diego had proven himself to be in Santa Paula. He stood taller than she had ever seen him stand before. For a moment she was surprised and then the surprise turned to impressed as she watched with the others of the pueblo while Don Diego took care of the squabbling twins.
"I said let go of me!" Sancho shouted in anger.
Diego did not, but twisted his wrist down until the enraged young man was bending down to alleviate the pain in his arm. "You will stop this nonsense at once and calm down," Diego said firmly, the look in his blue eyes burning into the younger man.
"I will not! Pablo stole her from me. Rosa is mine!" Sancho bitterly shot back.
"It takes eight pounds of pressure to break a bone and I'd say that right now I've got about seven and a half on your wrist," Diego informed him calmly.
Sancho stopped struggling and calmed down as pain shot up his arm. Pablo started to throw another fist at his twin when he met Diego's stern displeasure and froze. Diego shook his head and the older of the twins backed down at once.
The fight was over but Sancho's temper still had a firm hold on him. He glared at his brother as Rosa rushed out into his arms. She threw her arms around Pablo's neck and kissed his cheek. "But she's mine! I won her!"
"No woman is a prize to be won, Sancho," Diego said in a calmer tone. He eased his hold but did not let go of the angry twin.
Pablo looked back at his brother with sad remorse in his eyes. "I'm sorry brother, but she doesn't love you."
"She does too! You stole her from me! "
Diego inserted his large frame between the twins, turning Sancho away from his brother and met his heated glare. "I can see that your temper needs time to cool down," Without looking at de Soto he called to him, "Alcalde, I have been assaulted and I want to press charges against the Ramirez twins."
"Lancers, take these two hot heads to their new home for the night," de Soto barked, impressed that meek Diego would press charges against anyone let alone get in the middle of a love triangle gone wrong. The smile on his face would remain there all day as he would replay the moment when the young Don had been struck twice and sent to the ground. This was turning into one of the best days he had had in a long time in the pueblo. "I will take care of their charges when I've finished my lunch. Senorita Escalante if you please, I'd like a little more wine."
Victoria did not answer him but stood staring in disbelief at Diego. Her heart was, to her very great surprise, pounding in her chest with excitement. Diego had stopped the fight but not the way she had expected him to. He didn't use words he used force but not an over powering force. It was a move more worthy of. . . Zorro?
She had seen her masked love use that move and those words once before. There was an element of intrigue to Diego that she had not seen before until now. Was it possible that he could be. . . ?
"Senorita Escalante more wine if you please!" de Soto's impatient bark broke her from her reverie.
"Si Alcalde."
She went to his table to refill his glass as he retook his seat. All the while Victoria watched Diego from the corner of her eye as he released Sancho to the Alcalde's Lancers.
With a mild annoyance Diego held his burning left cheek. He turned to Rosa as the young woman implored him not to press charges for either brother.
"Please Don Diego, don't let the Alcalde take them. The fight was all my fault. I am sorry I will gladly take their place instead. Only please, please let them go first."
Diego looked down at her with a gentle assurance. "Senorita Santiago, I won't press charges. I just couldn't think of any other way to stop them from killing each other."
"Oh gracias, Senor. Mucho gusto," she sighed, greatly relieved.
"You're welcome, sweet one," Diego smiled gently, now rubbing his reddened cheek. "They need some time apart and you need time to think."
"But, I already made up my mind. Pablo is the one I love. He is the one I want to marry," she insisted.
"Well in that case, I am willing to help you but only if you really want it and only if Pablo agree's to it."
Rosa's happily relieved smile broadened. "Ahh Si Senor, please. I will do anything."
"Give me some time to think out the details and then come see me at the tavern tomorrow."
"Gracias Senor." Rosa stood on her tiptoes and kissed his uninjured cheek in gratitude and then turned and left.
Diego straightened, his mood still somewhat annoyed. His cheek was on fire. A stinging pain made him frown. Zorro would not have been hit so badly. He hoped as he returned to the tavern's porch that he would not develop a bruise from this incident or Zorro would have to stay out of sight until the bruise healed.
Felipe pushed his way through the crowd and went to Diego's side and signed a worried inquiry.
Diego nodded and discreetly brushed off the mute boys concern. "Yes Felipe, I'm all right."
He paused as the crowd began to dissipate and return to what they had been doing before the fight broke out. Inconspicuously, Diego pulled the boy aside and in a quiet voice asked, "How bad does it look?"
The pained expression in the boy's eyes said it all as Diego lowered his hand from his cheek.
"That bad huh?"
Felipe sympathetically nodded and then moved his hand in front of his face and pointed at the bruise.
Diego gave a tired, mildly irritated shrug.
"I'll have to look at it in a mirror first before I know for sure whether Zorro is going to have to continue to lay low--"
Felipe's sudden widened expression alerted Diego to the approach of someone from behind. He turned and came face to face with the very pleased Ignacio de Soto.
"Alcalde, can I help you with something."
"Ooo, Diego that cheek looks bad," de Soto cooed with feigned sympathy. "You should really put something on it before your face swells to the size of a watermelon."
"Thank you Ignacio," Diego said dryly, "I'll do that."
"I must say Diego, you surprised me today. Too think that you would risk your strutting peacock good looks and willingly put yourself in danger. How very brave of you," de Soto cooed with barely repressed delight. "I was very impressed with how you stopped that fight. . . using your face. That's one I must have Sargent Mendoza teach the Lancers. Who knows? That move might even help us finally catch Zorro himself."
The frown on Diego's face deepened. An angry heat touched his handsome features and made his right cheek almost match the left one in color. "Very amusing Alcalde," he brooded flatly. His day was just improving by the minute. As if the public humiliation wasn't enough, he now had to put up with this from his old school mate. Diego mastered the urge to strike the delighted smirk off his face and gave a very short, mildly respectable bow and excused himself.
"Yes of course, forgive me for stopping you," de Soto moved aside to let the irritated caballero pass and then leaned in a bit when he did to offer his advice. "I'm told that raw beef does wonders for an injury like that."
Diego paused in the open doorway and met his smirking mirth with a dry look. The drive to strike the man was stronger than it had been in a long time, if only he was there as Zorro he would not hesitate to give in to that urge.
"Yes, I'm sure you would know that quite well, wouldn't you Ignacio. Zorro does so like to hit you," Diego returned quite easily. It was his turn to smirk with delight, though he hid it well as the Alcalde's smile slid into a frown.
De Soto stood for a moment completely flabbergasted at his snappy comeback. Then his mind jumped back into motion and he opened his mouth to respond but Diego cut him off with a rare very serious warning.
"Now is not the time to upset me Senor, now if you will excuse me I'd like to go examine the damage to my face."
Victoria, who had been cleaning up a nearby table discreetly listening to them, straightened. She smiled to herself when the Alcalde returned to his table in a new mood. She followed after Diego and entered the tavern. It was once again busy with customers. She nodded at one when he asked her for a drink.
"In a moment Senor." Victoria did not see Diego anywhere inside the tavern. She saw him go through the door but where was he? In mild exasperation she put her hands on her hips. How could someone so tall just vanish from plain sight?
Zorro was always doing that. It was something that was a great source of annoyance about her masked love. He was always disappearing just as she turned her back or vanishing into a crowd of people before she could say more than a few words to him. In the past month she had only seen Zorro twice.
She was concerned for him, for his well being. His last encounter with the alcalde's lancer's had not gone smoothly for him. A lucky shot from a young Private had grazed his right side as he retreated after thwarting another of Ignacio's plans to catch him. She barely got a kiss for sewing up his injury before he disappeared into the night.
Disappearing. . . Zorro did it all too well and now her dear friend, Diego, had done the same thing right after being injured. A small momentary suspicious grin touched the corner of her pretty mouth. It was not the first time that she suspected Diego. Still, every time the thought crossed her mind she dismissed it. Sure the handsome caballero was as tall as Zorro, when he didn't slouch and stood at his full height. He had a mustache like Zorro and his eyes. . . As long as Victoria had known Diego she had never really paid much attention to his eyes. She knew they were blue, but were they the same blue as Zorro's?
The thought was pushed from her mind when she saw Felipe at the far end of the tavern. He was looking at someone that was standing off to the side in the shadows and guessed that it was Diego. Concern for her friend took all thoughts of Zorro from her mind for the moment. She walked towards them and then took pause when Diego looked up at her approach.
His face was partially covered by the shadow of the second floor, which fell across his nose and eyes like a mask. Diego saw the look of surprise flash in her eyes and covered his injured cheek while he ducked completely back into the shadow as though ashamed of the injury. He took a seat in the shadows, his back to the wall so he could see the whole of the tavern. His mood was not improving. He was starting to make little mistakes and he was certain Victoria had seen every single one of them.
Victoria came forward with a quizzical look. "Let me see your cheek Diego."
"It's not as bad as it looks Victoria, I'll live," he said brushing off her concern with casual ease.
"Now Diego don't be difficult," she said coming forward to inspect his injury. "I am responsible for you getting this after all."
Diego knew better than to argue with her. He let her pull his hand away from his face and kept his eyes focused on the floor. To his surprise she did not gasp or say anything that might give away her suspicions. Instead, she straightened and turned to walk towards the kitchen. Felipe looked back at Diego with a confused shrug and signed a silent inquiry.
"I don't know what she's doing," replied Diego, looking back to watch Victoria disappear behind the curtains to the kitchen. He wondered as he spoke to his young friend, "I don't think it was a good idea coming into the pueblo today Felipe."
The mute gave the caballero a hard look and signed his disapproval. "I know, I know, and I'm sorry I didn't listen to your advice my friend. But I couldn't help myself. I wanted to see her again, if not as Zorro than as myself."
Felipe made a quieting gesture with his hand and then innocently waved at a passerby on their way to the bar. The mute then turned back to his young Master with concern as he informed him that he did not look good and warned him again against over exertion that might open Zorro's stitches.
The growing pain in Diego's right side could no longer be ignored. He held his side and winced some at the pain his own careful touch caused.
"Actually, Felipe I think I did tear a couple of them," Diego grudgingly admitted.
Felipe instantly began gesturing to Diego's bolero jacket.
"No Felipe," Diego panted, his pain more obvious. The strain it took to not appear injured was causing a sheen of perspiration to form on his face, "it's too risky to look at it now."
The boy then worriedly signed an insistent plea to leave. He frowned when his Master shook his head.
"No, I can't ride back to the hacienda right now."
Diego closed his eyes, he was feeling a bit lightheaded and was now not happy with himself for tearing Victoria's careful stitches. In his eagerness to see his secret love, he had made himself vulnerable. Now Zorro would have to stay away from the pueblo for a lot longer than Diego wanted him too. There would be no secret rendezvous with his lady love, no chance to steal a kiss and taste the passion of her sweet lips. He inwardly cursed himself and then straightened at once as though he was fine when he heard his hearts desire's sweet, concerned voice.
"Diego are you sure you weren't hurt somewhere else as well?" Victoria asked as she reappeared holding a plate with a cut of her best beef.
"The only thing that was injured outside of my face was my pride," he insisted, feigning a sheepish smile.
Victoria set the plate down and once again pulled his hand away to look at his cheek. "Well, I am very sorry about that."
"Who ordered that?" Diego asked her, looking at the raw meat sitting on the plate.
"I did," she answered and then picked it up with an instruction for him. "Now sit back, close your eye and hold this to your cheek."
His heart sank, if Ignacio walked in and saw him holding a slab of raw meat to his face he would hear no end of it. In his ever growing bad mood, Diego decided that he was not willing to suffer with more blows to his already injured ego.
He opened his mouth to protest but Victoria stopped him. He stared at her when she boldly pressed two delicate fingers to his lips. "No complaints from you. Unless, of course, you don't mind having your cheek swell up to the size of a watermelon."
So she had been listening to his short exchange with the Alcalde. He wondered how much of it she had actually heard and if she had figured him out. He knew she was not a simple minded woman, it was because of her intelligence that he had to keep coming up with new ways to fool her into thinking that he was not Zorro. Still, a part of him was proud that his love had a sharp mind, no matter how much it made his life as the defender of the people difficult.
He smiled at her and then pulled a pained expression. Smiling hurt his cheek too much. He gave a small groan when Victoria carefully placed the raw meat over the left side of his face.
With an almost sad sigh, she made an observation that surprised Diego and made his heart work faster with a shimmer of hope for himself.
"It's a shame to cover up such a handsome face."
He was struck speechless by her surprising observation.
She gave him a sweet little smile, "You rest easy and don't worry about anything. I'll take care of you."
He turned his head away to the right and leaned it against the wall after he noticed her studying his face a little too closely. A feeling of exposure washed over him when she turned his face back to her. He avoided her eyes and was grateful for Felipe's distracting interruption. The boy tapped Victoria on the shoulder to gain her attention and pointed out a new customer waiting at the bar.
"Gracias, Felipe," she said and then left to take care of her customers.
Diego looked up at the mute with his grateful thanks and then again declined his insistent signing to leave. "I appreciated your concern Felipe but really I don't think I can make it all the way back to the hacienda on horseback."
Felipe folded his arms and gave him the most incredulous look, a clear sign that he did not for one minute believe his excuse. After a long moment, in which Diego sat trying to look innocent, the boy gave him a hard study. Finally, he unfolded his arms and signed his opinion on the matter.
Diego actually blushed at his young friend's charge of, I think you want her to find out that you're Zorro.
Felipe was not easy to fool, especially not when he knew where his Master's heart lay. His bold insistence was new, it was not something that a normal servant would do. But then Felipe was no normal servant. He shared in his secret and even helped him perpetuate the Zorro myth. When things looked bad for either Diego or Zorro, Felipe was always there to help him out just as he was now. Still, Diego would not concede to his serious charge.
"No, I don't want her to figure it out," he assured, though somewhere in the back of his mind he hoped that Victoria would one day discover his secret on her own. Still another part of him worried what she might do to him if she did. Felipe, Diego knew, understood the dilemma he was facing. His heart's desire to be around Victoria was making him reckless. He was taking too many chances just to see her as Zorro so he could hold her in his arms if only for a short while. It was this new recklessness that had lured Zorro to the pueblo and gotten him shot. At last, though he didn't want to, he recognized his reckless behavior and agreed with his young friend.
Diego gave a somewhat sad little nod.
"Si Felipe, I'll leave. But I can not ride on horseback. Take Esperanza home and come back with a cart."
With a very relieved smile, Felipe nodded.
Diego watched him depart the tavern with a sad expression, still holding the slab of meat to his injured cheek. He gave a great sigh. He did not want to leave. His eye shifted to the bar when he felt another's gaze on him and met Victoria's curious study. She blushed slightly and let a customer draw her attention away. With a even greater sigh, Diego sat back, closed his eye and wrestled with his own thoughts.
In no time at all he felt the fatigue of his injuries carry him away into a light sleep. The rest of the afternoon wore on around him and he did not move from his spot. Once or twice Victoria came by to ask how he was doing and remind him to turn the meat over to the cooler side.
"I brought you some juice in case you get thirsty."
With a drowsy gracias he thanked her and then fell back into a light sleep.
Victoria studied him with concern. He was holding the tender raw meat to his tender left cheek and eye and also holding his right side as though it was hurt as well. Curiosity took hold of the pretty senorita's sharp mind and she wondered.
The moment that her hand touched his on his side, Diego started awake with a small hiss of pain he not could hide.
"Diego maybe you should go up stairs and lay down in one of my empty rooms," Victoria suggested with true concern.
"No that's all right Victoria I'm fine where I am. Besides Felipe should be back soon with the cart."
"Why did he leave to get a cart?" She asked curiously.
Though it pained him at this moment to play up the part of a nonphysical person, he gave a convincing shameful shrug and begrudgingly explained. "I'm afraid that the second punch from Pablo has left my head a little worse for wear and I didn't want to take the chance that I might fall off my horse as a result."
"Oh does it still hurt?" Victoria asked.
It was the tender concern in her eyes that made him ignore the warning bells going off in his head. He couldn't help himself, he wanted to take her in his arms and hold her close. If he could not do that as Zorro he could at least enjoy the pampering that she was giving him as himself.
"Si, my head is pounding."
She felt his forehead and he inwardly relished the feel of her warm, caring touch. He closed his eye when her hand slid gradually over it and then paused. A small smile hid in the corner of Diego's mouth. Her light caress was very stimulating.
Victoria's hand held still over his closed eye. She stared at her long time friend with a growing suspicion that she needed to confirm. Slowly, almost fearfully she spread her fingers as though they were a mask covering Diego's face. She barely repressed her flash of awareness when he opened his eye to look at her. Quickly, she drew her hand back and nodded in small agreement.
"Your head does feel warm. Perhaps you should stay here tonight Diego," she suggested as she casually glanced around at her remaining customers. "I'm going to have to close down for the night soon. It's getting late and by the time that Felipe gets back here with a cart it will be very dark. There may be bandits out and who knows if Zorro will come to your aid."
With mild disappointment Diego frowned, "Why wouldn't Zorro come to my aid?"
She shook her head, then lowered it, looking forlornly down at the the tavern floor.
"Victoria what's wrong?"
"Oh it's nothing," she said in a falsely pleasant voice.
Diego didn't have to ask, he could guess what was bothering her. Zorro had been shot and she had not see him since then. It was only natural that she would be worried about him.
"Did something happen between you and Zorro?"
The sincerity of his question made her begin to doubt her suspicions again. She sat down on the bench next to him with a sigh. "I didn't tell you this, but he was shot the last time he came to see me."
Diego heard the very real worry in her voice and felt suddenly very small for causing her pain. "Was it bad?" He probed as though concerned himself.
"It was bad enough that he was shot," she said somewhat remorsefully. With a small sniff she explained how a lancer's bullet had hit her love.
Diego listened as she told him how he, Zorro, had staggered, bleeding, into her bedroom through her window and collapsed on her bed barely conscious. He listened as though this was something that he had never heard before and finally commented when she finished her tale of stitching up her masked love's injury.
"So Zorro wasn't really shot, only grazed?"
"Si," she nodded looking down at the towel in her hands. "I haven't seen him since. So I don't know if he is all right or not."
Diego placed a friendly sympathetic hand on her delicate bare shoulder. "I wouldn't worry too much about Zorro. You sewed up his injury and took care of him," he said with a tenderness that gave Victoria another pause. She looked at him and he gave her a mildly pained and sheepish grin, "He's not as vulnerable as me. I'm sure he's fine. He probably wanted to stay away until his injury was fully healed before coming to see you again."
Victoria took in the sight of him holding the raw meat to the side of his handsome face and couldn't help but smile if only a little. He certainly appeared very vulnerable. Diego was a complete contrast to her masked love. If he was Zorro, than he went to great shows of vulnerability to convince those around that he was not.
A new thought jumped into her mind. Diego loved reading, she often heard him trying to explain to his father the workings of Shakespeare and other great play writes. If he was interested in reading plays then perhaps he was interested in acting. . .
"Senorita Escalante, more wine!"
Victoria frowned and glanced back at the bar at her last patron of the evening. He had interrupted her just as she was coming to an important thought on her dear friend.
The man, slightly intoxicated, pounded the countertop with an insistent call for service.
"Coming Don Roberto," she sighed and then dismissed herself from Diego's side.
He watched after her, then his gaze shifted to the inebriated caballero, who's eyes followed the petite senorita much too closely. Diego lowered the raw meat from his face and placed it on it's plate as he sat up attentively. He did not care for the way Victoria's last customer was leering at her as she leaned across the bar to fetch a wine bottle on the other side.
"Here you go," said Victoria filling his glass only half way. "This is the last one for you, before I close for the night."
"Aww, come on pretty Senorita," Roberto cooed and then he boldly put his arm around Victoria's small waist and pulled her to him.
Diego got to his feet in an instant, even as Victoria dealt with her drunk customer.
"Senor, what has come over you? Let me go and get out!"
"I don't want to leave just yet. Make de la Vega leave. I have something I want to ask you. I've been wanting to ask you all day."
Victoria pushed out of his hold and back away with a hard declaration. "You've been drinking all day too. Whatever you want to ask can wait until you've sobered up."
"I'm not leaving." Roberto declared then moved towards her. He was more than a little surprised when Diego inserted himself between them. The drunk caballero's dark eyes narrowed dangerously as he met the injured de la Vega's stern gaze with a hard order, "Get out of the way de la Vega."
"The Lady asked you to leave, I suggest you do it," Diego warned, his deliberate tone unmistakable.
Worried for his further injury Victoria interceded, "Diego it's all right, I don't--"
"No Victoria it's not all right," he interrupted with a cutting edge to his voice that she instantly recognized. "I'm not going to stand by and watch someone treat you so poorly."
He glared at Don Roberto, who was obviously not intimidated by his protective move.
Zorro ventured out, "Apologize to her now," he growled.
Roberto laughed with gleeful sarcasm, "What is meek de la Vega going to do if I don't?"
Diego was at his limit, his ego had been bruised far too much today for him to stand another shot at it. "Do not push me Senor," he warned taking a hold of Roberto's bolero jacket.
"Diego, Don Roberto stop this. I have to close up the tavern," Victoria said trying to defuse the situation.
Neither man heard her.
Don Roberto's sarcastic smirk fell away from his face. "Senor you have one moment to remove your hand."
"Apologize," Diego said again.
For the third time in a day Diego de la Vega felt the pain of being struck by a hard unexpected blow. He stumbled back, away from the bar, and then dropped to his knees holding his hidden stitches. The pain of Roberto's punch was like white hot knives digging into his side. Diego heard Victoria cry out his name in alarming concern. She was at his side in an instant stooping down to check on him. He could not answer her worried inquiries.
Victoria's attention snapped back to Roberto when he threw out a mocking comment with a cool laugh.
"De la Vega, stick to your books, because you make a very poor hero."
"Get out of my tavern Don Roberto, this instant!" Victoria angrily demanded.
Roberto's face dropped once again as his focus fell on her. Victoria had seen that look in men's eyes before and knew what he was thinking. She stood at once and grabbed the wine bottle. Corking it quickly she brandished it like a weapon and then once again sharply order the man out of her tavern. She took a step back as he advanced towards her with a desirous intent flashing in his drunken gaze.
Diego saw Roberto's legs start to walk past him and reacted as only Zorro would to protect the woman he loved. The pain of his torn stitches was momentarily overshadowed as he grabbed the man's ankle and pulled him off his feet.
Roberto landed hard on his back. To Diego's consternation he rose back up rather quickly, throwing another punch at him. The injured caballero seized his wrist and slammed it to the floor, off balancing Roberto and then he pulled his own fist back and ended the brief brawl with one strong blow to the drunken man's jaw.
Roberto lay sprawled out on the tavern floor unconscious.
Diego grabbed his side and swayed forward as the pain of his injury reawakened with even more fire. He caught himself and leaned against his hand, his eyes streaming uncontrollably. He didn't know how long he sat on the floor like that, breathing in great gasps. He was only barely aware of Victoria stooping next to him again. She was speaking to him but he couldn't make out what she was saying. His mind was centered on one thought.
Don't pass out or she'll know.
"Come on Diego hold on to me, I'll help you up," Victoria insisted.
Diego didn't know how she managed it, but somehow she had gotten him to his feet. He was aware of her directing him back to his bench. With a graceless stumble he sat back down and leaned against the wall. He held his eyes closed, breathing in slow deep intervals to keep himself from passing out. He registered a gentle hand wiping the dampness away from his closed lids. His eyes shot open when he felt the tug on his vest. Victoria was pulling open the buttons. How he managed to hold onto his false sense of propriety around her was another testament to how much he wanted to protect her from knowing Zorro's identity.
"Victoria I'm all right, he just knocked the wind out of me," he breathed, stopping her hands.
"Diego you are not fine," she insisted somewhat shortly. "You're white as a ghost, now let me look at your side."
Diego recoiled from her caring touch and held his vest closed as he sat up straight with an insistent, "Please Senorita, a man can only stand so much injury to his pride in one day."
Victoria sat back, he had suffered quite a lot on her behalf today. She relented to his wounded pride and rose.
"I'll be right back Diego," she said turning away.
"Where are you going?"
"To get Sergeant Mendoza so he can have his lancers remove Don Roberto from my tavern," she answered. "I think he will see the error in drinking to much once he wakes up in the Alcalde's jail."
With that she turned on her heel and departed the tavern. The moment she was gone Diego fell against the wall and winced in painful agony. He brushed aside his vest and was not surprised to see the blood on his white shirt. With a pained breath he got up and went to the bar for Victoria's small hand towel.
"I'm sorry, my love, but I think I need this more than you do right now," he said as he took and folded the towel over twice. Carefully, he opened his shirt and placed the towel over his bleeding side and then re-buttoned his shirt and then his vest. It was a tight fit but at least it would keep the blood from soaking through his clothing. He hobbled to the closest bench and sat down again when he heard Victoria returning with Sergeant Mendoza and several Lancers.
"Don Diego are you all right?" the Sergeant asked with true concern.
"Uh yes, Sergeant, just got the wind knocked out of me, but I'm fine now," Diego assured with a small smile.
"Madre de dios, Don Diego, today is just not your day," Mendoza said shaking his head.
You're telling me, Diego inwardly mused as the Sergeant then looked down at the drunken Roberto sprawled out on the tavern floor.
"Get this man out of here," The Sergeant ordered in disgust. He then eyed Diego and Victoria, "Do you two want to press charges against him?"
Victoria met Diego's now composed glance and nodded in understanding. He was going to leave the decision up to her. She turned back to the waiting Sergeant. "No. He can just sleep off his drunkenness in the jail for a few days and then you can let him go."
"Si, Senorita."
With that the Lancers dragged Roberto's unconscious form out with Mendoza following after them. Victoria followed them to the door, then closed and locked it behind them. She and Diego were left alone. For a moment she stood with her hands on the doorknob, her sharp mind working frantically fast. Something was out of place in her heart, which was now beating a wild tattoo inside her chest.
Diego was on her mind, taking up a place right next to Zorro's in her heart. He defended her, but then he had done that before and she had felt nothing but grateful thanks. Why was this time different? The only answer that came to her was almost as frightening as the possibility that she could be wrong yet again. How she wished that Zorro would appear and crush her suspicious doubt. As if on cue she heard his familiar voice.
"Are you all right Victoria?"
She was barely aware of the tremble that had captured her whole being when she turned and saw not Zorro but Diego watching her with concern. She stared at him. Madre de dios, but he was handsome, even with his face marred by his injury. How could she have not seen it before? Zorro/Diego never really in the same place at the same time. Still, for that shocking awareness there was a shred of doubt in her mind.
"Victoria?"
It was the suspicion in his cautious voice that helped her regain herself. She gave him a small shy smile and nodded.
"Si, Diego," she answered sweetly. "Thank you for coming to my rescue."
Diego smiled an all too familiar smile that belonged to her masked love. His soft, you're welcome, touched her heart and made her pulse run and her palms to begin to sweat. Her mouth went dry with a sudden desire for her long time friend. Like a wild fire, her mind suddenly remembered something that her masked love had said to her not long after she was shot.
You should have a husband, someone like Diego perhaps.
Her suspicion was all but gone. She gazed a her long time friend and the dryness in her mouth ebbed away. He was sitting on the bench holding his right side, the very spot where only three weeks earlier Zorro had been shot. Now she understood why he would not let her see his injury. Her pulse still raced, not with nervous anxiety, but with a rising heat of the irritation she now felt. Zorro had so easily suggested that she marry Diego because he was Diego.
Diego sat watching a mixture of emotion run across Victoria's face as she stared at him. It was her narrowing gaze sharply focusing on him that made him nervous. Realizing that he was hunching over slightly, still cradling his hidden injury, he straightened and acted as though he was perfectly recovered from Don Roberto's punch. With a reserved expression he ignored the throbbing in his side and sat feeling the injuries to his face.
"Do you have a mirror I could use to assess the damages?" He asked, over doing the vain quality in his voice to mollify any suspicions she might have.
Victoria nodded and instantly crossed the tavern floor to go through the curtains of her kitchen and fetch the small looking glass she kept on a shelf in there. She picked it up and then paused when she saw her flushed reflection in it. She was speechless, the epiphany she had about Diego had made her lose the use of her voice. With a hopeful, almost sad look, she shifted the mirror to glance over her shoulder at the back door, hoping against hope that she would find Zorro standing there, smiling at her in the candle light.
She frowned when she saw, by the light of the undisturbed candle lights, only the closed back door. With a small calming breath, she leaned ever so slightly to the side, just enough to see Diego through the thin break in the kitchen curtains. She watched him for a long moment in uncertainty, with that hateful shred of doubt nagging at her brain. Zorro would not have let himself be struck by any foe. Still, sweet, sensitive Diego had reacted with the heart of her hero and protected her from an assault as only Zorro would have.
For the first time Victoria started listing off the similarities between her best friend and her masked love in her sharp mind. Something that she had never really done before. There was their height, they were both tall men. In fact, Diego was the tallest man in all of the pueblo next to Zorro. They both had a mustache and blue eyes and long legs and the list went on until she was fuming. Not at her masked loves deception but at herself for not seeing it before. How could she let herself be so carried away by Zorro to miss that he was standing right in front of her all these years as Diego. Zorro had arrived in the Los Angeles pueblo not long after Diego had returned from Madrid. And hadn't Don Alejandoro, Diego's own father, once shown up in the pueblo wearing Zorro's outfit? Where did he get Zorro's clothes if not from Zorro himself? And how is it that Diego disappeared and Zorro appeared whenever she was in trouble. Except tonight. Her virtue was in danger and it was Diego not Zorro, who was conspicuously absent, that had to save her. Yet for all of these telling signs there was still that tiny bit of doubt.
Her eyes narrowed as she watched Diego lean over and hold his right side as though in pain. He was Zorro, she was certain of it just as she was certain that he was rubbing at the stitches she had sewed his side up with three weeks earlier. They where torn, she just knew it. Though if Diego was Zorro, and he had torn his stitches then why was he not bleeding? This was what made her hold onto her last bit of doubt.
How could she be sure, how could she find out without going out and accusing her friend? There was only one way. She would offer him a reward for his help today. With that she squared her shoulders, took a resolute breath, and reemerged from behind the curtains. Victoria barely contained a mildly amused smile when Diego, seeing her again, straightened as though he was fine. He was very convincing, still she caught his hidden wince.
"Here you go Diego," she said sweetly, handing him the small mirror.
"Gracias."
Diego sighed with disapproval at his bruised reflection.
Victoria made a convincing show of not paying him too much mind as she moved away to begin straightening up the tavern for the evening. She began inconspicuously watching Diego and soon began recognizing the little things that he unknowingly did the same as Zorro. His movements, how he looked with a more serious examination at his reflection as though to decide whether he would be able to hide the black eye and small cut on his upper cheek under the legend's mask. Everything about him screamed out that she was not wrong.
She set her broom aside and gathered up a new clean cloth, for the one she had left on the counter was now missing. With a breath she took up a bottle of her best whiskey, then turned and approached Diego. The nervous way he looked up at her was yet another sign, as clear as the mark he left on his enemies. Now was the time to take that final step and find out without a shred of doubt that she was right. She lifted his strong chin and Diego met her soft brown eyes with an all too familiar look.
His expression dropped into a look of sheepish regret as he lowered his eyes from her casual examination. Victoria gently turned his face to the light on the pretense of getting a better look at his injury, instead of memorizing it for when Zorro made his inevitable reappearance in her life. The swelling of his cheek was held to a minimum by the beef she insisted that he hold over it and the unmistakable scent of raw meat lingered on his skin. She pulled the stopper from the whisky bottle and poured a small amount of the liquid onto the cloth and then with another apology for his injuries she gently dabbed at the small cut on his cheek.
Diego flinched away from her careful touch and Victoria sympathetically winced. The injured caballero sat helpfully still after that while she tended to his wounds. Try as Diego might to keep his eyes from watching her, his close proximity to her made it difficult. He found that he was following her every graceful move. She leaned in close and the sweet fragrance of her hair filled his nose, igniting the embers of his desire for her. She was, after all, the reason he had come into the pueblo today, when he should have stayed in bed recovering from Zorro's bullet grazing wound.
Oh, the way her gentle presence heated his blood. He never had such a strong urge to take her in his arms and kiss her. He leaned back a little when she moved in close to reach past him for the whisky bottle again. Oh the torture. He was dying. How could he be this close to his love and not follow the urge to take her in his arms. His mind thought of that, how easily he could end his suffering in just one move. It was the small grin that twitched in the corner of Victoria's pretty mouth that set loose the terrible, wonderful butterflies in his heart. He was entranced by her, if only she would look at him and see his feelings for her in his impassioned gaze.
His heart almost leapt from his chest when she straightened and then paused, her lips were so close to his. They bent into a small smile as she moved back and his lips followed hers wanting to do nothing more than to sample her sweet kiss. He winced away from them when a sharp stinging pain woke his dreamily entranced mind.
He shifted on his bench to alleviate the sudden tightness in his trousers. Though, the sting of the whiskey had brought his mind back to the here and now it did nothing to quell his arousal of body and spirit. He never wanted someone so badly in his life.
Victoria smiled once again to herself, she had him right where she wanted him for a change. Now, she softly flashed her eyes at him with her simple heartfelt gratitude.
"You know, Diego. I really feel that I should thank you. Not just for tonight, but for every time you've stood up for me."
Diego shook his head. "No thanks is necessary, Victoria. I simply did what any gentleman would do."
The gentle yet serious tone of his voice was that of her masked love. It was so much more tender and earnest than that of Diego's normal voice.
Her lips broke into a brief smile that innocently slipped away as she insisted. "No Diego you deserve something, a reward for coming to my rescue."
He sighed, trying to keep control of the situation, of himself. "You can cook me dinner then, if you like."
Victoria sighed as though she hadn't heard him while she closely examined the cut on his cheek. "I think that this cut may need stitching."
It worked. He was thrown off as he disagreed with her assessment. She smiled again and then purposely met his gaze. The desire that she had seen so many times in Zorro's clear blue eyes was once again reflected in his. Her voice dropped to a soft seductive whisper as she tried again to lure her masked love out.
"Isn't there anything you want, anything you must have?"
Her innocent question sparked a recollection of the first time she had asked it. Diego found it just as hard to resist it now as it had been then. Tormented and frustrated, he sighed.
"What I want is currently unattainable," he said quietly, lowering his chin.
With a sweet, inviting smile she raised his chin back up and met his gaze. "Nothing is unattainable if you want it badly enough."
Diego blinked in surprise at her unspoken invitation. His mind raced over the thought. Was she inviting him to kiss her? It was something that he had wanted to do for a long time, kiss her as himself and not Zorro. The temptation was too much for him to pass up. He rose to his feet and she instinctively took a step backward at his sudden movement.
Victoria saw the look in his eyes. The intent in his blue gaze was unmistakable as he drew closer, backing her into the bar. She place her hand on his chest, a last minute of hesitation. What if she was wrong? Would Zorro forgive her for kissing another? But then as she looked into Diego's tender gaze she came to an understanding that she really wanted him to kiss her, not just to confirm her suspicions but because she truly found that she was very much attracted to him. She did love him. He had always been in her heart. She had only now realized it.
Diego glanced down at her hand and then gently pressed it to his chest in hopes that she would feel his racing heart. Say it, end this charade and tell her who you are, he told himself.
"Victoria," he said with a breathless whisper.
"Yes," she replied hopefully.
". . ." he opened his mouth but nothing came out. No confession of his double life or his true feelings for her. He could not bring himself to give her that dangerous information. Still he could not stop himself from inching closer to the heaven he knew he would only find in her kiss.
What small shred of doubt that was left inside Victoria's mind fell away as he leaned towards her with a sweet, caring expression. She'd seen this look before - in Zorro's eyes. Glorious anticipation captured her heart as he leaned in ever closer to her. She tilted her head back, lifting her slightly parting lips helpfully closer to his. The feel of his warm breath caressing her flesh made her lids droop with dreamy expectation.
Diego leaned her back against the bar a little more. A breath away from true paradise. His whole body was tense and alive with wonderful, terrible desire for the woman he loved. So close and yet. . . He flinched ever so slightly when she lightly rested her hand on his side over his injury in anticipation. She always touched Zorro this way whenever he kissed her and it brought him instantly to his senses.
His eyes shifted past her and saw salvation from his recklessness sitting on the bar. He reached beyond her towards it.
Victoria was captured by a curious pause at this and looked at him. He smiled at her again, but this was not the tender smile of her masked love. No this was the cunning little smirk he gave to his foes just before he slashed a Z in their clothing.
To her very irritated surprise he lifted her hand to his lips and kissed it instead. Something that only proper Diego de la Vega would do - or what Zorro had done countless times in the past. He then turned his interested gaze onto the apple he had taken from the bowl seated very nicely on the bar behind her.
Victoria gave a huff of pure annoyance, which earned her an innocent look from Diego.
He took a bite from the fruit to hide his amusement. He did so love her fiery spirit, which he knew he was about to experience first hand because of this last minute saving move. "Is something wrong?" He inquired innocently enough.
"Is something wrong? " She repeated incredulously, unable to mask her irritation with him. She straightened as he wisely moved away from her to a respectable distance. Proper Diego was now standing before her. No evidence of Zorro remained in his very convincing quizzical, mildly confused gaze. He was far too good at playing the proper disinterested friend and for that she would make him pay. "That's it?"
"Well, what did you expect from me?" He asked now moving away.
"I expected you to kiss my lips not my hand," she answered automatically.
Diego lifted his brow in a mild show of surprise and then shook his head, "I hardly think that Zorro would approve of his lady kissing someone other than him."
"Oh really?" she replied building up a rapid head of steam. "How very proper, Diego!"
He casually shrugged. "I wouldn't have it any other way."
She whirled away from him in frustration and grasped her broom, leaving him to stare after her in mock bewilderment at her furious attitude while she began re-sweeping the floor.
Diego's lips slid into an amused smile that quickly gave way to a mild frown as he considered yet another lost opportunity. Her disappointment in him yet again made a part of him feel somehow smaller than he had ever felt before. Still a part of him was slightly disappointed that she hadn't figured him out yet. How he still wanted to take her in his arms. Oh the frustration. It was nothing like he had yet experienced. He had to kiss her, he had to feel her lips sweet embrace. A moment of indecision and then he took a step forward calling tenderly to her.
She looked up at him and his attention was then captured by a knocking at the tavern door.
"Yes, Diego?" Victoria said, regaining his focus.
Diego held onto his secret.
"That will be Felipe with the cart," he said walking to the door.
Victoria set her broom aside and began absentmindedly dusting the bar's countertop with a clean rag. Unexpected emotion rushed forward from out of nowhere, making her vision blurry. She didn't want him, Diego, to leave. The sudden fear that she might not see him again was paralyzing. Still she could not stop him from going, anymore than she could stop him from being who he was. All she could do was love him. She did not say good bye to her friend. Her mood had turned too quickly to sorrow to speak more than one word at a time without a show of emotion.
Diego paused in the doorway, looking back at her, she was crying. He was sure of it. He hated himself. He couldn't leave her, knowing that he had made her cry. Still that is exactly what he did. With a final farewell to her he left, closing the door behind him.
"Diego wait. . ."
She turned and moved a few steps to the door before she stopped herself. The pretty senorita stood in silence staring at the door. She wiped away the moisture in her eyes. A slow knowing smile spread across her face. He hadn't kissed her, not because he wasn't interested but because he was protecting his secret. For the eyes can be fooled but the kiss from ones true love could not be masked, not even by the greatest actor.
Victoria heard the cart pull away outside and returned to her nightly clean up routine. It wasn't something that normally took that much time to do, since she ran a fairly clean tavern any ways. It was her preoccupied mind that made her job last as she kept glancing over her shoulder, half expecting to find Zorro standing somewhere behind her. On the seventh time of disappointment she threw her rag down and set her hands on her hips in exasperation.
"Men!"
She thought for sure that after what just happened that she would see her masked love. Horrible doubt began to slowly creep back in again. She shook her head, she knew that she was right. Diego was Zorro.
In an irritated mood she sat on the bench that Diego had last occupied. She stared at the whisky bottle for a long moment in silence, wondering how she was going to deal with this new dilemma she found herself in. Her heart belonged to Zorro, he was brave and strong in mind and spirit. But she was also in love with Diego. He was intelligent and far more cunning than he had let others perceive him to be. Victoria smiled when she thought of the two men, until she realized what she was doing and had to sharply remind herself that Zorro and Diego where the same man.
"Oh my love but you are a clever one," she said calmly to herself. She turned on the bench and faced the table in another preoccupied mood. Absentmindedly, she toyed with the cork stopper in front of her as she slowly contemplated, "How to catch a fox in the chicken coup?"
For a long time she sat mulling over ideas, most of which she rejected. With a small casual sigh she replaced the cork stopper on the whisky bottle. It leaned at a precarious angel. Still in a preoccupied mood she lightly tapped the stopper with her finger. It teetered uneasily in the other direction. Victoria caught it before it fell and in a show of frustration she forcefully set the stopper in the bottle's top. It sank in deep and would not be remove again by hand.
She gave a very annoyed sigh, picked up the small mirror and then walked the whisky bottle back to the counter. Victoria lightly shivered as she passed through a slight cool breeze that came in from the kitchen. In her preoccupied mood, she missed the curtain's small movement as she passed by. She placed the bottle back on it's shelf and then glanced down at the mirror in her hand as she thought to herself once more, How to catch a fox in the chicken coup?
As she gazed at her own reflection the answer came to her, "Why with irresistible bait of course."
With a small smile, she entered the dimly lit kitchen. She automatically replaced the mirror to it's spot and then turned to look at the back door. The two candles on either side of it were out. Victoria placed her hands on her hips in mild annoyance at her preoccupied mind that she's forgotten to light the candles. "Love fries a woman's brain like a crisp tortilla."
The shadows next to her stirred with a smile and a soft chuckle. "It does the same to a man's brain, Querida."
Victoria whirled round to face the voice and was swept off her feet by two strong arms and a mouth who's kiss melted any possible resistance. She returned Zorro's strong embrace with a whimper of delight. Her love was alive and he was with her, taking her breath away. His duality was the furthest thought from her mind. She threw her arms around his neck and drew him closer and thrilled at the feel of his strong arms holding her to his broad chest.
She felt his body shiver excitedly against hers and she trembled with delight. That she had the ability to inspire this kind of reaction from her masked love was exciting to her. Wanting to feel more, she pressed her body against him.
Zorro took a deep excited breath through Victoria's kiss and reacted without thought to her encouragement. His body pressed against hers. Her impassioned lips parted and he could not resist her invitation. The desire he felt explode inside him when his tongue entered her mouth to gently caress hers, was more than thrilling. Before he knew what he was doing, his hands where softly following the contours his love's gentle curves.
The delight in Victoria's breath encouraged him to touch her further. He was losing himself to his desire for her and he was powerless to stop it.
Victoria was held breathless by the passion she felt in his embrace. She wanted to experience more of the delightful butterflies that his exploring hands had released. A small thrilling gasp escaped her as she felt his gentle hand caress up her side, where it came to rest, his palm holding the side of her breast. The heat this simple move set aflame inside Victoria made her throw caution and propriety to the wind. Who knows when she would see him again. She took his hand in hers and moved it over her breast. A chill of anticipating pleasure rushed through her when her masked love responded with a tender caress.
"Dios," Victoria's soft exclamation to the heavens against his lips brought Zorro back to himself. He pulled away from her sweet encouraging mouth and met her aroused gaze. She was his for the taking yet he could not bring himself to touch her further. Nor could he bring himself to remove his hand from it's place of rest.
Victoria stared up into the eyes of her masked love and saw not Zorro but Diego gazing nervously back at her. Knowing who he was, she could not separate the man from the hero. The revelation that she had always loved Diego suddenly clearly hit her heart and she felt a measure of shame for ever having thought ill of him as an ordinary man. For he was far more than what he had let others think of him. No longer would Victoria see him as just the mild-mannered studious caballero that he presented himself as in public.
Her heart jumped into her throat when she realized where her hand held his. Still, though she blushed, she could not bring herself to release him. She wanted him to continue with his tender caress. She did not want him to leave her without feeling his intimate touch.
They stared at each other, breathless, both realizing that something had changed in that split second of abandonment in their desire for one another.
Zorro opened his mouth to apologize for his bold move but she stopped him. She covered his mouth with her delicate fingers.
"Don't apologize." She took a shaky breath and then assured him, "I want the same thing. You are my fiancee."
She never expected to see painful regret rise up in his blue eyes. It was a look she had only ever seen once before when she'd asked him to share his secret with her. But there it was as he set her down and removed his hand out from under hers. She could not see his expression as he turned his face away from the light to look the back door.
She followed his gaze and then had a flash of remembrance. She had lit the candles beside the door when she had retrieved the cut of beef for Diego. Victoria suddenly registered the familiar smell of that same piece of meat lingering about her masked love. Zorro had snuffed the candles to help hide the left side of his face.
His mask must not have concealed all of the bruising on his cheek, she thought to herself. An annoyed shimmer of a grin touched the corner of her mouth and she reached up to gently turn his face back to her and see for herself.
You are a fool, Diego, Zorro bitterly chastised himself and then winced ever so slightly from his love's light touch. He took her hand away from his left cheek much too quickly and covered this move with a small apologetic kiss to the back of her delicate hand.
"I want you more than you'll ever know. . . But not like this. . . Not in a kitchen. . ."
"If not here, then when?" Victoria heard herself asking as though she was someone else.
"When I can remove this mask forever and we can properly be wed," he promised.
"But that day may never come," she said somewhat sadly, "Each time you visit me, I worry that it may be the last time that I will ever see you."
Zorro frowned at the sorrow he heard in her voice. He felt small for making her wait for him. He knew she wanted to have children and he wanted to give them to her. Never more than right at this moment. "My sweet Querida you deserve so much more than this. I promise that one day you will have everything that you desire. . . But right now I must go."
With that, he released and turned from her to depart from this new self-imposed torment.
"Wait!" Victoria stopped him. Without thinking she caught his injured side and he drew in a sharp hiss of pain as he turned to face her. "You're still hurt!" She exclaimed removing her hand at once. It was mildly damp with fresh moisture, which she did not register immediately.
"I'm all right. . . "
"Let me look at the stitches," she insisted.
Zorro drew away from her with a gentle excuse. "I removed the stitches this morning and I'm still a little tender."
He straightened with an impressive show of casual ease. Still, his eyes could not hide the strain it caused him in doing so.
Victoria did not miss it.
"Buenos noches, Querida."
She let him leave thinking that he had fooled her again. Then glanced down at the moisture on her hand. With a deep sigh of annoyance, she walked out of the dim kitchen and went up to her room to retire for the evening and wash her love's blood from her hand. Victoria looked at her reflection in the mirror and smiled at herself, then the smile faded away when she spied the blood on her white blouse where Zorro had pulled her against him. A flash of concern struck her and for a brief moment she thought to saddle a horse and go after him. The stain of his blood was smaller than her palm but still it was evidence that Zorro/Diego was injured far more than he had let on. She reigned in her concern surely he as Zorro had dealt with far worse injuries on his own. If it had been life threatening, he would have let her look at it.
She relaxed some, removed her shirt and placed it in the wash basin and filled it completely with fresh water to soak until morning.
"Oh my clever fox you are going to owe me a new shirt. I'll give you a two day reprieve before I come to collect."
Felipe moved anxiously away from the cart to meet Zorro after he came gingerly around the back alley holding his side. The mute rushed forward to offer assistance to the masked hero. He offered his shoulder to his tall friend.
"Gracias Felipe," Zorro panted and then painfully climbed into the cart. He sat back heavily onto the bench and shook his head, once again chastising himself with a sarcastic comment to the young mute. "This day has gone from bad to worse. I should never have come into the pueblo today."
Felipe did not venture to ask what had transpired between Victoria and him. He only smiled as he climbed onto the cart next to his masked friend. Without so much as a shrug of question the boy reached under the bench and pulled out a blanket stored under it for cool evening outings.
Again, Zorro thanked him as he pulled off his hat and mask. Diego then began removing the black shirt of his heroic persona and stuffed it, along with the hat and mask under the bench. He quickly donned his white shirt and covered up his black clad lap with the blanket. Felipe gently urged the horse into moving and a mild hiss of pain escaped Diego.
He gave a deep sigh of great annoyance. He had never before placed himself in the dangerous situation he had found himself in tonight. For that moment. . .that sweet reckless moment of abandonment had almost cost him too much. He had never wanted something. . . someone, so bad as he had wanted Victoria. And she wanted him just as much. There in lay the danger. He could not keep doing this to his love. She deserved so much more than to continue to wait in uncertainty for him to come visit her. He wanted her, but he wanted her to be happy with a husband and a family of her own. This was something that he knew Zorro could not give her.
There was no choice but one. . . Zorro would have to let her go.
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