Chapter Ten

"And speaking of Maria," Diego said to Manuel, swiftly changing the subject, his voice now emphatic, "You have to tell her... as soon as possible. No; sooner. Not telling her is like..." Diego tried to think of a comparison awful enough, and couldn't. "She will think you don't trust her. Even if you want only to keep her safe, not telling her your identity will explode in your face. I know. The last 25 years are proof." Diego tried hard to ignore his memories of the previous years - reminding himself of the worse days in the last years wouldn't help either him or Manuel at this point. He swallowed hard in order to quietly insist, "If you want a future with her, you must tell her, and tell her now, before things go any further, before they get... out of control."

Diego again recalled how he'd felt about this issue, how he'd originally wanted only to protect Victoria, how he'd tried to do the right thing, and how it had so completely blown a hole right through his heart. He'd almost lost his reason for living by waiting so long to tell her. In fact, he thought he had, for 25 long years. 25 years was a long time to suffer the recriminations he'd heaped on himself for what he now knew had simply been a massive error in judgment on his part. When he'd only wanted to protect, he had instead appeared to distrust what he'd give his life to continue. If he could save Manuel from making the same mistake, he would feel thoroughly satisfied that all his suffering hadn't been completely for naught. "It took Victoria to think that I was dead to..."

"Dead?!" Manuel reared back in astonishment. He clearly hadn't heard about this before now. "Why did she think you were dead?"

That's right - Manuel hadn't heard about the mysterious newspaper that Victoria had received detailing his demise. Suddenly, Diego was just too tired to explain it all again. "Just tell her," he insisted once again. "If you want a ghost of a chance with Maria, she has to know."

"But Father," Manuel objected. "Why..?"

"Promise me." Diego refused to veer off that subject.

Manuel sighed. "I will, if you promise to tell me why..?"

Diego felt too drained for this, too emotional, too raw. He could only find the energy to tell his son, "Because she got a newspaper... when she was in Mexico."

Manuel's forehead wrinkled. "A newspaper?"

How had they gotten on to this topic? Diego felt so tired that even speaking was a challenge now. "One detailing... Zorro's death. One..." He sank to the desk chair that he'd vacated a moment before, and let his voice trail off, completely spent.

"But a newspaper from who?" Manuel asked, determined to clear up the mystery.

"From whom," Diego automatically corrected as he shook his head. "We don't know, and it's not important. Just promise to tell Maria."

But Manuel didn't look capable of remembering anything he promised. His eyes had glazed over in thought, his face gone slack in concentration. His attention had obviously wandered from telling Maria his identity to pondering something far more perplexing.

Diego noticed his son's preoccupation, and felt intrigued in spite of his exhaustion. "What is it? Do you know something that I don't?" He couldn't fathom what Manuel might know about something as esoteric as what had happened to Victoria so many years before while staying in another country. "Manuel, what..?"

With the lightening reflexes that being Zorro had honed, Manuel abruptly bolted out of the cave.

"Manuel!" Diego's nose crinkled as he rose much more slowly from the desk chair, shaking his head back and forth, muttering to himself, "Sometimes I just don't understand that boy." Wryly thinking that his own father had surely thought the same about him, he checked the emptiness of the library through the peep hole, then exited the cave at a much more sedate pace than his son.

Therefore, he was astonished to find Victoria and Maria standing near the bookcase to the right of the fireplace, beyond the peephole's view, books in their hands, both gaping at him like he'd materialized out of the wall itself. According to them, that's probably what it had looked like.

And of course, they'd seen Manuel come from the same place a moment before.

At least he hadn't been dressed like Zorro at the time, was the thought that ironically wafted through Diego's mind, followed by, What's really amazing is that this hasn't happened before now! "Uh... you're probably wondering where we just came from."

Maria was the first of the two women to recover. "The thought did occur to us."

But before Diego could respond, Victoria answered, "Your cave when you were Zorro - that's where you were."

What could Diego say to that? Other than the truth. "Um... yes." At least she didn't say that it was still being used as Zorro's cave. That would be a dead giveaway linking the present Zorro to the de la Vegas, and it wasn't much more to figure out that Manuel was Zorro - at least he was grateful to her for that.

But that was the last thing he was grateful for. He stood rooted to the library floor and watched, fascinated, as Victoria's emotions careened across her face, the most notable one being anger. He didn't want that anger to focus on him, so he hesitantly reminded her, "You've been there before."

Reminding her of their original betrothal wasn't particularly beneficial in this instance. The look that now invaded Victoria's eyes was closer to reproachful than perplexed. "So Zorro's cave opens on to your library, undoubtedly a very convenient secret hideout for you, though still a mystery to anybody else." She placed her free hand accusingly on her hip. "Just when were you going to tell me about this? When I'm old and gray?" Now she looked incensed as much as accusing. "I have news for you - I'm gray already!"

Maria laughed at her aunt's strident tone. "If I were you, Diego, I would either run right back into that cave, or start explaining as fast as you can."

Diego's gaze swept to her. "You know this from personal experience, I take it?"

Maria nodded, dryly adding, "I bet you do, too."

Fully exasperated with both of them now, Victoria ignored her niece to piercingly eye Diego. "Are there any more little secrets that you'd like to share with us today?"

For a second, Diego again considered revealing the secret that Manuel was Zorro, but decided making that revelation to Maria was Manuel's prerogative. "No, none that I can think of."

Her gaze turned to the cave opening in the fireplace, closed now, but obvious if you just looked hard enough. "Why do I suddenly feel very stupid?" she angrily muttered loud enough that she had to know Diego heard her. "I should have figured this out ages ago, if I'd only been paying attention."

Maria studied her aunt, mystified by her words and once again accusing tone. "Um... this isn't about just any old secret, is it?"

Diego's eyes hadn't once left his fiancé's, and he hardly heard Maria. "The entrance to the cave fooled many people who actually lived in this hacienda - you shouldn't feel bad, Victoria."

Now fully focused on Diego, Victoria plunked the books in her hand down on the tiny table beside one of the chairs. "Well, I did feel stupid... though I suppose that was not entirely your fault," she more quietly admitted. "I know that certainly wasn't your intent. And..." She took a deep breath, as if stealing herself for agreeing with something that she didn't want to agree with. "I'm sorry for being so angry when you first told me about Zorro. I shouldn't have been. It's not you I was angry at, not really." Then she rethought her last comment. "No, it was you I was angry at, but once I'd thought about things, I was more angry at myself than at you."

This confession startled Diego, who had always anticipated her anger on this issue, but directed at him in particular, not at herself. "That's not how it looked."

Surprising Diego even more, Victoria gave a wan smile. "No, I suppose that isn't how it looked."

Maria chose that moment to quietly say a soft, "I think I'll go see what Manuel's up to," leaving her aunt and their host in the library alone with all their pent up emotions.

Diego hardly noticed her exit, or her absence. Long trapped feelings threatening to spiral out of control in seconds, he fought to contain them long enough to carefully ask, "What do you mean by that?"

Victoria sank into a padded chair near the bookcase recessed into the hacienda's wall. She looked deflated, defeated, lost, and sad. "Oh, Diego, I... I suppose I should take this time to apologize before something else happens that tears us apart again for another 25 years."

Surprised too at her apology, as well at the way she felt the need to apologize, Diego sat in the chair across the table from her and wrapped her fingers in his. "An apology from you is the last thing I expect. I thought that I would be apologizing to you."

Victoria's smile grew even more wan. "Yes, that's what I thought you'd say." She squeezed his fingers. "I had a lot of time to think about this, and it truly amazes me that I didn't figure out who Zorro was much sooner than when you told me. I certainly should have figured things out." She sighed, a gust of air that dripped sadness. "But I was so wrapped up in Zorro, in thinking of him as a hero, in the legend, in everything. You were right that day you proposed to me." Her wan smile turned a hint bitter. "I did love the legend." Her sad gaze met his. "You didn't become a man of flesh and blood to me until..." Here, Victoria looked away from him to study the blank wall near the window, her face guarded. "... until... several weeks had gone by, but by then I thought you were dead, and I cried so hard because..." She swallowed painfully, and when she spoke, her voice was husky and broken and strangled. "I cried... for you... but mostly because... I was so stupid." Her eyes that she now turned on him oozed her misery. "I want to be the one for you because... I love you... you now, not just Zorro, but... I'm not sure I have the right to ask you to love me back because... I don't think I'm... good enough for you."

Diego reared back as if she'd hit him. "I never thought... never..." He couldn't finish. All he could do was stare at Victoria sitting so gravely beside him, aghast. Diego couldn't say anything more. He didn't know what to say even if he could.

Not once had he ever considered her feelings on this, but he was considering her feelings now. If she'd been too wrapped up in the legend of Zorro to notice Diego, then he'd been equally as wrapped up in his own imaginings of her response to Zorro's identity. He'd been so sure she would reject him outright that it had guaranteed his silence for years. Now he didn't know how to explain the fears he'd had then without also showing what a coward he'd been. For he had been a coward, despite all Zorro's arrogant bravado - he saw that now. The mess their lives had become mired in was as much his fault as hers.

Finally, he simply assured, "You're not stupid, Victoria."

But his encouraging words had the opposite effect than he expected. She laughed a bitter laugh, the tears in her eyes oozing out to drip down her cheeks, illustrating her misery, though she didn't sound like she was crying when she stated, "Of course I am, Diego. How can you think anything else?"

"How can you think you're stupid when you thought exactly what I wanted you to think?" Diego instantly asked back. "I didn't want you to see anything but the legend."

Victoria glanced up at him before immediately averting her eyes back to stare at the wall near the window. "But you said..."

"I know what I said," Diego insisted. "I was always worried that you only loved the legend. Of course that worried me - and if you did, it served me right."

That statement caught Victoria's attention so much that she openly gaped at him. "How would it..?"

"That's what I wanted, Victoria," Diego insisted, his voice now devoid of emotion lest he show too much emotion. "I thought I wanted more, but now that I look at it through your eyes..." He took a shuddering breath and explained, "I hoped that you were able to see past the legend to the man beneath the mask, but if you only ever saw the mask, then that was my fault for playing the roll of boring Diego so well for you - for you in particular." It was now Diego's turn to stare absently at the wall. "I was more worried about you discovering my identity than anybody else." His eyes twitched to hers and away again in seconds. "In fact, I'm surprised that you're not accusing me of always having a double standard where you're concerned." When her brow furrowed in a show of her puzzlement, he added, "I worked so hard at keeping Zorro and Diego as two separate men to you, while at the same time giving you hint after hint as to Zorro's identity. I hoped beyond hope that someday you would figure out my secret on your own. If you figured me out, but I didn't tell you, then I could hardly blame myself for purposely putting you in danger." His admission finished, he leaned back in the chair, as defeated as Victoria. In a tone of miserable surrender, he added, "There it is, the whole truth of the situation. Now, If you want to sell the tavern and go back to Guadalajara alone, I wouldn't blame you."

Slowly, Victoria shook her head in denial of what he claimed she wanted to do. "I don't want to go back to Guadalajara alone. I can't sell the tavern now, anyway," she told him plaintively. "It's Mendoza's home - I invited him to use the back room for as long as he wants - I can't sell it out from under him. Besides," she added, brushing evidence of her tears away and nervously smoothing down her skirt. "I'm not sure I want to sell it anymore."

Well, that surprised Diego. "You don't?" She simply shook her head again, and he protested, "But I thought that's what you came to Los Angeles to do."

A small smile broke out through the tear tracks still marring her cheeks. "I'm not sure that I'm ready to give up on Los Angeles - there's more here than I expected to find." This time, she looked straight at him, and there was no doubt that she referred to him with her cryptic words. She didn't blink, didn't breath, didn't do anything but squeeze his hand once more. Her eyes, however, positively glowed with the hope she had of convincing him to give them a try, now that she wasn't too enamored with a legend in black to see her best friend behind his mask. "I love you, Diego," she nonchalantly added. "I wouldn't blame you if you dumped such a stupid tavern wench down the nearest dark hole you can find, but I hope that you can see that I'm not completely a lost cause."

Thoroughly exasperated, Diego insisted, "You're not stupid, Victoria, not for seeing only what I wanted you to see. I would think that you would want to throw me in that dark hole."

Suddenly she grinned. "Do I get to go with you?"

As much as he didn't want to, he had always found Victoria's smiles infectious, and an answering smile slowly crept across his face until he was smiling along with her. "I wouldn't want it any other way."

Manuel's voice abruptly broke into the conversation before Victoria could say anything more. "Sorry to put a pall on your flirting," he began in a grim voice as he and Maria entered the library together.

Diego and Victoria's heads came up so fast that it's a wonder they didn't hurt themselves. Diego's eyes narrowed. "We weren't flirting!"

"Much," Victoria softly joked.

But Manuel didn't smile at her lame joke attempt, and his grim visage successfully caught their attentions. He carried a leather bound book in his hand, what could possibly be a personal journal, and Maria held what looked like... letters?

Diego's gaze settled on Manuel and the journal. "What's this? It's not your personal diary, is it?" The suspicion in his voice was unmistakable. "I don't want to find out what you're really doing when I'm not looking!"

"It's nothing like that," Manuel insisted. "This is Grandfather Eduardo's journal - what he called 'His Gloat Book.'" He didn't mention where he'd managed to get ahold of such a thing, and Diego hoped that he hadn't stolen it, but didn't ask as he truly didn't want to know. "I didn't have time to read through all of his books until recently, so when I came across the mention of a Victoria and a newspaper, I didn't make the connection that he was talking about you," and he gave a nod to acknowledge Victoria, "Not until Father mentioned you getting a newspaper while you were in Mexico City."

When Manuel didn't elaborate, Diego impatiently glared at him. "What about Victoria?"

Manuel studied the journal he held for a moment, as if it would supply him with the answer his father was seeking. But instead of answering him, Manuel held the book out to Diego. "Look for yourself."

Diego took the book carefully, as if he was long used to revering such items simply because they were books. This one was filled with scratchy writing that was already starting to fade, clearly in diary format.

"Start reading at the second paragraph on the right hand page," Manuel instructed. "Oh, and show Victoria, too."

Diego did as he was instructed, sitting back down in his chair and holding the book propped open on the little table between him and Victoria. He leaned in, reading:

The nerve of that that Victoria woman, that Escalante! I thought I was finished with the Escalantes when I sent that father of hers to the prison. But like a bad infestation, they keep coming back to haunt me. Today was no different - she threw me out today, and for what? Some damned cussing! Of all the stupid things! Does she know who I am? I'll fix her! I just have to think of something good first.

Diego turned the page at the break. "How educated he sounds," he noted in an analytical way. "I wonder if he went to the University in Madrid? Or maybe he went to the Academy." Diego turned back to the first page of the book to see if he could find a clue there. "He was definitely educated in Spain, though. There aren't any Universities in the colonies that could make him such a..."

"Diego, stop!" Victoria blurted. "He just confessed to sending my father to prison!" Her face fell into furious lines. "If he weren't already dead, I'd kill him!"

Manuel simply instructed, "Keep reading.

Diego squeezed Victoria's hand to let her know that he'd seen the same thing she had even as he did as his son suggested. The next entry was dated two weeks later.

I did it! I fixed her real good this time! That's one damned hussy that'll think twice about dealing with Eduardo Melendez! I heard she was in Mexico City with a brother. It came to me one night a few days ago that she wouldn't like hearing about her hero guy's death, that Zorro. So I snuck into the newspaper office at night and made one copy of a newspaper. I figured that if the de la Vega wimp can write and print a paper, then so can I. I had one of the old papers that de la Vega had written with me, and I based it on that. But I bet she won't even notice - she's too common to know the difference. I'm lucky she can read at all, or this wouldn't work. I said that Zorro had been killed by some rockslide outside the pueblo. Then I put in how that Diego friend of hers had gone missing - I even quoted his father! I'd be worried that she'd write to check on this, but I hired that fellow Jesus (not the name I would have chosen for him - more like Judas) that man from the territorial mailin San Diego - he's going to be on the lookout for any letters from the Escalante woman to Los Angeles and intercept them, so no one will get them and answer her back, and she won't know what's going on here. And I made that Jesus fellow go down to Mexico City and dress like a lancer and say that Mendoza sent that newspaper to her. She'll think her hero's dead and her friend's gone, that there's nothing left in Los Angeles to come back to. Sometimes I'm so clever, I amaze even myself. And if she comes back on the stage to check on any of this, I've arranged for that Jesus fella to tell me, and the stage will have an accident - I'll make sure of it. Bandits are always attacking the stage, and it won't seem strange at all that she's killed. She'll never know what really happened. I paid that man a lot of money for this - 1000 pesos! But it was worth every centavo. She'll never bother me again! I just wish I could tell her it was me who was behind all this, but then she wouldn't think what I want her to think. But that'll teach her to mess with Eduardo Melendez!

Diego felt heavy and slow, like he was swimming against a current in order to make the sudden realization of just what Victoria must be feeling at that moment.

But Victoria looked too stunned to be thinking anything. She sat, quietly aghast, silent, staring down at the journal still in Diego's hands, her face bloodless and chalky. It looked like it was all she could do not to fall over.

"Victoria!" Diego exclaimed, his hand out to steady her.

But she ignored him. "Madre de Dios," she whispered, her eyes wide, her look appalled. "It's all my fault!"

Diego threw a glance at Manuel even as he reached again for Victoria. "Don't be loco, Victoria. Don Eduardo admits right here that he was behind the whole thing."

Victoria was undeterred. Her voice still held to a whisper, she said, "I remember that day - he called me a... I slapped him. Everyone stood up, so he stopped, but he told me that I would regret it. Then he left." Victoria's gaze met Diego's. He was glad to note that there was now more emotion in her gaze than the nothing of stunned numbness. "I was just glad that he didn't cause any more trouble that day. I had no idea he would..." Her eyes widened again. "Madre de Dios."

"I remember that day, too." Diego's voice now matched his son's for grimness. "Every man in the tavern jumped up to defend you, but you took care of things yourself when you slapped Don Eduardo. If you hadn't done what you did, a fight would have broken out - you saved countless injuries from happening, maybe even some lives." His grimness increased. "Don Eduardo wasn't known for being someone who could control his temper."

Despite looking a little better, Victoria still sounded numb. "All this - these years - just because he called me a..." Her voice trailed away as memory clearly seized her once more.

"That doesn't mean it was true, or you deserved it." Diego's glare hardened even more. He had always suspected that Victoria had shielded him while he'd been Zorro, not divulging everything that she put up with on his behalf, and now he felt sure of it. "What did he call you?"

Victoria swallowed a painful swallow. "He called me..." She seemed to be waking from a particularly horrific nightmare. "Zorro's..."

"Actually, I can imagine the rest," Diego quickly interrupted, hoping to stop her before she could tell him everything. "Don Eduardo's language was always colorful - too colorful." He momentarily regarded his son. "What did you say this book was?"

Manuel's response was swift. "Grandfather called it his Gloat Book. Kind of like a diary, but a bragging one. He has a whole collection of them in that box that I..." He abruptly stopped talking, and just as abruptly, Diego knew why: Zorro had attained that box full of who knows what else besides these diaries, and as Manuel was currently Zorro... and he obviously hadn't told Maria about that yet... though Maria was sharp enough to figure that out for herself, since it had been Manuel who'd run out of the cave only moments ago... a cave that Victoria clearly knew about and had called Zorro's cave...

The complexities of who knew what and when they knew it was beginning to give Diego a headache.

Focusing on one aspect of this mess helped with the pain in his head. "There are other books just like this?"

Manuel nodded. "Many others."

Before Diego could suggest that they turn these books over to Felipe, or even the authorities, Maria offered the letters in her hand. "I found these, too. They're from you, Aunt Victoria. I didn't read them, but I assume they're the letters you wrote over the years that never reached their destination because they were intercepted, just like Don Eduardo said. He must have confiscated them from that man he had working for him."

Diego took the proffered letters, but didn't read them, either. He would read the ones addressed to him later, after he'd had time to assimilate all that had transpired. For now, his attention focused solely on the man Maria and Don Eduardo had referred to. "I know what man Don Eduardo's talking about - old Jesus Dynardo. He's been in charge of the pueblo mail for decades." Diego recalled the gentle way Jesus had helped the young children with their own mail when he had just returned from Spain. The memory made him sick. Jesus was old now, bent with age, sick and palsied, but still very much alive... and, so it would appear, very much open to bribery.

Diego's eyes flashed with a passion that they hadn't for years. "I think we need to talk to this Jesus about stealing mail, if nothing else." His attention again centered on Victoria, and the look in his eyes softened. "This wasn't your fault, Victoria."

"How can it not be my doing, if not my fault?" she plaintively asked him. "How can you not blame me for..?"

Diego leaned in close to her. "Of course I don't blame you. I'm actually thankful to you, in a way."

Her stare turned quizzical. "How are you thankful?"

Diego gave her a half smile. "I've been feeling guilty all these years for keeping Manuel with me when he really wasn't... But now I don't feel guilty at all, not if that man could do that to you. I was more than right to do what I did in return."

Maria looked confused. "What did you do, Diego?"

Diego gazed at her, that half smile still adorning his face. "That's for Manuel to tell you." Maria glanced at Manuel, more confusion spreading through her eyes.

Ignoring the two young people, Diego gave Victoria's hand another heartfelt squeeze. "I'm just so glad that you didn't come back to Los Angeles until after he died. You could have been killed if you had, and I wouldn't have been there to stop it." Horror at that thought surged over him, and it was all he could do to keep his breathing regulated enough so that he didn't hyperventilate.

But even as Diego ignored Maria's obvious confusion, Manuel didn't. He took her arm and gently said, "There are several things I need to tell you. Now's the perfect time; let's take a walk." Without further ado, he pulled her unprotesting form right out the door and into the late morning sunshine.

That left Diego alone with Victoria, who still looked shell shocked, though the color was beginning to creep back into her cheeks. He was more than glad that she seemed to be shaking off any blame she might have mistakenly assigned to herself for what had really been the vindictiveness of a truly foul tempered man. "Victoria?" he asked to get her attention, his voice pitched so low that only she could hear. "Preciosa?"

The pet name helped in fully snapping her out of whatever funk she had been in. As slow as flowing molasses, her gaze locked with his, longing and sweetness and fondness and love filling them. Her whisper floated between them, hardly more substantive than air. "Gracias a Dios - you're safe."

Diego didn't hesitate to touch his forehead affectionately to hers, barely breathing. "And so are you."

They sighed their contentment with that situation as one. The dual gush of air sounded with the idea that the threat to Victoria, and Diego by the strange set of circumstances surrounding it, had died with Don Eduardo. de Soto was no longer a threat to Los Angeles, or to the man he'd vowed to capture and hang. The outlaw savior of the pueblo had long since drifted into legend, despite his brief countryside comeback. No one left alive even cared who knew about Zorro's original identity, as that man had 'ridden with reckless endangerment' through the town so many decades before that it no longer mattered what he'd done against Spain when the government of the United States was far more pertinent.

With all these thoughts crowding through his mind, Diego could only think to ask, "Should we set things right at last?" He cradled her cheeks with his steadying hands, his long fingers lovingly caressing her temples. "Marry me?"

Wasting no time, Victoria gave a small smile and nodded her instant assent. "Yes, and that's the third time you've asked me that, Diego."

He couldn't suppress his grin at her words. "No, Zorro's asked you twice, if I recall. I thought it was Diego's turn to do things right."

"He did," she assured, matching his wry grin. "And I will." She softly kissed his lips. "Let's make it soon - this week, if we can manage it. 26 years is plenty long for an engagement, don't you think?"

"I think..." Diego's soft and hesitant voice sounded low in the library, until a familiar firmness invaded it, "Zorro has a lot to answer for, and more to be grateful for... but Diego has you, and you're utterly priceless."

Epilogue

"Try again, Father," Manuel ordered in his best tutor's voice. "And say it all in English this time. If you can't think of the right word to use, then use a different English word."

Diego fidgeted in his library chair in order to find a more comfortable position. He and Manuel had been at this English lesson for at least an hour already, and his butt was getting tired. But nobody was likely to disturb them until Manuel said they were finished for the day, so he had to give up his hope that someone would come and rescue him.

Why he had thought that English lessons from Manuel was a good idea was beyond him. The idea had seemed like such an innocent one a month ago, and Manuel had been so thrilled with the thought of teaching his father. Unfortunately, his brain chose this particular moment to remind him of how much easier he had been on Felipe when he had been the tutor than Manuel was on him now. His memories soured his attitude even further, but he knew Manuel would be happy with nothing less than for his father to speak English, so he had nothing to lose if he really did try - even if his attempt was laughable.

Diego took a deep breath, steeling himself, and launched into the English recitation that Manuel had asked him to do. "Victoria and me... uh, Victoria and I... married in 2 marriage... happy thing... I mean, ceremony... with son my and Maria in tavern... cooking place."

Manuel burst into loud laughter. In Spanish, he said, "Father, that was hysterical!"

At his announcement, laughter peeled from the direction of the dining room. "Diego, admit it - you've met your match in English!"

Perturbed, Diego returned to his native Spanish to holler back to Victoria still in the dining room, "If the likes of Ignacio de Soto can learn to speak English, then so can I!"

Victoria moved out of the dining room and into the library to give her belligerent husband a kiss on the top of his graying hair. "It's a good thing that Zorro didn't have to speak English - he would have sounded like a..." She let he voice trail off lest she say something that proved very unpopular.

Diego scowled, knowing what she was doing even as she did it. "Like a what?"

Victoria just kissed him on the head again. "Like the incredibly smart man we all knew him to be to speak another language."

Manuel laughed again. "Of course, what he said in that other language didn't make sense at all."

Diego's scowl deepened while Victoria blithely added, "Yes, but if we didn't know what he was saying, it wouldn't matter. We all would have been so impressed!"

Smiling, Maria also entered the library. "Just as long as there were no English speakers in the plaza at the time." She planted her own kiss on her husband's head, making certain that she didn't accidentally bump Manuel with her pregnant belly.

Manuel couldn't leave well enough alone. "If there had been English speakers there, they would have died from laughing so hard!"

Victoria adopted a dramatic pose. "Then Zorro would have been charged with murder and the Alcalde would have declared that he won."

Diego broke in, "So it's a good thing I never tried to speak English." He pulled his wife closer and nuzzled the part of her stomach that he could reach without standing up, happy for the interruption.

For some reason, the nuzzle reminded Diego of a time when he hadn't been allowed to make such an action, then of another time when he'd been unsure if Victoria's annulment was legal or not, and he hadn't dared to do it. A visit from Felipe, however, had allayed his fears: the lawyer had spoken privately to Victoria for only 15 minutes before declaring that the annulment had been and still was very legal according to Mexican law, giving Diego and Victoria leave to finally marry. The two had then celebrated for the next month, but Diego never did ask either his wife or son just what had transpired during those 15 minutes. He wasn't sure he wanted to know.

Manuel gave an ironic snort, drawing his father's wandering attention back into the library and its English lesson, a lesson that he had failed at in a most spectacular way. "I guess it's lucky that you're not Zorro any longer, Father, since most of the bandits Zorro captures today only speak English." He kissed Maria's pregnant belly even as she tried to keep it from bumping him. "So it's a good thing that Zorro speaks English now. At least he can say, 'Zorro rules!' and they can understand him."

Fascinated by the casual exchange between his son and daughter-in-law, Diego watched as Manuel laid a hand reverently on Maria's stomach. Manuel looked happy and content as he gazed up at Maria, and Maria looked positively charmed at the way Manuel was so happy about their coming baby. The whole scene looked so calm, so domestic, so hopeful. So why did it leave Diego feeling slightly nauseous every time he saw it?

Oh, he wasn't nauseous at the affection between Manuel and Maria. He liked seeing that, had liked seeing it ever since the double wedding he and Victoria had had with them a year ago. He'd only been getting nauseous since Maria had announced her pregnancy. And it seemed to Diego that he was the only one who felt that way about it.

It secretly appalled Diego that no one was in the least concerned about Maria at this juncture in her life. Her pregnancy had been met by everyone with joy and happiness. Diego had met it with happiness on the outside, but had felt only oily, burning fear on the inside. He suspected that he was the only one who felt this way, and for that he was glad. He wouldn't wish this kind of paralyzing fear even on his worst enemy, not even de Soto. He would be very glad when her pregnancy was over, the baby was delivered, they were both healthy and safe, and above all, alive. So many women and children succumbed to the trials of birth and died in the childbed that he wondered how the human race managed to keep growing. But grow it did - the booming population of Los Angeles only proved that.

Clearly oblivious to Diego's thoughts, Maria nonchalantly informed, "It's almost lunchtime."

"Thank God," Diego energetically quipped, successfully hiding his fear at Maria's growing belly, referring instead to his English lesson.

Maria grinned at Diego, then pulled Manuel out of his chair. "No more tutoring for at least an hour - the baby needs its lunch."

"So does her mama," Manuel added with a smirk.

But the teasing didn't faze Maria. "If you want me to stay in a good mood, I do."

Manuel pretended to be scared. "The Escalante temper might come out if I don't feed it."

"You wouldn't want that," Diego assured, grinning now as well.

"No, I wouldn't," Manuel agreed.

Employing that famous Escalante temper, Maria fake-hollered something in English, and gave Manuel a definite shove in the direction of the dining room.

Even if no one else understood what she had said, Manuel did. "What would Zorro say if he heard you?"

Maria only laughed and pushed him again. "He would tell you to feed that baby, pronto!" They disappeared into the dining room.

Victoria leaned in close to help Diego up out of his chair, too, so that they could follow Manuel and Maria. "I know what you're thinking," she whispered as she drew near to his ear.

Diego paused, still in his chair. "What am I thinking?" he whispered back, curious as to what she was going to say, sure that she had no idea what he was really thinking.

"You're thinking about your mother right now, and how you and Don Alejandro and Doña Elena thought that everything would be fine with her last pregnancy, too, when it most definitely wasn't, and you're amazed at how calm we all are about Maria."

Wow. "By now I should be used to you reading my mind," Diego whispered back in an astonished tone.

"Diego," Victoria soothed, patting down his silver hair. "You've been reading everything you possibly can to prepare yourself for the birth of Maria's baby. She'll be fine, don't worry."

Diego couldn't contain his fears now as they bubbled up at Victoria's innocent words. "But what if it's not? What if..?"

"Maria's not your mother."

Diego gazed at Victoria. Her firm but guileless expression encouraged him to declare another of his inner thoughts. "Does it bother you that I thank God every day that it's not you having a baby, possibly facing death?" His expression darkened. "I know that I should feel guilty about thinking that way, but..." Suddenly, he pulled her to him and buried his face in her stomach, fears once more rising up to engulf him. "If you died giving birth to my child... I couldn't face life without you again."

Victoria held his head to her as if she was cupping his heart in her hands. "You won't, Diego, you won't." She knelt beside his chair, the only time they were the same height, and gazed into his blue eyes, adding a soft kiss to his lips as an extra vow. "I promise, and I never break a promise to Zorro."

"I'm not Zorro anymore, just boring old Diego."

"And I'm just boring old Victoria."

Diego grinned at her, melting. "Let's be boring and old together." He leaned in to properly kiss her.

"Father! Are you coming?"

Diego groaned his frustration at the interruption. "Manuel may not be a de la Vega by birth, but I swear that at times like these, he's channeling my father!"

Victoria giggled enticingly into his ear. "Long live Don Alejandro."

"No," Diego gently reminded her, and nuzzled her nose. "Long live Zorro."

Victoria sighed at Diego's nuzzling, content. "Just as long as Zorro isn't you." She met Diego half way, and just as their lips met in a passionate kiss...

"Father, Victoria!" Manuel's strident voice again called out. "Lunch!"

Both Diego and Victoria groaned their regret. "Coming!" they yelled in unison. Victoria rose awkwardly from the floor, then pulled Diego up, laughing at the stiffness that had set in after sitting in one place longer than a minute. Arms wrapped around each other's waist, they left the library.

The End