Summary: Diego has courted Victoria and proposed without sharing the secret of Zorro. He finally gets the courage to tell her before it's too late. But it's in the middle of their engagement. Just a short scene, without much plot.
Disclaimer: No copyright infringement intended. WPI owns characters of Zorro, Victoria, and Diego.
AN: I wanted to explore Victoria's reactions in such a situation without writing the build-up (mainly because the Muse refused to allow me to work with me any further on this, sigh). I wondered what would happen if Diego would let the situation develop, to enter a courtship with Victoria without her knowing about Zorro. Hope you enjoy.
Today was the day. Today was the day Diego was going to tell Victoria the truth. Yesterday he had decided it was time to tell her and had asked Victoria to take a walk with him during siesta. It was indeed time to tell her the truth. The long-overdue truth. The truth which might blow his happiness to smithereens.
As he walked towards the tavern, Diego still could not believe how the events of the past month had spun out of control. He had not planned it, but the opportunity to court Victoria as himself had presented itself, and he grabbed it. The courtship went so well, so effortless, he could not bear the thought of disturbing it with anything, much less revealing to Victoria he was Zorro. Despite her accepting him as Diego, accepting his courting her as Diego, he remained so afraid of not being able to compete with the mystery of Zorro.
However, the time had arrived for him to tell her. He had to. Otherwise, it would continue to become more and more difficult as the day of their wedding approached. And he absolutely refused to marry her without the revelation. He respected her too much to do that to her.
Diego reached the tavern and looked up to the cloudless sky and breathed a prayer for courage. He exhaled a big breath as he entered the tavern and looked for his fiancée. Her eyes caught his across the room, and she rushed over to greet him with a beautiful smile and a hug. "It's such a beautiful day, I'm so glad you suggested a walk today."
Diego forced a smile at her. "I was thinking we should go walking in the church garden today."
Victoria agreed, and they headed to the garden, where they walked in comfortable silence until they reached a bench. Diego indicated Victoria should sit down and then sat beside her. He gingerly took both her hands in his and faced her.
"Victoria, I have something to tell you which I should have told you before I asked for your hand in marriage."
"What is it, Diego?" Victoria asked, concerned with the serious look on Diego's face.
Diego then glanced yet again around him to ensure that there was no one who could overhear. He then took a deep breath, braced himself, and then stated, "I…. I am Zorro."
Victoria looked at Diego in puzzlement. She then shook her head as if she was attempting to clear anything that might have led her to misunderstand what he had said. "What? Diego, don't be ridiculous. How could you be Zorro?"
Diego shuffled his feet in place, looking down at them and wondered how he ever got himself in such a predicament. "I guess I acted too convincingly," Diego laughed nervously. Victoria glared at him. "Yes, Victoria, it's true. I…."
Victoria brushed away Diego's hands and stood up. She backed away from him, tears beginning to form in her eyes.
"Diego, how could you? How could you court me, propose, and carry out our engagement without telling me about Zorro? How can I ever trust you again?"
Diego reached for her, but Victoria batted away his arms angrily. "No, I refuse to talk about anything but this issue!"
Diego sighed heavily, and straightened himself on the garden bench. "I am sorry, Victoria. I never meant to hurt you."
"Well, you did! Not only you, as my best friend, lied to me continuously in the past two years, but then you decide to court me without letting me know. But the worse of it is that you considered marrying me without even telling me the truth. How long were you going to hide it? Did you actually think we could be married and you never tell me?"
"No, that's why I'm finally telling you now. The one thing I knew for certain was that I wasn't going to marry you without you knowing. I never, never wanted that. However, I've been so unbelievably happy with you in my life finally, that…that I could not disrupt that. After all these years, I thought we deserved some happiness before I…before it could be ruined."
Victoria continued her angry pacing punctuated with her occasional flinging her hands up into the air. "What? We? You now include me in this? Finally? I don't know what I'm most angry about, but maybe we could start with one question?" Victoria approached Diego, hands on hips, and asked, "What did you mean by 'before it could be ruined'?"
Diego noticed some of the fire had extinguished in her eyes, and he had a faint sense of hope. He shuffled his feet and said in a quieter tone, "How could you love me, just Diego?" He continued, "How could you love me, the inept swordsman, the man who never did anything but read and play music?"
Victoria was shocked into silence by his admission. Diego waited for her to say something, but she only looked up at him with widened eyes and trembling lips.
Diego looked at Victoria with a devastated look in his eyes. "I couldn't believe how lucky I was. Here you were, loving me, Diego. Not Zorro. And you, agreeing to marry Diego? I…. I just could not believe it."
Victoria conceded that point. "Okay, then, my second question…. why did you begin to court me as Zorro in the first place?"
Diego again shrugged his shoulders. "When I first started the charade as Zorro, I foolishly did not look very far into the future. I hadn't realized I was going to have to continue the charade for so long. I was foolhardy as a youth thinking I could beat the Alcalde easily, or change things, and then we could get married."
Victoria's lips curved into a tremulous smile. "Yes, you were quite a foolhardy youth at times, weren't you?" Shaking her head, to get herself back on track, she continued. "I don't understand why I didn't question why the daring, brash youth who had gone to Spain came back as a stuffy scholar who swore off fighting." She took a seat on the bench next to Diego. "You really must think of me as stupid for being fooled or not worthy of your love for not seeing through the masquerade."
Diego reached for her and gathered her petite hands in his large ones. "Never, Victoria. You only saw what I wanted you to see, not just for my safety but for yours as well. My father does not know either."
Victoria pulled her hands out of his grasp. "What? Your father does not know either?" Shocked, she could not speak while she gathered her thoughts. "How, how…. why…. he does not know? Who has been helping you then?"
"You know my father, and how impetuous he is. It was for his safety as well." Sighing, Diego told her the next bit of news. "Felipe has been helping me from the beginning."
Victoria felt a spark of anger at that statement. "How could you allow a young boy to help you when you refused to allow either your father or me to help? How does that make sense?"
"Well, you see, he was there in the beginning, when I got the idea. He was the one who discovered Zorro's cave, and when he showed it to me we found a young fox in the cave. That led me to think about a fox's behavior, and how he has to be sly to catch his prey, and…. I had to rescue you and my father from the Alcalde's noose."
Victoria cocked her head to one side, and pursed her lips in thought. "Hmm, that's right. I forgot about that."
"You see, the Alcalde had threatened me and my father if I did anything to help the two of you. He could have taken away our lands and left our tenants homeless, besides killing both my father and me. So that's why I had to be disguised. I only planned it to be a one-time thing, but….it worked out so well, and the Alcalde continued to be unreasonable, I just had to continue the masquerade."
"And then I practically threw myself at you," Victoria said in a self-deprecating tone.
Diego raised an eyebrow at that. "So, you admit you began the flirtation then?" he asked in a teasing tone.
Victoria's cheeks flushed a pretty shade of light pink. "I guess you got me there. But Zorro was so romantic, so mysterious, and so heroic…I couldn't help myself." Victoria shook herself again. "But…. I'm still angry you never included me in your secret. Why didn't you trust me?"
Diego then saw the hurt as well as the anger in Victoria's eyes. "It wasn't that I couldn't trust you. There's no one I trust more than I do you. It's just…. well, for many reasons. The more people who know, the more dangerous it is. I would worry too much about you and your reactions to be on my guard." Diego shrugged. "I also never wanted you to have to live a life of lies as well. At least, until…. until I knew you would be in my life forever." Diego looked down at Victoria with a question in his eyes.
Victoria shook her head. "This is a lot to take in, Diego."
Diego nodded. "I know. And I am sorry. This is such a mess, and exactly why I was afraid to tell you."
Sighing, Victoria looked at her beloved. "It will take me some time to sort all this out for myself."
Diego again nodded. "I'll give you all the time you need, Victoria. Just don't shut me out."
"Even if it means we go back to the beginning of a courtship? Because I feel like I don't know you. The real you. Either of you."
Diego sighed. "If that is what you want, I'll gladly postpone the wedding. Just don't shut me out completely."
Victoria shook her head and sighed. "I wish I could stay angry with you, but I can't. But I need time. Time to get to know you, the real you. The one without masks. Either mask."
"I can certainly do that, my sweet Victoria. I only wish to make up to you for all of this, and I will spend the rest of my life doing that, if only you'll give me a chance."
"It will also take me some time to become used to such charming things coming out of Diego's mouth, when it's only been Zorro's I have heard such things from."
Diego took Victoria's hand, raised it to his mouth, looked deeply into Victoria's eyes and kissed the back of it as gently as he could. Victoria was reminded of that fateful kiss on the hand he had given her upon his return from Spain, and she blushed lightly again.
Diego smiled, as if he knew what she was remembering. "I suppose we should return to the tavern. You are still a working woman, until we get married, that is."
Victoria silently agreed, and took the arm he offered. As they silently walked back to the tavern, Victoria couldn't believe everything which had occurred. She quickly reviewed all that was ahead of her the rest of the day, looking for some time to herself. Victoria vowed to take some time later in the evening to think about Zorro and Diego, and everything that it would all mean. She wanted to sort it out quickly, because part of her did indeed want to marry the man as soon as possible. But only when things were right. And, she vowed, with everything inside of her, things would soon be right again. Just as soon as she sorted it all out.
AN: Thanks for reading this. If the Muse cooperates, I may continue in this universe. But for now, I'll consider this one done. I just wanted to explore Victoria's explosive feelings if they would end up in such a situation. Because the Muse had the idea, but didn't go any further with it though, what can a writer do?
Sure would appreciate hearing from you…always makes me smile! And encourages that stubborn Muse as well…. we do need more Zorro stories, you know!
