Victoria's day
Disclaimer: This story was written solely for the enjoyment of other Zorro fans and is not intended to infringe on any copyrights held by Goodman/Rosen Productions, New World Television, Zorro Productions, the estate of Johnston McCulley or anyone else.
Introduction: This takes place after the episode Ultimate Justice. On his chase after Zorro alcalde de Soto has crossed some holy burial grounds of the Indians. As a result the Indians sentenced the alcalde to burn over a fire. To prevent a war between the Indians and the Spanish army Zorro offered to walk the path of pain to free the alcalde. The path of pain consisted of three parts: walking a row of Indians beating him with stick, a duel with a long stick and climbing the wall of death i. e. a steep rock.
Zorro managed all three parts winning the alcalde's freedom, but he was also supposed to marry Washdea, the daughter of the Indian chief Wise Eagle. After he tried in vain to talk himself out of it, he preferred to sneak away.
As soon as Zorro was out of sight from the Indians he slowed down his horse. Now that he was no longer fighting for his life, he started to feel the pain from his wounds. If he didn't want to risk an infection he needed to get them treated as soon as possible.
Normally he would simply ride home and have them tended by Felipe, but unfortunately Felipe was accompanying his father to a bull auction in Santa Barbara and wouldn't be back for the next three days. Since he didn't want to reveal his secret, there was only one person he could ask for help: Victoria.
Quietly he slipped into the kitchen and leaned against the wall, his exhaustion slowly taking over.
"Zorro!" Victoria exclaimed startled when she noticed him. "Is everything alright?"
"Actually senorita, I came here to ask you for your help."
"What do you need?" Victoria stepped close to him and he drew her to him half leaning on her.
"Could I use your back room for tonight? The extra guest room you mainly use as a store room?"
Victoria wondered how he knew about that one, but well he was Zorro.
"Of course, you can. What do you need it for?"
"I need some place to rest for some time and your help with medical treatment. Unfortunately I can't visit Dr. Hernandez without revealing myself." He tried to hide his pain behind a smile.
"You are injured! Is it bad?" Victoria worried if his obvious exhaustion was the result of a serious injury. "I'm sorry Zorro. It's all my fault that the afternoon you planned for us got so ruined," Victoria said remorsefully. "Go to the room and lock it. I'm coming to you as soon as I can. Wait for my knocking."
He didn't have to wait long for Victoria to knock at the door. "It's me. Can I come in?" Opening the door while standing behind it, he let her in, so that he couldn't be seen from the outside by anyone passing by. As soon as she was inside he locked the door again.
Hidden under some sheets and towels she normally stored in this room, Victoria had brought some bandages and other things she needed to treat him.
"Where are you hurt?" Victoria inquired. Only then she noticed that his shirt was slashed in the back. "What happened to your back? Remove your shirt and I'll have look at it!"
Without protesting Zorro sat down on the bed and did as she asked. Victoria gasped shocked when she got sight of his injuries. "How did you manage that? Tell me what happened this afternoon! And your hands," she exclaimed after he had removed his gloves. "What did you do with your hands?"
Lying flat down in the bed on his stomach he let her treat him. While Victoria cleaned his cuts and bruises, Zorro told her about the path of pain conveniently leaving out the part of the Indians daughter not knowing how she would react to that.
"You did that for the alcalde?" Victoria asked incredulously. "Why did you do that?"
"If there is a war between the Indians and the Spanish, it will result in many deaths on both sides. The Spanish Army will win in the end, but Los Angeles itself is not well defended and in an attack on the pueblo many people would get harmed and mostly the innocent ones. I couldn't let that happen."
The alcohol she used to wash the slashes on his back made him hiss in pain and cramp his fingers in the pillow below him.
Victoria pressed a bowl into his hands. "Drink this, it will ease the pain." He had already swallowed most of the liquid in one gulp before he recognized the bitter taste. "It is cactus tea, I got this from a friend, Don Diego as a painkiller. But I have never needed it before, so I was not sure about the dosage." From the immediate effect it had on him, she must had put quite a lot into it. "Oh great! Knocked out by my own medicine!' was all he could think before he fell asleep from it.
Victoria realized that she had overdosed the medicine and promised herself to be more careful the next time. While Zorro was sleeping from the medicine, she took care of his wounds. Carefully she continued cleaning the cuts with alcohol and bandaged his back. He had been beaten severely and she wondered how he hand been able to climb a rock with these wounds.
When she was done with his back, she took a look at his hands. They were swollen and bruised and needed to be treated as well. She had never taken a closer look at his long slim fingers, but she remembered the times when he had cupped her cheek with his hands or caressed her neck while he was kissing her. Victoria came out her dreaming and set her mind back to the task at hand. She cleaned the cuts and wrapped his fingers together under some cloth leaving only his thumbs separate.
It was probably the best he was hiding in her tavern tonight. These bruised hands were difficult to explain and couldn't be hidden under a shirt. To wear gloves all the time would definite rise suspicions.
Now that she was finished she looked at his sleeping form in the bed. His upper body was naked except for his bandages and the mask covering his face. For a moment her hand reached for the knot that held his mask in place to remove the black cloth. Without pulling at it, she retreated her hand. Zorro came to her because he trusted her and she wouldn't violate it by revealing his identity while he was unconscious. Instead she covered him with a sheet, closing and locking the door behind her. She would look for him again later when she had closed and the tavern was empty.
In a quiet moment before dinner time she managed to sneak into the room again to find him still sleeping. Putting his dinner on the table she moved some crates and shelves in front of his bed. It made the room look smaller and hid the bed behind it. Enough for a superficial search of the room.
Z Z Z
She was serving dinner at the tavern porch when the Indians came into the pueblo stopping at the center of the plaza ignoring the coming and going of the people around them. The group consisted of an aged warrior, the chief of the tribe from the way he was decorated, three warriors and surprisingly a young woman.
Mendoza went over to the group and addressed them. "I don't know what you want here in the pueblo, but you had better step aside to make room for the people."
One of the warriors stepped forward and looked at him self-confident. "We will not move until we have finished our business here."
"What is your business and can't you finish it also at the side of the plaza?" Sergeant Mendoza suggested, not really enthusiastic to take measures against the Indians who had behaved peaceful.
"Our business is with Zorro. We know he belongs to this pueblo."
"Zorro?" Mendoza let out a surprised smiled. "And what do you want from him?"
The warrior pointed at the young woman. "This is Washdea. Zorro will marry her."
Victoria had come closer after she heard Zorro's name mentioned. "This can't be!" She burst out.
"Tell me how you come to believe that Zorro will marry her!" She would have attacked the woman if Mendoza hadn't restrained her.
Alarmed by the noise the alcalde came out from his office, looking at his best again after he had changed clothes. "Mendoza what is going on here?"
He looked at the sergeant who still held Victoria back with his arm. "I should have guessed. Whenever there is trouble, Senorita Escalante is surely involved."
Then he turned to the Indian who had spoken for his group before. "What do you want here, Angry Eyes? Aren't you satisfied with Zorro's heroic actions? Don't think I'll get back to your camp to face your justice. Your in my territory now. Here my word rules. Go home now."
"Our business is not with you alcalde, but with Zorro. He has agreed to accept our rules when he walked the path of pain for you."
"The path of pain?" Mendoza asked curiously. "What did Zorro do?"
"To save your alcalde from the trial by fire, Zorro agreed to be beaten by sticks, fight with a long stick and climb the wall of death."
"Zorro climbed that wall?" Mendoza swallowed. "I wouldn't even look down from above and it would be suicide to attempt climbing it." Then he asked, "Zorro did all that and actually climbed that wall?"
The Indian nodded. "Yes, he did."
"Well, he is Zorro after all," Mendoza smiled, not hiding his admiration for the man he considered a friend. "If someone would manage it, it would be Zorro."
"And what has that to do with Zorro marrying that woman?" Victoria asked icily. "He is already spoken for."
Angry Eyes spoke again. "Wise Eagle has promised to marry his daughter to the man who walked the path of pain. Zorro has succeeded and now he has to marry her!"
"And if he doesn't?" Victoria challenged him.
"Then there will be war!" Angry Eyes declared threateningly.
Alarmed the alcalde stepped in. "You can't be serious, Angry Eyes. Your tribe can't win in a war and a single outlaw is not worth the lives of your people." Thinking frantically the alcalde thought of a way out. "You may have heard that Zorro is always vanishes after he has made an appearance, so you must give us time to find him and persuade him that it is for the good of the pueblo to marry Washdea."
De Soto turned to Victoria not hiding his glee. "Don't you agree, Senorita Victoria that Zorro has always had what is the best for the pueblo in mind? He will surely make that sacrifice."
"You can't be serious, alcalde. You owe him, alcalde. He saved your life and how do you thank him? I never thought you would sink so low." Victoria was furious.
Angry Eyes and Wise Eagle had finished their quiet discussion about the alcalde's request for more time.
"Alcalde, we will give Zorro three days to present himself. If Zorro isn't here at noon on the third day, our tribe will be at war with you." Angry Eyes declared before he followed Wise Eagle out of the pueblo."
"What will you do now, alcalde?" Mendoza asked. "How will you find Zorro and even more make him marry that woman?"
"What I will do? Search for him of course, Mendoza. You will start right now with the tavern." De Soto stretched out his arm and pointed at the tavern. "And then you will look at the hands of all men, if they have bruises from the climb. Zorro can't hide that."
"You have no right to search my tavern, alcalde. You are disturbing my guest!" Victoria protested.
"It's for the security of the pueblo. That gives me all the rights I need. And you should better cooperate or the sergeant might be forced to open the doors with force." The alcalde smirked.
"You will pay for any damages, alcalde." Victoria retorted furious, but then she hurried behind the sergeant who just entered her tavern.
"I'm sorry senorita, but I have to look in every room," the sergeant apologized. "I have my orders."
Grudgingly Victoria led the sergeant and his men to the guest rooms. Starting with her own bedroom, Mendoza looked in every room though he wasn't very thorough with it. Just stepping inside and looking inside was enough. Occasionally he opened a wardrobe and looked inside, of course without finding Zorro.
Victoria's heart was beating faster when Mendoza demanded to look into the back room.
"What kind of room is this, senorita?" he asked.
"This is only a store room, but if you like you can start counting my table cloth and towels."
Victoria said aloud, hoping Zorro would be quiet in case he was awake. Annoyed by the order for this fruitless search, Mendoza merely looked into the room and looked at some shelves with towels and table cloth and some crates in the back.
"No, Zorro inside," he said to his men who were standing near him. "Now we have to inspect the hands."
Mendoza and his men inspected the guests in the tavern for bruises on their hands. But they either hadn't any or didn't look at least like Zorro. Then the soldiers continued their search elsewhere.