A/N - I'm taking this through the rest of the episodes of series 3 - "Balancing the Books", "Blind Man's Bluff", "Heir Apparent" and "The Word". Some of these episodes will only just be touched upon, while others will change.

Chapter 4

The next couple of weeks went fast for Diego and Victoria as they planned their wedding. They received acceptances from Diego's cousin Rafael and his wife as well as both of Victoria's brothers; they had been lucky that Ramon had been visiting his brother in Monterey when the invitation had arrived and together they would travel to their sister's wedding. There wasn't enough time to invite enough more of the de la Vega family from Madrid or for several distant relatives of the Escalantes who lived in Mexico City.

Even with the wedding preparations, Zorro was still needed. de Soto had thought up a nefarious schemes to obtain money from the citizens; a plan which their previous Alcalde, Luis Ramone, would have been proud of. He had been offering lottery tickets to pay for civic improvements including a new irrigation system without the need to raise new taxes or so how he explained it to the people.

After discovering what the Alcalde was really up to, Zorro rode into the pueblo and guided Toronado behind the cuartel just in time for the daily draw of the lottery tickets. As he nimbly climbed up onto the roof, he carefully carried a small pot of honey in his hand and when he was in position, he poured it down over the lancer's muskets and when the pot was empty he quickly dropped out of sight just as he heard de Soto talking up his great initiative and he waited silently with a pounding heart. This was the first time that he, as Zorro, had come into the pueblo since the scandal broke and he knew it was going to be hard for both him and Victoria; he didn't want to give the gossips any more ammunition to use against them.

"With our new pueblo lottery, we will be able to provide such marvellous civic improvements with no new taxes!" de Soto said as he raised his voice for everyone to hear.

"Excuse me Alcalde, point of information. Isn't the purchase of every lottery ticket just another form of taxation?" Don Alejandro spoke up.

Zorro grinned at his father's words; trust his father to see beyond de Soto's speeches to the truth and he waited to hear what the Alcalde's answer would be and he wasn't disappointed.

"No, no, no, de la Vega, you misunderstand. The purchase of every ticket is another chance for sudden wealth. Now would the beautiful senorita help us make someone rich today..."

Zorro fought down a sudden surge of anger at the Alcalde's words; he was cheating people by claiming that they would become wealthy when in fact it was all a lie. Well, that was about to change, he mused to himself as he continued to wait for just the right moment to spring his trap.

de Soto's voice floated up to him. "Number Six-five-five! Don't be shy now. The winner of five thousand pesos, please come forward. Now I must remind you that if the winner is not present, the prize money must be returned to the general fund."

Zorro grinned; he wouldn't get a better moment than that. He stood up and called out. "The general fund you're building to make yourself look good in front of the governor, Alcalde?"

de Soto whirled around. "Zorro! I cannot be held responsible if the winner is not present!"

"Oh yes you can." Zorro called out, a little unnerved. He was used to the attention that his appearance always created but he wasn't prepared for the highly anticipated meeting between himself and Victoria as everyone looked between himself and Victoria and back to him. They were all wondering what was going to happen and if she would create more gossip by chasing after Zorro even though she was now engaged to another man and some of them wondered why the young Don wasn't with his fiancee and his father; perhaps in the hope of seeing a fight between the two men.

Zorro saw her move instinctively towards him but then she stopped herself and bit her lower lip just as his father placed his hand on her arm to stop her from going to him and he knew he had to say something to satisfy the gossips and so he bowed his head to the woman he loved. "May I offer my congratulations on your forthcoming marriage to Don Diego, Senorita." he said politely.

Victoria swallowed hard and nodded. "Thank you Zorro." she replied softly; she wasn't going to hurt Diego by creating more talk about her and Zorro.

Don Alejandro gazed up at the masked man. "Do you know what is going on Zorro?" He asked.

Zorro nodded. "Yes I do Don Alejandro. Please select another number from the box, if you don't mind."

de Soto shifted uneasily on his feet. "Ah, there's no need to do that Don Alejandro."

"Let me be the judge of that Alcalde." Don Alejandro said as he turned carefully to the box that Mendoza was holding; mindful of his ribs that were still tightly bound and pulled out another ticket. He frowned again as he read it. "Six five five." he called out to the gasps of the crowd.

"What!" Victoria called out. "That's the same number..." she reached into the box herself, pulled out another ticket and then another. "These are all six five five." She threw them to the ground in disgust.

Zorro shook his head at the growing hostility of the crowd as they realise that they had been duped once again and he knew that an angry crowd could easily become an out of control mob, so he lifted a bag high in the air. "Here are your lottery tickets. I found them last night from the garrison's trash dump." He said as he tossed the bag down to the ground near the feet of Don Alejandro.

de Soto was furious that his plan had been discovered. "Lancers! Shoot him!" he roared at his men who ran to their weapons but for some reason they couldn't pick up their muskets. He frowned as he reached them and grabbed a rifle himself. "What is this? Honey?" he said disbelievingly as he stared at the sticky substance on his hands and on his weapon.

Zorro grinned at the mayhem that he had caused and he was about to make it even worse. "I'm afraid things are going to get a bit stickier, Alcalde." he said as he tossed a bucket down onto de Soto's head, causing the people to laugh at the sight of their leader floundering around with a bucket on his head.

Zorro pointed down at the bag that he had tossed to the ground, which had burst open with the tickets lying on the dusty ground. "One of those numbers is the true winner of your lottery." He said as he pulled out his knife and threw it at the tickets on the ground.

Victoria bent down and pulled the knife out of a ticket before she stood back up and read the number. "Three seven one." she called out.

Zorro grinned at Mendoza started jumping up and down. "I won. I won. I'm rich." He said before he fainted to the ground. It couldn't have happened to a more deserving man, Zorro mused to himself as he leapt down on the far side of the building and whistled for Toronado.

Fifteen minutes later Diego ambled into the tavern and when he saw Mendoza holding court by the bar, he crossed over to him with a warm smile on his face. "Sergeant, I hear that congratulations are in order. What are you going to do with your winnings?" he asked curiously.

Mendoza shrugged. "I am not sure yet. There are many things I want to do."

Diego nodded absently as he saw Victoria moving through the curtains and into the kitchen; he needed to speak with her. "Well Sergeant, I would be willing to help you with some advice about investing your money."

Mendoza smiled. "That's very kind of you Don Diego. I might take you up on that offer."

Diego nodded once more. "Come and see me anytime you like but right now I think I'll see if Victoria needs any help." he said and left the good Sergeant without waiting for a reply. He walked through the curtains and saw Victoria standing by the doorway looking down at the ground.

"Victoria, are you all right?" he asked quietly.

She jumped slightly at hearing his voice and quickly wiped her face before she turned to face him. "Yes, why do you ask?"

He saw that her eyes were misted over and his heart all but broke. "I heard that Zorro was here earlier and I wanted to see how you were doing." he replied kindly.

Victoria closed her eyes for a moment before she walked further outside and he had no choice but to follow her.

She walked with her arms around herself towards the small yard where her mare was munching on some hay. "He wanted to congratulate us on our forthcoming wedding." she said softly as she fought back tears.

"I see." He replied as he stood next to her. "I'm sorry for this Victoria." In more ways than he could count.

She shook her head. "It's not your fault, I should have thought more about what I was doing."

"And I should have been firmer and told you to stay here." he said with guilt in his heart as he reached out and gently touched her hand. "We'll get through this Victoria, together."

She nodded as she squeezed his hand. "You're a good man Diego, a good friend." she said before she turned and walked back to the tavern.

Diego closed his eyes as another rush of guilt washed over his. "No Victoria, if I was a good man, I would never have started this." he muttered as he followed her inside.

Over the next several days, his guilt of his secret life and his inability to tell the truth, turned into absolute fury when it became clear that de Soto had cheated Mendoza out of his winnings by using inferior materials and bad workmanship in the building of the Sergeant's new house; he had taken all Mendoza's money and destroyed his dream of owning his own home. Not only was de Soto content to take his money but he also set fire to the half built home to disguise the evidence of the fraud that he had committed against one of his men and although he had no real proof, he knew in his heart that it was de Soto who had set fire to the building and almost killed Mendoza in the process.

Mendoza had graciously taken the news that he had no money and no house by saying that he had something that money couldn't buy; friendship. That had infuriated Diego as much as it warmed his heart, that he actually went through with his threat to de Soto and wrote a stinging letter, not the the Governor but to the son of the Spanish Viceroy in Mexico City. He was going over the head of their Governor, who had done nothing to curtail the excesses of de Soto and so he hoped that by writing to his old university friend, they would finally get something done.

And then on top of that, he had lost his eyesight a week later when he had taken a drink from an unknown stream when he was being chased by de Soto on his brand new horse that he had bought especially to run Toronado down in yet another of his attempt to capture him. The chase itself had been thrilling for both Toronado and himself for they had never really been tested to their limits before and they both had come close to exhaustion and he doubted that the chase would have lasted much longer but what happened after drinking the poisoned water, had left him with a frightening prospect of being blind for the rest of his life and in his panic he thought about cancelling the wedding for he didn't want Victoria married to a blind man.

Thankfully the blindness as well as the stomach cramps had only been temporary, with no after effects but it had made him question his reason to stop de Soto from raising a new tax to pay for, of all things, his new horse. He should have left things as they were, even Felipe had told him not to go, that it was foolish and risky, especially now that he was getting married. He had more responsibilities than before and for the first time, he began to question the need to ride out for every little thing that de Soto did.