Chapter 7 - Inquiries

Covertly Alejandro started to do make an investigation. He tried to find out where his son spent his time and what he was doing.

He asked the servants when it was the last time they had seen Diego.

It was soon clear that nobody had seen him after the last night they had had dinner together. He hadn't been home since and his bed hadn't been slept in the next morning. Nobody had seen him that morning when he was supposed to have left the note about going to the northern estates. None of the horses was missing either.

Where had he gone? And how had he left? Diego seemed to have vanished into thin air with no clue what had happened.

If this wasn't intriguing enough Alejandro also got the impression that Diego hadn't planned his absence at all. Normally he had told his friends if he wasn't able to keep an appointment but this time was different.

Alejandro's curiosity got mingled with concern. What if something had happened his son? But what could it be? Diego was mostly occupied with his studies and he was a peaceful man who avoided trouble when possible. Into what kind of trouble could he run? He had no enemies and was well respected in the community. But was everything truly how it seemed? Why was Diego pretending to be somewhere else sometimes? Why the secrecy? Why was Diego lying to him where he was spending his time? Where was he when he was someplace else than he made his father believe?

Or was everything quite harmless and Diego was only having a romance?

The days passed by and Alejandro was no closer to find out where his son had gone and from Felipe he couldn't get any information.

Where was he? If he had been abducted there would have been a ransom demand, but nobody had sent a note. Alejandro would have been relieved if there had been a demand; at least he would have known what had befallen him. It was better than this agonizing uncertainty.

Except for staying with a woman there was nothing else that came to his mind. But a month was really a long time to be gone even if he had a romance.