Chapter 7
Victoria recognized the black horse in the corral at once, before her eyes fell on the tall man, standing at the fence with his broad back turned to her.
He wore plain, comfortable clothes, consisting of tight dark brown trousers and a light brown shirt that fit him loosely. Even if he wasn't clad in black, his tall lean shape, and the way he stroked the horse, were a too familiar picture for her not to realize who she was about to face. Zorro! And, he wasn't wearing a mask!
Her heart suddenly began to beat very fast, and her mouth was dry as she slowly approached the lonely figure leaning against the fence. She wanted to run to him, but she had no energy left. Only a few steps more, and she would finally discover the identity of the man she loved. Toronado noticed her and whinnied.
"Felipe, did you bring a treat for Toronado?" He asked without turning around, his attention still on the horse. Victoria didn't say anything and only stared at the back of the man who gently patted the horse's neck.
"Zorro?" she asked, tentatively. Surprised by her voice, he turned around and faced her. "Diego?!" Victoria exclaimed, as she saw his face.
"Victoria? What are you doing here?" Stunned, Diego looked at the woman standing in front of him, before he addressed Felipe, who had stayed behind with the horses.
"Why did you bring her here, Felipe?" He addressed the boy, angrily. "Didn't you listen to anything I told you?"
'You need her!' Felipe signed, 'and she needs you!' Without any other comment he turned around to take the horses away, leaving Diego and Victoria alone.
Victoria still stared at Diego and Toronado. Seeing them together, she understood. Diego was Zorro!
"Diego? You are you Zorro!?" It was more a statement than a question. "Are you still my friend? Did you leave me because of something I said? I thought you no longer cared for me when you didn't come back!" She turned pale, leaning against the fence for support, afraid of his answer.
"Please, I need to know!" she begged. After the first shock, she noticed his gaunt appearance, and the arm he kept in a sling. "What happened? What's wrong with your arm? Have you been ill?"
Diego simply stared at her, unable to say a word. How could he begin to explain everything?
"Diego? Please talk to me! What happened?" Victoria looked at him, concerned. He had always been lean, but his haggard face and loss of weight showed that he must have been very ill. "Are you really Zorro?"
That was a question he could answer easily. "Yes, I am Zorro, or I was him, to tell the truth." He tried to imitate a smile, without success.
"Why are you here, Victoria? What did Felipe tell you?"
"He didn't tell me anything, Diego. He said that he needed to show me something. I never expected to discover your identity and find you in this place." Victoria continued staring at him.
"What do you think now, Victoria?" Diego stepped closer to her, as she was leaning against the fence for support, noticing how exhausted she looked. Her eyes were red from crying and lack of sleep, and she appeared to be ready to drop, hardly keeping herself up, making him wonder how she had gotten in such a worrisome shape.
"I'm too surprised to think at all, but I'm happy to see you ... to have found you!" With her hand she reached out for him, touching him slightly on his sleeve. "I have missed you, Diego. And, I realized that I love you. You, and Zorro. I couldn't stop thinking of you, ever since I got your letter. But, I need answers! Tell me why! Why did you leave me if you still love me? Or, was it a lie?" Anxiously, and with wide eyes, she looked at him.
"No, it wasn't a lie. I love you, and I always have." Diego couldn't imagine removing his eyes from her for even a moment, as his gaze took her in. After all the time he had been dreaming about her in his arms, it was impossible for him not to look at her. He wanted to reach out and take her in his arms, feel the warmth of her body.
Diego took another step towards her, close enough to have his body almost touching her. Unable to resist, he lifted his hand to tenderly caress her cheek.
Seeing the love in his blue eyes was all she needed to throw herself into his arms. "I have you back. I have you back," she whispered, clinging to him with all the strength she had left. "I have found you. That's all I ever wanted."
Diego hadn't expected to see her again, and now she was right here in his arms. Leaning back against the fence, he held her tight and supported her with his arm around her back.
"I missed you so much!" she cried. Physically and emotionally exhausted, her body shook uncontrollably in his arms.
Bending his head, he kissed her tenderly. Victoria clung her arms around his neck and returned his kisses hungrily, not wanting to let him go.
Diego drew apart when she couldn't stop shaking. Concerned, he looked at her. "What's wrong, Querida?"
"Hold me, please. Don't leave me again. I can't go on without you any longer!" Victoria cried, desperately, holding onto him with her arms around his waist. "I need you so much."
Diego grew more worried when she continued to sob, shaking hard. "Shhhh, Querida, it's alright. Please, don't cry!" Placing kisses on her hair and temples, he tried to soothe and comfort her. "Tell me, what's wrong, Victoria. What has you so devastated?"
Victoria shook her head, unable to express what she had gone through in recent weeks. "It was terrible. Not only that I missed you so much, but everything else got worse too. I don't know how to go on any longer."
Crying, she buried her face in his chest while he stroked her back and her hair.
"What happened?"
"De Soto. He wouldn't believe it when he heard that Zorro had left. At first, he tried to lure you back with taxes, and when Zorro didn't intervene as usual, he threw me in prison."
Alarmed, Diego looked at her. "He used you as bait again?"
Victoria nodded. "There were some vaqueros in the tavern, making trouble and harassing me, forcing a kiss on me. Mendoza wanted to help me, but de Soto forbade it. Instead, he had me arrested along with the vaqueros for indecent behavior and put me in a cell adjacent to them."
"There was no one who defended you?" Diego asked incredulously. "What about my father?"
Victoria only shook her head. "Your father was away for a bull auction, and none of my other patrons wanted to get in trouble with the alcalde."
"How long did you have to stay in prison?" he asked, concerned.
"De Soto arrested me two days ago, and didn't release me until this morning. He said it was the normal sentence for my behavior."
"He kept you in prison for nearly three days?" Diego asked angrily. "The prison is no place for a woman."
"The vaqueros continued to harass me in prison from the adjacent cell, and there was nothing I could do. It was bad - very bad," Victoria began to cry harder again. Sobbing, she clung to him, reliving the nightmare of the past days.
Diego pulled her tighter, though Victoria didn't give him any details, he could imagine what she had been through, as her tears soaked his shirt.
Picturing her in the filthy prison, being harassed by vaqueros, he became more and more angry, wishing he could ride out as Zorro again to take his revenge on the alcalde. Instead, he concentrated his attention on the woman in his arms and soothed her, understanding why she was so devastated, and why Felipe had brought her to him.
"I love you, Victoria." Tenderly, he kissed her cheeks and her temples, drying her tears with his kisses. "It's over. You're safe now."
"I didn't understand how much a difference you made, how much Zorro meant for me and the pueblo, until you were gone. I was secretly hoping Zorro wouldn't leave me in prison, and that the letter wasn't true, but Zorro didn't come. And, I was wishing for you to return, Diego, but you weren't coming home, either. I knew you would have helped me if you had been there. I depended on your presence in my daily life even more than on Zorro. When I realized that I had lost both you and Zorro, I never felt so alone, and I knew I couldn't go on anymore."
"I'm sorry, Victoria, that I couldn't be there for you. Didn't my father help you, either?"
"You father did what he could when he returned yesterday, trying to get me out of prison, but there wasn't much he could do. The alcalde wouldn't give in and only agreed to release me at dawn today. Everything de Soto did was aimed at me alone. The alcalde made clear that he would do nothing against the caballeros as long as they didn't help me. Your father was standing all alone in his efforts to support me. The other caballeros weren't willing to do anything for a mere tavern wench."
The way she spelled wench made clear that it had been meant as an insult.
"Querida, you're here now. I love you, and I'll do everything I can for you." Diego stroked her back, soothingly, while she was leaning against him.
Just having him to talk to and being in his arms was a relief for her. For the first time since she had gotten his letter, the aching emptiness inside her was gone, and she knew she wouldn't be able to go through that again. "Don't leave me again, Diego, that's all I ask. Please, don't leave me!" she pleaded, desperately. "I need you so much, and I can't go on without you."
"Don't cry anymore, Querida, I'm here for you," he assured her, holding her tight. "Mi Querida. Mi Amor." He kissed her face again and again while she continued sobbing. "It's over. I love you."
His shirt was soaked thoroughly from her tears when she finally calmed down and stopped crying.
Overcoming her own hurt, she looked at him, questioningly. "Tell me about yourself, Diego. What happened that made you write that letter, giving up Zorro, and what are you doing here?"
Quietly, he looked at her, and she saw the pain in his face at her questions and felt him draw her tighter. "I had no choice, Victoria. Believe me, I had no choice. I would have come to your rescue if I had been able to, but I couldn't," he whispered.
"I believe you, Diego, but I need to know what happened."
For a moment he looked at her silently, considering his options. He could send her away without telling her about his arm, or he could tell her everything, though he might still lose her. Gazing at her, he realized that she deserved the truth, but first he wanted to kiss her once more, just in case.
Would she leave him if he told her the truth, or was her love strong enough to keep her at his side?
Tenderly, he brushed through her hair, cupping her cheek with his hand as he bent down to savor her lips for a long, intense kiss that he didn't want to end.
"Diego?" Victoria looked at him, concerned, when he drew apart again. "What is going on?"
Diego didn't answer, alarming her with his silence. "Will you leave me again, Diego?" she asked anxiously, realizing that he hadn't promised her anything.
