Chapter 10

"Diego?" Shocked, Victoria jumped from her seat as she watched him fall. Felipe reacted instantly and was the first to kneel down beside the unconscious Diego, opening his jacket. Concerned, he saw the growing blood stain on the white shirt.

"Diego?" Alejandro exclaimed. "Felipe, what's wrong with him? Where does all the blood come from?"

Felipe only shook his head and motioned to Victoria and Alejandro to help him move Diego into his room. When they had put Diego on his bed, the blood stain on his side had become even larger.

Felipe was too busy to get Diego out of his jacket and shirt to answer Alejandro's and Victoria's questions.

"Diego is unconscious, and he is bleeding profusely. Felipe, you must tell me what has happened. We need the doctor at once!" Alejandro demanded.

"I'll send for the doctor," Victoria agreed, leaving the room to call a servant.

With a grim face Felipe fetched the medical supplies from the drawer next to the bed and started to remove the bloody bandages.

"The wound looks like a gunshot!" Alejandro said, shocked and confused. "Where did Diego get it? And why didn't he say anything?"

Felipe only shrugged and motioned for Alejandro to help him. Alejandro was amazed by the amount of medicine that was stored in Diego's cabinet, and he realized that Felipe was very experienced in treating Diego and dressing the wound. Assisting Felipe, he impatiently awaited the doctor's arrival, praying that his son would be all right.

Felipe didn't answer any of his questions and the only thing Alejandro could find out was that the bullet was no longer inside.

Z~Z~Z

The doctor requested to be alone with the patient, allowing only Felipe to stay, after the boy explained that he had treated Diego before. Impatiently, Victoria and Alejandro waited outside the room, talking quietly.

"What has happened to Diego? What has Felipe told you?" Victoria asked worriedly. "Why was he bleeding so much?"

"He was shot and has lost a lot of blood," Alejandro said helplessly. "That's all I could get out of Felipe."

"When was Diego shot? How? I don't understand any of this!" Victoria said shocked.

"Diego hasn't said anything to you either?" Alejandro inquired. "You have no idea?"

"I think he is seeing another woman," Victoria said, distressed. "Perhaps a jealous rival shot him."

"Diego has a secret lover?" Alejandro asked, surprised. "And you knew that?"

"Diego has denied that he is meeting with a woman, but he's not spending his nights in his own bed, reading, as he wants you to believe," Victoria said miserably.

"I'm realizng that I don't know my son at all," Alejandro said sadly. "He told me of a woman who left him at the altar and a secret engagement and now he has a secret love affair on top of it although he's married. I can't believe it! I thought I had raised him better!"

"He was secretly engaged? But I thought .. I thought he never told her," Victoria said, confused.

"Did you know Diego was in love, Victoria? Did he talk about it with you? Do you know who she was?"

"He only mentioned that there was a woman he loved, but he said that he never confessed his love to her and he wouldn't tell me her name. I didn't know it went as far as an engagement! No wonder he was so opposed to marrying me!" Victoria said, appalled. "Why is the doctor taking so long? Do you think he will survive?"

They fell silent with their own thoughts as they waited for the doctor to come out of Diego's room.

Z~Z~Z

The doctor's face was grim when he entered the hallway and faced them.

"How is he, Doctor?" Victoria asked anxiously.

"He's very weak from loss of blood," the doctor explained. "The wound at his side has opened up again, and I fear that there will be an infection. All this wouldn't have happened if he had stayed in bed," he looked at Victoria reproachfully. "Señora, I usualla keep my opinion to myself, but this time I can't help it. Why did you allow your husband to get up? If I understood Felipe's signs correctly, you even urged him to come to breakfast. I simply don't understand you!"

"It wasn't my fault, Doctor," Victoria defended herself. "I didn't know."

"But you're married. There's no way he could hide this from you, his wife," the doctor said, as Victoria continued to shake her head. "Oh, now I believe I understand," he stared at her. "I heard the rumors in the pueblo about your marriage though I couldn't believe they were true. I can't understand how you can treat your husband so badly, after all he did for you."

"Doctor, I asked Diego to get up," Alejandro explained, putting an arm around Victoria who had started to cry. "I didn't know he was injured."

"I've said enough, Don Alejandro, and you must excuse me my words, but I hate to see someone's condition made worse when it could have been prevented so easily," the doctor apologized.

"Is there something more we can do?" Alejandro asked, concerned.

"I have done all I can for the moment. He needs water to replace what he is sweating out, and you should take care that the fever doesn't get too high. I'll return in the afternoon to check on him again."

Z~Z~Z

Diego remained unconscious during the day and in the evening a fever set in. The doctor had returned with some medicine to help him fight the infection, but there wasn't anything else he could do. Alejandro, Felipe and Victoria took turns at his bedside to nurse him and keep the fever down.

Victoria was moisturizing Diego's parched lips when he started to talk. At first, she couldn't understand anything, but then he cried out.

"Querida, Querida," he called desperately.

Victoria jumped from her seat and dropped the cloth she was holding in her hand as she stared at him. She knew that voice and the way he said it too well. How many times had Zorro called her Querida when he had taken her in his arms and kissed her?

"Zorro?" she whispered shocked. "Diego?" Was Diego Zorro? But it couldn't be, could it? She would have known, wouldn't she? Was she married to Zorro without knowing it?

"Diego?" She shook his shoulder gently, but he didn't hear her.

"Querida," he whispered again, feverishly calling out to his love, turning his head to the side and momentarily opening his eyes without seeing her. Why had she never noticed his blue eyes before? The blue eyes of Zorro?

Shocked by the revelation, Victoria fled the room and leaned against the wall in the hallway, hiding her tears behind her hands.

"Victoria? What's wrong? Diego, is he...?" Alejandro approached her, concerned. "Tell me!" he urged her when she continued to cry. Victoria looked up and shook her head. "No, there's no change to Diego. The fever is still the same," she said, tears still flowing down her cheeks.

"Then what is it? What has shocked you?" Alejandro wanted to know.

"Father, please don't get me wrong, but I need to ask you something," Victoria pleaded. "The ring from your wife that Diego said he misplaced, what does it look like?"

"Victoria, I don't understand you! Diego is lying in his room dying and you ask me about the jewelry of my late wife? How can you think about such a thing at a time like this?" Alejandro reprimanded her.

"Please, it's something I need to know. I don't want the jewelry. I only want to know what the ring looks like. Is it a gold ring with an emerald surrounded by diamonds?" Victoria asked, wiping the tears from her face.

"Yes, that's the ring," Alejandro confirmed, looking at Victoria who had gone pale but otherwise showed no surprise. "Now tell me what this is all about!"

"I understand now what has happened. How could he believe that I loved him when I told him at the same time that I didn't want him? It was my fault I lost him," she whispered.

"Victoria, what are you talking about? What has this to do with Elena's ring?" Alejandro asked, confused.

Victoria shook her head. "I've made so many mistakes. I don't know what to do." She looked at the concern on his face, tears still flowing down her cheeks.

"Victoria, please tell me what's going on. What has you so upset?"

"I can't talk about it now when I'm just beginning to understand what's going on. It's a lot to take in and it's hurting so much," she pleaded. Turning, she walked away sadly, heading for her room.