Chapter 25
"Don Diego, I must congratulate you to your successful rescue mission," the bishop greeted them friendly as they entered the large reception hall that was also a ball room. "Without you, none of the young women would have returned home. When the padre brought you to the meeting two weeks ago, I could hardly believe your story and that you were in fact who you claimed to be, but you were true to your word. Is the young señorita at your side one of the rescued women?"
"Your Excellency," Diego bowed, "this is Señorita Victoria Escalante from Los Angeles, my fiancée."
"Your Excellency." Victoria made her reverence to the bishop. "It's good to be free again. It was a terrible time. Are those who were abducted from the mission are already back in San Antonio?"
"The postulants are on their way back to San Antonio and the rest are waiting here at the mission in Monterey for their parents to decide about their future. They will either return to the mission school to continue with their education or their parents will take them home to recover," the bishop explained. "I expect you will attend the wedding ceremony of Captain de Aragón and Señorita Sofia tomorrow?"
"Didn't they get married on the ship, Your Excellency?" Victoria inquired, confused.
"The ceremony was performed by the ship captain and the Senorita's parents questioned the validity of such a marriage," the bishop explained. "Since the Señorita is no longer suitable or willing to return to the convent, it's best to have the ceremony repeated in a church. In honor of Captain de Aragón's efforts in returning the women, I will perform the ceremony myself. I could do the same for you two tomorrow. After the difficult time you went through, I assume that you want to get married as soon as possible?" The bishop inquired.
Victoria blushed, feeling embarrassed by the suggestion, but Diego was quick with his reply.
"Your Excellency, we're really honored by your offer and you're right that we're planning our marriage for the next possible date. We discussed the option to marry here in Monterey, but unfortunately my fiancée suffered severe injuries when she was abducted and the doctor told us to wait until she has fully recovered in about three weeks. That gives us the chance to return to Los Angeles and have our families present at the ceremony," Diego explained.
"I understand, Señor," the bishop stated, "Nonetheless, I will order my secretary to write you a special marriage license, so you can get married without having to wait for the bans to be read."
"We're honored, Your Excellency." Diego and Victoria made their reference as the bishop excused them.
"Now we can get married any time we want," Diego tried to brush over Victoria's discomfort.
"Maybe we should get married tomorrow," Victoria said unhappily. "It would make everything easier."
"Victoria, I promised you to give you the time you need to heal and get ready," Diego assured her. "There's no need to hurry. If you can live with it, then I can live with it too. We will get married in Los Angeles three weeks after our return as we planned with the usual time for the bans to be read. Nobody in Los Angeles needs to know what happened during the time you were kidnapped and it will take some time until the news reaches Los Angeles."
Victoria smiled at him gratefully.
"Are you Don Diego de la Vega?" a white haired caballero in his sixties wearing a brown suit with gold embroideries along the sleeves and legs approached them.
"Yes, that's me," Diego confirmed. "I'm sorry, Señor, I don't know your name, but I believe we haven't met before."
"I'm Cristobal Santiago from San Juan Bautista, north of Monterey. Allow me to express my sincere gratitude, Don Diego, for bringing home my granddaughter," the don shook Diego's hand. "She's the only thing I have left after her parents died of a fever a few years ago. I always wanted the best for her and thought she'd be safe in the mission school, but I was mistaken. All these months I have been hoping to get her back and you've made it possible. I'm in your debt, Don Diego."
"I've only done what every man would have done in my situation, Don Cristobal," Diego replied.
"Oh, I don't think so, Don Diego, but your modesty does you credit. I regret that I hadn't the chance to meet you before on one of the bull auctions and trade meetings. I like to know my business partners before making deals. Will you be on the auction in Santa Barbara in two weeks?"
"I don't think I'll make it this year. I have to travel back to Los Angeles with my fiancée and on my way back we will join the soldiers who take the other young women home who were kidnapped between Monterey and Los Angeles. Santa Paula was the farthest south they abducted women and from there we will travel on our own," Diego explained. "My father will represent our family as in the years before."
"I have met your father on the auctions in the recent years. He's an honorable man and it's good to see that his son comes after him. Your father always wanted to breed his horses with the ones from my stables, because they are the best in California, even better than his own. I always refused, because your father couldn't make me a good enough offer. You can tell your father that I will accept his business proposal this year." Don Cristobal declared.
"I'm honored, Señor," Diego replied. "I don't know if I can accept that, Don Cristobal. I didn't free the women to make profit."
"You can be sure, Don Diego, that it won't be a gift. Your father will still have to pay for it," Don Cristobal grinned slyly.
There were similar talks like the one with Don Cristobal where relatives of the freed women expressed their gratitude to Diego for his help in getting back the kidnapped women. Most of them were caballeros from different areas of California whose daughters had attended the mission school in San Antonio.
"You've become famous in California now," Victoria stated. "Your father can no longer complain that you don't mingle enough with your peers in California. There were a lot of business offers for you."
"Yes, I know, but I don't want to make money or become famous, because I helped their daughters. I did it to help the women in need, and I don't expect anything in return," Diego replied.
"I know why you did it, Diego, and that's one of the reason I love you so much," Victoria smiled at him.
"What are the others?" Diego asked, grinning.
"You're impossible, Diego," Victoria laughed.
Z~Z~Z
While Diego was occupied talking to some caballeros who wanted to shake his hand and express their gratitude, Victoria went over to greet her friend Sofia who was standing next to an elderly couple.
Sofia introduced her to her parents, Don Alonzo and Doña Isabella Torres. Sofia's mother looked at Victoria disapprovingly. "So, you're the young women who led my daughter astray?"
"I'm sorry, Doña Isabella, I don't know what you're talking about," Victoria said confused.
"Without you, my daughter wouldn't have rebelled against our decision for her to become a nun. Obviously, there can't be expected better when you lacked parental guiding yourself," Doña Isabella said condescendingly.
"Mother, please don't talk like this to my friend. Without her I wouldn't have been able to come back. I never wanted to become a nun and it was my own decision to marry Manuel. Meeting Victoria showed me that women can make their own decisions and that it's worth fighting for your love. I no longer have to answer to you no matter if you doubt the validity of the wedding ceremony on board of the ship or not. Tomorrow the bishop will wed us again and there's nothing you can do against it. I belong to Manuel now and I won't go back to the convent. Why can't you accept that?"
Sofia was close to tears.
"I'm sorry, Victoria that you were drawn into this," she turned to her friend. "We should go back to Manuel and Diego."
Z~Z~Z
The governor moved to the head of the hall and signed for silence before he began his speech.
"Señoras y Señores, we have met here tonight to celebrate the return of many young women who were taken from our midst by villains who had nothing but their own fortune in mind not caring about the grief and terror they caused for the young women and their families. As your governor I care for the welfare of all the citizens in California and I assigned my nephew Captain Manuel de Aragón to investigate in the matter and to do everything to get the young women home who were so dearly missed by their families. Unfortunately, we had a traitor in our midst who thwarted our efforts to free the young women, but you can be assured that your government never stopped in their struggles to bring your loved ones home to you."
"He's a politician through and through," Don Cristobal, who stood next to Diego, said quietly as the governor continued with his speech. "During the trial it became obvious that he didn't have a clue what happened to the women and still he's trying to claim the success for himself. Without you, Don Diego, and your remarkable fiancée, who managed to delay the ship, we wouldn't have seen any of the women again. If you wanted to go into politics, you had good chances to be elected."
"I'm not interested in becoming a politician, Don Cristobal," Diego replied, while the audience was politely clapping to the governor's speech. "The governor appears to be a decent man for his position. I've seen worse in Los Angeles."
"I forgot that you're from Los Angeles, Don Diego. I've never been there, but I heard about it. Isn't it there where the famous Zorro is fighting oppression, making a laughingstock out of the soldiers?" Don Cristobal stared at him.
"Yes, the situation in Los Angeles isn't good," Diego said calmly. "During the last week while I was the governor's guest, I had the chance to explain it to the governor and he promised to investigate it. Until now the alcalde got away with his lies, but now after all the evidences my fiancée and I provided, the governor will have to take some action."
"If there's no more oppression in Los Angeles,there will be no more need for Zorro, I guess. I wish you all the luck for the future, Don Diego. You deserve it." Don Cristobal nodded at him.
The governor had come to the end of his speech and now asked Diego to step forward together with Captain de Aragón, Major de la Cuesta and Captain de Bazán.
"Señores," the governor addressed the four men, "I want to thank you all for your successful rescue of the young women who would have never returned home without you. You did a great service for California and your country, especially Don Diego de la Vega who provided the crucial information to capture the bandits and to rescue our beloved daughter and sisters who were dearly missed by their families and friends." After the audience had stopped clapping, the governor continued. "As an expression of my gratitude, I hereby want to give you all the medal of honor of California. You deserve it." The governor handed each of them the medal and shook their hands.
After the ceremony was over, the guest were led into the dining room for the formal dinner.
"You were the only one who really deserved the medal, Diego," Manuel said quietly to Diego using the first moment they could talk while they walked over to the dining room. "The rest of us only followed our orders. You started your investigation on your own while you had no obligation."
"I couldn't have rescued the women without the help of you, Captain de Bazán and Major de la Cuesta," Diego stated. "We all had our part of it."
"Without you I would never have had the chance to marry my Sofia, Diego, and I'm very grateful," Manuel smiled at Sofia at his arm.
"I'm sorry, Manuel, that we can't attend your wedding tomorrow, but the escort to take me and the other women home starts early in the morning," Victoria said who was led by Diego.
"It doesn't matter, Victoria, Diego. I can understand that you can't delay the departure of the escort and that you all want to go home," Manuel appeased them. "The wedding tomorrow is only a formality, because Sofia's parents insisted on it. For us, the real wedding was the one on the ship and you were present then."
The dinner was accompanied by even more speeches and Diego and Victoria were relieved when it was finally over. They looked forward to their departure tomorrow and getting home to Los Angeles.
A/N: I finally got back into writing this story again, after I took a break from it. I finished the missing chapter that kept me from posting the following ones. After this chapter I will return to posting regularly and I look forward to your reviews. I want to thank again my regular reviewers MJF, MJS, Dapet and all the others for their continued support and feedback.