Chapter 19. Change of plan.
The next market day, Padre Benitez met Victoria in the square and decided to talk to her.
"Victoria, I'm worried. I'd like to talk to you."
"Can I help you, Padre?"
"It's about Zorro. You see, I know you two broke up for a good reason, but the last time I saw him I realized that you were the light of his life. He was so different, so sad. I guess I never thought until now that under that mask there's a man of flesh and blood, and we don't know anything about him. Maybe he has no one to turn to if he needs help. I wanted to ask you if there's any way I could talk to him."
"Padre, I don't think it's just me. You know he tried to rescue that family during the flood. Not being able to save them all broke his heart."
"Yes, the girl's mother told us that if it wasn't for him she and her baby would have died too. But how do you know that's what saddens him, Victoria? Do you still meet him?"
Victoria avoided his gaze, didn't know what to say. "We're still friends, Padre. I care about him."
"Just friends, or do you still love him?" She avoided giving an answer and that alarmed the priest. "I try not to believe the rumors, but it is said of you that you have not given up on him, even that..."
Victoria's expression was unsettling. The priest realized that she was hiding something from him. He turned to her in shock.
"Come with me right now to a more discreet place," he said in a stern voice.
Inside the church he made sure there was no one else before continuing.
"Victoria, this is very serious. You cannot marry Diego if you still love Zorro and date him in secret." He demanded with a dryness. "Swear to me that you are not lovers."
Victoria was not capable of lying to a priest, so she was relieved to answer him. "I can swear to you that I have never given myself to him."
The usually affable Padre Benitez looked at her with suspicion. "And can you give me your word that you will never do so?"
She didn't have an answer for that question.
"So you don't rule out being unfaithful to your husband with him. I would never have thought of you like that. Lucky your parents don't live to see this." she shrugged off the words, anguished. "I'm sure Diego doesn't know. Poor man, this will destroy him. He trusts you blindly. I have to cancel the wedding."
"Padre, please don't do this," she said in a choked voice.
"Of course I'll cancel it! I will not allow you to hide your relationship with Zorro by marrying another man."
"It's not that, Padre, I want to marry Diego. I love him more than you know."
"You can't have them both!" He exclaimed indignantly.
She paused for a moment to think, but she had no choice. She felt trapped, and looked around, checking that they were alone. She still whispered. "What's happening is that they... They're the same man!"
"Excuse me?"
"Diego is Zorro, he's the one who hides behind the mask." Victoria was crying. "Think of his eyes, his voice, I swear it's him."
"Don't try to convince me of something like that. You know that's not possible."
She was desperate, but she remembered something Diego had told her. "Wait here a moment, please."
She left the church in a hurry and crossed the square to the tavern. She went to doña Carmen's house, but she didn't need to get there, because she found her halfway there.
"Carmen, I need your help immediately."
"Sure. What happened?"
"Padre Benitez wants to cancel the wedding because I can't promise him I'll never be Zorro's lover."
"And what do you want me to do?"
"You have to tell him, I know he'll believe you. Diego told me."
"Are you sure about this?"
"Completely, I don't see any other option."
"Oh, you should have sworn you'd never cheat on Diego, or break your vows. You wouldn't be lying."
"You're right, it didn't occur to me at the time."
"Well, you're going to have to get smart. You should learn from your future husband, he does it all the time."
They both went to the church, where Padre Benitez received them in astonishment. Victoria closed the door behind them and gestured for doña Carmen to speak.
Doña Carmen stared at the priest. "Padre Benitez, I assure you that Zorro is in fact Diego de la Vega."
He stared at her for almost a minute, then looked at Victoria, and then at doña Carmen again. "Virgen santísima!" He finally exclaimed, dropping onto a bench.
Victoria approached him, "We should not have told you. No one else can know, his life depends on it."
Now he was whispering too, infected by Victoria's restlessness. "The secret of confession is sacred, I will never reveal what you have told me. But it is not possible. Everyone saw that when you broke with Zorro, Diego was present."
"It was a hoax. He calls them conspiracies and entanglements. His father, Felipe and I helped him. There was smoke, a dummy with his face made of wax, another dummy dressed as the Fox on Tornado..."
The father was trying to understand all that.
Victoria couldn't stop talking. "When he returned to his shelter after trying to save those people he was wounded, soaked and cold. I had to help him take off his clothes and bandage his wounds, then I went up to the kitchen to get something hot..."
"I don't understand. Did you go up to the kitchen?"
"The Zorro´s cave is under the hacienda de la Vega. The thing is, when I came back, he was crying. So devastated by grief that I didn't know what to do. I hugged him and although nothing else happened that day, the next time we were alone he said that only when he was with me could he stop thinking about the victims, but that we weren't married yet and we had to wait, and I tried to seduce him, but he insisted on waiting."
"Calm down, please. After what I thought of you, it doesn't seem so bad that you'd want to seduce your fiancé. Understand me, you must wait for the wedding, but under these circumstances it's not so bad. How long have you wanted to get married?"
"I knew they were the same person a few weeks ago, but he'd already asked as Zorro when I hurt my ankle, before the Candelaria."
"That was six months ago. That's too long, my child."
Victoria was calming down, no longer crying. "I didn't try again. We always are accompanied by his father or doña Carmen," she said shyly.
"This is good. I'll absolve you of that sin, but it's important that I talk to Diego. I guess he didn't fall off his horse, but hurt himself helping those people." Victoria nodded. "And I'm sure it's not the first time it's happened. That boy makes too many demands on himself. He'll get himself killed in the end."
"You have to help him, Padre. He's suffering. He tried to save that man and his daughter, almost lost his life and still blames himself for not succeeding."
"I have to talk to him right away. We'd better get to the hacienda. Doña Carmen, I'd like you to come with us." Victoria didn't understand why, but she didn't dare argue.
Victoria drove the cart to the de la Vega house. Don Alejandro went out to meet them. Felipe greeted them with a gesture.
"Good afternoon, Padre. Can we help you with anything?" Don Alejandro said respectfully.
"I want to talk to Diego."
"He's out on horseback. I think he'll be back in a while," said Don Alejandro.
"On the black horse perhaps?" asked Padre Benitez. Don Alejandro and Felipe looked at him in fear, and Victoria confessed: "I've told him about Zorro."
The priest realized that she felt guilty for having spoken. "Believe me, it wasn't easy for her to do that. I accused her of being unfaithful to Diego with Zorro and I was very hard on her. When I threatened to call off the wedding, she told me. It is strange how rumors sometimes contain some truth," reflected Padre Benitez.
"We can wait for Diego in the cave," said don Alejandro, and opening the panel he led the priest through the fireplace door.
The priest went to Felipe. "You'd better wait here."
As he walked down the steps he looked around. "It's amazing. Now I'm really starting to believe it."
Don Alejandro smiled, proudly. "I had a hard time accepting it too," he said.
The priest went to Victoria. "Forgive my words, I could not imagine the truth and thought the worst. I'm very happy for you. I was afraid that giving up your love for Zorro would be impossible for you, but now I know that you are faithful to your heart. Even though you take on a great burden every time he goes out to defend the innocent, and endure all those rumours."
"All that doesn't matter if I can be by his side, Padre." she said serenely.
"Besides, it reassures me to know that Zorro has someone who cares about him."
Soon after, Diego entered the cave riding Tornado. When he saw all of them, he was very surprised, especially by the presence of the priest. Victoria came forward to speak to him.
"Diego, I'm sorry, I had to tell him."
Padre Benitez addressed him. "I will keep your identity a secret of confession, but I also think we should talk."
Diego got off his horse and kissed Victoria's hand. "Welcome, Padre. I'm glad you know the truth, even though keeping secrets is sometimes difficult."
"Keeping secrets is part of my vocation, as helping others seems to be part of yours. Diego: your father, Victoria, and also Felipe are very concerned about you."
"I'm fine, Padre," he said, but he didn't seem too sure.
"Diego, son, you are indeed a great man. Probably the best I've ever known, but you're just a man and you have to measure your strength. You have a family to think about. We all know you did what you could for those people. Now they rest in peace."
While Victoria was by his side, she held his hand.
The priest continued. "I know it's hard to lose someone, but think of the lives you saved, the people you helped, and all the reasons you have to keep going. It's at times like this that a man shows his true strength."
After a pause, he added.
"It is clear that you need Victoria near you, and I can help you with that, although I must say that your behavior with her has not been exemplary. I expected more from a caballero. As Zorro, you have exposed her to rumors and slander. You have respected her, and that honors you, but to walk around at night entering a señorita´s bedroom is not right," he said seriously.
Diego seemed a little embarrassed. "You're right, Padre. I made mistakes, but I think by marrying her I'll start to make up for them."
"Well, I agree, but under the circumstances it's best that you get married immediately."
They looked at each other in surprise. "Is that possible?" said Victoria in amazement.
"Of course, you are single, the banns have been read, and there are two witnesses," answered the priest.
"But how can we explain such a sudden wedding without raising more rumors?" said Diego.
"Since you seem so fond of secrets, what I propose is that you marry today without anyone else knowing, and that Victoria go back to the tavern. You must be very careful with your conduct. You may meet in this house, where you are supposed to be under the supervision of don Alejandro. No nightly excursions." He said looking at Diego. Diego and Victoria looked at the floor a little embarrassed by the rebuke. "I'll say I'm moving up your wedding to two weeks from now because I want to go visit the mission in San Diego, so you'll renew your vows in the church, only those of us present will know you're actually married already. Are you willing?"
Diego, smiling for the first time in days, said, "It's what I want most in the world." He looked at her again. "Victoria, this is not the wedding you dreamed of, but will you marry me now?"
"You're by my side, that's all I want." she answered without hesitation.
The priest seemed satisfied, and relaxing a bit, he said: "Well, but Diego, you can't marry wearing the mask."
"I forgot, Father, I'm so used to it now..."
Victoria came to him and took it away.
Diego realized something. "Where is Felipe? He can't miss this."
Don Alejandro went up to look for him and Felipe came in very surprised.
Again the priest spoke. "Now join hands."
After the brief ceremony, while Diego and Victoria were still looking into each other's eyes, Don Alejandro offered his arm to doña Carmen, and looked at Padre Benitez. "Padre, I have a bottle of wine with which we can celebrate this occasion. Felipe, shall we go?"
They were left alone and they kissed.
zzZzz
Felipe left the room to run some errands. Don Alejandro and doña Carmen were talking to the priest.
"I'm very glad you came, Padre. You've had a magnificent idea."
"It was the best we could do. There was no point in making them wait another five weeks, and I don't think they would have waited. Although you both were supposed to be watching them. It's the duty of parents and friends to do that."
"Padre, you understand that Diego is not easy to watch. He's Zorro and I didn't know it until he told me a few weeks ago. Besides, they had been seeing each other alone for years without anything happening. I assure you they were making a great effort."
Doña Carmen intervened. "I warned him that we shouldn't leave them alone."
"That's true." he confirmed.
"They almost made a mistake, but it was partly my fault. When young people ask me for a date for the wedding I try not to delay it too much, because they are usually reckless. In this case I thought that Victoria would need some time to think about whether she really wanted to get married, so that Diego would have a chance to continue to win her affection. If I knew who he really was, I would have married them as soon as possible. If I had to get angry with all the young people who rush in like I got angry with Victoria..."
"He told me he would have put her on his horse, taken her to the nearest church and married her immediately, but that would have been Zorro's, not Diego's."
"He was caught in his own lie," said Padre Benitez sadly. "So you and Diego were so sure about Victoria," he laughed. "And the alcalde, waiting for Zorro to show up at the tavern while he was all the time coming and going right under his nose."
