Chapter 21

In the evening Victoria arrived at the de la Vega hacienda with several bags on her cart that a servant helped her to unload.

"Victoria, it's nice to see you," Alejandro said surprised. "Are you staying for dinner? What's going on? Why do you have all this luggage?"

"Didn't Diego tell you?" she asked. "He said there would be a room ready for me."

"I haven't seen him the whole day after he told me in the morning about his intention to go to the harbor." Alejandro called the housekeeper to ask about Victoria's room who told him that Diego had ordered a servant's room made ready for her.

"A servant's room? What did Diego think? You are no servant, Victoria. You're a friend and our guest." Alejandro immediately ordered to prepare the guest room instead she had occupied on previous visits. "I will tell Diego that he can't treat you like this. He can neither call you a servant nor treat you like one only because he bought the tavern from you. I understand the times are hard for you, but you can still count on me and my family."

"Thank you, Don Alejandro." She was grateful for his support, feeling guilty at the same time for not telling him the truth about the whole situation, but she trusted Diego's decision that it was safer not to tell his father everything until they were securely married without the threat of the alcalde to hang him as Zorro. A servant carried her bags to the guest room and she started unpacking, knowing this wasn't only for a night as on other visits.

"Victoria?" Diego knocked at the door of the guest room his father had assigned her. At her call, he slipped in quickly and closed the door behind him.

"Did your father tell you where I am?" she asked.

"No, I haven't talked to him yet but I knew where to find you without asking." Diego smiled and took her into his arms.

"Did you check the other room first?"

"No, there was no need. I knew my father would never let you stay in a servant room. He cares too much about you though not as much I." Diego bent down to kiss her.

"The servant room was only a ruse?"

"You would never have stayed there. It's either in this guest room or in my arms. Whatever you prefer."

"I want to stay in your arms for the rest of my life." She wrapped her arms around him, returning his kiss.

"Soon. If everything goes as planned, we can get married soon. Did everything work out in the pueblo?"

"Yes, I could persuade Mendoza to search for the money on the roof while the alcalde decided to ride to the harbor too. Of course, they didn't find the money and only left a big hole in the roof and another in the floor as well. The alcalde won't be pleased when he returns home tonight."

"I certainly hope so." Diego laughed. "You must have been quite convincing. I didn't know you were such a good actress."

"I can act too and will play my part if it brings us closer to getting married."

"I don't want to wait any longer, but at least I can have you in my arms at night while you're staying at the hacienda during the renovations."

"Can I assume the renovations of the rooms at the tavern will take some time?"

"I guess it will take a few weeks. You know it is so complicated to decide which furniture and ..."

Victoria mockingly slapped him on his arm. "You can't fool me. You only want me to stay here at the hacienda."

"Would that be so bad?" he smiled, but then he turned serious again. "I'm sorry that this will inconvenience you so much. I know you will have to get up earlier each morning to drive to the tavern when you could have slept there instead and the same in the evening too."

"Being with you is more worth than the hour of sleep every day. I don't mind that, Diego."

"Then we have to make sure my father doesn't guess anything, or he'd do everything to keep us apart until we're properly married."

"Yes, we need to be careful. You should better go."

"Yes. I should." Diego made no attempts to release her from his arms and continued to kiss her.

"Go now," she said again.

"I'll see you at dinner." Diego released her and carefully checked the hallway before he slipped out of her room.

"Diego, I need to talk to you." His father spotted him on his way to the dining room and motioned him to join him in the parlor. "I want to tell you that you can't treat Victoria this way. First, you call her your servant in her own tavern, and then you treat her like one by ordering her to stay in a servant room. I will not have that! I gave Victoria the guest room she used before, and I won't let you treat her as a servant. Victoria is a friend of our family, and I want you to respect that. I can't understand what is going on in your mind. You bought that tavern from her without consulting me, and now you developed an attitude towards her that I cannot accept. Money does not give you the right to treat others as servants. I thought you had understood that."

"Of course, Father," Diego agreed. "I will talk to Victoria and apologize to her."

"If we have that settled, we can have dinner as soon as Victoria joins us," Alejandro said, satisfied.

During dinner Diego talked about his visit to the harbor and the ship leaving for Spain on Saturday morning. "I also saw the alcalde talk to the captain. I wonder what he wanted."

"He wanted to check on the mail because there might be important messages from Spain for him. At least that's what he said," Victoria explained, before she continued to tell about the ill-fated search for Zorro's bounty money.

"I wish you could find the money," Alejandro said. "Now that Zorro has left, there is no more need to have it ready for the day Zorro was caught, but I'm not surprised our alcalde never had it even though he was so intent on catching him."

"Zorro was too careful to let the alcalde catch him, and de Soto knew it," Victoria said.

"The money is needed in the pueblo and not to be spent on Zorro who has always defended the people and..." Before Alejandro could continue he was interrupted by a peon bursting into the room, breathing heavily.

"Patron, Señorita Victoria, you have come to the pueblo. There is a fire in the tavern," he exclaimed.

"My tavern? That can't be!" Victoria leaped to her feet, bursting into tears.

"Manuel, tell us what happened!" Diego demanded, who had stepped next to Victoria, putting his hand on her arm to comfort her.

"Some bandits, I don't know their names, came into the tavern and asked for Señorita Victoria. When Señorita Alicia told them she wasn't there tonight, they didn't believe her and demanded Señorita Victoria to show herself and to lead them to Zorro, because they wanted revenge for Zorro sending them to prison."

"So the men were after Zorro and not after Victoria?" Diego asked.

"Si, Don Diego. When they realized they couldn't get to Zorro, they rampaged in the tavern and set it on fire."

"My tavern!" Victoria cried in horror.

"What happened then?" Diego asked.

"I don't know. Someone called the soldiers who started to fight the fire immediately, and I was told to come here and get you ."

"Thank you, Manuel, for coming. We will go to the pueblo at once," Alejandro said.

While his father left the room, ordering the servants to get the carriage and a horse for himself ready, Diego took the crying Victoria into his arms to comfort her.

"My tavern. It's gone!"

"Querida, we don't know that yet. Let's check on the situation first. We can always rebuild it depending on the damage."

"I know but.."

"Do you want me to ride ahead or go with you in the carriage?"

"Stay with me, please."