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Chapter 11
Seeing how the bandits were heading in the direction of the pueblo, he whistled for Toronado who comes up galloping directly. Taking a shortcut, it is less than a mile from the pueblo, Zorro awaits them in the middle of the road.
"Looking for me señores?" touching his hand against his hat to salute the men.
"Zorro! Get him. The money is ours!" Jefe shouts.
Urging Toronado into a gallop, Zorro is being followed by the six bandits. He knows the terrain well and the small forest of bushes and trees with low-hanging branches nearby is perfect to lure the bandits in to.
Making his way quickly between the low-hanging branches, it does not take long before the first three bandits fall out of the saddle by riding against a branch. Circling his way back he jumps on the fourth bandit's horse and knocks the rider of. The same thing Zorro does to the next bandit, he catches up to. Jumping back on Toronado, he then sees the leader of the gang. Who awaits him at the edge of the small forest, a gun pointed out.
"Get of, or get killed señor!" The words sounding shrill.
"I always prefer life to death señor" using his whip to get the gun out of the hand of Jefe. Zorro gets from his horse. Jefe in the meantime has grabbed for his sword. The fight that follows is short. Pushing the sword in Jefe's neck until a drop of blood shows up.
"The señorita knows nothing, you understand. And if you so much as look at her again, it will be the last thing you ever do."
Hearing one bandit sneak up on him from behind, Zorro punches the man coming at his back unconscious. Turning around, knocking Jefe unconscious as well.
Zorro ties Jefe and the one he thought was called Pedro up. Little while later the same happens to their comrades. He has just start to tie a rope around the wrists of the last bandit when the daily patrol of lancers show up.
"Corporal Pérez, good to see you!" Zorro saluting the highest ranked lancer in the patrol. "You have arrived just in time. See here, the men who robbed the farms east of the pueblo!"
"Zorro! We must catch you!" The soldier is somewhat confused, what he needs to do.
"Since it are six of them, and only one of me... What do you say to this? I'll be on my way and you and your men do not come after me. Say you found the bandits, this way the alcalde can't get angry for you not capturing me again. I will not tell, if you don't!" getting on Toronado, giving the corporal a wink. "Maybe next time you will capture me. Adiós."
The lancers did not even try to follow him. Most of the lancers never tried very hard to capture Zorro.
Zorro only dismounted, when he saw the leaders horse to check saddlebag, that carried indeed a large back of approximately a thousand pesos belonging to Victoria.
Starting to make his way back to the cave, not in a hurry.
First he needed somewhere to find the strength to tell her, Victoria and Diego had no future. In the last weeks he had started dreaming that everything he had ever wished for could come to reality.
Again Diego needed to make sacrifices for also being Zorro. He needed to let her go. He needed to break his heart, breaking hers as well. For if not, he was putting Victoria's life at risk. Diego didn't want to return to the cave, and do the hardest thing. Only the thought of seeing Victoria getting injured or killed gave him the strength to do what he must do.
It was Toronado, who took the lead and faster than Diego wanted he bent down over the back of the steed to enter the cave by the low entrance.
Finding Victoria seated in his chair. She was asleep.
Without making a sound he took of his hat, mask, gloves and his belt. Sitting at the corner of the desk, he only was looking at Victoria.
After years of believing Diego hiding his feelings for Victoria was the hardest thing about being Zorro.
Now he knew, he could not have been more wrong. That part had been easy. The hardest thing was, having tasted how it could be. And then let go.
A lock of hair was covering part of her face, and he could not resist the temptation of gently placing it behind her ear. He loved her so much, and she was so beautiful. On the inside as well as the outside.
There wasn't a thing he wouldn't do for her. Including what he was about to do now. Making sure because of Zorro, no harm would ever come upon her.
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Slowly Victoria wakened, it took some seconds before she remembered where she was. In Zorro's cave. Diego was sitting next to her. "Did you find...?"
"Yes I found the bandits and reclaimed your money. It is in Toronado's saddlebags. I handed the bandits over to Pérez and some lancers. They should be in jail by now."
"Thank you, Diego, I am sorry for being so unreasonable before. To be frank, I think you were just in time. Those bandits were catching up on me." Victoria licked her lips and went on.
"Diego..."
"Victoria..."
Both had started to speak at the same time. Not ready to give her up just yet, Diego let Victoria talk first.
"Diego, ... I" her eyes went to the books on the desk. It was then Diego noticed his journal was in a different place then he left it.
"I was looking around in the cave and lost my balance. The pile of books fell over, and I saw my name in one of them...
It was already too late before I realized it was your journal." Victoria apologized.
"You read it?" Diego asked, the tone in his voice made it impossible to get the slightest hint of what he was thinking.
Victoria knowing she had read something not meant for her eyes, something private.
Victoria looking to the floor, biting on her lip "I am sorry. I only read the page it felt open to. I saw my name and I couldn't get my eyes of it."
Diego nodding understandingly, still not saying anything.
"Diego, reading that one page, I found the real Diego... I think. And I love him." placing her hands on his shoulders, crossing the small distance between them, it was just before their lips met she said.
"If you still have me, I want to marry you. Not don Diego, not Zorro but you, the man writing in that journal how much he cares for me."
Victoria was blushing. It felt very improper for her as a woman to ask a man to marry her.
Hearing Victoria saying the words Diego had hoped to hear for years, on the day he found out he needed to let her go was too much. Pushing her away, standing up Diego walked away from her as far as he could. Making his hands into fists, his entire body tensed as he forced himself to say the words he needed to say.
"I am sorry Victoria, I... can no longer marry you."
"What... why?"
Diego was not direct responding to her, startled her first. Now she was just afraid for what was to come next.
"Don't ask, please. I just know... I have to let you go, it will be for the better." saying the words felt like a knife was cutting his heart in pieces. Turning his back to Victoria. If he was to look in her eyes once, he was lost.
"Wait a minute. After all this time, now you want to give up on us and refuse to even tell me why?"
"Victoria please..." Diego tried not to sound desperate.
"No, why don't you want me any more? And don't try telling me it is because you don't love me. So tell me the truth. Why?"
Restless walking up and down. Rubbing his hand through his hair. "It is because I love you too much." Pain was in his voice.
"I don't understand. Why all of a sudden. What is changed?" Victoria was searching for a explanation for the strange behaviour of the man she loved.
Barely able to speak, Diego forced himself to squeeze the words out of his mouth. They were not more than a whisper. "The bandits."
"What about them?"
"It was something they said." Diego moved over to Toronado, petting the magnificent horse on his head. Hoping to find the strength to go on.
"They were not searching only for Zorro... They were searching for you as well. They wanted to kidnap you, when you returned to the tavern and… force…
To tell...one way or another..." For the first time Diego looked at Victoria. His eyes were, the only word to describe it would be, wild.
"I can not let something happen to you Victoria. Don't you see. When you marry me, your life will be at constant risk."
It took some effort, but Victoria managed to get up and stumble over to Diego. The sight of the pain on his face, in his eyes, broke her heart.
She got out of balance and would have fallen had not Diego caught her. Placing her hands on his broad chest.
"Diego, if that is the only reason you do not want to marry me then I won't accept it.
I love you Diego de la Vega, and I know you love me. I rather be your wife for one day, then live the rest of my life without you."
Holding her in his arms. The feeling of her hands was like burning holes in his shirt. It was almost too much, he was about to give in.
"Victoria. Try to understand please, I could not live with myself, if something happened to you because of Zorro." He tried again to make her see, it was for the best.
"So it is alright for you to get injured and risk your life every time Zorro rides? But no harm may come on me? Is that what you are saying!?" Victoria's voice was raising.
"I… eh" Diego was lost for words. Victoria her anger was rising.
"Like you almost did for de Soto last time with those Indians!?
What if they insisted you do that... that fire thing, and you had died for de Soto! I should just have to accepted that!? Learn to live with it!? You are allowed to sacrifice yourself for whom ever you choose. But I am not allowed to do the same for you!? Even when I want to, is that what you are saying!?"
Victoria tried to understand, she really did. Diego was willing to die for her, she knew that. Why wasn't she allowed to do the same for him when it came to it? That was when she was starting to feel her temper rise and got more angry by the minute.
Diego saw the danger of Victoria losing her temper.
"Victoria you need to calm down. We can be heard in the library."
"And we wouldn't want that, would we!?" Lowering her voice a bit. "Because of... why, your father?
You worry so much about your precious secret. I and your father not finding out on it. I was not even allowed to know you care for me."
Victoria started to struggle to get loose from the firm grip of Diego's arms surrounding her. "Let me go, I want to go home. How do I get out of here? Let me go I am telling you!"
Forgetting about the pain, for she was not coming loose, Victoria lifted her right foot and landed it hard on Diego's boot. Causing him to let her go, Victoria taking a few steps back. Bumping against a wooded beam was what prevented her from falling backwards.
"I love you Diego and if the day ever comes you are hanged, I rather hang besides you than life 100 years without you. All you have to do, is accepting that, and I will be yours."
Tears that had been burning in her eyes for minutes now started to roll over her cheeks.
"I will tell you something, you are so selfish. You do not mind or me, your father or Felipe get hurt every... single... day. As long as you can keep telling yourself no one will harm us, and nothing hurts you."
"You think this has been easy! You think I like keeping all this a secret. Pretending to be someone I am not?" This time Diego's voice was louder than he wanted to be. He was the one loosing his self-control.
"I am saying, by protecting us, you're hurting us. You think your father isn't hurt for seeing his son turned into someone he hardly even recognizes?
You choose to start an affair with me as Zorro. I admit I liked it very much, the special attention Zorro was paying me. But by doing that you denied giving the real you even a chance. You refused me, to see you for whom you really are.
You can not stop everyone you care for from living, Diego. Not only that, but you, can not stop yourself from living. Life isn't easy or fair, it never is."
His arms crossed over each other, Diego tried to get back control over his feelings. Was that indeed what he had been doing? Trying to protect them so hard, he had not wanted to see that the pain he caused was worse than being safe.
"Victoria, I..." He didn't know what to say. He wanted her to be his. He even more wanted her to be safe and happy. How was he going to do that? Coming close to her again to take her in his arms again.
Victoria made a few steps backwards. "No, I have made my decision. Diego, I will be yours the second you're brave enough for wanting us to be together …
Until that moment I think it is better to give you some time to think about whom you want to be,
Diego or Zorro...
I have found the real Diego. He is there, in that journal of yours. Hiding, to scared to come out. I think you need to search and find him too before we can go on. Will you please ask Felipe to bring me home?" Sniffling her noise. "I still don't know how to get out of here."
"Querida..." his arm reaching in her direction to wipe away the tears still running over her cheeks.
"No, Diego better not. First I needed time, I think now you need some time. I'll be waiting for you. I have done that for over four years. And I will wait, as long as you need.
I want to go back to the pueblo now."
"May I say something first."
"You think that is wise?"
"Perhaps not."
Coming a bit closer Victoria placed a kiss on Diego's cheek "you ain't going to lose my love Diego, I promise.
But I do believe you need to accept life as it is. Meaning you can not stop yourself from getting hurt, by shutting people out.
I know you are willing to die for me. Please accept I am willing to die for you too. That is what is called love."
The lump in his throat was almost too big to swallow it away. "You do not know what you are saying."
"I know exactly what I am saying. I love you Diego. More than life itself. And I will not allow some bandits to stop me from becoming yours. I want to be the mother of your children. I want to grow old with you. And, if God decides not to give us that… I still want you every minute he does give us. But only if you are willing to accept we can get hurt by loving each other."
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Later Felipe brought Victoria back to the pueblo.
Diego asked some vanqueros to get her cart, and bring it to the blacksmith to repair the wheel of the cart.
It was late at night when Victoria had finally cried herself to sleep.
Diego didn't sleep at all that night. He was just sitting in the cave, looking at the portrait of Victoria he had painted years ago.
Becoming by the minute less sure, he had done the right thing.
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I didn't plan for the story to take this turn. It just happened as they were talking.
Chapter 11,
and to think as the story was planned at first, I haven't even posted the third chapter.