Talking about Diego and Felipe being in an emotional roller coaster. The other characters have also some roller-coasters coming up as well.
Warning this chapter contains violence. If you think you are not up to it, you better skip. Maybe I should change it into an M rated story? What do you think?
I will place ### were the violence part begins and ends.
By the way, as I have the story in my head now this will be the most violent part of the story. Maybe you had noticed, I have been giving little hints. Augusta had a rough life.
Chapter 10
Felipe came running to the haciënda and found Diego in the garden.
"Sul... Sul…"
"What is it Felipe. Calm down first and give it time before you try again"
Felipe shaking his head and started signing. His ability to sing and by that speak was improving by the hour. Signing still being the fasted way for him to tell something on moments like this. Diego started translating the signs automatically.
"Sulpevelda has returned from Monterey... Without the alcalde?
Why?"
Felipe signing some more.
"de Soto has broken his leg and is unable to travel for weeks?"
"Si." Felipe had regained his breath and was able to speak now.
"That is good news for a change. It will give us plenty time to work on the plan for Zorro to die... Does Augusta already know..."
The woman had been able to gain his trust and together they were working on a plan for Zorro to stop and Ignacio to return to Spain.
"Diego! Diego, Felipe...!" it was his father searching for his son and Felipe
"in the garden father"
Seconds later Alejandro spotted his son and Felipe.
"Ah Diego here you are. Have you heard? De Soto has broken his leg when he felt from the stairs in the governor's palace. He will not be able to return to Los Angeles for weeks. Isn't it great news?"
"Eh yes, I suppose it is. Felipe has just told me."
Felipe standing beside Diego was nodding to the old man.
"Yes, no more tax raises for at least a month. This will give the farmers the chance to work on the fields and sell their goods for fair prizes. I mean Mendoza also claims taxes, but he is much more reasonable at it."
"The expenses of the pueblo have also reduced, now lancers are no longer chasing Zorro at night and Mendoza doesn't spend community money on boots." Diego told his father.
"Si, that and Señora Augusta has done some recalculating, finding some errors in the alcalde's calculations.
Well I be off, I promised señora Augusta to take her to the vineyards. And be in the pueblo at eleven."
Leaving the two younger men in the garden Alejandro got to his carriage and left.
Having talked with Augusta for hours as they formed a plan together.
Diego had started to grow fond of Augusta. He was hoping his father was planning on proposing to the woman. He wanted his father to become happy and it seemed Augusta might be the woman able to do that. Getting to know her slightly better last night, he now only admired the woman.
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The weather was nice, warm but not hot and Augusta enjoyed the beautiful views she saw. The green fields of grape bushes reached almost as far as the eye could see.
"It is beautiful Alejandro."
"Si, it was an idea of Diego to plant those grapes. He believes the land and climate are ideal for vineyards. Of course, it is only a first effort but last year's wine did not taste bad."
Alejandro stopped the carriage and helped Augusta off to take a closer look at the bushes the unripe grapes were hanging on.
Augusta laughed when she spotted a rabbit, who ran away being disturbed in his meal of grass.
"Augusta, there is something I'm meaning to ask you for some days now."
He took her hand in his. Augusta shivered. Pulled her hand back. She had been afraid this was going to happen. Augusta had told Alejandro a couple of times she had no intension in remarry ever again.
Still she had more feelings for the man than she could ever tell him. He was a good man. And only if things had been different...
She never had given him any hope. And she made a silenced prey he would not hold it against her, for she was going to refuse.
Augusta enjoyed spending time with the kind don. And liked to think of him as a close friend. One of the few she ever had.
"I know you told me you never want to marry again. Still I can not help myself, I need to ask.
For I have fallen in love with you." Alejandro started
"Augusta Quinones, I'd be honoured if you want to become my wife. You do not have to answer right away. Just think about it. You will make me very happy if you were to say yes."
Alejandro was holding his breath, waiting for what she was going to say. Hopefully she was willing to rethink what she had said before.
"I have told you Alejandro, I can't marry ever again. I am sorry, but I just can't."
"Is there someone else, back in Spain perhaps?" Alejandro felt some jealousy. Augusta was a remarkble woman. Sure more men had fight for her attension.
"No there isn't, I like you. I like you a lot but... I can not ever be someones wife again."
Alejandro was disappointed, she had told him before she never wanted to marry again. But being rejected by a woman you loved was never easy.
"Is it because you like Diego?" Alejjandro just had to know. Not have forgotten that his son and Augusta had a lot of shared interests.
"Diego…? No, it has nothing to do with Diego. What on earth could make you think that?"
Embarrassed for even thinking something like that, Alejandro was just looking to the ground. Moving his feet through the grass.
"Well eh Diego, you know...you and he... seem to get along?"
Not having a clue how to explain further what he had just said. Augusta looked disgusted at him.
"You should be proud of having a son as terrific as Diego. Most other young caballeros in this pueblo do nothing more than sit in the tavern, getting drunk most of the time.
Diego runs a newspaper, helps farmers, peons, shop owners, market people, Indians and the Padre in every way he can think of. He teaches children and has taken Felipe in his care when he was how old? eighteen or something?
If I was to have a son like Diego I would tell him how much I loved him... and how... proud I was..."
Alejandro saw how her beautiful eyes were starting to fill with tears rapidly.
"of him... every...single..."
Tears were now starting to run over her cheeks. Making is impossible for her to speak.
Augusta was crying. Her feet refushed to carry her any longer and so she sink to the ground. Placing her hands over her face as she was crying her eyes out.
Alejandro was not used to comforting crying women. He had been a widower for so long. And besides that, Felicia never had cried much. So he was very uncomfortable by seeing the heartbroken woman sitting at his feet.
Kneeling beside her, he placed his hands on a shoulder in a poor effort to comfort the woman, having not idea what else to do.
"Please... do not … touch… me… I can … not … stand being...touched"
And so the old man sat beside Augusta as she cried,
and cried,
and cried.
"Augusta I…" Alejandro tried again. She did not even hear him She just kept on crying.
It made him wonder what it was? Why Augusta was so devastated? Remembering some words of what she had said on their outings. And just now, what had all those small remarks meant?
Augusta had a hard life, being forced to marry a man she had not loved at the age of just fifteen.
Alejandro just sat beside her, not having a clue what to do, besides offering her his handkerchief which she accepted but not used.
After a few minutes she felt to the side, leaning on his shoulder as she cried on, still not able to talk or do anything else but cry.
Alejandro had no idea how long it went on. It felt like hours. His jacket was getting soaked. And she placed her hand on his chest. Hiding her face against his shoulder still crying. Alejandro did not dare put an arm around her any more.
It was like a dam had broken. One that had been holding a lake full of tears.
He gave up trying to come up with things to try to comfort her. Remembering how he had felt after Felicia had died he slowly became to understand, sometime you didn't need comforting, you needed crying. Only still not having a clue why Augusta needed crying.
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A long time later finally Augusta's eyes seemed to have run out of tears. Sniffing a couple of times she lifted her head from his shoulder. "I am sorry Alejandro... I do not know what came over me."
"It is all right. Sometimes we need to cry. When was the last time you cried?"
"28 years, 8 months and 11 days ago."
Alejandro looked at her questioningly for she had given such a precise answer.
"It was on the day my son died."
"I see, you… you... want to tell me what happened?"
Folding the handkerchief in a wad in her hands. "I suppose you are entitled to."
Wiping away some more tears that were starting to run over her cheeks again Augusta started to tell her story and why she could never remarry.
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"I have already told you I was forced to marry Ferdinand when I was only fifteen years old. You can say my father sold me in an effort to keep the family hacienda. Having lost all money by gambling.
Ferdinand was over thirty-four years older than me, and I was his second wife. His first marriage had remained childless and so my only obligation was to produce an heir."
Alejandro just sitting next to her, not moving for he sensed that one wrong move would scare her.
"After five months I got pregnant. Ferdinand was thrilled. Very proud he was finally able to get his wife pregnant, after not been able to do that with his first wife.
Even back then he was very possessive over me. Not allowing me to go anywhere without him. He actually only allowed me to visit my brother and sister-in-law on my own.
Those being Ignacio parents by the way.
One day, I was almost eight months pregnant, he insisted I joined him at some important business dinner. I did not feel up to it. I had been feeling sick since the beginning of my pregnancy, and I was really feeling nauseous that day. Still he wanted me to go and all I could do was obey him.
At dinner, they served liver. And the smell alone made me wanted to vomit.
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#### VIOLENCE PART COMING UP! STOP READING IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO READ IT!
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And I did... Over the plate of the host.
Ferdinand was outraged. When we got home he started hitting me. He had done that a couple of times before, this time he was beyond himself in anger. I fell to the ground, and he started kicking me in my belly."
Augusta was now shaking. More tears running over her face. Only difference this time, she somehow was still able to talk.
"I lost my son that night. Ferdinand told the doctor I fell down the stairs, but he literally had kicked the child out of me.
When the doctor told Ferdinand I had intern injuries and was no longer able to conceive children...
After that I became his prisoner. He tried to get me pregnant for some more years finally giving up after like sixteen years. By that time he was more often drunk than sober.
When he was sober, Ferdinand liked to forget he had a wife, ignoring me. Locking me up in my room, which he had bars placed before the window. I was allowed out twice a day for an hour or so. Only to walk in the garden which he had a large high wall build around.
He had not killed me the night I lost my son. And he always regretted I had been too stupid to die that night.
I was not allowed to visit my family any more. Telling I was to sick to travel or I do not know what he told them. Sometimes my youngest brother and his family visited.
When he was drunk... he came to my room and if I was lucky... he only let me told what a useless thing I was..."
Alejandro was feeling sick listening to her story. Augusta was just talking, not seeing a thing. Tears falling on her lap, and she didn't even notice it. Somehow their fingers had got in twinged. He did not even dare squeeze, afraid he was going to terrify her.
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#### IT IS SAVE TO START READING AGAIN!
"About twenty years ago Ferdinand hired a new gardener. And that was my saving Joaquin Murrieta had lost his arm in the war. And everyone thought he had gone insane after that happened. But he wasn't, he was a great man. He knew he could not do much to help me, but he did what he could.
Joaquin started to go to the library borrowing books, so I could read them. He gave me fencing lessons. And… he gave me hope. Him becoming the reason I was too stupid to die.
That was, until he got sick and could not work in the garden any longer. Cancer you know, before he was too sick to work he told me that I was not allowed to give up.
Ferdinand was in his late seventy's and dying as well. Joaquin told me the day Ferdinand was to die was the day I was going to be reborn.
And he was right you know. The happiest day in my marriage was the day Ferdinand died.
Two days later I was thrown out of the house by Ferdinand's nephew. Having nowhere else to go, I went to Joaquin.
He left me all his money, having no children of his own. And he died two weeks after Ferdinand.
You understand now why I can not marry you. I have nothing left to give you. By marrying me, I will only make you unhappy. I do not have a heart to give. All I have are some shards. And even those are bruised"
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Felipe and Diego were playing chess in the library when a door was slammed.
"That filthy swine!"
Diego was shocked. What had happened now for his father to be this furious
"what you mean father"
"That that... by calling that man a swine I am insulting those poor animals." His father was walking very angered and restless up and down the room.
"Father, who are you talking about?" stopping the game and leaning backwards in the chair Diego was sitting in.
"Augusta. I proposed to her today. She refused."
Not understanding a bit more of what his father was saying. His father had been talking about a man not a woman. And it was not like his father to talk like that over a woman. Even if she had refused to marry him.
"What has that to do with pigs."
"She told me she could not marry me because of what her late husband, as she stills calls him did to her. If only half of what she told is true he is lucky to be dead, for if he wasn't, I'd kill him myself!"
"Well señora Augusta told me she never lies. She told me when she went with me to the Indian camp." forgetting his father did not know that. Only realizing what he had said when for the first time his father stopped walking around.
"You took her to the Indian camp?" his father sounded a little jealous. Shaking his head immediately after he had asked
"Well it doesn't matter for she refuses to marry me and who can blame her. That man... that man, he doesn't even deserve to burn in hell I am telling you!"
"Father please, try to calm down a bit" Diego tried
"Calm down! You want to know what that piece of filth did to her?"
His father was more angry than Diego had ever seen him. Not able to listen to anything Diego was trying to say.
"He made her life into a living hell. He murdered his own child and did God only knows what to her. She would have been better off had he killed her. That being the only thing he didn't do."
Alejandro was spitting words out. Being beside himself in anger. Augusta the only woman he was able to love after Felicia had died. And she was not going to be his, because of what a dead man did to her.
"Father You really should try to calm down," Diego tried again placing his hand on his fathers shoulder. This gesture reminded the old don of Augusta telling him, she can not even stand being touched.
Looking at his son he remembered what Augusta told him about Diego and her own son. He had a son, a son he could be proud of. He should be proud of. From what Augusta told Diego and her son were only separated in age by weeks. Seeing his son for the man he had become, he felt the need to hold him tight. And so he hugged his son for the first times in years.
"Diego I love you son. I am sorry for how I have been acting to you all these years, I love you."
That was a sudden change. Diego feeling very uncomfortable, being held tight in his fathers arms.
Looking at Felipe, who was trying to make his way out of the library.
"I do not care what others are going to say. That you not carry a sword, or act like a caballero. You are my son. And I could never ask for a better one. Forgive me Diego for being such a horrible father to you."
"Father you are going too fast for me. First you are outraged and now you're asking for my forgiveness. What happened?"
Diego was struggling to get loose from the firm grip his father was holding him in. His father let him go when he went on talking.
"Augusta, that is what happened. She told me her life story and it is just terrible. "
Then the don felt how tired he was and needed to sit down. Bending over, placing his face in his hands.
" Diego, I know men exist that abuse their wives. I have heard stories about it.
Augusta her husband did not abuse her. He did things far worse. And yet she still is the loveliest, kindest woman to have ever walked the earth, helping everyone if she sees a way for it. And her eyes. O carmaba Diego, her eyes. Have you ever seen eyes more beautiful than hers? "
Diego did not response to that. He had seen eyes more beautiful. They belonged to a certain young tavern owner, but that was better not to be said
"Diego I love her. Not in the way I loved your mother... differently for she is a different woman. She refused my proposal. You want to know what she did when I ask her, or she refused because of you? "
Now Diego wanted to interrupt his father. Did he still believed something going on between him and Augusta? Diego thought he talked his father that out of his head days ago.
"She told me what a great man you have become. And she was right in every word she said. She told me Ishould be proud of you. Not telling you, what you don't do. But see what you are doing."
For the first time in years Diego saw tears in the old don's eyes. His father had not cried ever since the day his mother died.
"Well eh..."
"Diego, you do so much for this pueblo. The only person doing more is Zorro. I was blind, so blind. Please, Diego, please tell me you can find it in your heart to forgive me."
"Father I have nothing to forgive. I have always known you did it out of love. Wanting me to become a good leader. I am just sorry I do not have it in me."
Alejandro got out of his chair again to walk over to his son. Placing his hands on the tall man's shoulders. Shaking him back and forwards.
"Never, ever, say that again Diego. You are a great leader. You have the rare talent to get people to do things without using violence or force. The way you use the Guardian to make people aware of what is going on in the pueblo. The way you help everyone. It is me who has been wrong all this time and should feel sorry."
"Father.." again trying to get loose from the firm grip his father was holding him in without hurting the older man.
"I could not be more proud of you than I am now. Even if you turned out also to be Zorro."
Having said that Alejandro looked at his son.
The way he was just standing there?
Like Diego did not know what to do, or how to act.
Like his son really was...
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