"Yes, Monsieur De Renard. A local. Very interesting fellow." Diego uttered, trying to sound genuine and not at all concerned about his possible conclusion at hearing that name. "But, tell me, D'Artagnan, how are things in Beumartin these days?" He changed the subject.
His friend smiled at his obvious attempt to mislead everyone, and pretended to take the bait.
"Well, you already know Athos is married, Porthos is yet to settle on only one woman to spend the rest of his life with, and Picotin is the new owner of the local tavern. A gift from us for services rendered. As for me, since I had the bad luck to lose the fair Simone to Athos, I've decided to search for an even more enchanting woman to call wife… And I believe I might have just found her!" He answered, ending his account with a suggestive look in the direction of the taverness.
"I'm afraid that, if you mean Victoria, your streak of bad luck might continue." Diego replied, masking his uneasiness with the idea of a new contender for his beloved's hand.
"Oh?" D'Artagnan asked, then he seemed to suddenly understand the señorita's attitude towards the tall caballero. "You lucky man!" He exclaimed enthusiastically. "You never said a word about a fiancée in your letters! When's the wedding?"
"What?" Diego asked, as he exchanged a confused glance with Victoria, a mixture of dread and puzzlement in his eyes.
Don Alejandro started laughing and so did the lancers who were simply listening to the conversation. The De la Vega guest felt a bit lost, but could hardly miss the hinge of regret in Victoria's eyes at that reaction, nor Diego's relieved sigh.
"Oh, she's not engaged to Diego!" Don Alejandro stated as he stopped from laughing. "I wish! No, Señor. Victoria's heart belongs to the greatest swordsman in California, and the bravest man we were ever given the honor to meet: El Zorro!"
"El Zorro?" He asked, seemingly confused. "Is he the masked man I saw on that poster by the barracks? The one with a 6000 pesos reward on his head?"
It was at that point that Diego realized his friend already knew the truth about him. D'Artagnan was just taunting him, and he could only hope he was doing so in a friendly manner, but, in truth, he didn't know him well enough to be certain he would not betray that information. His mind, thus, started searching for solutions to his current predicament.
"I do believe so. He is the only masked outlaw we have here." Sergeant Mendoza intervened.
"Really? And what kind of outlaw could even hope to have a chance to the hand of such an astounding woman?" He asked, again eying Victoria seductively. "I imagine he must be quite the handsome fellow…"
"Well, there's no way to know, really. That mask does a good job at hiding his face, so nobody knows who he is." Mendoza felt the need to inform him.
"Really? Not even you, Señorita?" He wondered.
"Of course not! But a woman knows such things, and I am certain Zorro is very handsome." She answered.
"So you could be standing face-to-face with the man you intend to marry and not know it?" D'Artagnan wondered as Victoria was sitting across the table from Diego. When the taverness pensively glanced between him and her friend, he continued. "At least, even if you are wrong and he is all ugly and scarred under that mask, he is rich, I suppose! How much has he stolen so far?" He asked innocently, glancing at Diego who was quietly eying him.
"Stolen? Zorro doesn't steal, Señor!" Don Alejandro replied indignantly. "I mean… not to keep for himself." He added.
"Oh? Well then... he must be some dangerous felon! Why else would he have such a price on his head? Did he kill anyone important?"
"No! No, Señor! Zorro always avoids killing." Mendoza assured him.
"I'm afraid I don't understand then… Is he a revolutionary?"
"No… he always said that he keeps away from politics. He even helped us avoid a rebellion once…" The same Sergeant pointed out.
"Zorro is a special kind of outlaw." Victoria tried to explain. "He only rides to right a wrong. He captures bandits, frees the innocents the Alcalde sometimes arrests, defends the pueblo, finds missing people… that sort of thing."
"And he saved me and my men many times." Mendoza continued. "But he does chase us around the plaza when he comes to town, puts honey on our muskets, and forces the Alcalde to repeal taxes and free people by pointing his sword as him. That is why he wants to capture him… or, at least, that was his main concern until he became a winemaker…"
"Winemaker…" Don Alejandro muttered mockingly, shaking his head.
"I mean… Of course he still wants to capture him, because he is an outlaw… but he is… waiting for Zorro to… give himself up these days." Mendoza clarified his previous statement.
"Ha! As if that will ever happen!" Victoria uttered. "Zorro is too smart to allow himself to be captured and he surely won't just march into the Alcalde's office asking to be arrested!" She recounted with a smile brightening her face.
"I see…" D'Artagnan stated. "This Zorro must be the only outlaw I've ever heard of to help rather than hinder, and still has the biggest reward on his head I've ever seen. California already proves to be a strange land… So I have no chance of stealing you away from this most unusual bandit, Señorita?"
"As you've heard, my heart already has a master, Señor!" She answered him, oblivious to Diego's subtle smile.
D'Artagnan decided he had had his fun and it was time to end the joke, lest he risked upsetting his friend or giving out some unwanted clue.
"Well… In that case, if you'll all excuse me, I would like to retire for a few hours. I'm afraid the day was quite strenuous." The new arrival uttered, covering his mouth with his hand and he yawned lazily.
"I will see you to your guestroom." Diego immediately offered, standing up.
"Thank you, Diego! Beautiful Señorita! Señores!" He greeted with slight bows of his head as he followed his host.
"D'Artagnan, " Diego uttered in a low tone as soon as they were alone.
"You needn't worry about me, my friend. And I hope you'll forgive me for my little act out there, but I couldn't help myself. The entire situation seems too amusing. But rest assured that you have my full support, as I hope I might again have yours. We made quite the team the last time we partnered up, didn't we, Monsieur Le Renard?" The slightly-younger man interrupted him.
"We did find the ring…" Diego confirmed with a smile. "But what do you mean by hoping to have my cooperation?"
"Oh… Perhaps we can talk about that a while later." D'Artaganan answered with another yawn. "It's a long story I need to tell you, and I didn't lie about being tired."
"Yes. Come! After you've rested, we'll go on a long ride and talk." Diego agreed.
Felipe breathed relieved when his adoptive father returned with a reassuring smile on his face.
A short while later, Victoria, Mendoza and the lancers left for the pueblo. Don Alejandro chose to use the siesta time to update his financial records while Diego and Felipe headed for the cave to look over some experiments.
ZZZZ
It was just after siesta when Diego took his friend for a ride around the ranch.
"Is this a good moment to ask what you meant to say earlier?" The tall caballero wondered as soon as they were all by themselves, about a hundred yards away from the hacienda, heading West.
"About our renewed cooperation?" D'Artagnan asked.
Diego just nodded expectantly.
"It has to do with the reason why I came here." He started to explain. "You see, Porthos, Athos and myself took our role in Beaumartin quite seriously after your visit. We defended the people, helped those who needed help, even went on a few adventures… and gained quite the reputation. Then, about seven months ago, an elderly couple, friends of Porthos' grandfather, Monsieur and Madame de Lambert, came inquiring about us and asking for our help. Of course, we felt it was our duty to, at least, listen to their story.
"From what they told us, after the French Revolution, during the Terror, they had escaped to Prussia, together with their daughter, Celeste. Some years later, their daughter, met a young French nobleman, Armand de Marin, and married him. On October 30th 1803, she died giving birth to her only child, a baby girl. Her husband could not get over the grief of losing his wife for a while, and part of him blamed the child. So he left his daughter with her grandparents to be raised for the first three years of her life, while he dedicated himself to his work, and getting very rich in the process. Then, rather unexpectedly, he went for a visit and, seeing the toddler, he apparently could no longer even conceive of being separated from little Angela - that was her name. So he decided to take her with him and informed his in-laws that he was moving to Spain. A bad quarrel ensued and he refused to stay in contact after that. About two years later news reached them that he had meanwhile remarried, but died shortly after the wedding in an unfortunate coach accident. All the couple knew about the second wife was that she was the woman whom their son-in-law had hired to take care of his daughter. They tried to find the child, but the war came and, by its end, no trace of either her or her stepmother was found."
"They, thus, lived over a decade believing they would never see the child again, until, about a year ago, they received a letter from some friends of theirs from Mexico City. The two, who were old acquaintances of the De Lamberts, mentioned having seen a young woman bearing an incredible resemblance to their dead daughter and going by the name of Angela de Marin.
"Unfortunately, that was all their friends were able to tell them, so they came to ask for our help, hoping we might be able to get to the bottom of this and, should their granddaughter prove to be alive, bring her back to them. They would have made the journey themselves, but the man has the gout and they are both in their late 60s…"
"I see…" Diego uttered. "But why you?"
"Athos was already on his honeymoon in England when the couple came, and Porthos and I couldn't both leave. So we drew straws. I drew the short one. " D'Artagnan answered.
"No… I mean, why haven't they hired an investigator? Why ask you to do it?"
"Oh! Because of this…" the younger man uttered, taking out of an internal pocket in his coat a diamond-engraved pendant. Opening it, Diego could see on one side of the interior a miniature portrait of a blonde-haired little girl. On the other side of it was a small fingerprint encased in mold. "The pendant is valued at some 18,000 Francs and it's all the De Lamberts have to remind them of their granddaughter. It is also the only way to identify her, apparently. They took the mold mainly to one day show Angela how small her finger had been when she was a child, but then they read in a journal some years back that it was theorized that these lines we all have on our fingers are unique to each person. So they hope it could serve as definite proof that she is the one they have been searching for."
"Yes… I also wrote an article about that some five years ago. I sent it to a former professor of mine from Spain for publication."
"So they are right? I mean… That was my main concern in doing this. The girl has no mark or anything that might help identify her… I took the pendant only because they insisted they didn't want an impostor passing herself as their daughter, especially considering they are very rich people and she would inherit all their fortune."
"I'm sure that mold might prove quite useful. But there is something else I don't understand. You said the girl was found in Mexico City -" Diego uttered.
"So why am I in California?"
The tall caballero nodded.
"Because, from what I was able to find out from the people who saw her, she was just passing through. I spent over a month making inquiries, which wasn't easy considering everyone there was mostly preoccupied with the rumors about the independence. Apparently, she was travelling with her employer, a certain Señora Almodovar. From the capital, they had headed for Acapulco, and so did I. There I managed to find out that a woman by the name Angela de Marin embarked for San Pedro on the 10th of August. All I know is that there were about thirty more passengers on the ship and no Señora Almodovar. The clerk didn't want to let me have a look at the list and the one in San Pedro didn't even want to confirm for me if Angela disembarked there. Apparently he is under orders not to allow anyone access to the log. I was hoping you might know of another way to find her. Since she and her employer clearly parted ways…"
"Wait… You mentioned rumors about Mexican independence…" Diego uttered.
"Yes. It was all anyone wanted to discuss while I was there. By the time I arrived in Acapulco, a little over a month ago, some people were saying that the war for Independence was over and that the Spanish Viceroy had signed a treaty recognizing the Mexican Empire. Nothing was confirmed, though. But may we focus on the issue at hand? How do I find this young woman? It's like looking for the needle in the haystack."
The tall caballero kept silent for a short while, before looking back at his friend and nodding his agreement, a rather forced smile on his face.
"I'll try to have a look at the log in San Pedro. I feel that the current reticence the clerk has to share it with others might be a consequence of the help he provided me with a few months ago, so it's the least I can do." Diego suggested. "Or… To be more precise, it's the least Zorro can do."
ZZZ
By evening the entire pueblo knew that Don Diego had been involved in some rather unexpected activities while in France, a few years earlier. Most patrons were, thus, discussing that new piece of gossip as the De la Vegas strolled into town accompanied by their new guest, heading to the tavern for dinner and to recover D'Artagnan's luggage.
They all entered the taproom wearing big smiles across their faces and were received with similar ones by the other patrons, all of whom seemed to have suddenly found a renewed respect for Don Alejandro's heir. As the tavern was rather full, they sat down at a table situated in the furthest corner of the room, which had just been vacated by two vaqueros.
Not long after that, as they courteously greeted some of the other caballeros who stopped by their table, and introduced their friend, De Soto also strolled in, looking around, seeming to be searching for someone.
"Let me guess," D'Artagnan whispered his question for Diego as he saw the white-haired man headed towards their table, Mendoza on his heels, "this must be your version of Jussac."
The caballero just nodded with a slight smile.
"Good evening!" The Alcalde greeted, seemingly polite.
"Ignacio!" Diego greeted back. "Allow me to introduce my friend, Charles D'Artagnan. This is our Alcalde, Ignacio De Soto." He then made the introductions.
"D'Artagnan? Are you… a relative of that famous Commander of the Musketeers?" The white-haired man asked, pretending his right-hand man had not already given him that information.
Diego eyed Mendoza carefully. The sergeant had the same pitiful look he usually wore when he was asked to do something he knew he'd have to apologize for at a later time.
"A direct descendent, Señor!" The younger man replied.
"I see… Sergeant arrest him!" De Soto ordered.
"Arrest him? Why?" Don Alejandro asked.
"Because he, Don Alejandro, is most certainly a French spy!" The Alcalde informed the entire tavern.
"You can't possibly be serious, Ignacio! There's no proof of that. He's done nothing wrong." Diego uttered.
"Please, Diego, remember who the Alcalde is in this town, and don't make me wonder even more than I do at your choice of befriending spies! I already know that a great-great-great-grandmother of yours was French, so that alone might be cause to wonder about where the De la Vega allegiance lies! And… This is the second time I find the De la Vegas offering to host foreign spies! Or do you think I've forgotten about that Asian man? You should be more careful in the future, or I might arrest you, as well, for conspiring with the enemy!"
"The enemy? What has he done for you to assume he's anyone's enemy?" Victoria intervened.
"Señorita, the man is a Frenchman, and, as thus, an enemy of Spain!" He answered. "His presence here is a clear indication that he is a spy. Why else would he have made the trip?"
"France and Spain are no longer at war, Ignacio!" Diego replied.
"And…" his friend also tried to defend himself, "I'll have you know, Alcalde, that, while I am a D'Artagnan, my mother was Spanish and I am, in fact, an American, born and raised."
"So you are here to spy for the Yankees!" Ignacio concluded.
"Despite your assumptions, Alcalde, not every foreign man who comes here has nefarious reasons!" Don Alejandro intervened.
"One more word from you, De la Vega, and I will be forced to put you… and Diego under arrest for harboring this spy!" De Soto threatened.
"What are you talking about, arresting Diego?" Jessie asked from the doorway, her hands folded across her chest.
Ignacio visibly stammered, looking a bit like a child caught doing something his parents had specifically forbidden him to do, which, in reality, was not too far from the truth.
"Please, my dear, stay out of this!" He replied, unwilling to give in to his wife in such a public place for fear of the rumors which might be incited should he show any more weakness before her.
The young woman stomped towards her husband and, as she neared him, her eyes fell on the De la Vega's guest.
"Charles?" She asked dumbfounded at seeing D'Artagnan.
"Jessie!" He replied enthusiastically, standing up and opening his arms.
De Soto froze in place, as his wife launched herself into the newcomer's arms while the De la Vegas were confusedly staring at the two.