Felipe found his adoptive father in the cave, studying the fingerprints on the flask, comparing them to the one on the locket.
"It's her, Felipe!" He told him. "One of the prints is a match. But I don't understand why she would lie about who she truly is. She either doesn't want to be found, or there's something else at play here… I think it's time for Zorro to take over the case…"
As he said that, Felipe headed for the stable to saddle Tornado while Diego started changing his clothes. Moments later, just as he had taken off his shirt, they heard a noise on the stairs and both turned to see D'Artagnan, who seemed mesmerized at seeing the place.
"So this is where you two have been hiding!" He said.
"What… How did you get here?" Diego wondered as he was left open-mouthed.
"By mistake. I hurt my leg on one of the chairs in the library, so I leaned against the fireplace, and found the secret passage." D'Artagnan answered with a smile.
"My father has been living in this house for most of his life and he still hasn't found it!" Diego replied, under shock at being discovered. "Well… he has, but he had hit his head at the time, and still believes it was just a dream… Did you close the secret door?" He then asked as he hurried up the stairs, passing by his friend.
"It closed by itself after I stepped through." D'Artagnan answered and the caballero calmed down and returned moments later, after checking that his friend's statement was true.
"You should not be here!" He uttered.
"But I am." D'Artagnan answered, then glanced at Tornado. "That must be one of the most beautiful stallions I have seen in my entire life!" He exclaimed, heading for the stable. "Where in the world did you find him? Are there any more?"
"Wait!" Diego tried to caution, fearing the horse might react violently to his friend. To his surprise, Tornado smelled the hand D'Artagnan offered him, then allowed him to pet his neck. "He's a half-wild stallion who only used to me and Felipe…" Diego continued to say completely unconvinced by his own words as he watched in disbelief how tamed the said half-wild horse behaved towards his friend. "I think he likes you." He concluded with a smile.
"Aren't you cold? It's chilly in this cave." His friend asked as he glanced at him and noticed he was shirtless.
"What? Oh… I was just about to change when you came in." The caballero answered and returned to putting on his black clothes. "D'Artagnan, please be careful around here and when it comes to my secret! If your cousin's husband ever finds out who Zorro is, not even Jessie might be able to save us all from hanging. Personally, I'd rather avoid that."
"I told you not to worry! I can keep a secret." His friend stated. "Where are you going, by the way?"
"To speak with Angela de Marain." The black-clad man uttered just as he mounted his stallion.
"What do you mean? That young woman said she wasn't the real Angela."
"Yet her fingerprints tell a different story." His friend replied.
"You mean… she really is her? I did not make the trip in vain? Are you sure? How do you know?" D'Artagnan wondered.
"As I said. Fingerprints." Zorro replied.
"When did you take her fingerprints?"
"When I asked her to get me water. Her fingerprints remained on the flask I had with me. One of them is a perfect match." The black-clad man answered. "I'll be back in a couple of hours. Felipe can show you how to safely return to the library. Adios!" He said as he turned the horse around and left the cave.
D'Artagnan watched him go then eyed Diego's adopted son. "So…" he proceeded to say, heading towards the work table where their ongoing experiments were boiling, condensing, bubbling or simply changing colors, "can you tell me what all these are?"
ZZZ
Zorro headed for the Baro Hacienda that evening, armed with the knowledge that the young woman his friend was searching for was there, hoping to find out the reason why she was denying who she truly was.
The house was guarded, so he left Tornado hidden some hundred feet away and made his way on foot, hiding in the shadows and taking advantage of every moment the guards' backs were turned towards him.
Two men heard a branch cracking under his foot, and he hurried to climb onto the roof before they arrived to check on the source of the noise. Not seeing anyone, they just shrugged their shoulders and went away.
Zorro lowered himself back on the ground, then, careful not to be noticed, he opened a window, entering the house through it.
The place was bathed in darkness, a clear sign that its occupants were already sleeping. Once inside, he slowly made his way towards the corridor through which he had seen the women disappearing earlier that day, after his conversation with Señora Baro.
Listening in on every door in his way, he, eventually, reached one on the other side of which he heard a woman's cry. Considering he had seen how the don treated Angela earlier, he was certain to have reached his destination. Slowly opening the door and closing it behind him, he headed for the bed in which the señorita was crying and, taking advantage of the fact that she hadn't heard him, put a gloved hand over her mouth.
"Please don't be alarmed, Señorita Angela!" He uttered in a whispered voice. "My name is Zorro, and I am a friend. I apologize for the time of my visit, but I need to talk to you, and must do so in private." In the darkness he could only see the eyes of the astonished young woman who nodded slowly. "I will take away my hand now. Please don't scream. I promise, I am not here to harm you in any way." Again she nodded and he slowly took his hand from her mouth.
"I know who you are. People in the pueblo say you are their hero." The young woman answered. "But I am not Angela."
Zorro starred a little shocked about the mistake. "You are Señorita Isadora?"
"You know me?" She wondered.
"I know everyone, Señorita." He replied as he was considering whether to leave or try to enlist Isadora's help. "I'm sorry to have bothered you, but I heard you cry and I thought you were Señorita Angela."
"No… I was just crying because of something I found out today… Señor, why are you looking for Angela?" The young woman asked.
"I'm just trying to understand why she lied about who she is when she told Senor D'Artagnan she's not Angela de Marin."
"She… It's complicated." The teenage girl answered. "Angela de Marin was my half-sister, but she died before I was born. A few months later, Mother found our Angela. She was all alone in the world until she took her in and -"
"That is not true, Señorita." Zorro interrupted. "There is proof that the young woman you know as Angela de Marin, truly is Angela de Marin."
"What? You mean… You mean Angela is my sister? No… That can't be!" Isadora whispered, utterly confused. "Mother said…"
"Could you perhaps bring her here?" Zorro inquired.
"Yes. Yes! Just give me few minutes! Don't leave!" Isadora asked and, rapidly putting on a robe, she took a lamp and exited the room only to return a couple of minutes later with Angela behind her.
The slightly older señorita was also dressed in a robe, although rugged and patched. Zorro immediately tensed at seeing she had a bruise just below her eye, wondering how many others were hid under her nightgown.
"Angela, this is Zorro!" Isadora made the introduction as the older woman was staring at the masked man open-mouthed.
"Zorro?" She wondered."No… I… Please, Señor! Don't give me to the Alcalde…"
"Señorita. I am only here because I need to talk to you." He said, taken aback at seeing she was so afraid of him.
"Talk… You're not here to bring me to justice?"
"No. You have done nothing wrong…"
"What do you want to talk to me about?" Angela inquired, hesitantly.
"About who you truly are." He answered kindly.
"If you are here to ask if I am that person Don Diego and Señor D'Artagnan are looking for, you are wasting your time. She's dead. I took her name, but I am not her." She replied.
"Yet, you are, Señorita." He told her. "You are Angela de Marin, daughter of Armand de Marin and Celeste de Lamberte. Señor D'Artagnan has proof of your true identity."
"That's impossible!" She said, looking at the younger woman next to her. "You are wrong, Señor! Doña Luisa said..."
Zorro became pensive for a few moments. "Señorita, you must have been around 4 or 5 when your father died. Is there nothing you remember from that time?"
The young woman sat in a chair, trying her best to search her earliest memories. "I… I remember… I remember a man and a woman looking after me, but I can't remember their faces. I sometimes dream about them… I see the woman crying trying to reach for me. I am not sure if they were my parents but I remember I used to call the woman 'Maman'.
"I also remember… Doña Luisa… She has been taking care of me since I was very small. And… I remember Isadora's father. I think he was a kind man… He kissed me on the forehead when I last saw him, and he said 'Je t'aime mon petit ange'… I am not sure what that means, but I remember the words. Doña Luisa said he told me to make sure to stay out of the way of the horses, but I scared them instead, causing the accident which killed him." As he told them that, she again looked apologetically towards Isadora. "Doña Luisa said that people will always look for me so that I might be punished for what I did. But… I… I never wanted him to die. I don't even remember scaring the horses!" As she was saying that she became increasingly hysterical, her breathing accelerating and tears gathering in her eyes.
"I suspect you don't remember because it's probably not true, Señorita Angela." The masked man kindly told her. "'Je t'aime mon petit ange' means 'I love you, my little angel'. It's French. That man you remember was your father. He indeed died in a coach accident when you were about 4 or 5. Your mother had died in childbirth, and your father gave you to your grandparents to raise you. They did so for the first 3 years of your life and you used to call your grandmother 'Maman'. Then, one day, when your father finally visited, he was so enchanted by you that he found that he could no longer bare to be separated from his only child and took you with him when he left for Spain. There, he hired a woman to look after you and, at some point, he married her. She must be Doña Luisa, but your grandparents never knew her name. They tried to find you after news reached them that your father had died, but, for the longest time, their searches led nowhere. About a year ago, some friends of theirs from Mexico City saw you and was stunned by how much you looked like your mother, and even more surprised to find out your name, so they wrote to your grandparents. It's why Señor D'Artagnan is here. He came to find you because they asked him to."
"No! No! Doña Luisa wouldn't have lied to me for so long. She took care of me my entire life! I am just an orphan…" Angela said, shaking her head.
"How do you know she is who you say she is?" Isadora asked. "You said there was proof…"
"Yes." Zorro stated. "The imprint of her finger on a mold kept inside a…"
"Locket." Isadora continued as if remembering something, then addressed Angela. "You once told me you dreamt about such a thing… A gold and diamonds locket on which you saw the mark left by your finger… You said it was very small…"
Angela nodded. "Yes, but that was just a dream." She stated, still unconvinced.
"Señor D'Artagnan has it with him. It's how Don Diego was able to conclude you were the true Angela de Marin, by studying that fingerprint and comparing it to the one you left on the water flask you gave him earlier today." He replied. "He has long since theorized that the small lines on our fingers are unique to each of us, and he has been proven right thus far."
"So… I am her… De Marin truly is my name. Isadora… is my baby…"
"Sister!" Isadora finished for her as tears also gathered in her eyes. "We are sisters! And my mother lied to us our entire lives!"
"Why? Why did she do something like that?" Angela wondered.
"Were you born before or after your father's death?" Zorro asked Isadora.
"Five months after." She replied.
"He left a will perhaps? In the absence of a second child, all his fortune must have gone to his first… only child at that point. Your mother became your father's widow and Señorita Angela's legal guardian, but the fortune belonged to his daughter." Zorro concluded. "It would explain why Doña Luisa did her best not to be found all these years."
"No! I always thought she took pity on me, that I was lucky to have her. And, in truth, she used me to get my father's money?" Angela uttered, shaking her head as tears fell from her eyes. "I could have gone to school? And have grandparents who cared about me? That woman I called 'Maman'… she is alive?"
"Yes, your grandparents both live, and are looking forward to have you back." Zorro told her. "I wonder… I wonder if we could find your father's will…" He said pensively.
"My mother has a small wooden box in her room, which she always keeps locked. She's had it forever, and I am sure she doesn't keep jewels inside it since those are in an ivory box. But I can't open it. I did try…" Isadora told him.
"Perhaps, I could. I will just need an opportunity… Sometime when she's not home." The masked man replied.
"The day after tomorrow. We're always going to confession on Thursdays. We'll be in the pueblo the entire morning. The box is in her nightstand's drawer." The teenage girl stated, then embraced her sister. "I'm so sorry, Angela! I'm so sorry!" She said. "I'm sorry for what my mother did."
"You are not responsible for anything. It's not your fault!" The older woman answered.
"I'll miss you very, very much," Isadora uttered, wiping some of Angela's tears as she looked straight into her eyes, "but now you can leave this house! You can go to your grandparents, and be happy. Nobody will ever raise a hand on you again!"
"I can't leave you!" Angela answered. "And your mother will never allow you to come with me… She'll not allow me to leave, anyway! I am not yet of age to decide my fate."
"You will be in a few days." The masked man pointed out. "You were born on October 30th, 1803."
"I… was? Doña Luisa said she didn't know when my birthday was, but that I was born in 1804… She lied to me about that, as well? I am 17 not 16?" She wondered.
Zorro didn't answer, just nodded.
"You must take her with you. Please, Señor Zorro! My stepfather and my stepbrother… They hurt her." Isadora stated.
Just then noises were heard from the house. "There's an intruder! We found footprints, Patron, and a window is open!" They could hear from a nearby room.
"Search everywhere!" They then heard Don Manolo order.
"We don't have much time!" Zorro stated. "We need to go. Now! Come with me and I will take you to safety, Señorita!"
"Please, go!" Isadora encouraged Angela. The older woman was reluctant and refused to let go of her sister. "All I want is for you to be safe!" The teenager told her. "Please take good care of her, Señor Zorro!" She then addressed the masked man.
"I will!" He answered, taking the young woman's hand, as she finally let go of her little sister.
Two men burst in just as he was making his way with Angela towards the room's window. After a certain initial shock at seeing him, they took out their swords and attacked, just as Don Manolo also found his way there. Zorro sheltered Angela behind him and took out his own sword, saluting before he engaged the new arrivals in a duel. They were not very good swordsmen, so he disarmed them rather quickly, then punched them unconscious. As he turned back at the door, he was barely in time to see the don aiming a gun at him. He pushed down the young woman and the bullet hit the wall behind them, just seconds later.
As the don was reloading, the masked man and Angela hurriedly exited through the room's window. Once outside, he whistled for Tornado and, soon enough, the two were galloping away from the house and towards the De la Vega hacienda as four bullets whistled several feet away from them.
On the way, though, certain they would be followed and the hacienda might be checked, Zorro changed his mind and steered Tornado towards the pueblo, where he left the horse behind the tavern and guided Angela to Victoria's establishment. After leaving her for a few moments in front of the kitchen's entrance, he made his way towards an upper passage, whose window accessed the kitchen and, climbing down, he opened it for the young woman to come in.
"They will not know to search for you here, and Victoria will hide you." He said. "Just give me a few minutes to talk to her."
The young woman nodded and sat on a bench. Zorro returned to her with the taverness about five minutes later.
"Señor D'Artagnan stays at the De la Vega hacienda." Angela heard him tell the taverness. "It will be the first place they will search. I would have taken her at one of the hideouts I use, but I wouldn't like to leave her alone and she also needs care. Can you hide her for a few days?" He asked the woman he loved as they entered the kitchen.
"Of course, Zorro!" She answered. "Dios! Who did this to you?" Victoria asked as soon as she saw the bruise on the younger woman's face.
"She was not treated well by the Baros." Zorro answered instead.
"Come! I'll take care of that bruise. Don't worry, Zorro! She will be safe with me." Victoria assured him.
"I'll tell Don Diego and Señor D'Artagnan where she is. If there's any problem, leave a burning lamp in your room's window, and I'll know you need me." He said.
"I will." Victoria answered with a smile.
The black-clad man nodded and, taking his goodbyes, headed towards the cave.
ZZZ
Victoria took Angela to the pantry. There, she headed for one of the wooden shelfs which seemed to rest against the wall but, after moving around some crates and grain sacks, she revealed an opening which led to what looked like a small room behind it. All that was there was a mattress on the floor, a small trunk and a bucket.
"I thought it better to have a place to hide someone… or myself, should that ever be necessary… and all I had to do was to move the shelves." Victoria said with a smile. "The Alcalde and the lancers used to search the tavern quite often. Mostly for Zorro.
"It's not much, but it's as safe as it can be. I always keep some fresh sheets and medical supplies in the trunk. You can spend the night in here, just in case they come searching for you. Then, tomorrow, if it's safe, you can move to my room or to one of the other rooms, should there be any left unoccupied. " Victoria told her.
"Thank you, Señorita!" Angela answered.
"I will bring you some raw meat to put on that bruise." The older woman told her with a kind smile, then headed for the cellar.
When she returned, she also brought her secret guest some of her clothes, a few apples, bread, cheese, a lamp and a book.
"In case you get hungry or very bored." She explained the other items.
"Señorita… Why are you doing this?" Angela wondered. "You don't even know me…"
Victoria just looked kindly at her. "No… But I do know you need help. Besides, I promised Zorro to look after you." She told her.
Angela started crying just as she was about to leave, so the older woman embraced her, somewhat confused, while caressing her hair.
"My… whole life… was a lie…" The younger woman said while sobbing. "I thought… I thought she was my benefactor… and all she wanted… was my fortune… She lied to me… I was my sister's maid… and I didn't know… I didn't know … Isadora is my baby sister…"
Victoria stared confused at her. Then, after the younger woman calmed down, she spent a couple of hours sitting on the mattress in the small hideout, her back against the wall, just listening to her unexpected guest, as she realized it was what Angela truly needed at that time.