Victoria was in the library, literally biting her nails as she worried about Zorro, when Don Alejandro, his men and Angela arrived at the hacienda, about half an hour after she, Diego and the men accompanying them had gotten there. As the taverness had already realized, Angela had wanted to remain at the church, and Don Alejandro barely managed to convince her to go with him to the hacienda to sleep for a few hours.
As soon as they arrived, Victoria helped the younger woman to her room and remained with her until she finally fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.
In the meanwhile, Felipe finished properly patching up his father and, leaving Diego to asleep, he exited his room just as Don Alejandro was coming to check on them.
"Felipe, how is my son?" The elderly don questioned as he met the young man in the corridor.
He answered signaling that the wound had been bleeding, so he had to stitch it, but Diego was fine and resting.
"Good! Good!" Don Alejandro uttered. "This was exactly the sort of things I had mentioned to Diego a few days ago! Sometimes he is so unpredictable that I have no idea what to expect of him! By the way… do you know anything about Señor D'Artagnan?" He wondered.
The young man signed that he was asleep in his room.
"But he wasn't there earlier! Where on Earth was he?" The don exclaimed.
Felipe just shrugged his shoulders, not having prepared any excuse beforehand.
"He must have been sleepwalking again!" Don Alejandro muttered, shaking his head. "At least he came back on his own." He concluded before wishing his grandson a good night and heading to bed.
ZZZ
With two injured men in the house and seeing how it was almost dawn, Felipe didn't go to sleep, choosing, instead, to keep vigil on his patients, switching between their rooms every half-an-hour.
When, just as the sun was rising, a ray of light woke him up and he realized that he had fallen asleep in a chair next to D'Artagnan, he got up with a yawn and, after checking that neither one of his patients had developed a fever, and their wounds presented no sign of infection, he went to the kitchen to make himself some coffee. Then, he headed for the cave where he intended to prepare enough cactus tea to last them for a couple of days. After it was ready, he searched for the tonic he had once before successfully used on his father after he had been injured, about a year earlier, and took the drinks to give them to D'Artagnan, writing on a paper what they were and why he needed to take them.
Since Diego had a very good reason to stay in bed and rest, his son had concluded that only their guest needed the tonic at that time, since he had to convince everyone – Don Alejandro and Jessie, most of all - that he was uninjured.
D'Artagnan drank the tea somewhat reluctantly, and the tonic a little too eagerly as it was helping him get rid of the first substance's foul taste. Some ten minutes later, he was up and about as if he hadn't just been wounded the previous night. Truth be told, he was already much better at waking up, and both the tea and the potion were doing a marvelous job at helping him feel like a new, and (almost) uninjured man.
Thus, D'Artagnan managed to attend what was supposed to be breakfast but was, in fact, brunch with Don Alejandro, Felipe and Victoria, on which occasion he listened to the account of what had happened the previous night, and informed everyone that he had no memory of anything happening after he had gone to bed.
His cousin also came by around midday, pretending she wanted to see how Diego and Angela were doing. In reality, though, she was there mainly because she was worried about D'Artagnan. She had recognized a childhood scar on the masked man's torso the previous evening, and, the more she thought about it, the more convinced she was that the man she had helped was her cousin who, for some inexplicable reason, had been riding as Zorro. Jessie eyed him suspiciously at hearing that he had been missing half of the night and at noticing he had shaven his moustache and beard, which, according to him, had happened while he was sleepwalking, but shook off the crazy idea the he could be the man she had treated at realizing he was quite fine, while, had he been wounded, and considering the blood loss, he shouldn't have even been standing.
She, thus, contented herself with checking on Diego and visiting Angela, to whom she prescribed some teas she knew might do her some good.
ZZZ
Isadora, as well as Don Manolo and his eldest son were all buried a day later, Doña Luisa being allowed to take part in the ceremony before being sent to Monterey to be judged and punished for her crime. De Soto considered doing it himself, but changed his mind because he thought it better to let the governor punish the woman who had murdered his friend. He also didn't feel like hanging anyone, least of all a grieving mother he couldn't even condemn for having killed the man who had murdered her daughter, no matter the circumstances surrounding that crime.
As for the don's only remaining son, Miguel, the young man allowed Angela to collect her things and those of her sister and stepmother, unwilling to keep in his house anything reminding him of them.
"I'm sorry about Isadora." He said rather coldly as she exited the house carrying the last of their things.
Angela, her eyes still red from crying, just nodded and left him alone, placing the collected items in a trunk at the back of the wagon the De la Vegas had provided for her when Felipe and two of the vaqueros accompanied her to the hacienda.
After selecting some of her sister's things she wanted to keep herself, she left the rest in the care of Padre Benitez, asking for them to be donated as soon as news came about Doña Luisa's execution, or be kept and returned to her, should the governor show her mercy and let her live.
ZZZ
A few days later, the younger De la Vegas, Victoria and the De Sotos said goodbye to D'Artagnan and Angela as they embarked on the ship due to take them to northern Spain, from where they were to travel by coach to Beaumartin. Diego's friend had recovered well enough, thanks to Felipe's care and Diego's ability to make excuses for him, thus, giving him enough time to rest.
"Next time, it's your turn to visit!" He warned the tall caballero just as he was about to embark.
"I hope I will, my friend!" Diego answered. "Have a safe trip back, and write as soon as you get to Beaumartin. Also, please give my best to Athos, Simone, Porthos and Picotin!"
D'Artagnan nodded and headed towards his cousin to embrace her. Jessie did so a bit too tight and he hissed a little, prompting her to suddenly look inquisitively at his face. He just smiled.
"You're becoming rather strong." He said with a worried smile. "Stay safe, Cousin!" He uttered in English, before moving on to shake Ignacio's hand. "Take good care of her, or I'll be back!" He threatened.
"I will… If only even to avoid that, Señor…" De Soto stated.
D'Artagnan didn't take Ignacio's remark personally, instead moving on to address Victoria "Señorita, you are a brave young woman, worthy of the man you love!" He said as he raised her hand to his lips. "I hope when the time comes for the two of you to marry, you'll be very happy together!"
Victoria gave him a grateful smile, then went to embrace Angela, to whom she had gotten very close despite the short time they had spent together. The grieving señorita offered her a sad smile at hearing her encouraging words, and promised that she would write to her.
After everyone said their goodbyes, D'Artagnan and Angela boarded the ship and remained on the deck, waving at the people who had come to see them off as the ship set sail.
"So… She was the one the Señor was looking for." Diego heard Señor Marineo stating and turned towards him. "I'm glad he found her." The old clerk stated with a smile as he glanced towards the two people on the ship's deck. "They make a beautiful couple."
Victoria and Diego exchanged a pensive smile at his words, then, as their friends were already barely even visible, they all left to return to Los Angeles.
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
AN: This particular story of the series is over, but I did feel the need to add an epilogue. It is only for The Missing Heiress and the action takes place about two years after the events described above, plus it includes some spoilers for how this story will end – which you should already know about if you read Mama Mia and The Man behind the Mask. Anyway… Only read it if you want to. It doesn't really impact the rest of the narrative for Of Men and Legends.
PS: In case you aren't sure, I still do love reviews :P Thanks to those taking the time to leave me one. They make me happy :)
Epilogue
It was a cloudy morning of late August 1823 when Mendoza entered the tavern searching for his best friend.
"Don Diego," he called, nearing the table where the caballero was talking with his father and Jessie, "this just came for you. It's from Señor D'Artagnan. And this one is for you, Doctor!"
As he said that, he handed them each an envelope, then sat down next to Don Alejandro, just as Victoria, hearing the news, came to sit next to her husband, curious about the content of the letters.
"Finally he writes! You read yours for everyone, and I do the same with mine?" Jessie asked, addressing the tall caballero.
Diego smiled and opened the letter, eager to finally receive news of his friend, then started reading out loud.
"Dear Diego," he begun.
"I was glad to receive your letters upon my return to Beaumartin. The first one had arrived a few months before Angela and I made it here, and I just received your second one today.
"I also have to apologize for not writing to you sooner. I did mean to do that, yet I decided to wait for reasons which will become clear to you by the end of this letter.
"But let me start from the beginning, as a lot had happened since we last saw each other.
"The day we boarded 'La Reina Isabel', after we couldn't see you in the port anymore, I remember Angela went straight to her cabin and only exited a day later, at my insistence, in order to have something to eat. Her eyes were red and swollen as she had spent all that time crying. In fact, crying was all she did those first few days aboard the ship, and I had no idea how to help her.
"Eventually, I managed to convince her to take some air on the deck one day. To cheer her up, I started telling her the story of how we met, and how you helped my friends and I get the Cheateau of Beaumartin back. I told her a rather changed version of the events, since I had promised to keep your secret, but she still smiled when I mentioned Porthos' persisting interest with finding out who your tailor was and your refusal to tell him. I believe that must have been the first time I saw her smile and, at that moment, I remember thinking that I have never before seen another woman as beautiful as her, no offense to your radiant wife and my equally gorgeous cousin which, I guess, must be right there with you as you are probably reading this aloud.
"Returning to our journey back, though, as I was saying, my account made Angela smile and, from that moment on, I started waking up every day wondering how to make her smile again. So, each day I would accompany her on a walk on the deck and tell her about one of my adventures. When I finished the ones I had after meeting Athos and Porthos, I started recounting my previous ones, all the way back to the time Jessie and I were children. I think her mood improved with every story, and every day she got a little better than the day before, and our relationship closer and closer until I realized I had fallen madly in love with her, and only hoped she might feel the same. So, one day, I decided to just ask her to marry me."
"Angela and D'Artagnan?" Victoria wondered with a smile.
Diego shrugged his shoulders and continued reading.
"Looking back, I should have probably chosen a better time to do so, since my very romantic proposal was interrupted by one of the sailors informing everyone that he had just seen a pirate ship closing in. Angela was too scared to give me an answer at the time, especially seeing how the other ship was much faster and soon started firing at us.
"The captain didn't want to risk fighting the attackers and lose his men, ship or passengers, so he raised a white flag and ordered his sailors to prepare for boarding.
"My main concern at that point was what those men might do to Angela if they found a woman onboard. I had heard too many stories not to fear for her. Fortunately, so had the captain, and he already had a plan.
"He, thus, ordered his men to give her some of their clothes and, while I went to hide her dresses and other things which might have given her away, the sailors cut her hair and had her dress like them, then smudged her face in order to pretend that she was working in the kitchen. I barely recognized her, myself, when they finished their work.
"The pirates had no idea there was a woman on board and barely even touched her trunk when they saw it was filled with dresses. Truth be told, they were less interested in our possessions and more interested in finding new crewmen after having lost some ten men coming round the Horn. Several of us, Angela and I included, thus, found ourselves recruited and forced to join them aboard their ship.
"It was much more comfortable than I imagined, to be fair, and even the food was better since Angela – whom they thought was a mute boy called Mariano (my idea) - was the one doing the cooking. She and I shared a cabin there, and I had to finally come clean to her when she noticed the scar below my waist one evening, as I was changing. She said it explained a few things.
"Frankly, except for the pirate captain's insistence that we learned how to sail, I couldn't complain much about our life on the 'Afortunada' - that was the name of their ship, which, as it turned out, was not all that fortunate for the pirates. Certainly not considering it sunk because of a storm, just a couple of miles away from its destination – Cape Verde. About half of the original crew drowned and the others were imprisoned as soon as they put foot on land. The men who were taken together with Angela and me all survived, as, obviously, so did the two of us.
"Once ashore, we were first taken to jail, accused of piracy but, after we explained what had happened to us, the authorities decided to investigate our story. In the end, we were only in jail for one day as the captain of our first ship showed up and confirmed everything we had told the lieutenant who had ordered our imprisonment, demanding our release. He and the rest of his crew were also marooned there, while 'La Reina Isabel' was undergoing some repairs it needed after having survived the same storm which had sunk the 'Afortunada'. Since the pirates had mostly left Angela's things untouched when they had boarded us', and I had taken the precaution to hide most of my money and her valuables under her clothes, we even managed to recover almost all our belongings.
"So, as we were finally out of danger, I again asked Angela if she wanted to marry me, and she eagerly agreed, confessing that she had also fallen in love with me. When I gave the news our captain, he helped us find a priest, and we got married the very next day, the entire crew serving as witnesses. After a rather expensive wedding party, we then spent the following weeks on the island, enjoying the sun and each other, as any normal couple fortunate enough to spent its honeymoon in as beautiful a place as Cape Verde.
"About three weeks later, as soon as the ship was finally ready, we all left, resuming our journey to Spain. Chance, however, again intervened. Also this time it took the form of a storm, which, just five days after the ship again set sail, marooned us on a small island northwest of Africa which, according to the captain, was not on any of his maps. For about two months we were there, surviving mainly on coconuts and fish, while the crew was doing its best to repair and free the ship, and we were all praying for a new storm to get it out of the sand in which the first storm had stuck it. One day it came, and, just as the first storm brought us to the island, the second got us back on our way.
"We, thus, continued our voyage, already about 4 months delayed by unexpected events.
"Our next stop was Lisbon. The captain stopped there to replace the ship's supplies and gave us a day to visit the city. Angela insisted on seeing a hairdresser, and I was more than happy to oblige her since she truly needed one at that point. 'La Reina Isabel's crew was made up of very good sailors, but no man able to cut hair properly.
"Once on land, while she was having her hair taken care of, I went for a stroll and I happened to stumble in the midst of what I thought at the time to be a robbery. A young man had been attacked by three others in a back alley. Of course, I felt it was my duty to intervene. The bandits ran away as fast as they could, as soon as I relieved them of their swords, but the young man was already gravely wounded and there was nothing I could do for him, even though I tried. Using all his remaining strength, he told me to find a man called 'Remy' at 'O vinho tinto' and tell him that 'the clock indicated five, two quarters and eight seconds.' He made me promise to do so before he died, and I did. Understanding what he meant, and coming up with a way to find this Remy to whom I was supposed to deliver his message was an entirely different matter, though.
"However, since I had given him my word, I saw no alternative. Furthermore, I suspected he had given me some kind of coded message and I was curious what it actually said. So, after finding out that 'o vinho tinto' means 'the red wine' and was, in fact, the name of a local tavern, I went to get Angela and, after I recounted everything to her, she insisted on accompanying me to the mentioned establishment. Once there, we asked the owner if he knew a certain 'Remy'. He eyed us suspiciously, then asked us to wait at a table. Some five minutes later, he came and told us that Remy was waiting for us in the alley behind the tavern. I should have known better than to believe it would be so easy, but how could I? As soon as we stepped out, we were both hit in the head, and everything went dark.
"The next thing I knew, we were tied up to two chairs and cold water was splashed over our faces. The only lamp in the room was positioned right in front of us, and a screen behind it made it impossible for us to see who or how many people we were dealing with. My first thought was that we were being held for ransom and I immediately offered money to our abductors in exchange for our freedom. Instead, a man asked me to tell him why I wanted to talk to Remy.
"So I told him about the dying man and the message he had left for his friend. When I also told him what the message was, his attitude changed. The man asked for us to be released and taken to see the King. I was actually certain it was either a joke or we were due to see someone nicknamed 'The King'. Instead, to our surprise, we found ourselves facing the actual King of Portugal.
"The entire affair had to do with a plot against him and, as I was explained later, 'the clock indicated five, two quarters and eight seconds' was code for the names of the two leaders of the plot and when they were to attack.
"As we informed His Majesty that we were due to return to our ship that evening, he sent some of his men to tell the captain that we were staying as his guests, and to get our luggage, then basically forced us to remain confined to a room until he could confirm that the information I had given his men was true and accurate. A few days later, he had us released and thanked us for our services, then invited us to remain another week at Court, and had his personal tailor and his wife's dressmaker to get us "proper attires."
"Frankly, I fail to understand anyone spending more than a day at Court. All people do is gossip, and make plans to harm each other. One day is interesting, but after the second day you realize just how disturbed those people are and what a boring life they must lead.
"At least we got some rather nice clothes, and our room was extremely comfortable.
"After we finally managed to make our escape from there, we searched for an inn in which we intended to wait until we could find a ship heading for either Northern Spain or Southern France. A few days later, though, we found alternative means of transportation. And by 'alternative means of transportation' I mean a gas balloon. Some Portuguese inventors were trying to improve the work of the Montgolfier brothers and needed some financial resources to make their trip. I had to pay them a pretty sum, but it was one of the most exhilarating experiences of my life."
"That's not exactly how I'd describe it…" Mendoza uttered, interrupting for a moment Diego's lecture.
"No… I wouldn't think it was much fun for you, my friend!" The tall caballero uttered with a smile at remembering Mendoza's ill-fated balloon ride with Luis Ramone.
"Of course, I wouldn't have stepped foot into that devilish invention," he resumed reading, "had I known at that point that Angela was already more than three months pregnant. She hadn't realized, either, attributing her very mild symptoms to all sorts of other causes since her stepmother never took the time to teach her anything.
"Thus, as I was saying, we flew north. It took us but a little over two days to reach Porto, where we got off the balloon as my wife started feeling ill. We were both quite shocked when the doctor I found for her mentioned the pregnancy because, as I explained erlier, not even she realized it. In retrospective, she did, however, remembered that the seamstress in Lisbon might have been trying to tell her about her condition when she was indicating a big belly. At the time, Angela had thought she was telling her that she was fat and felt rather offended.
"The doctor suggested she'd spend some time at the beach for the next couple of weeks, since he was certain the salt air would do her good, and a little rest might help with her symptoms.
"When she got better, we found a coach heading for Santiago de Compostela. However, since she was feeling quite well, Angela insisted we made the last 80-mile journey there as pilgrims do, by walking. I, thus, paid for our trunks to be taken to the monastery at Santiago, bought a horse to carry blankets, food, water and the clothes we needed on the way, and we spent most of the following two weeks walking there. Out of the ten nights we were on the way, three we slept in churches, four in rooms offered to us by people used to receiving peregrinos, and three more in the fields, under the stars. Those were the most beautiful ones, to be fair. Angela would look up and ask me about constellations, and I'd spend hours telling her stories about the Ancient gods and heroes after which they had been named, until she'd fallen asleep in my arms.
"When we eventually arrived at our temporary destination, she confessed that she had asked me to make the pilgrimage because she remembered her sister had once confessed she'd like to make it herself. She still misses her, but, since that day when we finally entered the cathedral in Santiago, her pain changed somehow. It's still there, I know that much, but she's at peace, and no longer blames herself for what happened. I forgot to mention this, but, for the longest time, she had blamed herself for Isadora's death.
"A little less than a month later, we finally arrived in Beaumartin, with no more adventures on the way.
"Her grandparents arrived there some two weeks after us, making the trip upon receiving my letter informing them that I had found and brought back their granddaughter with me. As you can imagine, they were both relieved and overjoyed to finally have her back, after so many years.
"The fact that she had married me in the meantime, though, was not particularly to their liking, or so I had thought. I was quite certain they regretted their decision to ask me to look for her, as they rarely talked to me and seemed to avoid my presence. A day before Angela gave birth, however, her grandmother confessed that they were simply afraid they might lose her, too, as they had lost her mother, in childbirth, and they weren't ready for that after having just found her. She also told me Angela had mentioned that she had never been as happy in her life as she had been with me this last year, and that she owed me her life. It turned out that they didn't blame me for anything, on the contrary. They just didn't know how to thank me. French nobles! One never knows what to expect of them.
"Thank God, the birth went well, and our baby girl is healthy and beautiful, just like her mother. Her name is Isadora Renardine, after the two people without whom she most probably wouldn't have existed.
"I am, thus, happy to inform you that both mother and daughter are doing very well, the great-grandparents are over-the-moon with happiness, I am an incredible happy father, Picotin, Athos and Simone have easily assumed their roles as helpful uncles and aunt, respectively, and only Porthos complains on occasion that Isa's cries are worse than any torture Jussac could have come up with. When he doesn't know anyone is watching, though, he's making faces at her and keeps repeating that she's the most beautiful baby in the world.
"I leave you here, hoping that, considering the circumstances, you'll understand why I have waited for so long to write you back as, I admit, I was reluctant to do so until my baby was born, and I was certain that my wife was well.
"Please give our best to everyone, and know you are all in our hearts, even Ignacio, whom Porthos will be happy to teach all about winemaking when he and Jessie finally decide to come for a visit.
"Your devoted friend,
"D'Artagnan.
"PS: I just realized my cousin's husband is your stepbrother now, so I guess we are related. I wonder how Athos and Porthos will take the news…
"PPS: Athos said that our kinship means you are eligible to become a Musketeer and had us vote on you joining our ranks. You are in, so congratulations for that! As for Porthos, he thinks that a relative of mine should share important information with my best friends, such as the name of the tailor he is using. He might still be a little obsessed with that subject.
"Well… I hope Angela wasn't dreaming of a peaceful and quiet life if she decided to marry my cousin." Jessie stated.
"Surely not, if all the adventures they had just to return to France are any indication of how life will be for them. But I think it's wonderful that they married. She deserved someone who truly loved and cared for her and, considering how he writes about her, I have no doubt he does." Victoria uttered. "Diego," she then asked "there is one thing I can't figure out, though. I understand why they called the baby Isadora, but who is this Renardine after whom they have also named their baby girl?"
"I believe that is an adaptation of the word 'renard' – 'fox' in French. When D'Artagnan and I first met, my alter ego went by the name 'Le Renard', and when he saved Angela's life, he was dressed as Zorro." He answered.
"When did he save Angela's life dressed as Zorro?" Don Alejandro questioned.
"That night Isadora died! That was him, wasn't it?" Jessie asked.
Diego just nodded and his wife smiled as she already knew the answer to that question.
"You know… you never actually told me the true story of what happened on your trip to France…" Victoria uttered pensively.
"I'm sure you can convince me to, should you want to hear it." He answered with a suggestive smile.
"And what do we have to do to convince you to tell it to us?" Don Alejandro asked, interrupting their flirting.
Diego chuckled. "I'll think about it." He answered, then addressed Jessie. "I believe it's now your turn."
The young woman opened the envelope and found only a few lines on the paper inside.
"Dear Jessie," she read.
"I already wrote in Diego's letter about my adventures on the way back to France, as well as about my marriage to Angela and the birth of our daughter. So, if you haven't yet done so (or my assumption that Diego read the letter out loud in your presence proves wrong), do please read it since I have had far too little sleep the past week to be able to repeat everything in another letter. The blessings of fatherhood come with almost as little sleep as those of motherhood, apparently.
"What I do want to tell you, especially now that, from what I read in Diego's letters, he no longer needs to hide a whole other identity from you, is that I am very grateful that you saved my life. I couldn't say it then, because your husband's arrival didn't give me the chance to, but you did a brilliant job at patching me up, and I am certain you must be the best and bravest doctor I have ever met."
"I was so sure… But the following morning he seemed so well… How did he do it? He could barely stand on his feet when I left the room." Jessie asked after reading those lines.
"That was mainly thanks to Felipe." Diego answered with a smile. "Perhaps one day I'll tell you more about what actually happened on that occasion."
"After you tell us the true story of how you, D'Artagnan and his friends really met!" Victoria uttered.