Chapter 9

Victoria was lying on her side with her back to the campfire. On the other side of the modest fire lay Zorro. And Victoria guessed that he, like her, was merely pretending to sleep.
Earlier that evening, they had talked for a while about the most absurd things. Slowly, something had changed. A strange tension had arisen. Zorro had kissed her.

Kissed very passionately, and more had happened. Clothes got pushed aside, parts of naked skin exposed. And the sensations rippling through her body had been very arousing. Zorro had moved her skirt up to where it was far from appropriate.
Victoria had forgotten everything around her except how his fingers and lips caressed her and wandered over places that made her blush as she thought back of it. The things Zorro had done to her body. She had heard about it and believed those women exaggerated. She had wanted him to go on. Even further, so his fingers could glide to places a decent woman only would her husband allow her to touch. And she wished he hadn't stopped.

Unfortunately, Toronado had been a bummer, as his whinny broke the spell.

Zorro had risen in a flash and apologized for the liberties he'd allowed himself. Victoria thought otherwise and silently wished Toronado elsewhere and hoped to persuade Zorro to rejoin her and continue affording him intimacies permitted only within marriage.

Instead, Zorro had only increased the distance between them. And he had told her why he didn't want to be so close to her any longer. " You are much too tempting. On the day when I can openly call you mine, and you can forgive me for all the pain I am causing you. That day I will be free to love you, and you shall become mine. There shall be no mask between us."

She was on her knees and looked at him pleadingly. "Then please, remove your mask. Let me know who you are. You know my heart belongs only to you, right?" At that moment, an irritating voice had popped up in her head saying, liar?

"Victoria, there is nothing I'd like more. Your safety is worth more to me than my life. There isn't an hour that I do not wish to tell you who I am.
But that is also the moment I fear above everything else. I'm not always the hero you admire so much." Zorro had looked at her, his eyes filled in pain. "Behind this mask, an ordinary man is hiding."

"Zorro, you are not an ordinary man. And in my eyes, you never will be."

The sight of Zorro in pain broke her heart. Why did he refuse to believe that she loved him the way he was?

Her voice faltered. "Maybe you can tell me more about that man? We are engaged. But we hardly speak. I know you are the man I am supposed to be with." LIAR! Again! Why couldn't she just shut that voice up? "And I like to get to know you better."

"What do you want to know?"

Victoria shrugged. "Everything. What is your favourite food? What you do when you're not Zorro. Where are you born? Whether your parents are still alive and, do they know that you are Zorro? Do you have brothers and sisters? Do you live in the cave or elsewhere and only use the cave as a shelter? I have a thousand questions. I didn't ask many of those yesterday because I knew you refused to answer them anyway."

Zorro sighed deeply. The temptation was great.
His fear was even greater. One of these days, Victoria was to find out Zorro was no hero. He was a coward. "One day I will answer them all one by one, and ask for your forgiveness. For your safety, I ask you to be patient." Excuses, always, weak excuses.

"Patience, patience. Sometimes I'm so fed up. We're in the middle of nowhere.
There's no one around for many miles. You can tell me something. A hint about who you are?" Victoria didn't mean bad, really. But she had felt treated so unfair.
Surely he could answer a few personal questions. She was his fiancée! And he had to know by now that she would do anything for him. He only had to ask.

Zorro had sat himself down on the other side of the fire and asked her. "Why do not you tell me more about yourself? I admit that I want to protect my identity at all costs, but there are many things I do not know you either."

Reluctantly, Victoria had to admit that he might have a point. There just was never the opportunity to have a decent conversation, except that time in the cave.
And so, Victoria started talking about her years before she met Zorro. She told him she was born and raised in Los Angeles. About her parents, her brothers, and how the tavern finally came into her possession.
How don Alejandro and don Efrem, after her father and brothers abandoned her, supported her in every way the men could imagine. When she had just started running the tavern, people had refused to drink or eat there.

Someone had spread angry gossip she had plans for the tavern to provide more services than was acceptable in decent circles. These claims had cost her customers. She was just about desperate. And when men also appeared with evil intentions, it had been don Efrem who had noticed that something was going on in the tavern and prevented the worst imaginable from happening.
He had literally knocked the three men out of the tavern, then loaned her his most reliable vaquero until Victoria felt safe enough to stay alone in the tavern at night.

That same day, he and Don Alejandro had begun to eat meals three times a day in the tavern. And every opportunity got seized to invite friends. Slowly she was able to build up a regular clientele.
As teenage girls, Pilar and Alicia had both been kitchen maids at Don Efrem's. When Victoria required staff and no one wanted to work for her, both had been on her doorstep by request of don Efrem.

When the bank had refused to give her a loan to carry out much-needed improvements, it had once again been don Efrem who had dragged her back to Santa Paula. It had taken two minutes before he pulled the bank manager at his tie over his desk and explained to the man in detail why the man was going to give a loan to the tavern owner in Los Angeles.

Victoria also told Zorro Don Alejandro had given her all kinds of advice. Helped her learn how to keep records. Borrowed her a mare so that she was no longer dependent for transport on the horses that the blacksmith rented out and was less reliable.

Then the conversation had gradually turned to don Diego. A delicate subject. Zorro had asked why don Diego hadn't helped when he had always been such a good friend.

And so, Victoria had explained, this was all happening during the years don Diego was in Spain for his studies.

Talking about Diego aroused her curiosity again. Victoria wanted to find out what else Diego did to help Zorro? She could have been wrong, but she had believed there was some jealousy in his voice. And that had felt..., pleasant.
Victoria had been drawing figures in the sand with a twig. Zorro sat across from her on the other side of the campfire.

He had cleared his throat. "You're very fond of don Diego, am I correct?"

Victoria decided to answer the question, in all honesty. "Don Diego is a good man and an even better friend. It's only after what he did for Paco I became to realize it. Don Diego is one of those men you don't realize what it is he does. Only when it gets no longer done on its own. You realize Diego is the one who was responsible."

She made a Z in the sand and looked at him thoughtfully for a moment.
"Over the years, he has made several adjustments in the tavern that make my life a lot easier, like the pump in the kitchen. I had never even considered that it could be possible. One day he walked in leisurely and showed me all kinds of complicated drawings I didn't understand. And a week later, there is a water pump in my kitchen, and I have easy access to running water. People take him for granted, but secretly he does quite a lot. Look what he did for Paco? Without Diego, Paco would still walk crippled. And think of what he did for Felipe. Who knows what would have become of him if Diego had not taken him in his protection."

"Do you admire don Diego?" At that moment, Victoria had known for sure. Zorro was jealous of Diego. She had a peal of inner laughter. He had no reason at all, but the temptation had been great. So she decided to glorify Diego some more.

"Everyone says Diego is so ordinary. But he is exceptional. I assume you agree with me?" She glanced sideways and saw Zorro staring at the figures she was making in the sand.

"He is smart and has helped me a couple of times."

It was like it cost Zorro a lot of effort to let his voice sound normal. And so she drew next to the Z a D. "He plays piano, violin, guitar. He knows more topics than I know to exist."

"You speak highly of Don Diego. It almost makes me jealous. There was a slight panicked laugh. "Have you never considered whether there could be more between you?"

"Si, it was years ago." She confessed, honestly. Meanwhile, her eyes were on the man, hoping to see a part of the real man. "Someone intervened."

Zorro cleared his throat. "So what if I hadn't been here?"

"I do not know. Maybe." Victoria lifted her shoulders cassualy, smiled and wrote another D followed by the L and V.
"Diego is friendly, intelligent, and as a woman, you could do worse. One of the things I like most about Diego is that he doesn't brag about himself."

"What do you mean?"

Again, Victoria shrugged and thought for a moment. "Other caballeros love to hear every day how terrific they are. Diego never does that."

Zorro looked at her questioningly.

"Example? All right, Shakespeare, you know him, don't you?"

Zorro nodded.

"Of course, I know who Shakespeare is. I know that he was a famous writer and poet of countless plays, sonnets, poems. And that he lived in England at the end of the 16th century. But most people know that. Most of his plays I know by name. And I broadly can tell the storyline of some of them. Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Romeo and Juliet…,"
Victoria stopped for a moment because Romeo and Juliet also was about two people who were not allowed to be together.

Victoria coughed and went on again. "And a few more. But that's about it. Not don Diego, don Diego knows every word the man has ever written by heart. He can quote entire sonnets or plays in Spanish, Latin, French and English. And I bet if you ask, he can even do it backwards." She laughed. "It is of no use, but that is not the point in this case. Diego doesn't brag what he can do. There are many things Diego does he never brags about."

Zorro had come a little closer to her. "Victoria, you are a beautiful woman. And I feel you deserve more than I can give you."

Now Victoria lay staring straight ahead. The warmth of the campfire licked her back. Maybe Diego undetected had crept deeper in her heart than she cared to admit. Marriage, to Diego, sounded so safe and comforting. Years ago, she had dreamed of it. When she had been a young, brash girl. It stopped when Zorro appeared in Los Angeles. That moment had changed everything.
She had tried to make Zorro jealous with her talk about Diego. Instead, she lay a few feet away from Zorro, wondering what would have happened between her and Diego if the other man never had paid attention to her.

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The process is going slower than I want. I am working on two stories at the moment, and on I think eight or nine chapters at the same time. The good news is of these chapters, six are of this story. Progress is going slow, but study.

The fourteenth chapter will be the last. (For now, that is;););)