Don Alejandro, Felipe, Mendoza and De Soto arrived at the hut a little over three hours after Ignacio had left, bringing everything the tall caballero had requested.

The sight of the lancer frightened both the young woman and her daughter, until Diego explained that he was one of the best men he knew, and certainly not there to arrest anyone since the new Alcalde was his father and their future host.

It was, eventually, Mendoza and the tall caballero who carried Diana in a blanket to the wagon, while his father, Felipe and De Soto helped lift her up.

With the girl next to her mother together with their few possessions, Felipe on the driver's seat, and the other men on horseback, the small caravan headed for the hacienda De la Vega.

Once there, the men also carried the young woman to one of the guestrooms Maria had already prepared for them, leaving her and her daughter in the housekeeper's care. Since Diego, then Felipe had grown up, and she had never been blessed with children of her own, the older woman wanted nothing better for Christmas than an opportunity to exercise her maternal instincts.

So, the mother and daughter who had long since forgotten there were good people in the world, found themselves being fussed over by Maria, who not only managed to find some clean clothes for them to change into but also prepared them a warm bath and helped them wash. When they were feeling like new people, enjoying the warm, clean bed, it was also Maria to bring them several plates filled with food, selected from what she had cooked for the following day's Christmas feast, and remained to keep them company.

Content their guests were well looked-after, the De la Vegas got themselves ready to attend Victoria's Christmas Party.

"You did a good thing today, Son! I'm very proud of you!" Don Alejandro remarked, patting Diego on the shoulder as they met in the library while waiting for Felipe to join them.

"She has quite the sad story, Father. I can't even imagine how it was for her, having to choose between her family and her unborn child. No mother should be forced to make such a choice, least of all be forced to live by herself in such conditions just so that she might get to see her baby grow up." Diego uttered. "She could have died in childbirth, and who knows how many times after that! The child could have gotten ill, she could have needed help and have nobody to offer it…"

"That's true, Son! I still can't imagine what sort of padre had the heart to ask the lancers to beat up a pregnant woman when she asked for his help." Don Alejandro replied, unconsciously clenching his fists.

Felipe joined them a few moments later, just as they heard knocks on the door.

"Are you expecting someone?" Diego asked his father.

"No. And I can't imagine who it might be, either." The older don replied while Felipe went to open the door. "Doña Antonia! Don Janus! Come in! Come in!" The older haciendado said at recognizing the unexpected visitors.

"Thank you, Don Alejandro!" Don Janus answered as they entered the house.

"Señor! Señora!" Diego greeted politely, nodding his head. "Is there something the matter?"

The newcomer seemed embarrassed to impose, but decided he'd better get over with it. "It's about that blanket my wife –"

"Don Diego! Don Diego!" Manuela shouted, coming down the corridor from the guestroom she was sharing with her mother. "Maria just told me a fat old man will bring me gifts tonight! Is that true, Don Diego?" She asked as she reached the caballero, then quickly looked around the room, her eyes resting on the old man who had just entered the house. "Is that him?" She asked, seeing how the man was short, rather fat, white-haired and white-bearded, thus looking a lot like how Maria had described Santa Claus to her.

"No, Manuela. This is Don Janus." Diego said, both amused and somewhat embarrassed by the child's reaction. "The man you are talking about is called Santa Claus, and he will only come after you'll have fallen asleep. You'll find his gifts under the tree in the morning, when you'll wake up."

"Is Santa Claus a relative of Los Reyes Magos?" The girl curiously inquired.

"Something like that." The caballero replied, wondering what gifts he could find on such short notice for the girl to discover the following day.

"Is that her?" Doña Antonia asked. "The girl who took my blanket?"

Manuela froze at that moment, staring fearfully at the older woman.

"I'm sorry, Señora. I just wanted the food in the basket so I could take it to my mother." She apologized, focusing her eyes on the floor in embarrassment. "I took very good care of your blanket, you'll see!" She assured her, raising her eyes, unable to understand why the woman had suddenly started to cry.

"That's all right." The Doña answered, doing her best to stop her tears. "You may keep it. It will keep you warm."

Manuela looked inquisitively at Diego, then at the older don she had believed to be Santa, and who had meanwhile turned away, covering his eyes with a hand.

"Is there something wrong?" Don Alejandro asked seeing his new guests' reaction.

"No. There's nothing wrong. It's just… She looks a lot like our daughter when she was her age… And we both miss our Didi very much." The woman said as she bent down to arrange some stray hairs on the girl's head.

Diego and his father exchanged a suspicious glance before the tall caballero replied. "I'm sure her mother might want to thank you for your gift." He suggested.

"No! We… We need to go!" Don Janus said, signaling for his wife to follow him.

"It will only take a minute." Diego insisted, and his smile was enough to convince the older woman.

"Perhaps we can see her for a few minutes." Doña Antonia suggested, and her husband reticently agreed.

"Why don't you take them to see your mother?" Diego asked Manuela, and she obediently agreed, taking the older woman's hand as she headed towards the guestroom. Don Janus slowly followed them.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking, Diego?" Don Alejandro inquired as soon as the couple disappeared behind a corner.

"It wouldn't be the first Christmas miracle we've witnessed around here." His son said, as the three of them also followed their guests.

ZZZ

"So? What happened?" Victoria asked anxiously as the new Alcalde reached the part of his story where Diego opened the door to their guest room.

The tavern was full of people that evening, and almost all of them were gathered around the older don, curiously listening to his story.

"Let's say that, for a minute there, my son feared Doña Antonia might break the remaining of her daughter's ribs." Don Alejandro answered. "Thankfully, she was careful!"

"So she is truly their daughter? The woman whose blanket the girl had stolen was actually her grandmother?" Victoria inquired, wiping away a tear.

"Yes! Can you believe it? After all this time, they finally found her. As it turns out, Diana's mother never knew why she had left home, and her father regretted his words the very day he realized his daughter was gone, but it was too late. They searched south, all the way to Guadalajara, where they have relatives, thinking she might have gone there. When they didn't find her, they started searching north and even learned about her having been seen in Capistrano, heading towards Los Angeles. It was why they eventually moved here, hoping they might find her in California. They spent years living just 12 miles from each other, never knowing it. And had it not been for the little child stealing that basket this morning, and for my son finding them and bringing them to the hacienda, who knows when and if they would have found each other?"

Victoria wiped a tear from her face. "Christmas truly is a time for miracles!" She said.

"Yes. And for his role in that miracle, I think you should add to your son's already-long list of professions: haciendado, doctor, journalist, lawyer, writer, composer, painter, engineer, inventor… and miracle worker." The doctor, who was, by then, slightly intoxicated, said with a smile, addressing Don Alejandro.

"That I will, Doctor Kent! That I will!" He replied in good humor, as several dons laughed and patted him on the back.

"You truly should be proud of him!" Don Sebastian uttered as the crowd started to disperse. "Your son may not be an army commander, as you were, but he leads more people than you ever did, only by pure example."

Don Alejandro smiled proudly at the compliment.

"Besides, I always suspected that that young man you have raised is braver than us all put together. He's just too smart to admit it!" The don continued, winking at his friend before heading towards his young daughter, who was, at that very moment, signing to her caretaker, Kinona, that she should go dance with Felipe.

Don Alejandro watched him leave, dwelling on his words for just a few moments before completely forgetting them as another of his friends came to talk to him.

ZZZ

Victoria had just closed the tavern after her last Christmas guest had left, when Zorro materialized right behind her. She dropped the candle she was holding at seeing him, but, reacting fast, he caught it right in time.

"Forgive me! I didn't mean to scare you!" The black-clad man said as he placed the candle back in the candleholder, which, in turn, he took from Victoria's hand and placed on a nearby table.

The taverness just smiled and hurried into his arms.

"You didn't scare me. I was just surprised to see you there." She told him, raising her head to stare into his eyes. "I missed you! I was so worried about you! Mendoza said you had been injured." She told him. "Why haven't you visited?"

"The Sergeant was right, I fear!" He replied. "I had injured my leg, so I couldn't, for a while, do everything I am normally able to do, nor could I risk coming to the pueblo, despite the Alcalde's orders for the lancers not to try to capture or shoot at me. One can never know when a soldier might decide to ignore his alcalde, and listen to the Governor's orders instead."

"Don't even mention him! At least we're finally rid of that man!" The taverness ordered and he nodded with a smile. "And Tornado? Is he alright?"

"He's been shot in the leg but he's recovering. At least he's properly taken care of, and he will be well soon enough."

"So you dared coming here even without a horse to ride away on?" She questioned.

"Of course not. A friend of mine lent me one of his. As fast as Tornado, and just as hard to see in the night." He replied with a smile.

"Thank Goodness!" She answered. "Not that I'd want you to leave… Can you stay for a while?"

"I believe so. Yes!"

Victoria smiled and invited him to sit down. "I'll get us a good bottle of wine, and we can talk, in that case."

Zorro nodded and took off his hat with a strange feeling of déjà vu.

"Victoria," he said as she returned to pour the wine into the two crystal glasses she had brought with her, "what did you do last Christmas?"

"I… Actually, come to think about it, I don't remember… All I remember is waking up the following morning with a terrible headache, a silly smile on my face, and Don Diego." She said, then looked at Zorro somewhat embarrassed. "I mean… Don Diego had spent the night here… in one of the guestrooms, of course!"

"Of course." The black-clad man answered. "You and Don Diego have been friends for a very long time haven't you?" He asked.

"Si. I've always known him, and he has always been my friend."

"Just that? A friend?" He wondered.

"Yes! I care for him very much, but you are the only man I love, Zorro. You have nothing to be jealous about." She replied, and he nodded with an unconvincing smile, then changed the subject.

"I came to bring you a present." The black-clad man said, taking out an envelope and offering it to her.

"What's this?" She asked.

"You once told me you wanted to know me better. That it wasn't fair to you that I should continue to hide my identity despite you having accepted my marriage proposal without even knowing the true man. Since I still can't take off this mask, I thought you, at least, deserve to know what's in my heart." He answered. "These are some of the love letters I have written to you over the years. I have written many others that I hope one day you'll get to read but thought I'd start with these. Since it's too dangerous to let you keep them, though, I can only let you read them, and ask you to give them back until such time when I'll no longer be forced to hide my true self, either from you or others."

"You're bringing me a present and taking it back at the same time?" She chided teasingly.

"These letters aren't my true present, Victoria." He replied with a smile as she started reading.

Victoria looked up at him in disbelief after finishing the first letter, put it back in the envelope and opened the next one, then the next, and the one after that. When she finished reading them all, she raised her eyes again to look at Zorro, who had been patiently waiting for her reaction.

For a while, she didn't say anything, just put the envelope on the table and remained there, looking at the man she loved.

"They are beautiful! Is that how you truly feel about me?" The young woman eventually asked as tears started running down her cheeks.

The masked man took his right hand to her face to wipe away a few of them, then slowly nodded. "Yes." He answered. "I always tried to show it to you. After all, actions do speak louder than words, and I do think of myself as a man of action. But, sometimes, words also matter just as much.

"You have been faithful to me and to our love all these years. You have accepted to be my wife, without even knowing my true name; saved my life countless times; and have always been there when I needed you. Yet I always held back. This mask has always stood in our way."

"So why are you telling me now? Is it because of that woman Don Diego helped? Because she had so little time with the one she loved? You think that might happen to us?"

"No! No!" He answered. "It's not that… Although, there were times… when I was injured, or when I saw you…" he wanted to say 'dead', but couldn't utter the word. It was something he could hardly explain to her, and the image of the woman he loved lying there, in the plaza, her beautiful eyes empty, still haunted him. "No… I know in my heart, Victoria, that there will be a time for us. That, one of these days, I will call you my wife and mother of my children. But the thought crossed my mind that, if I took off this mask, you might doubt my feelings for you.

"So I thought you deserved to know how much you truly mean to me. How much you've always meant to me. That you are in my every thought, my inspiration, my strength and will to go on fighting. And every time I see you, all I truly want to do is take you into my arms and kiss you, despite whatever I might have led you to believe when not wearing this mask."

"I will never doubt your love, no matter who you turn out to be! You certainly needn't worry about that, especially now…" She answered teasingly, then became serious again. "I never thought I deserved to be loved like that…"

"Oh, Victoria," he said, drawing her into an embrace, "to me you are worth everything. One of these days... I'll be able to tell and show you all I feel about you, with no mask, nor secrets, and no need for letters."

She nuzzled at his chest for a while, until he decided to break the enchantment.

"I need to go now." He said, as he looked her in the eyes, and leaned down for a goodbye kiss. "Feliz Navidad, mi amor!"

Taking the letters, Zorro made his way towards the kitchen.

"Won't you stay?" She asked. "The lancers aren't hunting you anymore, and nobody will break the door to the tavern in the middle of the night."

"There's nothing I'd like more…" He said, as he turned around and took a step back towards her, then stopped. "But I can't. Not yet. We were lucky so far, but I doubt I'd be again able to stop in time if I took that invitation."

"I wouldn't ask or expect you to." She told him, not even realizing she was holding her breath while awaiting his answer.

He seemed pensive for a few moments before replying. "No… But I want to claim you as the real man, Victoria, not as an outlaw hiding behind a mask."

She nodded and watched him leave, then silently made her way upstairs, where she spent the night tossing and turning, thinking of him.

ZZZ

The following day, December 25th of 1821, was a very joyous day in the De la Vega household. Manuela had received more presents than her mother had been able to make for her in her entire life thus far, and was thoroughly enjoying the holiday, spending time with her grandparents, Felipe, Kinona and everyone else who'd agree to play with her for a while.

Her mother, Diana, spent much of the day talking with her parents, making up for all the years they had lost, glad to find out they still loved and wanted her back, and even happier that they also wanted her daughter.

The De Sotos were mainly glad they were both alive and together, able to celebrate the holidays with their friends, despite the year they had had.

Mendoza spent over an hour regaling his hosts with stories from when he was a child, then dedicating himself to the food as soon as it was served, and nobody heard another word from him for as long as new courses kept coming.

Don Alejandro spent most of the time in silence, simply enjoying the company of his family and friends and new guests, wondering how long it would still pass until the children laughing and running in the hacienda would be his son's.

Felipe, who had invited Kinona to spend Christmas with them, made sure to disappear with the young woman the first chance he had, and nobody saw them for a while.

As for Diego and Victoria, they were also mostly silent during lunch, both of them trapped in fantasies about a future free of secrets and fears.

ZZZ

"It's a beautiful sunset!" Victoria stated as she joined Diego in the garden during the late afternoon. Christmas lunch had long since ended, but none of the guests felt like leaving, so everyone was still talking in the house, only the tall caballero having exited a while earlier, mentioning he wanted to get some fresh air.

"Yes, it really is." He agreed with a smile as he saw her nearing him.

"What are you doing here? Are your guests boring you, Señor?" She asked teasingly.

"Of course not. This must be one of my favorite Christmas Days in a long time. And I'm pretty sure last Christmas was also very nice, despite the fact that I can't seem to remember most of the day." He answered.

"That is strange… I can't seem to remember much of it, either." Victoria confessed. "But you haven't answered my question." She noticed. "Why are you standing here alone instead of in the house with us?"

He just sighed and slightly pointed towards the field next to the house, where Felipe and Kinona were strolling, holding hands.

Victoria chuckled. "Diego, Felipe is a grown man, and has been courting Kinona for years now, since they were teenagers." She told him. "Besides, he's a smart, well-educated caballero, just like his father. I'm sure you can trust him to behave with the Señorita!"

He shook his head with a chuckle. "Yes. I can, can't I? It's strange, though. Part of me still thinks of him as a little child. It's rather hard to accept that the child I once knew is a man now, soon to marry, and start his own family."

"And you? Haven't you considered doing that, as well? It's high time, you know, Diego?"

"Yes. I know… My father keeps reminding me often enough. And I will. At the right time." He answered jovially. "Shall we rejoin our friends, Señorita?" Diego then asked gallantly, offering Victoria his arm, which she accepted with a playful theatrical nod.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

AN: So… another story finished. Hope you enjoyed it and let me know if you did. The next one will be published soon, but not as fast as this one since I've barely started working on it.