After lunch, Julian walked into the office to find Diego leaned against the window. He was watching the group of people that had gathered to protest the emissary's latest order. It had been amazingly quick. Even Victoria had been surprised by the overwhelming support the protesters had gathered.
"Allow me to arrest the ringleaders, Diego, so that they will calm down."
Diego shook his head. "No, not yet. Let them simmer for a while."
"Diego--" His friend turned to look at him, and Julian noticed how sad his eyes looked.
"Julian, just let them simmer for a little while longer. My father and brother have just arrived. An angry mob will be easier for me to lead."
Silence filled the room, neither man noticing the sound of protesters just outside the window. "When does this game end, Diego?"
His friend turned to look back at the crowd. "When my father has been destroyed."
"Or you?" Diego did not answer. "I don't even know you right now, Diego. You have always been honest with the men, but right now they feel like they are sinking in quick sand. You've always made sure they went to Church, now you are calling the people they swore to protect 'jackals' and the Church you showed them to respect is now 'growing fat.' Stop playing the games with the men at least."
Diego jerked down his jacket. "They have been in the tavern long enough. Let's go."
Julian waited a moment, debating his loyalty for one moment. Sighing, he followed the man he had sworn to give his life for, and the one man in the world he knew would repay the favor.
Diego stopped outside the tavern door and listened to what was being said. It was his father's voice that he heard. "My friends, we are faced with a brazen disregard for the sanctity of our church."
The crowd murmured its discontent, but Padre Benitez spoke up to stop their mummers about fighting. "No. No. No. No, my friends, rebellion is not the answer!" Smart man, the good padre.
Victoria's muffled voice came through the door next. A flash of anger coursed through him as the sweet sound made his heart beat faster. She was decidedly a witch. "His troops will crush us. We have to get Zorro to help us." Diego flinched at the sound of that name on her lips. He hated the hope he heard in her voice at that word. He flung open the doors.
"Good people," he began to gently lead them exactly where he wanted them to go. "The fact is, I share your concerns, but you have to take a broader view of things." He slowly walked into the room until he stopped in front of Victoria. "I've been sent here to collect a special war tax. If I return to Madrid, empty handed, the King will undoubtedly make an example of this pueblo--a violent and bloody example." The crowd reacted in horror to that statement, just like he knew they would. "You see, my friends, there are two inescapable realities of life--death and taxes, and you must choose between them."
"The Church has never been required to pay taxes," Padre Benitez pointed out, speaking his lines like he had a script to read.
"If the people of Los Angeles would only pay the balance of this special assessment, I would not be forced to confiscate Church property." Diego made sure that his pitch was perfect, emphasizing the exact words that needed to be pushed. The crowd was following him even faster than he thought possible.
"Many people have paid!" Diego admired Benitez's courage in continuing to speak up against him.
"True, Padre, humble farmers go hungry to support their country's war effort," Diego agreed. He did not look at Victoria, but he knew that she was having the same thought he was having--to make some cannon manufactures wealthy. He had spent too much of his life in war to believe there was anything noble about it--sometimes a cruel necessity, but often the result of some Kings' bruised egos. "But as long as certain wealthy caballeros avoid paying taxes, I have no choice but to sell off Church property to make up the debt." He made sure to look in both Gilberto's and Alejandro's directions.
Diego was pleased to see Señor Pedalta present. He would be the easiest to lead with his past jealousy of the de la Vegas. Julian's information, as always, had been perfect. "What do you mean? Why won't they pay the same tax as us?"
"Because they get tax credit for supplying the military garrison with beef." Diego explained it as if he expected it to be common knowledge, but he knew it was not.
His father apparently was seeing where this was heading. He protested, "Yes, but the value is well below the market price!"
Diego shared his most precious piece of knowledge. Most of the men in here were lucky to have forty acres to their name, and they were forced to pay taxes on that small amount. "And they get 12,000 acres of prime land tax-free just for putting it under the plow!"
"That is perfectly legal!" Don Alejandro shouted over the cries of the crowd.
Diego stroked old flames of discontent. "Oh, it may all well be perfectly legal, my friend, but as always, there is one law for the rich and other for the rest of us." Of course, he to had many tax credits, too, but he needed them to believe he was just like them in order for his plan to work.
"Who does this? Which caballeros?"
Ah, thank you, Señor Pedalta! Diego thought, but he kept his face blank, as he looked first at his brother and then at his father. "Well, two right here."
"Let the emissary take their hacienda instead of our church!" With that, the crowd began arguing among itself. Many agreed with Señor Pedalta, but his father had gained much support over the years. It did not matter. He knew how the vote would go eventually. The Church was more important to these people than one caballero. He led the crowd over the finish line, but he felt no pride at his victory.
***
After the crowd cleared, Diego walked down the steps from his room, slowing when he realized that no one but her was in the tavern for the moment. He watched Victoria as she moved around her tavern, cleaning off tables and setting chairs correctly. Sweat pouring off her brow, her clothes wrinkled and dusty from the day's work, and her face twisted into a frown from the worry, she was beautiful.
An unreasonable fury filled him. How dare she still be beautiful! He was Diego Resendo--a man who had the ear of the King! A man whom ladies chased constantly, unconcerned about their marital status, even if he was. Why should one woman, lost in the wilderness that was the territories, ignite his blood like no one else ever had?
Victoria started when she noticed him on the steps. She was angry, too. Good. He did not want to be alone in these feelings. She did not say anything for a couple of minutes, continuing to wipe the table in front of her. Finally, she looked back up at Diego. "Señor, don't you have somewhere to be?"
Diego nodded, finally finishing the remaining steps. He stood in front of her, anger and passion filling the air between them. "Yes, I do," was the only words he could think to say.
There were both silent for several minutes. Finally, Victoria threw her rag down on the table. "I can't believe I let you kiss me last night."
Diego's anger matched her own. "Let me? I'm sorry, my dear, but you were involved in that kiss just as much as I was."
"A gentleman would never say so," Victoria snap.
Diego laughed, but it was not a sound of enjoyment. "No one ever accused me of a being a gentleman."
"That's for certain!" She turned to walk away from him. Diego wanted to let her go, or he wanted to want to let her go, but he could not. He grabbed her arm and jerked her back to him gently. She tried to yank her arm back, but Diego refused to let go of it. Even in his anger, he was being careful not to hurt this woman. The thought of finding bruises on her skin that he caused made him physically ill.
He put his other hand in her hair and tugged her mouth to his. It was a kiss of anger, but it soon softened. He did not want to care, did not want to enjoy this kiss so much, but he was helpless, lost in her magic. He drew away, putting both his hands on her shoulders. He shook her softly. "Damn you! What kind of spell have you put over me?" He gathered her close for another kiss.
The sound of Julian clearing his throat brought them both back to their senses. Diego, struggling to breath, turned to look at his Lieutenant. "The troops are ready, Sir."
"The troops?"
Diego turned to look at Victoria's swelled lips. He wanted to shake her again. He wanted to kiss her again. He did neither. He verbally taunted her instead.
"Yes, I was meaning to tell you before, but Lieutenant Hidalgo and
myself will probably not be returning.
Don't worry. You should have two
new borders to take our rooms."
Victoria looked at him, far more calmly than he wished. She seemed to understand what he was feeling. "What two borders?"
"Don Alejandro and Don Gilberto, of course." He ignored her shocked "What?" and continued to speak over it. "Yes, I've decided to take Señor Pedalta's advice and take their hacienda instead of the Church property."
She touched his arm gently. It burned him. "Diego, you cannot do that!"
"I most certainly can, Señorita, and I will. Good day." Diego walked out of the tavern. He kept expecting Julian to say something to him on the way to the de la Vega hacienda, but for once his friend remained silent.
***
Gilberto was beginning to get on his father's nerves. He was angrily pacing behind him as he tried to write his letters. "What good will a letter to the governor do?" he demanded. "Resendo is an emissary of the King!"
A knock on the door prevented him from answering. "Are you expecting anyone?"
Sinking into the plush couch, Gilberto sighed, "No."
"I'm still sending the letter," Don Alejandro said, walking over towards the door. He signaled for Felipe to answer it, and the cheerful boy bounced over to do his bidding. Unfortunately, it had two people behind it that he did not care to see--Emissary Resendo and Lieutenant Hidalgo.
"Aren't you going to invite us in?" Alejandro admired the man's courage in asking. Only to himself would he admit that he wanted to like this man. He saw a courage and honesty in his eyes that were not being shown in his actions. He wondered if the stress of the assignment was too much for the young man. Most men had to be far older before the King granted them such sweeping powers.
"Of course. Why not?" He hoped he would not regret his decision. He called for his son for moral support, and then wished he had kept his mouth shut. Gilberto had yet to learn the importance of controlling his temper.
Alejandro noticed how both men stiffened when they saw each other. He had never seen his son react so to another man before, and he wondered if Victoria was responsible. All though his son had never said the words, Alejandro knew that his heir was in love with the tavern owner. He doubted Gilberto even knew the depths of his own feelings, and Alejandro heard the rumors about Victoria and the emissary that were floating around the small pueblo. Knowing Victoria, he doubted their truth, but maybe Gilberto was being blinded by jealousy.
Resendo looked around the room, a true appreciation for the beauty of the house in his eyes. "Magnificent hacienda! How long have you lived here?"
Alejandro remembered the first time he saw this land. Its size frightened him, even as it excited him. His father had laughed and swung his mother around the field where the hacienda now sat. A young Alejandro saw the fear in her eyes, but his enthralled father had not noticed. He still admired his mother for her courage, for it had far more difficult on her than it had been on them, to move to this wilderness. "For many years, ever since my father first arrived and worked the land."
"Indeed, but I'm afraid that your fellow Los Angelinos will not let you justify your failure to pay taxes on the backs of your ancestors!" Alejandro stiffened, managing to keep in the protest that he worked as hard, if not harder, than his father. He refused to let this man see any of his vulnerability. "You see the mere threat of my seizing Church property, nearly caused a riot earlier today, and since a part of my responsibility is to prevent civil insurrection, the will of the people must be taken into account. Lieutenant Hidalgo, if you please."
Uneasy, Alejandro watched as the stiff man walked over to the door and opened it. He closed his eyes in resignation as the room filled with soldiers and their guns.
Stiffening his back in preparation, he waited for the words that would evict him from his father's home. "Alejandro de la Vega, with the power invested in me by King Ferdinand, I hereby seize this hacienda and all adjacent properties."