Felipe sighed as he looked at himself in the mirror. His appearance showed a confident young caballero, and he was beginning to feel comfortable in his new clothes. He should be excited, but instead he was worried. His father had not returned, yet, and Felipe worried that maybe something had happened to him.
He shivered when remembered the look on Diego's face when Don Alejandro gently told him the news. He simply stood in the library, looking all the world like a statue, unmoving and expressionless. Then, he turned and walked away without a word. Before Don Alejandro knew, Felipe might have accepted the reaction without worrying, because his father had learned a lot about self-control.
However, Don Alejandro did know now. Diego was being himself, so that made the total lack of response truly frightening to Felipe. His family was a passionate bunch, their emotions always honest and quickly shared with others. Diego's refusal to explode or grieve told Felipe just how deep his father had been hurt by the news.
Felipe walked into the den, and signed that he was leaving. He would only talk around the hacienda when no one else could possibly hear. Don Alejandro encouraged him to let others know, but he shied away from the idea for two reasons. One, he feared endanger Diego's secret if others found out his, and the fear that other people might treat him differently had stayed with him some over the years.
His grandfather nodded his approval and told him to be carefully. Felipe waved good-bye to Don Vicente and Maria, who were sitting down across from Don Alejandro, and walked out the front door.
He headed straight to the padlock holding his new stallion. His new father had decided, just before the adoption was complete, that his young charge needed a new horse, a horse with spirit and speed. So, he had given the surprised and touched young man the horse Esprit, a remarkable animal. He was smarter than most horses, almost as smart as Toronado, and he was fast. The vaqueros joked that the horse ran so fast, it looked like a ghost.
Focused on his beautiful horse, Felipe was startled when Don Armando walked out of the padlock. He had almost forgotten that the man was coming for a visit today, but hoped his presence would cheer up his father and grandfather. Patting the great stallion's neck, he returned Don Armando's beaming smile. "Hola, Felipe! I was just looking at this magnificent animal of yours! What an incredible piece of horseflesh!" He laughed. "But, then, he is the stallion of a de la Vega."
Grinning and blushing, Felipe nodded proudly. Don Alejandro at first feared that Esprit might be too much of a horse for Felipe, but Diego insisted his son could handle him. After all, Diego knew Felipe's skill, having had the boy's help training Toronado. Besides, Felipe often rode Zorro's great, black stallion, the fastest horse in the territory. But his grandfather had not been aware of those facts then, so he worried. Pride soon replaced concern when he saw for himself Felipe's skills, and he loudly told everyone that his grandson had inherited his skills in the saddle. Laughing, Diego had agreed.
A little boy, maybe five years of age, ran up to Don Armando, who bent down to rub his hair. "There you are! I was wondering where you had run off to, my boy." Felipe thought the man sounded remarkably like Don Alejandro. The family friend and lawyer looked up at Felipe and introduced his grandson Dante. The newest de la Vega could hear the love and pride in Don Armando's voice, and again thought of how much the man sounded like his own grandfather. All of Don Armando's family was important to him. It was one of many characteristics he shared with Don Alejandro.
"I need to go in and see your grandfather," Don Armando explained to Felipe. Looking down at the little boy holding tightly to his leg, he said, "I'm going inside now. You can play out here if you want, but you must stay in the garden." Dante, thumb in his mouth, nodded and let go of his grandfather.
"I'll see you later, Felipe. Your grandfather told me at your adoption fiesta that you were courting a local señorita--every day," he teased, causing Felipe's face to turn bright red. Even his ears burned. His courtship of Ángela was the talk of the hacienda and the pueblo. Everyone teased both of the young people since adults seemed to find young love amusing.
Felipe opened the padlock and led Esprit out into the field. Getting in his saddle to ride away, he noticed the longing on Dante's little face. Those large, soulful eyes told Felipe the boy wanted a ride. He thought of his beautiful Ángela, and how much he wanted to see her, but then he remembered how it was to be young. Diego, before leaving for Spain, had often taken him on rides across the plains. Reaching down, he offered his hand. It would only take a moment to gallop Dante across the hacienda's front garden, and then he could visit his Ángela. She would understand; after all, he saw everything she did for her younger brothers and sisters.
Dante grinned excitedly, and let Felipe pull him up into the saddle. Loosely holding his arms around the boy, Felipe grasped the reins. Then, he started riding the boy on the road. He began slowly at first, letting the boy get use to Esprit. After a couple of laps, he urged Esprit into a gallop.
Suddenly, the saddle shifted underneath him. Dante cried out in fear, and Felipe tightly wrapped his arms around the boy. Remembering everything his father had drilled into his head, he twisted his body so his shoulder and back would receive most of the impact. The ground rushed up towards him, and pain shot through his entire body. He heard Dante begin screaming and crying, and the sound echoed across the California plains.
***
As darkness began to fall, Diego walked through the secret entrance into the hacienda. His tired muscles relaxed in the warm, quiet embrace of his home. He had spent the last three days riding Toronado in the wilderness and camping out beside the restless ocean.
Hopefully, for their sake, he would not run into any of the servants this late. Dinner should have been served over an hour ago, so many of them would be in their own homes. If he did stumble across one staying late, he could only hope he did not frighten him too much.
He scratched the three day's worth of beard, knowing he looked as rough as any bandit could. His scent was no better; DeSoto would smell Zorro coming for miles if he usually let himself go this way.
Even though he looked tattered, emotionally he felt calmer than he had in weeks. The time spent alone allowed him to grieve for what was not to be. Being surrounded by the beauty of the land was a balm to his soul. Nights spent beside the ocean, watching the orange glow of the fire reflect from the breaking waves, filled him with peace. Victoria was right; this place, this land, did speak to him.
Diego sighed, wondering when the day would come where he would not think of her for more than a few minutes. Then, his heart asked when the day would come where just the thought of her would not cause pain to rip through his soul. He was afraid he already knew the answer--never. He glanced in his father's study and noticed it was empty. Odd, he would expect to find Don Alejandro at work on his accounts right now. Felipe he did not bother to look for--after all, the beautiful Ángela captured not only the young man's heart but his afternoons as well.
Walking towards his room, thinking about heating some bath water, he heard his father and Doctor Hernandez talking. His heart quickened in fear, remembering too many conversations between the two men outside of sick lady's bedroom door. Only now, their voices were coming from Felipe's room. He raced down the hall.
When he slid into the room, Don Alejandro and Doctor Hernandez looked over at him, startled by his entrance as well as his appearance. Felipe, lying in the bed, managed a smile of greeting, but Diego knew that his son was in pain. "What happened?" he demanded, his teeth clinched tightly together as he focused his attention on Felipe. Carefully, he sat down on the edge of the bed, not wanting to jostle the boy.
"Felipe had a slight riding accident," Doctor Hernandez explained calmly. A small part of Diego's mind teased: after all, it said, he's used to dealing with distraught parents.
Diego found it hard to believe, knowing how good and how careful a rider Felipe was, that his son had managed to get hurt. His asked Felipe a silent question with his face, and Felipe, his face twisted in guilt, nodded. "My grandson is blaming himself, but he did everything that he could do. The cinch strap broke," Don Alejandro explained the look before Diego had a chance to ask his son about it.
Diego glanced at his father, but then looked back at Felipe. "That's surprising. Miguel maintains our equipment as if it were his own, and he's so protective of Felipe." Diego shook his head and laid his hand on Felipe's shoulder, squeezing it in reassurance. "Accidents do happen."
Alejandro walked over to stand by Diego's shoulder. "Miguel thought the saddle looked safe when he put it on Esprit, and it really bothered him, Diego, to see that strap. He's competing with Felipe on whom can feel the most at fault."
Diego looked at his son, a grin on his face. "Why are you are feeling so guilty? We've all had accidents. Why, even Father has fallen from his horse once."
Alejandro grumbled, "You didn't have to bring that up, Diego!" It amused Diego that his father blushed lightly at the memory. "Felipe is feeling bad because little Dante was hurt, too."
"Dante?" Diego's eyebrows twisted as he thought about the name. "Don Armando's grandson?"
"Yes, Felipe was giving him a ride when the saddle broke." Alejandro sighed, revealing to Diego how tired the man actually was. He probably had already spent a lot of energy worrying about him, and now he had to fret about his grandson, too. "Armando was upset; you know how protective he is of his grandchildren."
Diego nodded, feeling sad for Felipe. He took his responsibilities seriously, as Diego did. Alejandro continued to explain the day's events. "Felipe kept the boy from getting anything more than a bruise, since he turned them so he took the fall, and Dante fell on top of him. The little one was more scared than anything. Felipe's very fortunate that he decided to take Dante for that ride. He was supposed to be riding over to see Ángela."
Diego exhaled quickly at the thought, and then gave a quick prayer of gratitude for the angels watching over Felipe. "He could have been killed if he had been riding over there."
Alejandro, hearing his pain, laid a comforting hand on Diego's shoulder. "The terrain is rough on the way over to her father's hacienda, but Felipe is a good rider."
Diego shook his head, trying to get the grisly images of what might have happened out of his mind. "He would have at least been badly hurt, Father." Diego turned to look at the silent doctor. "What are his injuries right now, Doctor? How badly is he hurt?" He looked fine, but Diego wanted to make sure. He remembered well how he felt after falling off of Toronado's back, and there had only been a small bump on his head.
"I was just checking back in on him, Don Diego. More than a few bruises that will probably hurt for a while, and his shoulder was dislocated." Diego winced in sympathy at the doctor's words. Having had it happen once to him, he knew how painful Felipe's shoulder was at the moment. "I was just telling your father that he should rest in bed for the remainder of the day. He can get up in the morning, but he'll be sore," he warned, smiling fondly at the injured young man.
Relieved, Diego stood to shake Hernandez's hand. "Get some sleep," he told Felipe. "I'll check in on you later." His son nodded as if he expected nothing else. Then, he rubbed his cheeks, a gesture Diego understood immediately. "Yes, I'll make sure I'm presentable when I do," he said in amusement. The relief in Felipe's eyes was obvious to see. He knew his son worried about him, and he wanted reassure him that he would be fine.
"Thank you for looking after him," he said as he escorted the doctor to the door.
Don Alejandro followed them outside to the porch. They both waved as Doctor Hernandez rode away in his carriage. "Diego," Alejandro said as Diego turned to re-enter the hacienda. He stopped, surprised by the tone of Alejandro's voice. "I didn't want to mention it in front of Doctor Hernandez or Felipe, but Diego--" The old don shook his head, as if not believing what he was about to say. "Diego, I've never seen a strap break that way. It looks--Well, it almost looks like it was burnt."
Diego looked at his father's face and saw something there frightened him. He knew Don Alejandro well enough to know the man did not scare easily. "Where is it?" he demanded, focusing on the task before him.
Alejandro jerked his head towards the hacienda's door. "I had Miguel take it into my bedroom. I wanted you to see it."
Diego quickly walked to his father's bedroom, and over to the saddle sitting next to the window. He lifted the strap and bent down to look at it. His father was right. Next to the break, the leather was brittle and discolored. "This does look like it was burned," he agreed, speaking more to himself than to his father. "Not by fire, though," he whispered, rubbing his fingers over the roughness.
"What?" His father's voice reminded him of the man's presence in the room.
Diego, squatting down in front of the piece of equipment, looked back and up at his father. "It looks like it was eaten away by an acid, a chemical that eats away at materials." His father's brow twisted in confusion, echoing the look on Diego's face.
"An acid? A chemical?" Alejandro's tongue twisted on the strange word. "Diego, there is nothing like that in the stables!"
"I know," Diego said, again staring at the broken strap. "I know." It was almost as if someone had deliberately weakened the strap. A ridiculous thought, he tried to reassure himself. After all, who would want to hurt Felipe?
