"Diego," Maria began hesitantly, as they walked around her father's garden, trying to regain his attention

"Diego," Maria began hesitantly, as they walked around her father's garden, trying to regain his attention.  He smiled down at the señorita, knowing he had not been the best of companions today.  His mind was busy elsewhere, jumping back and forth from thoughts about Felipe's accident of two days before, or Victoria's wedding to Mendoza, which was to be held the following day. 

As a friend, he wanted to be able to wish them joy, but he knew he could not.  His pain was too raw.  Don Alejandro had already offered to make his excuses, if he decided not to go to the celebration.  Diego was torn by the decision.  If he went, it would tear him apart to watch Victoria walk up the isle to another man's arms, but if he did not, her marriage would never seem real to him.

"What is it, Maria?  You don't need to be nervous with me," he told her.  She really was a good friend.  Diego was glad that she and her father had moved to Los Angeles.  The de la Vegas had many friends, but few were allowed too close.  Because of Zorro, he had distanced himself from many people.  Fortunately, he could allow Maria close.  Their mutual love of science and learning kept him from worrying about accidentally revealing too much about himself. 

"I know," she said, taking a deep breath.  "It's just that what I'm about to do, just isn't done."  Diego grinned when she giggled nervously.

Diego asked with a gesture if she would care to sit.  She nodded gratefully and sank into one of the wooden chairs that lined their garden.  Sitting next to her, he wondering what she was going to ask.  Used to the outspoken Maria, he felt uneasy around this nervous, shaky creature.

"Diego, Victoria's wedding has made me think," Maria began.  A small flinch coursed its way through Diego's body.  "I very much want a family, but there aren't many men who appreciate an intelligent woman."  Diego barely repressed a sigh, knowing that although his intentions towards her needed to be discussed, he did not want to so today.  Victoria's wedding, an emotional drain for him in so many different ways, had made him think, too.

"And I know Felipe is your heir, but--Well, his accident the other day reminded me how fragile life can be, Diego.  You're not married, and you do need other children, just in case something should happen to Felipe," she continued.  Diego knew she was not trying to be cruel by mentioning the possibility of Felipe's death, but his stomach knotted at the thought.

She sounded remarkably like Don Vicente had when he discussed the possibility of marriage between the two of them.  Diego wished she did not sound like she was trying to sell herself, telling of all of her advantages as a wife.  A wonderful lady like herself deserved a man who would sweep her off her feet and never let her go, someone very much unlike him.

Looking down at his feet, he gathered his thoughts.  Reminding himself of all the lessons ingrained in him about how a gentleman behaves, he squared his shoulders and looked her in the eyes.  "Maria, I'm honored.  I truly am.  I know what you are about to ask, and I'm afraid the answer's 'no,'" he said, hoping Maria would not take it badly, doubting she would.  After all, she saw him as a friend, too.  The way of her proposal showed the lack of love. 

She quickly looked away from him.  "You find me unattractive."

"Oh, no," Diego rushed to assure her, hating that he might have hurt her feelings.  "Maria, you are beautiful.  It's just that someone else took my heart a long time ago.  I've never gotten back, and I don't think I ever will."

Anger flash across her face, but it quickly returned to its usual smile.  "If you want my opinion, Diego, you should take it back.  Whoever has it apparently doesn't deserve it, or you'd have been married years ago."  He smiled at the passion in her voice; she reminded him of a cat protecting her young.

He squeezed Maria's hand, relieved that she now knew where he stood on marriage, and that she accepted his refusal so easily.  "Thank you, Señorita.  I'll keep your advice in mind," he said as he stood, but he knew Victoria would always own his heart.

***

Late into the night, he sat in the cave thinking about the wedding.  She was getting married tomorrow.  After she said the words, she would forever be lost to him.  As much as he loved her, he would never try dishonoring her or himself by offering her an affair.

He stared long and hard at the burning candle.  It was not until he heard Felipe's soft footsteps that he realized the taper had almost burnt completely to the bottom.  Shaking his head, he turned to look at his son, making sure to smile.  "I'm sorry, Felipe.  I was lost in thought; you know how I am.  I'm coming to bed right now."

The young man nodded and began to turn away from him.  Then, he looked over his shoulder to the dejected figure of his father.  Scratching his arm, he walked back to the table and stood in front of it.  Diego's eyebrow shot up, waiting for Felipe to speak.  "Are you going tomorrow?"

Diego sighed and leaned back in his chair.  "Yes, Felipe, I am.  I can't be anywhere else, although being there--"

When he did not continue speaking, Felipe said, "Good, I think."

Diego choked on his laughter.  "I don't know what to think either, Felipe."  Standing, he began pacing across the cave.  "I wonder about this marriage, and I wonder why she couldn't give me a chance."  He rubbed his hand through his hair.  "We are friends, just as she and Mendoza are."  Sad blue eyes met concerned brown ones.  "I could provide for her, Felipe.  I could take care of her."

He shrugged and walked over to Toronado.  Rubbing the stallion's neck gently, he admitted, "I would not even care--at least not much--that she did not love me, as long as she let me love her."

Silence filled the cave for several minutes.  Finally, Diego shook his head and walked over to beside his discarded seat.  "Maybe if she had found out another way--"

He felt Felipe's watchful eyes.  Finally, his son said, "She was worried about you after you got shot by Mendez's man."

Diego spun in surprise.  "How do you know that?"

Felipe found his feet suddenly fascinating.  "It's why she came for wine that day.  She wanted to make sure you were all right."

Diego shook his head, unsure exactly what was being said.  "You--How do you know that?"

Felipe drug his foot across the floor in front of him.  "She didn't know I could hear, and she also--" Felipe shrugged.  "I know why she was here; she didn't hide it well."

Diego sank against the table, suddenly needing its support.  "You knew back then that she--"

Felipe nodded, answering the unfinished question.  "It would have only hurt you more to know."

"I had the right to know, Felipe," he said, his voice sounding as unsteady as his legs felt.

Felipe finally looked up, although he still managed to look like a sad puppy.  "I was trying to protect you."

Diego opened his mouth, and then closed it as he remembered the look on his father's face the day he revealed that he was Zorro.  He understood trying to protect his loved ones.  Sadness washed over him.

His voice was unsteady when he admitted, "Felipe, I've tried to be a good example, but I think--I know I've failed in some ways.  Promise me something?"  Felipe's thoughtful eyes met his.  "Don't believe you always know what's best for other people.  Don't hide behind any mask.  People have the right to the truth, and to know you."  Diego shook his head.  "Maybe if I told her years ago, she could have loved me."

Felipe walked in front of him, shaking his head.  "She's a fool for not."

Diego smiled gratefully and hugged his son close.

***

It was only a few hours later that the bright California sun rose in the sky.  The light breeze helped keep the day cool, and the wispy white clouds in the sky gave no hint of rain.  As for weather, it was a perfect day.

Inside her room, Victoria looked out the window, noticing all that was right about the day, but unable to enjoy it.  A perfect day for a wedding, but she was miserable.  She laughed, thinking about all the dreams she used to have about her wedding day.  Well, she had not dreamed of marrying Mendoza.  As a teenager girl, she saw a mysterious groom.  After Zorro dropped into her life, the dream became of a masked groom wearing all black.  For a short time, after she learned the truth, the fantasy had been of her walking into Diego's arms, the first daydream that felt totally right.

Victoria sat on the windowsill on her wedding day, full of guilt instead of joy.  Remorse ate at her because she was using Mendoza.  Yes, he would receive many advantages by marrying her, since he was marrying up in life.  Her income exceeded his by a large margin, so his life would be far easier, but he deserved a marriage of love, too. 

Leaning her head back on the hard wood, Victoria asked herself why she obsessed on such a strange idea.  Most people, including her parents, did not marry for love.  They had been fortunate to fall in love after the "I wills."  Don Alejandro and Doña Elena were probably the only exception in the entire pueblo, but even their marriage had been a good match in their parents' eyes.  Marriage was business, not romance, and she understood business.

However, she wished Mendoza would find a woman to love him for all the wonderful qualities he possessed.  He was not the smartest of men, but he was a wonderful, loving man.  He cared for the people of Los Angeles as much as anyone she knew, even Don Alejandro.  His role as soldier often contradicted what he wanted to do, but usually, even though somewhat fearfully, he helped the citizens.  When he was lucky, he did so without the alcalde finding out about it.  Sometimes, however, he felt the lashing from DeSoto's tongue for days afterwards, as well as the extra duty assigned to him.

Now, Mendoza was going to help her.  He would keep her away from Diego without even knowing it.  She was drawn to her unmasked man, and scared that she would not be able to stay away from him.  Running the tavern gave her a freedom no other woman had in the territory, an independence that even the married women envied.  After years of reveling in it, she was now frightened by it, so she was giving it up for marriage.

Watching the sun slowly climb closer to her wedding hour, she admitted that loved Diego and wanted him to be with her always.  However, he too would be married soon.  Until the other night, she thought that fact would keep her away from him, but she had learned a horrible truth about herself.  She wanted Diego, and his marriage would not deter that desire.  She feared that it would not stop Diego, either, if she confessed everything.  Both of them would be sinners for what they would do.  If she was married, though, especially to a friend, it would stop Diego and her both.  She could not hurt Mendoza that way, and Diego respected his friend too much to dishonor him.

Forcing herself away from the window, Victoria began filling her bath with warm water from the fireplace as tears fell from her eyes.  Soon, she would get into her wedding dress and walk over to that church.  Then, it would be time to march down the aisle to the wrong man, again.

***

Felipe, leaning against the wall, watched Diego getting dressed.  Even as a child, Diego never had such a hard time.  The fact my hands are shaking has nothing to do with it, Diego angrily mocked himself as he messed up his cravat yet again.  It refused to tie right until finally Felipe walked over and reached up to do it.  Diego stood still as his son, so new to the dress of a caballero, tied a perfect bow, even with his stiff shoulder. 

He tried to smile at his son, but it was hard.  Today was a day of torture for him.  He was getting dressed far earlier than he needed to, but he was too restless to sit.  Besides, he knew the way he felt.  If he did not get dressed now, he probably would never do so for her wedding.  He could avoid the pain altogether by not going, and something inside him would not have allowed him to miss the wedding so easily.  He needed to see it, to accept the truth, and then maybe he could go on with his life.

Felipe began walking out of the room.  As he had last night, he turned to look at his father and walked back to stand in front of him.  Diego again waited for him to speak, but the words this time felt like a kick in the stomach.  "You know, for a man of action, you didn't do much about Victoria."

Diego gasped, and tried to find the words to explain what he was feeling.  He thought that Felipe and his father understood.  "What was I to do?  I couldn't force her to love me."

"No, but I knew a man once that would have ridden his horse over there, grabbed her up onto the saddle, and taken her somewhere until he got an explanation," Felipe replied.  Diego shivered, as he thought of his earlier plans.  On that horrible day, he had a plan like Felipe said.  Then, Don Vicente shared the horrible truth:  She did not love him.

"What is there to explain?  She doesn't love me," Diego replied.  He fought the tears that wanted to well in his eyes.  He did not want to talk about this right now.  Victoria was getting married--to another man--within hours.

"Grandfather and Mendoza don't believe it.  When I woke up this morning, I remembered everything we said last night, and I don't believe it, either.  She loves you; I saw it on her face, and I heard it in her voice when she rushed here to see if you were all right.  Seven years is too long for 'infatuation'."  Felipe shook his head.  "I just don't know why she's lying about it."

Diego looked at him, unable to understand Felipe could not accept the truth.  She did not love him.  "Victoria isn't the type of woman to lie, Felipe."

"No, Father, she isn't, and that is what's worrying me the most right now.  Why would she lie?"   Diego just shook his head, trying to hold the pain at bay, as Felipe put his hand on his shoulder.  "Father, think about it!  You taught me about logic and reasoning.  Victoria isn't the type of woman to marry a man she doesn't love, either.  Or do you really believe that she loves Mendoza?"  Felipe waited a heartbeat, letting the question echo in the mind of his father, before he walked out the room.  Diego sank down into the chair next to his bed, lost in thought.

***

Felipe held his breath as he walked out of the room, hoping his words would light the fire in Diego.  Scratching his arm, he remembered waking up that morning and the incredible fear that had struck him.  Everything was wrong, he realized.  Images of Victoria, both before and after her relationship with Zorro, raced through his mind, leading him to the realization that something terrible was taking place.

Like his father, he let hurt and anger cloud his judgment, but the conversation of last night gelled in his mind as his slept until the puzzle suddenly became clear.  Victoria was marrying her good friend Mendoza, the one man Diego would not discourage because of his own friendship with the kind Sergeant.  As different as daylight and dark, Diego and Mendoza both seemed to find something they needed in the other.  Their friendship was an oddity Felipe never tried to understand.

Victoria was marrying a friend.  The same woman who would not give her masked love a chance after finding out his was a friend now chose to marry a friend, a man she could never love.  Realizing that oddity was like someone took off the blindfold he was wearing, suddenly letting the light filter in so he could see the picture. He did not know what was wrong with Victoria, but he feared whatever it was.  Something was not right, and Diego was the only one who would be able to fix it.

Lost in thought, he bumped into his grandfather, who was walking back in from the garden carrying a beautiful bouquet of roses.  Felipe knew the day was difficult for the old caballero, too.  Besides worrying about the heart of his son, he was also anxious for Victoria.  Felipe could see it in his grandfather's stance and in the dark circles under his eyes.

Don Alejandro simply smiled and reassured him that it was all right; he understood about Felipe's mind being elsewhere.  His grandfather looked down at the beautiful flowers in his hands.  Gently caressing the yellow bulbs, he sighed.  Felipe knew where the man's thoughts were; they were on the lovely lady he would be escorting to her groom today.

Yesterday, Victoria sent his grandfather a curt note asking him to escort her down the isle.  Reading over it, Don Alejandro shared with Felipe his belief that she did it only because Mendoza would expect it of her.  He briefly considered declining before deciding he would do it.  "She's like a daughter to me.  I might not agree with this marriage, but I'm not going to let it destroy our relationship, if I can help it.  I want her to know that I still consider her family, whether she likes it or not!" 

Alejandro looked up from the flowers and sadly smiled. "Would you mind, Felipe, taking these to Victoria?  I want her to have a beautiful bouquet when she walks down the isle." 

Felipe took the roses from his grandfather, gently stroking the soft pedals.  Maybe he could talk some sense into Victoria, or at least stall her from getting ready.  He heard Diego walk into the library, and if his instincts were correct, Zorro would soon ride.  At least Diego--and the rest of the de la Vegas--might have some answers after today, and would have the satisfaction of knowing that at least he tried.

***

In the plaza, Felipe carefully dismounted his horse.  The roses were beautiful, so he had taken his time riding to the pueblo in an effort to protect them.  He glanced around the plaza, expecting to see Zorro riding past, but he saw no signs of the masked hero.  Standing at the tavern's door, Felipe hoped he would show:  Diego needed to know the truth, and if the feeling in his gut was right, Victoria needed Zorro.

After several knocks, Victoria finally opened the door.  The strain on her face lessened when she saw who was standing at the door.  Her eyes immediately fell to the bundle in his hand.  He saw both sadness and relief cross her face.  He doubted his grandfather had thought about the memories his rose garden had for Victoria.  After all, he did not know about all the beautiful roses she had found on her pillow over the years.  All of them had been blood red though, instead of the color of friendship.

Victoria, wearing a sad smile, opened the door wide for him to enter.  It was still early, so she was in normal clothes, which he was relieved to see.  However, her hair was fixed, cascading around her face.  She reached for the flowers, her eyes shimmering with unshed tears.  "He shouldn't have!" 

Felipe followed her into the kitchen, practicing what he was going to say.  He needed to convince her to wait, to reconsider her decision to marry Mendoza.  Once she was married, she was married.  There could be no future for her and Diego.  Both of them would spend the rest of their lives miserable.

She carefully placed them in a vase of water, showing how truly touched she was by the unexpected gesture.  Victoria, unwilling to talk to Don Alejandro, probably thought his agreement to escort her was born of pride or sheer stubbornness.  Now, watching her caress the bulbs, Felipe knew she understood it was done out of love instead.

He heard someone enter the kitchen behind, but he did not turn out of long habit.  He knew how to play deaf well.  When he saw a look of terror flash across Victoria's face, he began to spin around to see what could cause such a look.  "No!" Victoria screamed as a flash of black swung beside his face.  He heard his father's voice echoing in his head about the many uses of a pistol grip as he fell to the floor.  The world went black.