Chapter 4

Diego stood, stunned, before regaining enough sense to chase her.

Her hair whipped wildly about her hair and the breeze dried her tears as they streamed down her cheeks. She grasped the carriage reins and slapped the horse, urging him into as fast a canter as possible. He couldn't catch her. She needed to be alone. She needed time to think.

"I handled this all wrong!" Diego muttered as he stared after the carriage as it rumbled down the road.

Diego untied his father's stallion just as Alejandro was escorting Alvera out the front door. The older couple stared as the young man lifted himself into the saddle without use of the stirrups and galloped the stallion after the departing carriage.

Alejandro blinked and Alvera gazed kindly after the man's son. "I had no idea he was such an accomplished rider."

"Nor did I." Alejandro admitted. " I wonder what that was all about?"

Victoria heard the hoof beats before she saw the rider and she slapped the reins harder. "Leave me alone!" She screamed at the darkness behind her.

"Victoria, please stop so I can explain!"

"I don't want to hear your explanation. I want you to leave me alone!" She slapped the reins again. The tears were blurring her vision and she could barely tell if the carriage was still on the road.

Suddenly she saw a blur out of the corner of her eye as Diego leapt off his stallion and onto the back of the mare. He pulled up on the reins and the carriage came to an abrupt halt, almost throwing Victoria from the seat.

She shoved this breathtaking visual into the back of her head for further examination later. Right now, she just had to get away from him. She jumped off the now motionless carriage and started running toward the pueblo.

He shook his head at her determination and began to run after her. It would not be much of a race. The burning need to explain why he'd done what he had hastened his steps.

When he caught her, she whirled on him and landed a solid punch to the side of his face. He recoiled sharply, clearly underestimating how truly upset Victoria was with him.

"I didn't want it to happen this way." He tried to explain, holding her gently so that she would not try to run from him again. "I wanted to tell you..."

"When? When did you want to tell me?" She was trembling from rage. "When I kissed you in your own garden? When you asked me to marry you? When?"

Diego looked over her shoulder into the darkness. If someone happened upon the couple, Diego would be hard pressed to explain the heated argument.

"What are you worried about? Someone discovering your secret!" Victoria screamed, raising her hand to turn his face back to her. Damn him for looking away.

For a moment he recoiled, thinking she would strike him again. The hesitation unnerved her but she persisted. "What did you choose now to tell me? Why couldn't you have told me last year, or two years ago, or when this charade started!"

He could only shake his head and allow her to scream at him.

"Or did you just enjoy holding this bit of information over my head. You could see me whenever you wanted or didn't want to." She took a deep, shaky breath and continued. " You left me wondering and the longing I felt each time we were parted… Everything was done on your terms! How powerful that must have made you feel!"

Her anger was not abating and it was starting to worry him. She was trembling violently and he risked enveloping her in his strong arms and holding her as she ranted.

She screamed and cried into his chest for a long while until she slumped against him her energy spent.

He could feel her tears wet his shirt and couldn't think of a single soothing word to explain why he had caused her so much pain. Her words had stung him like a hundred little backstabbing daggers and he blinked back a tear. He hadn't wanted things to turn out this way. This wasn't what he had planned.

"You're exhausted." He whispered, effortlessly lifting her and sitting her in the carriage. He tried to look at her but she turned her face away from him. She had made a complete turn around from her earlier tantrum and was completely unemotional. She sat beside him as he drove the carriage back to the pueblo.

She didn't move, when the carriage stopped, until Diego lifted himself from the seat and turned to help her down.

She quickly jumped from the carriage , rushed to the tavern door and turned to him.

"I don't ever want to see you again." She said calmly and slammed the door shut behind her.

He blinked, a tremor freezing him to the core of his being as he heard the bolt lock on the other side.

Victoria sank into the mattress of her bed, trembling from the cold. She sobbed but no more tears fell from her swollen eyes. She was numb. She didn't hurt anymore, she didn't feel betrayed by the one man she had allowed herself to fall so completely in love with. She just felt - empty. Empty of life, empty of feeling, empty of love.

She opened a secret door behind her dresser and pulled out all the gifts she had saved from her encounters with Zorro.

The silk mask slid over her chilled fingers, sending a shiver up her spine with its softness.

Dried roses, letters, and the one thing that he had given her that she took pride in over everything else - an engagement ring. A ring that he promised he would one day slide onto her finger and parade it proudly for all to see.

Why was she so surprised by Diego's revelation? Wasn't she happy to finally know the identity of her masked love?

She slid the ring onto her finger and held it up to the candle light. Why was she finding this information so difficult to accept? Was she worried now that the mask has been removed that she would not feel the same? She sobbed. She didn't. She didn't love Diego. The realization that her life as she knew it had unraveled before her eyes, shook her to the very core of her being.

She bent over and rested her head in her hands, the tears slipping from her face and seeping into the floor beneath her feet. Her head was throbbing and she curled her legs beneath her on the bed and gripped the small collection tightly before falling into a tortured sleep.

Diego resisted the urge to climb in her window and force her to listen to him. But he wisely chose to return home, his stallion taking the two miles back to the hacienda slowly.

The slow return home provided Diego with the opportunity to clear his head. To re-think what had happened over the last few hours. He couldn't really blame Victoria for her reaction, but he had hoped that she would have been willing to listen to his explanation and realize that the secret he had kept was done so for her safety.

By the time he returned to the hacienda, Diego was numb, from the cold and the expanse of emotion released in such a few short hours. He tied the stallion in the stable, removed the saddle, and began to brush the sweaty coat with long, even strokes.

If he noticed his father step into the stable, he gave no indication.

Alejandro watched his son with a scrutinizingly watchful eye for several minutes before asking, "Something bothering you, son?" Alejandro watched as his son methodically brushed the stallion.

When Diego didn't answer, he continued. " He is going to have the softest coat in the territory if you keep brushing him like that."

"It's relaxing."

Alejandro was worried. His son had never been so distant and he had a sinking feeling that it had something to do with Victoria. He just hoped that his son had not done something improper with the young woman.

"Diego?"

"Father please. I don't want to discuss it."

"I think we need to discuss it. What happened?" His father's voice was soothing to Diego's troubled mind.

Diego shook his head and continued to brush the stallion.

"Diego. You didn't do anything – improper - with Victoria tonight, did you?" Alejandro couldn't believe his son would dare but he had to be sure. He wasn't even certain he wanted to know. If something did happen, he would have a lot of explaining and apologizing to do to Victoria.

A short chuckled bubbled from between Diego's lips. "Certainly subtle, aren't you?"

"Diego." His father's voice inflected a stern warning.

"No. Father. Nothing like that."

Alejandro released a deep breath. "You have no idea how glad I am to hear that."

"I'm sure."

"Will you tell me..."

"Father, I don't feel up to discussing it right now. Please, don't push the issue."

"All right, Diego." Alejandro stepped forward and patted his son's shoulder gently. " Please come to me if you need to talk."

Diego was quiet over breakfast the next morning. Felipe and Alejandro exchanged worried looks, both deeply concerned that something very bad had happened between Diego and Victoria.

"Are you coming into town with me today?" Alejandro broke the uncomfortable silence.

Diego brushed the food around his plate a few seconds before answering. "No."

"Do you feel like..."

"No, I still don't want to discuss it."

Alejandro let the matter drop, for now, finished his food and left for town.

Alejandro found a very different tempered woman when he stepped into the tavern. Her normal cheerful greeting was replaced with a small smile and no conversation.

He looked around to see if the tavern was busy and there were none but a few customers sitting in the back tables.

Alejandro's eyes softened. Something had happened last night and he was determined to find out what it was.

When Victoria disappeared behind the kitchen curtain he followed her."Victoria?"

"Alejandro." Victoria managed a larger smile for the kind caballero. "What can I do for you?"

"Tell me what is bothering you ." He smiled, giving the young woman and her defensive stance a quick once-over.

"Why nothing." She muttered and quickly turned back to stir the contents of the pot boiling over the hot coals. "Why would you think ..."

"Victoria." Alejandro took a step towards her and she backed away.

Victoria didn't want to deal with this now. And certainly not with Diego's father. For a fleeting minute she wondered if Alejandro knew but she didn't want to bring up the painful subject. She had to give the kind man a reason for her hasty departure from his hacienda the previous night and decided that some degree of truth was necessary.

"Diego and I had a disagreement."

"There was nothing improper..."

"Oh Alejandro." A bubble of laugher erupted from her lips and for a moment Alejandro wondered if he was not overreacting. "Your son is always nothing but a gentleman in my presence."

There was no point in telling Alejandro the truth about that particular statement without the necessity of discussing the entire situation.

She was wondering why Alejandro was bringing up her activities of the previous night. Hadn't Diego covered for her quick departure from the hacienda? She thought he wouldn't want his father to know what had happened. Her curiosity got the better of her and she turned from her casual stirring and looked at Alejandro.

"What - has Diego told you about last night?"

"Not a thing. And his strange behavior has me a bit concerned."

"We had a disagreement." She repeated.

"There is nothing more?"

Victoria huffed and Alejandro could tell he was starting to anger the young woman. Whatever had transpired between his son and the fiery beauty before him, was not something as simple as a disagreement.

"Alejandro, please. I have lunch to prepare." She desperately wanted him to leave her alone.

"If you need to talk, Victoria. Please don't hesitate to come to me."

"Thank you, Alejandro."