Chapter 11
Don Alejandro left his bed the next morning. He was weak and needed help to get around, but his manservant was only too glad to give him aid. Before Victoria had even awakened in her place of vigil in the chair by Diego's bed, he was opening the door of his son's room.
"Victoria, child, have you slept there all night?" Don Alejandro was only slightly surprised.
"Oh, Don Alejandro, I…I…" She sat up, rubbing her eyes, trying to wipe away the fog of a deep sleep.
Don Alejandro sat down on the edge of the bed and felt of his son's forehead. "No fever. That's a good sign, at least," he said with relief. "But why does he still sleep?"
"Doctor Hernandez gave him something last night. Something," she glanced sideways at the manservant, "he said Zorro once gave to him. I think it might make him sleep. He's been very quiet all night. All the way here, he was rather restless. I think he was at least trying to awaken before." She bit her bottom lip. "It's got to be the new medicine."
"Zorro gave it to him?" Don Alejandro shot her a meaningful look. "Yes, then at least we can trust this new medicine." He stood unsteadily to his feet. "And if he's just going to sleep like this, I think we can leave him for a bit and go into breakfast, my dear. Please, I want you to join me. I appreciate your sacrificing your sleep by staying here through the night to watch over Diego, but I insist you take a little break from it for sustenance. I'll have Consuela come in and sit with him."
Victoria started to protest but then looked down at the peacefully sleeping man in the bed and reluctantly agreed. Consuela she could trust to call in case he stirred, and she could feel the emptiness in her stomach. Breakfast sounded good.
In the dining room, they helped themselves to the nice selection of hot dishes from the sideboard. Victoria was especially grateful for the strong coffee that helped her finally erase the last traces of sleepiness that seemed reluctant to give up its hold on her this morning. She wondered fleetingly if Doctor Hernandez had put something in her milk last night, then dismissed the thought. She was just tired; it had been a long, wearying journey.
But Alejandro was speaking and she had missed it all and had to ask him to repeat himself.
"I said that tonight you will sleep in the guest room. We can't have you doing that anymore. It will not look right if word should get out about it. And I will not have my future daughter-in-law talked about in the pueblo because of her devotion. I will see if Don Moreno's wife will come stay for a while if need be. Felipe or I can take turns with him, but there is no reason for you to take on the whole load of this."
"Daughter-in-law?" It was the one thing that stood out to her. "I think you are a little premature there, Don Alejandro. Diego hasn't even —"
"Now, Victoria, we both know what his intentions are concerning you." Don Alejandro smiled. "As soon as he is well, you had better start thinking about —"
"Don Alejandro, please! Let's not go so fast." She looked up as another of the serving girls came in and took up an empty dish. "We just need to get Diego well." Victoria's eyes followed the girl as she made her round of the room and went back out the door to the kitchen. "There's so much to discuss." She looked pointedly at the door the girl had just closed. Why did she feel that everyone was listening intently to every word they said?
Don Alejandro was nodding his head. He also had just been reminded that there were some things that could not be said easily inside the hacienda. "I think, Victoria, we should both go for a walk a little later on today. A stroll in the gardens would do us both good."
"Yes, I think so too. As long as someone is here to sit with Diego. I don't want him waking up to an empty room."
All that day, Diego slept without barely a move. Towards dusk, Victoria was back in the room once more and she had lit several candles about the room. They provided a warm glow as she checked and double checked Diego's breathing with every page she turned of her book. She was well aware that she was not really reading, but just staring at the pages and seeing the same words dance before her eyes over and over, almost mesmerizing her into a very relaxed state.
Muffled sounds of the hacienda settling down to nightfall reached her ears and she could hear the sounds of the wind in the trees outside the window. A storm was coming.
She put down the book and went to the window. Holding back the curtains to peer outside, she sighed deeply. The wind was definitely picking up and there was sheet lightning off in the distance toward the pueblo.
Feeling a small tinge of guilt about the tavern, she hoped it was faring well. It was odd. During all the time of trying to find Diego, getting him home and now nursing him, she had barely even given the tavern a thought. She'd left if in competent hands, of course. But the tavern was her livelihood, her life, her small world, and she had all but deserted it for Diego. Once, she could have understood doing all this for Zorro. But even though she knew the truth, it was really Diego she had done it all for now. Diego was now her life, her world. Zorro was beginning to be a sweet memory, a long ago dream. Had some part of her always known?
Thunder rumbled in the distance and continued for a few seconds before a crashing loud thunderbolt struck quite near. The whole room shook, and, almost immediately, the rain began. Victoria pushed the window shut with the curtains flaring out around her from a gust of wind.
"Victoria?" Diego's voice, raspy, weak and almost inaudible, still reached her ears, for she had been listening for it for so long.
She turned quickly to see his eyes, heavy-lidded but clear and bright, looking at her. She flew to his bedside.
"Diego!" Her eyes glistened as she grabbed his hand and held it to her cheek. "You're awake!"
"What… I don't….where…"
"Sh…shh…. Here, drink." She held a glass of water to his lips and helped raise his head so he could drink.
"Water," he finally said. "Do you know how much I've dreamed of this simple liquid?" Diego laughed softly and looked up into her eyes. "And of you?" The words escaped his mouth before he realized he'd spoken them aloud. He closed his eyes, wondering how he was going to explain them, but he found his thinking cloudy, fogged.
"Oh, Diego, you are safe now. You're home." Worry seemed to flicker across his face and she laid a hand along his cheek. "How do you feel?"
"If this is a dream, I —" He broke off and looked about the room. "I'm home?" The last he remembered, he had found water in a cave. How had he gotten home? The feel of her hand on his cheek was real. The feel of the bed beneath him was real as well. He was home.
"Victoria?" She still touched him and her eyes were full of the love he'd always seen in them as Zorro. "Victoria, —" He stopped, for he didn't even know what question to ask.
"Diego, I know," she whispered. "I know. Your father knows. You're home. You're going to get well and I love you." She smiled and bent forward to kiss him gently on the lips.
There was a slight hesitation on Diego's part before his own body responded for him. His arms went about her shoulders. The fingers of one hand entangled in her hair and his other hand went to her small waist. Her words settled in his mind as they kissed with all the pent-up passion of the months of separation. She knew. He didn't know how, but the important thing was she knew and she loved him still.
As the rain poured down and pattered against the window panes, Diego drank from her lips again, this time life-giving passion instead of mere water.
