Chapter 15
When Diego finally awoke, three days had passed. He was very confused at first, for most of the past few days' reality had blurred with his dreams. His memory was fogged and there was a constant pounding of drums in his head.
"But who was it?" he had demanded the first time he was alone with Victoria.
"I don't know, but I'm certainly grateful he showed up when he did. Just like Zorro!"
"But I am —"
"Shhh!" She looked around toward the door.
"It all seems so unreal." Diego shook his head slowly from side to side. "It is difficult to remember what was real and what was a dream."
"Are you sure you're not pretending, Diego?" Victoria asked coyly.
"Pretending! Now why would I do that?" he asked as he sipped the broth from the spoon she offered.
"Well, if you're trying to get out of being married to me," she smiled at him, "I've got witnesses and proof!" She held up her left hand and wiggled her fourth finger.
"Oh, that I remember!" He obediently swallowed another spoonful. "But a jail cell wedding. It just won't do, you know. I think we should do that part over. I am not sure my father will be satisfied with it now."
"You father doesn't care as long as he gets some grandbabies out of the deal!" she said as she fed him another spoonful and he almost choked.
"Oh, really! Now you're both talking that way!" he said indignantly.
"Oh, so it's fine to plan on having them, just not to talk about having them?" She stuck another spoonful in his mouth before he could answer.
"Something like that…" Diego said after swallowing. He held up his hand. "Please, no more." He laid back into the pillows.
"Well, you have been rather good today. Maybe Doctor Hernandez will let you go back to the hacienda tomorrow."
"Yes, I hope so. And will you be going there too?"
"We will see. If there's to be another wedding, maybe I should wait." Her eyes held some mischief.
"I think we've waited long enough." He reached for her hand. "If nothing else, almost getting hanged accomplished this." He touched the ring on her finger and smiled up at her. "And it has shown the entire pueblo that somehow you now prefer me over Zorro. Maybe the alcalde has done us a favor."
"A favor! He nearly made me a widow before I got to be a wife."
"You are a wife." He squeezed her hand.
"No, I am a bride. You have to recover completely before you can make me a wife." She put the broth aside on the bedside table and gave her husband a long, long kiss.
Late the next afternoon, Diego came home to the welcome of a full staff of servants. It was several hours before the house had quieted down enough for Diego to finally show his father and Victoria the secret of Zorro's cave. They left their desserts and coffee on the table, and Diego and Felipe led the way through the secret panel in the fireplace and down into the passageway leading to the cave.
Diego showed them around and answered their questions. As he approached Tornado, he noticed a cloth bag hanging from the saddle horn. Felipe grinned as he took it and handed it to Diego. Opening the bag, he found a note. The others stood silently as he read it.
"It's from Jim Jarrett," Diego said incredulously as he looked wonderingly at Tornado. "'Zorro, Thanks for the loan of your horse.' So that explains it." He let Tornado nuzzle his hand. "And you let him ride you, boy? Amazing!"
Felipe tugged at the bag. "Oh, yes." Diego looked back at the note. "'In payment, a souvenir of your travels, Jim Jarrett.' "
"A souvenir?" his father asked.
Diego reached into the bag and withdrew a large coconut. Surprise caused him to drop it and it barely missed his foot. Diego groaned. "That pirate has a sick sense of humor."
"A coconut!" Victoria stooped to pick it up off the floor. "Now why would he…"
"Because he was shipwrecked too, once. He knows what these things can come to mean to you."
Victoria tried to hand him the coconut.
"No! No! I don't care if I ever see another one of those as long as I live!" Diego backed away and said, "Those things are alive! Deadly even! You have no idea!"
"Diego it's only a coconut!" Victoria said.
"Only a coconut! Suffering from dehydration, sunburn and poisoning, I climbed painfully high for those things! Fell, climbed again and wrestled trying to get those down to the ground. Then as soon as I finally had a nice pile, one falls at my feet. It could have killed me! The alcalde could use those things for weapons!"
They all laughed at his overreaction. Victoria rolled her eyes and his father said, "Well, this is all fascinating, but our coffee is getting cold. Shall we go back to the dining room?"
Felipe and Victoria were still giggling as Diego led them back through the passageway.
"What's so funny?" her new father-in-law asked.
"You didn't notice?" Victoria whispered her answer. "Maria's dessert – it's coconut cream pie!"
THE END
