Chapter 5

As the bevy of young señoritas entered the tavern behind Victoria and Diego, the mouth of every man inside fell open in disbelief. Women did not frequent the tavern unless it was for the special entertainments that sometimes took place there. The only women inside during normal times were the serving girls and Señorita Escalante herself.

With all conversation silenced, the only sound that could be heard was that of the chairs sliding backwards from the tables and scraping against the wooden floor. The startled men rose, one by one, to acknowledge the presence of the señoritas.

Victoria stopped in her tracks as she witnessed it all. She could not have felt it more if the men had slapped her in the face. None of the men ever stood when she entered the room, and she would not expect them to do so. The fact that they felt the need to for these señoritas only underscored the difference in her station from theirs.

As Diego stepped forward, she pulled her arm from his grasp and said a quick, "Excuse me, Diego," and disappeared into the kitchen.

The girls surrounded Diego immediately and began their barrage of questions and comments again.

"So this is the tavern!"

"Do you come here often, Don Diego?"

"Don Diego, Do they serve luncheon here?"

"Oh, Don Diego, that color looks simply divine on you!"

The men in the room sat back down, scooted their chairs back up to the tables and went back to their conversations, though more than a few of them now included Don Diego and the señoritas as a topic.

Diego led the women to a couple of tables at the side of the room. "Now, ladies, I shall go and order some lemonade for you all. Señorita Escalante makes the best in all of Los Angeles. You are in for a treat," he said with a shake of his head and then left the tables quickly before any of them could protest.

He made his way toward the kitchen and ducked through the curtained entrance. Victoria was slicing onions with a huge, sharp-bladed knife when he entered.

"I promised the señoritas some lemonade, Victoria," he said cautiously. "It is still on the menu, isn't it?"

"Lemonade! Diego, they are in my tavern!" Victoria hissed, punctuating every word in the air with the knife as she turned to him.

"Yes," he said as he stepped back, exaggeratingly dodging the tip of the knife. "Yes, they are." Diego sighed. "But after all, it is not exactly forbidden for women to come into the tavern, is it?"

"Well…no…but, Diego, they…they were…" She hated it when he was so reasonable when she didn't want to be, and her indignation soared again. "Diego, they are in my tavern!" She turned back to her onions and began slicing furiously.

"Yes, you said that," he replied, confused. "If it is not forbidden, why is it so bad?" He leaned forward and reached around her to take a couple of lemons from the bowl in front of her. "I think it is about time the tavern started reaching out to the female population around here, and now that there's going to be more of it…" A thought occurred to him. "It will be good for business for you." Grabbing a knife from the counter, he cut the lemons in half and reached for two more.

"I don't need more business! The tavern is doing just fine as it is, Diego. Besides, it might even hurt my business when it gets around that women are just traipsing in and out of here like —"

'Traipsing?" Diego gave her a sidelong glance. "They are just sitting there, waiting for some lemonade. Here, I have given you a start. I think I counted ten of them, so that will be eleven lemonades for the tables with the traipsing women." He winked at her then turned and left her before she could make a reply.

Victoria had to laugh. Traipsing women, indeed! Only Diego could get her to laugh at something she considered to be a real affront to her sense of …what? Propriety? That couldn't be it. Those señoritas were in a class above her own. She sighed deeply. "Yes, they have every right to be in there," she thought. "And I have every right not to like it!" she said aloud as she reached for the bowl of lemons.

She had her smile firmly fixed in place when she delivered the tray full of lemonades to the table. Diego was sitting there among the women and all their eyes were on him. The two seated next to him had their hands all over his shoulders, his arms, even his lapels as they talked animatedly to him about Spain and the reasons they had been willing to come so far to start new lives. Many of them chattered away, all talking at once, vying for his attention as they ignored Victoria while she set the glasses before each señorita.

She thought, "At least he has the good sense to look embarrassed!" as his eyes caught hers.

Two of the señoritas actually took the time to compliment her on the lemonade and she warmed to them immediately. Perhaps this was a good thing. But something in the back of her mind hated to see Diego being right about it all.

As she left the table, Don Alejandro walked through the door. She met him as he walked to the bar and greeted him.

"Don Alejandro! It's so good to see you. I just made some fresh lemonade. How does that sound?"

"Ah, Victoria, it sounds wonderful, my dear, just wonderful." He pulled off his gloves and looked about the room, his eyes stopping when he saw his son seated at the table with the señoritas. "Oh my!"

"Yes, oh my!" Victoria echoed. "Your son has made some new friends." They both stared at Diego.

"Since when did this all happen?"

"I don't know." Victoria's voice just had the slightest hint of steel in it.

"Maybe I should change my order to champagne!" Don Alejandro laughed. "This is good, Victoria." He leaned forward and squeezed her forearm. "I may just live long enough to see some grandbabies after all!"

Don Alejandro was so pleased at the picture of his son surrounded by beautiful, eligible young señoritas, he never noticed the strange look Victoria gave him as she turned to head to the kitchen for his lemonade.

When she came back into the room, Diego was at the bar with his father, having extracted himself carefully from his small group of admiring ladies.

"But, Father, do not make such a big thing of this. They haven't yet met many of the men yet. I am just one of the few they know."

"Well, then perhaps you need to move quickly before they do meet the others. The early bird —"

"Oh, please, Father, don't start quoting old proverbs at me." He drained the last drops from his glass and placed in carefully on the counter. "Besides, you know what always happens. A young señorita spends a little time with me, and they begin to lose interest. It never fails. I am just not husband material, it seems," he finished, looking sheepishly over at his father.

"Victoria," Don Alejandro called her over as he saw her come back from the kitchen. "Victoria, talk to my son! He doesn't think he has a chance to marry one of these young señoritas who came over from Spain specifically to get married!"

"Marry?" Victoria turned and looked directly at Diego. "You want to get married, Diego?"

Diego heaved a large sigh and put both of his elbows on the counter and let his hands cover his face. "Father, please! I do not want to discuss this!"

As his father opened his mouth to reply, Diego let his hands fall to the bar, pushed off from it, turned, and went quickly out the door.

"Oh, no!" Victoria said and started after him, but Don Alejandro caught her by the arm.

"He'll be all right, Victoria. He's just overly tired, that's all. He's been rather moody ever since the beginning of the fever epidemic. I guess all that running back and forth from the hacienda to the pueblo was just too much for him." He looked back over at the table of señoritas. "But it is a pity," he said as he motioned over to their table with his glass before raising it for a sip, "those sweet young señoritas seem to be quite taken with Diego, heh?"

"Oh, yes! Quite taken!" she said harshly and then excused herself to go wait on another customer.