Chapter 10
A half hour passed before Victoria made her way back out to the dancing area. She stood watching the couples as they whirled past her. Many of the vaqueros and caballeros, having paired off with the señoritas of their choices, were obviously well on the way to official courting. Perhaps the good padre would be busy officiating weddings in the pueblo soon.
Off to her right, she saw the alcalde, his face with some nasty reddened splotches here and there, trying his best to impress a young señorita and not getting very far at all. Ahead of her, Andrea was laughing a shade too loudly as she conversed with one of the caballeros.
"Señorita Escalante! You disappeared. I think you owe me a dance, my dear." Don Emilio held out his hand to her, and she smiled up at him as he led her out among the couples.
As they danced to the music, Victoria kept an eye on the people standing around the edges of the crowd. When the music paused, she asked Don Emilio to excuse her, for she needed to find a friend, one to whom she owed an apology.
Murmuring her greetings to all the friends she passed, she kept moving slowly through the crowd. Time after time, she had to stop when someone hailed her. She finally saw Diego near one of the hanging lanterns. His back was toward her and she approached him rather shyly.
"Diego?" At the sound of her voice, he turned, and she saw he was with someone. As she stepped closer, she saw that it was Andrea.
"Victoria!" He greeted her warmly as he turned to her.
Victoria saw the señorita's hand clamp down firmly on Diego's arm. Then Andrea stepped around in front of him, and hissed, "We're so sorry. Diego can't talk to you right now. We were about to take a walk in the moonlight. Weren't we, Diego?" she cooed up at him, her eyelids fluttering.
"A walk in the moonlight? I am sorry, Andrea, but that really is impossible," Diego said as he somehow managed to smoothly slip his arm from her grasp and take a step away from her.
"What do you mean, impossible?" she said quickly, turning on him.
"You see, there is a moon tonight, but it is a new moon. So therefore, there is no moonlight. But we have only to wait a few nights, and there will be a waxing crescent!" Diego said the words "waxing crescent" as if he were describing the most beautiful sight in creation, and he further emphasized the point with a sweeping hand gesture showing just where the crescent would ride in the sky..
Victoria bit her bottom lip to keep from smiling as he continued in only the way Diego could when talking about science.
"Did you know, Andrea, that you can actually tell the time of day by the phases of the moon? You see, when the moon rises just as the sun sets, you can deduct —"
"What are you babbling about?" Andrea frowned up at him.
"Well, Andrea, I was only trying to explain about —"
But his explanations were cut short as Andrea let go of an expletive that surprised both Victoria and him with its vehemence. Then the two of them watched as she flounced away back toward the dancers.
For a moment they looked at one another. Then they both burst out laughing.
"Oh, Diego!"
Diego stopped laughing and pretended to be hurt. "The least she could have done was wait until I got to the gibbous part."
Victoria laughed, and then a rather uncomfortable silence descended upon them.
"I don't suppose you wish to go walking under the darkness of the new moon?" he asked rather tentatively.
"No, Diego, I don't." She watched him closely and saw what she imagined was a look of slight disappointment (or was it confusion?) cross his face. "I want to dance," she said as she grabbed his hand and led him out to the dancing area.
He brightened at once and followed her. Once in the circle of dancers, he held her loosely and they joined the others in the dance of the moment. It was a fast one and, by the end of the set, they were both laughing in their exertion.
A slower tempo was struck and Diego started toward the edge of the dancers, but Victoria firmly held him back. It was she who placed his hand firmly at her waist and grasped the other hand to indicate to him she wanted to dance this one too.
At the end of the song, they found themselves directly in front of Don Alejandro who had been watching with Señora Ruiz.
Victoria felt her face redden as she said "Buenas noches" to the señora, remembering their conversation. But the woman merely smiled at her as Diego greeted the señora warmly.
"Señora Ruiz," Diego turned to Victoria, "is one of the twelve."
"The twelve?" Victoria echoed.
"Yes, the extra señoritas," Diego explained. "She came as a dueña, but she's so youthful herself, we told her to expect to be swept off her feet like one of the señoritas."
"Oh, Don Diego, please, you embarrass me." She swatted him playfully with her fan. "But, just you watch how it goes with all the señoritas! I believe we will see weddings before long."
"I agree," said Don Alejandro. "Some of the couples do seem to be getting along really well. I would say Don Alberto will be winning his bet!"
"Or was it Don Sebastian who bet that it could be done?" Victoria asked.
They all laughed. The original bet had become so unimportant once the señoritas had begun arriving in the pueblo.
"Who cares which one wins the bet!" Don Alejandro declared. "Los Angeles is the true winner. I think the pueblo should be paying off the bet to both of them for what they've done for us all."
"Father, if anyone has the means to do that, it is you. I believe a good amount of horseflesh was the stake. I don't know how either of them ever thought he could pay such a price in the first place."
"A good idea, Son. We shall have to look into it. Well worth the price, I'd say. New citizens, new families!" He looked at his son and thought proudly, Not to mention making my son the center of attention for many of the young señoritas. Very well worth it!
"Yes, it is exciting, isn't it, Don Alejandro!" Victoria said, as she looked out at all the happy couples. With a dreamy look on her face, she went on, "It makes me want the same thing for myself. A new family."
All three looked over at her in surprise. Indeed, several others nearby who had overheard her also looked at her with open mouths. But the woman who was known to be waiting for Zorro continued in a very frank voice, "Life is so precious. Love is so plentiful. And waiting can be so wasteful. Diego?"
"Uh, yes, Victoria?"
"Dance with me again!" She took his hand before he could answer and pulled him toward the other dancers.
Don Alejandro watched the two of them turn toward each other to begin the dance. Confusion played across his face for a moment. But when he looked down at the señora, she was watching the couple with delightful amusement, and he began to smile.
"They make such a lovely couple," Señora Ruiz said happily.
"Yes, they do," Don Alejandro agreed. "Victoria is almost like a daughter to me." He sighed deeply. "I would dearly love to see her become a daughter-in-law." His brow furrowed and his smile turned wistful as he said quietly, "If she could only stop waiting for Zorro…"
The señora put a hand to his arm. "Did you not hear what she said?" When the man looked at her blankly, she huffed, cast her eyes skyward, and declared, "I swear, men never listen! The señorita said 'waiting can be so wasteful' and I do not think she was talking about waiting for the next dance!"
Don Alejandro looked at the señora in surprise, and then his eyes drifted slowly back to the dancing couple. "Do you think…"
Señora Ruiz laughed heartily. "I think a lot of things. And right now I think I shall act." She reached down and picked up her voluminous skirts. "If you will excuse me, Don Alejandro." With that, the señora went in search of her own waiting future.
The song played on slowly, and Victoria laid her head upon Diego's chest. As they danced, she tried leaning back a little at a time and gradually felt him lean into her and lower his head to compensate. She nuzzled up against him, stretching as far up as she could to reach his neck, and inhaled deeply.
At the intake of her breath, Diego glanced down at her. Her eyes were closed and she was smiling blissfully.
"Victoria?"
"Yes, Diego?" she said dreamily.
"I was just wondering…you have your eyes closed. Are you tired?"
"No, Diego, I am not tired at all. But, you know, the light is fairly bright with all these lanterns hanging around. Why don't we go over there, by the bushes? I think I would like to dance in the dark tonight."
"Dance in the dark?"
"Yes." She smiled up at him mischievously. "You can see so much more clearly in the dark sometimes."
Diego grinned down at her and they danced slowly, but surely, over to the edge of the crowd.
Alcalde De Soto sat dejectedly on one of the benches near the food tables. His face hurt from the small abrasions and bruises he'd taken from the fans of the furious señoritas, but his pride was hurting even more.
Señora Ruiz approached him and offered him a glass of lemonade. "Ignacio? You must be thirsty."
"No thanks!" he grumbled miserably. Then he looked up in surprise as the señora sat down on the bench beside him.
"It just wasn't your night tonight, was it?" she asked.
"No. It wasn't." He shot her a look of disdain, wishing she would just leave him alone.
"They are awfully young," the señora commented.
"Young? Oh, you mean the señoritas," he grumbled. And why did admitting that make him feel so old?
"Sometimes it takes a woman of maturity to see the attributes of a man such as you," the señora observed.
"A man such as me?" He looked up at her suspiciously and, seeing the offered glass of lemonade she still held, he took it from her hand and sipped.
"Oh yes. A military man like you is wasted on such young ones. Oh, the experiences you must have had! I would just bet that none of them would find such tales as you have to tell as interesting as say, someone my age." She looked over at the dancers. "They haven't lived through the times we have. They wouldn't even know what to talk to you about." She reached over and touched one of the many medals on his chest. "Oh my! That isn't the order of Tarancon, is it?"
"Why yes!" De Soto sat up straighter. "Yes, it is. How did you know —"
"And this one?"
"That's the Cross of Madrid." His chest swelled a little larger. "And this one is the Decoration for the Council of the Mesta!" De Soto offered, hoping the señora really didn't know her medals, for some of the ones he wore he'd purchased from a beggar on a street in Lisbon.
"Oh, my goodness!" The Señora looked suitably impressed. "Such valor! You must be very proud."
"Oh, Señora, —"
"Oh, please, Ignacio, call me Vina." She smiled a brilliant smile at him and he returned one in kind.
"Vina. What a lovely name!"
The two continued to talk, mostly about Ignacio, until the lanterns were being extinguished.