Title: Match Maker
Author: MEG
Rated: PG
SUMMARY: One peaceful night, Zorro helps Victoria decide who in Los Angeles would make the best wife for her friend Diego.
A/N: Thanks Katinka for help and Joyce for correcting errors. (But all faults are mine!)
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Prologue
"Buenos tardes, Victoria." The voice was coming from a dark corner. Victoria swung around, surprised. "Zorro!" In just a few steps she was in his arms. He looked in her eyes and gently leaned forward to kiss her. She responded passionately. They finally pulled apart, but only because they had no more breath left.
"What's bothering you tonight, Querida?" Zorro asked.
"What do you mean?" Victoria asked, but before Zorro answered her he delicately kissed her eyelids.
"I was watching you today. I saw that you were lost in your own thoughts, paying no attention to your customers or friends. I know that Don Diego is normally able to talk with you, so you tell him what's on your mind. But today you brushed him off too".
"You mean I shouted at him---terribly," she said with some shame. Zorro smiled at her and embraced her, trying to show her that it was all right.
"I was worried. You sometimes are rude to Diego, but you've never been that angry at him before, without an obvious reason. Did he say something... unacceptable?" Zorro asked with concern.
Victoria looked at him in alarm. "No! He is always a gentleman. I'm so sorry you had bad thoughts about Diego. It was my fault. All of a sudden, I was just screaming at him. He is such a good friend to me and I treated him so horribly. I hope he will forgive me." Victoria was really upset.
"You know him. By tomorrow he will have forgotten all about it," he assured her. "But I don't believe you, that you just went off on Diego for no reason a perfect idiom for this incident. I'm sure there is something more behind it," he stated firmly. Victoria looked at her lover and saw that he was looking back at her suspiciously.
"I was so terrible to him, because... because I'm worried about him," she stated.
"You... yelled at him because you are worried?" Zorro repeated in astonishment
"Yes. I think that's why. He is... so passive and...peaceful and... he is alone," Victoria stumbled.
"Alone? Why, he has his father, Felipe... you." He smiled.
"I mean... I have you... And Diego... He..." Victoria couldn't express herself. "There are women who are attracted to him, but he shows no interest in them. He is handsome, intelligent and rich. He should have a family of his own by now," she said simply.
Zorro was stunned. Victoria paid more attention to Diego then he gave her credit for. But how could he help Victoria, without finding himself in an awkward situation?
"Could you be looking at this from the wrong point of view?" he asked.
"What do you mean?" Victoria looked at him. Zorro affectionately kissed her forehead.
"Well, you obviously feel that Diego would make some woman a good husband. But have you thought about what type of woman would be best for him?" There was a strange spark of light in his eyes when he asked her this question.
"What woman would be good for him?" Victoria knew what features a future wife of Diego should have. "She should be gentle and..."
"Querida," Zorro interrupted her. "First at all, you said she must be from our pueblo. So I suggest you write the names of all marriageable women down so we can think about which would be best for him. And maybe then we can encourage him, or this woman, so they get together."
Victoria smiled and nodded. She got a paper and a pencil. She began to write, saying names aloud as she wrote them. Then she passed the paper to Zorro.
"You have forgotten a few names. There are Aldone Conzar and Donna Melisa de Sulivan..." he said with a smile.
"Zorro, you can't be serious! Donna Melisa de Sulivan is over forty! And Aldone... her reputation has much to wish for."
"Yes, but still they are marriageable women," Zorro answered and gave her the paper back. He could think of a few names of a few admittedly beautiful or wealthy young senoritas whom Victoria had neglected to include, too.
Victoria read over the completed list. She read it once more and suddenly wasn't sure if she really wanted to find a possible wife for Diego. But it was already too late to withdraw.
Zorro read the list once more. "Yes, I think now that's all of them. There is only one more name that you left off." Zorro got the pencil and wrote the name at the end of the list.
"So, now tell me what you think Diego's future wife should or shouldn't be like, and I will strike out the names that don't suit." Zorro sat at the desk, so that Victoria couldn't see which names he deleted.
"First of all, she must have a good reputation..." Victoria began.
For two hours she gave him the characteristics that the woman should have. At times they would pause and discuss whether or not a particular woman had this or that characteristic or if that feature was really important for a good marriage. They didn't always share the same opinion, but they discussed each one until they came to an agreement.
"I think we've considered everything. How many names are left?"
Zorro looked at the list. With a mischievous smile he answered. "Exactly one."
"Really? What's her name?" Victoria asked with curiosity.
Zorro folded the paper. "Before I give it to you, I would like to say that this has been an interesting night, even if unexpected." He kissed her. "However I would have preferred to talk about you instead of Diego." He smiled.
"I liked it, too. You almost never spend so much time with me..."
"I'm sorry, querida. Now I'm thinking I shouldn't take up your valuable rest..." Victoria put a finger to his lips.
"The best rest I have is in your presence. And today I have learned so much about you... I wouldn't have missed it for anything."
Zorro leaned to give her a good-bye kiss.
"There was one important requirement have you left out, though," he said as he slipped out of the window. Victoria turned back toward him, but he was gone.
Victoria sat on her bed, unexpectedly worrying about the one name that was left. She had tried to call only general features so that there would only be a few women left on the list. But she had known too, that if she tried to list too many requirements, there would be no women left. She kind of wished that there had been no "good match" for her friend. She was beginning to admit that she didn't want another woman in his life.
Victoria looked at the folded paper. There was only one name left on it: the name of the woman who would be the best wife for Diego.
She didn't know who she is, but she already didn't like this woman. The woman who would take Diego from her life, the woman who, regardless of what the paper said, didn't deserve to be his wife.
After a sigh Victoria opened the paper. She scanned the list. Every name had been marked through, most of them two or three times. Every name except the last one.
Victoria Escalante.
The name that Zorro himself had added to the list.
Victoria recognized what requirement she had left out: that the future wife of Diego shouldn't be Zorro's own intended bride.
This recognition shook her. Finally she understood that she didn't want Diego to be anyone else's husband. She didn't want him to be married. The only person that she would accept as Diego's wife was Victoria Escalante.
Even if she truly loved Zorro.