"Have you sent for me, Your Excellency?" Juan asked as he entered the Governor's office after being informed by one of his lancers that the official wanted to see him.
The man was just re-reading a speech and made a hand sign to silence him for a few minutes until he'd finish.
"Lieutenant… Yes, I've called you." The official replied sternly as he sat down at his desk. "There was a matter that I need to discuss with you, and I don't believe it should be postponed," he continued as he invited Juan to sit down. "Some worrisome facts have come to my attention. It appears that your beautiful new wife has a rather colorful past. I only wish I would have known sooner! In fact, I wish I could have trusted you to reveal such matters when you informed me of your approaching nuptials."
"I'm afraid I don't understand, Your Excellency…" The younger man answered cautiously.
"Really? Well… Apparently, she is rather famous throughout California. Infamous, I should rather say, though! As she confessed, her mother was executed for harboring a traitor. What I had to find out on my own, however, was that her father also died as one, and her brothers have joined Bolivar's forces in South America, at their turn fighting against our King. Yes, I know about that, as well, just as I know that she, herself, has had an affair with the infamous bandit Zorro, and only came here, to you, after her lover was declared dead. I wouldn't be surprised if she turned out to be pregnant with his child."
Juan became livid at those words. "Sir…"
"Considering all this" the man carried on without even paying attention to him, "and assuming you did not consummate the marriage to the young woman, although that hardly truly matters, I expect you to ask for an annulment at once."
"Sir!" Juan exclaimed as he stood up.
"Lieutenant, should it become known that you have married such a woman, your career, everything you've worked so hard to accomplish, would end in seconds. Even your life would be at stake as anyone would be well in their right to suspect you might also harbor rebellious feelings." The older man continued in a threatening tone.
"Sir, Victoria is –"
"Beautiful? No doubt. May I remind you Eve was also beautiful, yet her actions resulted in her and Adam's banishment from heaven? In all of Humanity being sentenced to suffer for as long as we shall walk this Earth?
"This Victoria Escalante is a calamity for you! You should have the doctor examine your wife and then tell me if I am wrong! At least, if she does prove to be pregnant, you're easily off the hook. The padre will have no issue with expediting the process under such circumstances.
"As for your honor, I'm sure the doctor can keep a secret. The woman clearly has some Mestizo blood in her, and you can ask for the annulment based on her keeping that a secret from you.* She'll be out of your life forever with little to no consequences to you. Then, I am sure I can help you find a proper wife, whose loyalty to the Spanish Crown could not be questioned." The Governor stated.
"But, Sir..."
"I will not have you contradict my order! Had I known what sort of woman you wanted to marry, I would have never allowed it to happen! Her presence here is an insult to me, Lieutenant! To me, to your lancers, and to all the good citizens in Monterey who have certain expectations from the acting commander of the Presidio!" The older man continued, his ire now clear in his voice. "That woman has rebel blood in her veins and you knew it since she first came here!"
"Your Excellency," Juan tried to say calmly, "I married her convinced she will be a wife I can be proud of."
"Yet you can already be ashamed of her, considering how she's been behaving! You will ask for an annulment! Unless… Unless you prefer to become a widower!" The Governor threatened. "You are dismissed, Lieutenant!" He continued before his man had the chance to utter another word.
Juan exited the office as if in a trance and leaned heavily against one of the terrace's columns as he reached the courtyard.
He had made Victoria a promise, had fulfilled it, yet had now somehow placed her in even more danger than she had been in when she had come asking for his help.
Slowly, the Lieutenant made his way towards his quarters, wondering how to tell Victoria what had just happened, and how to help her under these new circumstances.
ZZZ
In the meantime, the young woman had been pacing the apartment, furious both about Juan's words and about being locked in. She sat down a while later, as her thoughts slowly traveled to Diego – whose predicament made her feel regretful for both leaving Los Angeles as she did and about all she had told him – then to Zorro – to the nights they had shared together and to the future he had promised her – and, eventually, to the child growing inside of her.
Her pregnancy was beginning to show, even though, seeing how she was so skinny to start with and had just started to put on a bit of weight, it was barely noticeable, and still easy to hide. Victoria, however, knew that wouldn't last long. Soon people would find out and, even if there was a man to claim her baby, there would still be those who'd notice she was farther along than one should be so soon after her marriage.
The word 'marriage' was what caught her attention next and, for the first time since wedding Juan she truly realized the consequences of that 'yes' she had said. She was his wife.
Juan was a good man, her childhood sweetheart. Yet, as a grownup, he was a soldier, one she would now have to share her life with. A soldier who would do his duty, whether it was training his men or ordering an execution, then come home to her and expect her to do her duty towards him. To be a good wife, to allow his caresses, to respond to his kisses. A soldier who would raise Zorro's child.
Somehow that last thought caused a shiver down her spine as the young woman came to understand just how bad a judgment call she had made.
ZZZ
"I want an annulment!" She told Juan the moment he stepped through the door. "I was utterly stupid in coming here. I hadn't thought things through. You are a soldier, and I wanted you to raise an outlaw's child with me. That isn't fair to you, to me, or to my baby."
Juan just stood there, almost frozen in place, barely able to shut the door close, as she continued.
"I hadn't realized it until now… You serve those who oppress us… You think it merciful to help a friend die faster rather than try to find a way to prevent his death altogether. My child's father gave his life to save another's, and had risked it hundreds of times before that to prevent men like you – who were just following orders, even when they are wrong – from harming innocents. I don't know what I was thinking… You may hate me, but… I'm sorry Juan… I can't possibly spend my life with you. Even if that ends up costing me mine. Even if that ends both my life and that of my child. It will be better than have him raised to be the exact opposite of his father."
Her words could have been knives, for they hurt the young officer just as much, and he wondered for the hundredth time since Victoria had come to Monterey why he had agreed to marry her. It made no sense to do so, considering how she had hurt and humiliated him at leaving him in front of the altar to run into Zorro's arms. His heart, however, knew why he had accepted and there was no denying it. No matter how much he had tried to stop, he still loved the taverness who had stolen his heart when they were still children, still innocent, still certain the world was for them to mold as they pleased, not the other way around.
"The Governor just ordered me to ask for an annulment. He wants me to say I had no idea when marrying you that you were a Mestiza. He also wants me to have the doctor examine you and testify to the fact that you might be carrying another man's child." He simply answered. "I guess we were both naïve…" Juan continued as he sat down on a chair next to the woman who was technically his wife. "All I've done to protect you has just put you in even more danger. And now… I don't know how to help you, Victoria."
She breathed somewhat relieved at his words, almost regretting she had spoken first.
"Diego would know what to do… Dios! We can't let him die!" The young woman replied, her concern for her friend's faith clear in her voice. "I should have stayed in Los Angeles. I should have done my best to care for him, and never leave his side. None of us would be in this situation if I would have stayed true to my first instinct. Perhaps he would have not married me in my condition, but he still would have found a way to protect me and the baby. He's in love with me, you know? He said so when he came to see me, just a few hours after you had left." She muttered. "I was so stupid to turn him away!"
"Victoria…" Juan uttered kindly, "I'm sorry about Diego, but you must understand he is already lost. There's nothing I can do for him. I really tried! He was also my friend when we were young, and his fate pains me, as well. It's why I tried to persuade the Governor to free him. All I accomplished, though, was the exact opposite. Instead of releasing him, the Governor decided to make an example of him. There's no reasoning with the man when it comes to rebels, and nothing to do for Diego.
"But… Perhaps his father, Don Alejandro, might be willing to help you. I can ask two of my men to accompany you to Los Angeles. You should leave in the morning. I don't want you watching the executions in your state."
"No, Juan!" She answered standing up. "I don't trust your men. I'd rather go on my own than agree for them to accompany me. But that doesn't matter anyway, since I'm not going anywhere. Not without Diego. You may do as you wish, but, I will do what I can to help him, even if that brings about my own demise."
Seeing the determined look in her eyes, the man just watched her as she exited his quarters, closing the door behind her, then started considering what he could do at that point to still keep the promise he had made Victoria to make sure she and her child were safe.
He knew he had already lost her, just as he knew that wasn't going to be able to stop her from doing something he considered as utterly stupid. He had known Victoria Escalante for long enough to realize that, when the woman got something into her head, no one and nothing could stand in her way. He, thus, decided that standing by her side could prove the only way to save her, as long as the right deal was possible.
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
*Race, such as either the bride or the groom being a Mestizo (i.e. having Native American blood) while lying about it, was one of the rather few reasons based on which a marriage could be annulled in the early 1800s.
