Juan exited the hacienda to find most of the volunteers gathered in the courtyard. Zafira looked at him just when he gazed at her, and they both felt, for a few moments, that there was someone else there who could understand their pain.
Adverting her eyes, the young woman soon left, though, heading for the back of the hacienda, hoping to hide by the ravine.
Juan remained, as several men neared him to ask if it was prudent to leave his wife alone with Diego.
"They just wanted to talk." He answered mechanically, his mind struggling to get some clarity.
The next minutes he spent among the men, but, as the subject of their conversation was hardy of interest to him or applicable to his situation, he slowly started to listen in on the discussions others were having in his vicinity.
"Indeed. He's the best swordsman I've ever seen!" Juan heard Don Alvaro admit to some of the rebels he had helped rescue from the prison in Monterey. "I am considered a master swordsman, and I couldn't last a minute with him!"
"Perhaps we could enroll him," one of the men suggested. "The Lieutenant is doing a good job, but I've never before seen such swordsmanship. He could be a real asset to the cause!"
"I'm not sure he'll join. Juaquin asked him once." Luciano replied. "He said something I will always remember. He said he believed there are causes worth dying for, but he had yet to find one worth killing for."
"You've seen how the Lieutenant's wife behaves towards him. She's in love with the man and he's in love with her. Perhaps, for her, if he understands what's at stake here, he might be willing to join us." Another man suggested.
"Yes. I'm sure we can find a way to convince him. Even if he's a royalist, he is also a wanted man. If he feels like he has no choice…"
Juan stopped listening to them at that point and started listening in on other conversations, all of them revolving around the same subject of coopting Diego to the cause of the revolution.
Pensive, ignoring those trying to console him, he left the group and took some minutes to think, wondering what he should do at that point.
When he finally decided, he took an almost-empty bottle of tequila he found lying around and finished it, then made his way towards the external kitchen where two servants were preparing lunch for everyone. They hardly even noticed him as they were busy doing their jobs. He found the item he was looking for discarded on a table. Taking it, he returned to the main entrance of the hacienda just as Diego and Victoria were exiting.
"De la Vega!" He called after barely a few moments of hesitation.
Diego turned questioningly towards him and, as he did so, Juan planted the knife in his belly.
"This is for kissing my wife right in front of me, you scoundrel! But you may have her if you want her so much!" He continued. "Since it's your child she's expecting, I have more than enough causes to get an annulment now! As for you…" Juan addressed Victoria, who had reacted with a shout and was looking at the caballero's wound in utter horror, unable to process anything else but that the man she loved was in mortal danger, "from this moment on, I no longer consider you my wife. You're his for all I care!"
As he said that, Juan turned around and headed away, leaving the knife planted in the tall caballero, who was heavily leaning against the doorframe.
ZZZ
"Diego! Diego!" Victoria called, afraid for the man she loved and unable to believe what was happening.
"I'm alright." He answered, trying to calm her down, but she didn't find him convincing.
"Help! Please, help us!" She called the people there.
Most of them had witnessed the scene, yet, shocked themselves, failed to act and were just standing frozen in place. In truth, to a certain point, they even excused Juan's actions, feeling he was in his right to do what he had done, seeing how his wife was obviously betraying him with the don.
When Victoria called for them to help, however, they seemed to suddenly start to react. Two of the strongest men there helped the caballero back inside, to the same couch Victoria had left minutes earlier as the taverness, Don Alvaro and a servant followed them.
"I'll need boiled water, alcohol, bandages, a needle…" Diego listed, doing his best to cope with the sharp pain radiating from the left side of his abdomen.
Don Alvaro immediately started ordering his servants, and all items were brought there shortly.
One of the men left searching for Zafira but he returned a while later alone, having been unable to find her.
When everything was there and ready, Diego instructed Victoria to stand by with the bandages and the alcohol, then slowly removed the knife from his abdomen. It came out at an odd angle and the caballero breathed easier at realizing it was rather short and thin. That and the angle at which it had been plated in him meant it probably hadn't inflicted any real damage. True, he was losing a lot of blood, but that could be stopped by applying pressure and stitching the wound.
He was feeling weak and in pain, but the worst was to come when she poured the alcohol to prevent an infection. He had prepared himself, yet he couldn't hold in a sharp cry of pain as he felt his skin burning, and inwardly cursed himself for having forgotten to ask for a piece of wood to keep in his mouth and bite on when it hurt the most.
"I'm so sorry!" Victoria muttered, tears falling down her cheeks.
"It's not your fault. Alcohol hurts…" He replied.
"No… I mean… All this is my fault!" She uttered.
Diego raised a hand to caress her cheek and shook his head. "If this is the price I need to pay to be with you, I'll gladly pay it." He answered.
Victoria nodded and returned to focus on helping him. She sutured the wound, then applied a mixture of herbs she'd made in accordance with Diego's instructions, and dressed it. After that, she wrapped some bandages around his body to keep the dressing in place and decrease both the pain and the bleeding as there was now constant pressure on the wound.
"I can't understand what has come over Juan…" Victoria mentioned when she was all done and Diego seemed to be feeling better. "He promised to protect us, then he stabs you."
"A jealous husband is not to joke with!" Don Alvaro uttered with some ill-conceived amusement. "The man gave up everything for you, Señora." He explained, becoming serious. "And he obviously loves you. Seeing you with Don Diego must have gotten to him, especially if what he said about you expecting his child is true."
"But Juan already knew that! I only married him because of this child, and he knew everything the day he agreed to give me his name!" Victoria answered. "Oh, Dios! He knows!" She then continued, looking towards Diego at realizing Juan had mentioned it was his child, not Zorro's.
"What?" Don Alvaro asked.
Diego stared pensively at Victoria. "Something I was hoping to keep secret." He answered.
"But I don't understand… If you are pregnant with Don Diego, why did you marry the Lieutenant, Señora?"
"I was ill for a long time, and the doctor didn't give her much hope that I might survive. She just wanted to protect our child." Diego explained and the don surmised that she had married Juan so that the child wouldn't be a bastard. "It was all just a cruel joke of fate we must rectify. Victoria may be Juan's wife in front of the church, but she's mine in front of God, for I had long since promised myself to her, as she has promised herself to me."
"I see… Am I to also understand you no longer have amnesia?" Don Alvaro inquired.
"No. My memory just came back in the most unexpected way." Diego replied, smiling suggestively towards Victoria.
The other don slightly nodded. "Alright. I guess… I guess I can accept every explanation you have offered me thus far. The one thing I fail to understand is why the Señora believed you dead when you were right here with her."
Diego glanced at Victoria, for a moment both unable to think of an explanation for her reaction earlier that day.
"She had risked her life and that of our child to save me from the gallows, only to realize I had lost my memory. She believed she had truly lost me when I asked who she was when I first saw her. For all she knew, the man she loved was dead. At least until our duel, when she realized I was still in here." Diego uttered, looking lovingly towards Victoria.
"Indeed." She said. "I was certain I had lost him until earlier today. But now that I have him back, I will let no one take him away from me, and God help the one who tries!"
Both caballeros smiled at her words, neither one doubting she was a force to be reckoned with.
"Now, if you don't mind, Don Alvaro, would your men be so kind as to escort me to the cellars? I need some rest." Diego uttered.
"Yes. Yes, of course." The man replied, understanding he was not going to get more answers, even if he had more questions to ask. "But I'd suggest you rest in one of the guestrooms. There are some seventy people here, so anyone who might want to harm you would have to go through all of us." The don proudly said.
"Juan had no difficulty!" Victoria replied skeptically.
