"What happened?" Victoria queried as she exited the cellars as soon as she and the others who had stayed behind were informed that it was safe to return to the main house.

"Did you know, Señora? Did you know we were walking into a trap?" Don Alvaro inquired, watching her suspiciously.

"So you were right? It really was a trap?" She asked Diego.

"Yes." He answered. "Don Alvaro, Victoria didn't know anything. Had she known, she would have warned you." The tall caballero tried to assure the other don.

"And why should I trust that to be true?" The older man inquired.

"Because, as I already mentioned, it was her to tell me about the dove. I only realized I needed to warn you because of her observation." He explained and Don Alvaro seemed to accept that explanation.

"I don't understand. Why do you think I knew you were walking into a trap?" Victoria asked, addressing their host.

"The lancers were waiting for us at a nearby canyon." Don Alvaro replied. "Had it not been for Don Diego we'd all be dead by now. All thanks to your husband."

"My husband?"

"Victoria," Diego told her, wishing he could spare her some of the guilt she'd surely be feeling at finding out the truth, "Juan never betrayed the Governor. He had cut a deal with him. All he had done since the prison break, he did because the Governor had promised to pardon the two of us in exchange for him infiltrating the rebels in order to sabotage their plans. He's been passing on information about the attack on Monterey, and was most probably involved in preparing the ambush Don Alvaro and the men were headed for when I reached them."

"No! He… He wouldn't do that!" She answered, unwilling to believe Juan was a traitor. "He couldn't have!"

"He would. For you, he would do anything. Even taking part in planning a massacre." Zafira – who had also come to make sure nobody had been injured – told her. "I was such a fool! I should have seen the signs. He never did talk like a rebel…" She added disappointed, Victoria the only one to understand her disillusion for what it truly was.

"We were all deceived." Luciano tried to console her, unsuccessfully as her tears soon started falling, and she hurried outside hoping to just be alone.

"Indeed." Don Alvaro muttered. "And we might all be doomed because of his deception. We need to organize a defense. Those lancers will be coming here as soon as they decide on a new attack strategy. We must be ready, and we might have very little time to prepare." He told Luciano.

"Yes… Yes! The defense. We must organize ourselves." The rebel leader agreed, slightly hesitating. "But we need to leave this place. We'll be trapped here if we stay…"

"Not necessarily trapped…" Diego muttered as he noticed through a window the white dove who had just landed in a nearby tree. "I can help. I have some experience in leveling the odds, and I think I might know a way to win this fight with as little bloodshed as possible." He continued with a grin. "I know that you don't trust me, and I fully understand your reasons, but it's in my interest, as well, that you succeed. All I want is a peaceful life with the woman I love, and I've known for years already that I would not get that as long as California remains under Spanish rule."

The older man looked at him, then glanced at the others before returning his eyes on his peer. "I have been wrong about you, haven't I, Don Diego? I put my trust in Lieutenant Ortiz and believed you'd betray us, when I should have done the other way around."

The tall caballero glanced straight at him. "Don't judge Juan too harshly!" He uttered. "What he did, he did for love, and, in truth, he is no traitor. Not to his side... Besides, it was still him to save quite a few of us from the Monterey jail. And, wrong as his plan was, it might still prove instrumental to our success nonetheless."

The other don just muttered something indistinguishable but had to agree with him. Luciano, Zafira, Diego and several of the other men would have been executed already had it not been for the Lieutenant, even if his intentions proved less than honorable in the end. Furthermore, if Diego was indeed on their side and his plan turned out to be a good one, they had a decent chance to win, after all.

"If you can trust me, I might be able to find a way out of this predicament we find ourselves in. A way for us to survive and triumph." The tall caballero promised.

"You will have all you need. My men are at your command." Don Alvaro promised.

The younger don smiled and started explaining his plan to them. It was simple although risky, but they knew a classical defense strategy might not work in their case, certainly not without them paying a heavy price. The one problem was the man locked in the pantry. The plan needed his cooperation, but they were quite uncertain he might grant it to them.

After teaching everyone to make some of the time-delay explosives he had once used against the Los Angeles garrison, considering his options, Diego took it upon himself to talk to Juan in the hope that he might determine him to cooperate, or at least, trick him into doing so.

"What are you planning to do?" Don Alvaro inquired when he saw him taking a lamp, paper and a pencil, about to head for the pantry where the officer was being kept.

"I need to know some details about the messages he was sending his men, and I need a sample of his handwriting. So, I thought I might give him the chance to write a goodbye letter to Victoria... Just in case he doesn't see her again. It won't be too much of a stretch to make him believe you have decided to execute him should the hacienda be taken, and I'm hoping he will trust me with it."

"You would read such a letter?"

"It's not something I'd like to do, so I will make sure to also offer him a chance to cooperate after he'll have written it. But I doubt he will. I won't show it to anyone else, though, not even to Victoria. I'm hoping he'll have a chance to tell her himself all he needs to say."

Don Alvaro nodded, agreeing that Diego should do what he needed to do as long as that could save the lives of all the people there.

The tall caballero thus headed for the pantry where the younger man was locked up. About five minutes later, he emerged with a reassuring smile upon his face, only to return to the pantry some twenty minutes after that. When he exited again, he was carrying an envelope.

"He's been using his blood and a needle for the messages," Diego informed Don Alvaro and a few others who were waiting for him. "I'll just need a few minutes to study his handwriting. In the meantime, continue to make the explosives I've shown you. If they come early, we're sure to need them."

ZZZ

"Do you need someone to talk to?" Victoria asked Zafira as she neared the young woman she had followed to the ravine while the men prepared the defense.

The young widow was standing by the shallow stream, looking into nothingness, prey to her thoughts.

"You're the last person I want to talk to, Victoria!" She replied, her voice barely above a whisper.

"I know we're not friends. I'm not under any illusion." The taverness answered. "But I want to help you… If there's a way for me to…"

"How could you help me?" Zafira wondered.

"There's something between you and Juan, isn't there?" Victoria inquired.

The young widow hesitated. After all, she was talking to the woman married to Lieutenant Ortiz. Yet her heart was heavy and she needed someone to whom she could unburden herself.

"I can't believe I let myself be seduced by that man! He represents everything I hate!" Zafira confessed. "But… I thought… I thought he was good. I thought he was a lot like Diego. Less chivalrous and much more impulsive, but just as noble and brave. So I decided that, if I can't have Diego, I could, at least, have Juan. How stupid was I to think that? Diego would have rather given his life than be responsible for the death of so many people! And I should have known… I should have known Juan was nothing like him since the day he stabbed Diego!"

The taverness was silent for a minute, as she wondered if her faithfulness to the man who was legally her husband was reciprocated, realizing it was probably not. It was a strange feeling, being cheated on and, instead of being upset about it, simply finding yourself freed. At that very moment, all she wanted was to run to Diego and confine him to a room till the following morning, so that she could have the chance to show him just how much she loved him. Alas, she realized with some disappointment, he was busy trying to save everyone there, so contending herself with trying to help Zafira was all she could do.

"Juan is a good man. But even good men do stupid things for stupid reasons." Victoria eventually answered. "Look at Diego! He spent years hiding his love for me, while courting me from behind a mask!"

"From behind a mask?" The young widow inquired, looking inquisitively at her. "Are you saying that Diego is –"

Victoria covered Zafira's mouth with a hand before she uttered the name she was about to utter.

"I shouldn't have said that! Perhaps he was right to keep his secret." She admitted as she slowly let go of the young widow after looking around and confirming they were alone. "But ten years… It took him nine years to propose and one more to gather the courage to tell me he loved me!"

Zafira found herself slightly chuckling. "They really are silly, aren't they? Men… I wish they made some kind of sense!" She said, as her expression became sad again. "I really thought Juan was falling in love with me and, like a fool, I guess I fancied myself in love with him. But I can't be in love with him! His betrayal hurts as if I was. But… But that would be utterly absurd!"

"Human hearts might seem very absurd at times..." Victoria pointed out as she dared caress Zafira's hair and the young woman suddenly embraced her, as she started crying harder on her shoulder. "But, speaking from experience, I am rather certain they know better than our minds what's right for us." She added.