This chapter was a last minute addition and in the end I think it is the longest.
May 8th
Victoria re-entered the room, walking silently in her bare feet.
"You shouldn't walk barefoot."
"Wow. Did I wake you up?"
"Don't worry about it, come back to bed."
"I just don't feel well. I think I'm sick from dinner. I shouldn't have eaten fried eggs with chorizo." (1)
"Yes, it's too heavy a dinner. Does your stomach burn?"
"Not exactly, but it feels tight." she said, touching her belly. Diego put his hand on the area she indicated and clearly noticed how tense it was.
"I think it's contractions."
"Are you sure? I didn't imagine them like that. Shouldn't they hurt more?"
"Maybe that will come later." said Diego with concern. "Do you want me to warn Gertru?"
"She's come to accompany me during the delivery, but I don't know whether to call her now, it's too late."
"Maybe we could wait until tomorrow."
Victoria moaned a little and tensed up. "That hurt more." she said a little scared.
"I'm going to wake her up."
Diego went out into the hallway, knocked on one of the guest rooms and said through the door.
"I'm sorry to wake you, Gertru, but Victoria is having contractions."
He heard a strange noise and Gertru screamed. Without stopping to think about it Diego opened the door, immediately wished with all his might that he hadn't, and closed it again. "Excuse me." he said heatedly.
Murmurs were heard through the door, a female voice said "Damn carved headboard. And you don't just stand there like a stunner, help me unhook my hair. No, it's getting more tangled. Put that down and light the candle." and then there was a muffled female giggle, joined by a deeper one. "Tell Victoria I'll be right there." said Gertru with a chuckle.
Diego returned to his room, walking with a sullen air down the hallway. Victoria looked up at him.
"Did you wake her up, is she coming?"
"She'll be right over."
Victoria saw his face and became concerned. "I'll be fine, you don't need to make that face."
"It's not you. Well, not only."
"So?"
"I'm sorry, I don't know if this is a good time to tell you."
"Just spit it out."
"All right. Gertru wasn't alone."
"Oh my God. You didn't open the door?"
Diego closed his eyes and nodded his head. "I heard her moan in pain." he said embarrassed.
Victoria started laughing, had a contraction that made her stop for a moment, then looked Diego in the face and started laughing again.
"Do you have any idea why she was moaning?" she asked almost breathlessly.
Diego started laughing too. "I think she got her hair caught in the headboard."
Victoria cried with laughter. "We've had great timing." she added, and tried to take a deep breath to calm down a bit.
"Let's see if she'll accept my father's proposal now."
"I hope so, or we'll have to turn to Father Benitez to convince them to stop living in sin."
Someone knocked on the door. "Come in." said Victoria.
Gertru entered in her nightgown, with a robe over it. She looked at Diego, then at Victoria, and said, "Looks like tonight is going to be bumpy."
Victoria started laughing again, dragging the other two along, until the next contraction made her have to stop.
"I don't know if this is good for the baby." Victoria said worriedly.
"I don't think a little laughter would hurt." Gertru replied, then turned to Diego. "You'd better wait in the library."
"Can I help with anything?"
"You did enough nine months ago, we'll take care of it now."
Diego left the room resigned and joined his father in the library. Don Alejandro had dressed and offered him a cognac.
"No thank you." said Diego and began to walk across the room. Don Alejandro offered him the drink again.
"If there is an occasion to have a drink this is it."
Diego accepted the glass and took a sip. Then he set the glass down on the table and shook his head. "It's not worth it, I'm sure I'll survive without drinking that."
"I'm sorry about earlier." his father said.
"More sorry for me."
"It's not just...you know. I was trying to convince her."
Diego looked at him with a face that expressed at the same time, "what do you mean" and "you better not tell me."
"You know she doesn't want to get married to keep me from controlling her assets, She still has the usufruct of her husband's property and wants it to go to her children."
"I already explained to her that legally they belong to her children, her marrying you doesn't change that."
"True, but since I have financial control she is afraid there will be a problem if she dies before me."
"Of course not, the usufruct would be extinguished and the assets would pass to her children, also the part that corresponds to her because they are privative assets. Maybe you should go to Santa Paula to consult with the lawyer. There are documents that can be signed before the wedding."
"I have already proposed it to her, but she says that if we are fine like this why are we going to change."
"And you decided to show her that being married to you has more advantages?"
"Yes, some things are better done without haste, especially at my age."
"Sorry for the interruption."
"I won't give up." said Don Alejandro taking a drink.
It was already dawn when Gertru approached the library.
"How is she?" asked Diego worriedly.
"As is to be expected in these cases, everything is progressing as planned. I want you to go find the midwife, and tell her that she's already more than halfway there."
Diego made a quizzical face at the coded message.
"You go and tell her, she'll decide if she's coming with you already or has something more urgent to attend to."
"Right." Diego said, "I'm going to get dressed."
"I'll wait here for you to change and then I'll go again with Victoria."
Diego entered the room, and Victoria was standing by the window.
"Hola preciosa," Diego said in a soft voice. "Gertru says you're doing great."
"I don't have much choice, really." she growled.
Diego started to get dressed quietly, because he couldn't think of anything to say. Victoria paced the room a bit and held her sides wincingly.
"Is there anything I can do for you?"
"No, get the midwife as Gertru told you. When I'm in pain I find it hard not to blame you, so I'd rather you weren't around."
"Fine." he approached her cautiously, gave her a kiss on the cheek and left.
Diego walked over to the library to tell Gertru he was leaving and went out to the stables where he took the buggy.
He knocked on Doña Encarna's door (2), and a middle-aged woman with a sour face opened the door.
"What do you want at this hour?"
"Excuse me, my wife is having contractions, and Doña Gertrudis has asked me to tell you that she is more than halfway there."
"More than halfway, eh? Wait here." The midwife came back into the house muttering. "Even if she's a first-timer, I'd better get closer." Diego waited at the door until he heard the woman's voice shouting. "Evelio! I'm off to attend to a señora." Immediately the door opened and Doña Encarna came out dressed in a skirt, blouse and apron and with her hair tied back by a kerchief.
When they arrived at the hacienda, the woman greeted Don Alejandro with a nod of her head and a grunt. When she saw María, she greeted her effusively, as if she had become a different person. Maria had been up for a while, had set out breakfast and was waiting impatiently.
Don Alejandro turned to the midwife. "Doña Encarna, if you need anything or want us to go get Dr. Hernandez just say so, we'll be right here."
Encarna looked at Don Alejandro with an offended expression. "Better not go look for him, doctors most of the time just say grandiloquent words and ask the poor mothers to place themselves in absurd positions because that way it is more comfortable for them to attend them. For once they do something useful there are twenty of them who do nothing but bother, like all men. If I need anything I'll ask for it."
"Of course." said Don Alejandro in a soft voice before Encarna's stern look, which seemed to dare him to say something else.
Maria accompanied the midwife to Diego and Victoria's room, then returned to the kitchen.
Diego ate breakfast reluctantly, and they continued to wait looking a little lost. When Felipe got up and was told what was going on, he looked a little pale, and decided he had better go with the horses for a while. Maria, seeing him only commented, "Wise decision."
From time to time they heard snippets of what Encarna was saying in the bedroom.
"That's right, I can tell you've been walking instead of collapsing on a couch like those silver-spoon ladies, who do nothing but shout for help and talk nonsense about their husbands instead of pushing when it's their turn. You just breathe and push like I told you and everything will be all right."
"They are in the library. If we need anything we can ask them for it, although you know how men are. By the time my husband goes and comes back, I've already been there and back three times."
A short time later Gertru left the room to fetch Maria, and they both returned with Victoria and Encarna.
Mid-morning Victoria shouted once, then they heard Encarna's voice. "Now, you stand behind her so you can support her back." and another shout that made Diego's blood run cold. "Next time take a breath and push with all your strength."
They heard Victoria moan and gasp. "Don't breathe so deep, girl, you'll get dizzy. Come on, get ready another one is coming."
Again Victoria struggled to follow Encarna's directions, and she congratulated her saying. "That's it, you're a fighter, the head is already out."
Don Alejandro and Diego were still listening attentively. A few seconds later Encarna said, "Come on, it's the last push. Take a deep breath and push." They heard Victoria again and then everything seemed to go silent for a few moments until the cry of a baby was heard.
Don Alejandro patted Diego on the shoulder. "Congratulations." he said excitedly.
"Thank you."
They approached the bedroom to wait to be let in. A few minutes later Encarna came out of the room looking satisfied, but she saw Diego and frowned.
"She's fought real hard, now she needs rest." she looked at Diego with a narrowed eye. "Forty days of rest, and that includes conjugal activities."
Diego could only nod, despite the difference in height he felt small.
"You're a smart boy, you sure know how to count to forty. Some husbands seem to have a problem with that."
"Yes, señora, forty days." he replied.
"Good." she replied with that look of as you don't listen to me I'm going to do something to you that will keep you from fathering any more children. Encarna enjoyed Diego's panicked expression for a few more moments, then her expression softened. "Congratulations, he's a very handsome boy."
Diego blinked, confused at such a sudden change. "Thank you." he said with a strained smile.
Encarna nodded and grunted again to Don Alejandro and headed for the kitchen. When she was still halfway there Maria came out of the room carrying some sheets in her arms and said to her. "I'll go with you and pay you what we owe you."
Encarna waited for the other woman and together they turned into the hallway. When they were out of sight behind the corner Diego sighed in relief.
"I have to admit I'm afraid of another woman besides Victoria."
"Encarna doesn't count, we're all afraid of her, especially her husband Evelio."
At last Gertru opened the door. "He's a beautiful boy."
"How is Victoria?" Diego asked anxiously.
"Tired, but fine. There don't seem to be any complications," she said beckoning them inside.
Victoria was sitting on the bed, her back propped up on some pillows, looking down at the baby in her arms. She looked up at the two men. "I told you. He's an Alejandro."
Don Alejandro smiled proudly at that. "You can choose another name if you want, you don't have to..."
"No way." Victoria said with conviction. "There's no one more deserving."
Don Alejandro looked at his grandson proudly, and Gertru tapped him on the shoulder.
"We should leave them alone." she said.
"I don't want to drop it." Diego said to Victoria.
"You won't drop it, sit on the bed and I'll pass him to you. Come on, he won't break."
Diego sat on the bed to hold his baby very carefully as Don Alejandro and Gertru left the room.
"I'm going to get dressed." Gertru said. "It's not decent for me to walk around the house like that." she said with a chuckle.
"Sure."
Don Alejandro went out into the yard and decided to take care of some flowers. Gertru met him there. She was carrying something in his hand.
"You left this on the bedside table."
Alejandro saw the ring he had offered Gertru earlier that night.
"I guess I didn't convince you." he said with a sad smile.
"It's been an eventful night, and there's one thing I want to know."
"Tell me."
"The nice people in town suspect that Zorro and Victoria were secretly married and that when he died, Diego married her to give the child a home and a family name and because that way he'll have an heir, because he's not interested in women. Bad people have a much worse version." at don Alejandro's serious expression she continued.
"This morning I told Diego that he had already done his part nine months ago, and he didn't even blink. I think I'm right. I already knew that Victoria wanted to seduce her fiancé, Zorro, and I'm sure she succeeded, but Diego doesn't look like a friend who married her to give her a father for her son as people say, what I saw today was an attentive and concerned husband, a wife in love, and happy and proud parents."
"Gertru, Zorro is officially dead, and it's better for everyone that he stays that way. If you want to know if little Alejandro is Diego's son I will tell you that he is, in every sense of the word, but if you come to any conclusion, please keep it to yourself. We came close to losing Diego once, and now we want to live in peace."
"I understand. Thank you for your answer. I could have coaxed it out of Victoria, but I preferred you to tell me."
The ring was still in Gertru's possession, who told him, "I love my children and grandchildren very much, but they have their lives away from me and don't need me. Tonight I felt more like family than I have in the last few years the times I have met them. I don't even want to imagine what one of my sons would have said if he got to be the one to open the door to that room."
"I guess we're not a conventional family."
"No, I think that's why I feel comfortable here."
She opened her hand to give Alejandro the ring.
"If the offer still stands I want to accept it."
"Will you marry me?"
"Yes, I will. As soon as possible."
Alejandro walked over to her and hugged her. "You won't regret it."
"Maybe you'll end up regretting it, but then don't complain, it was your idea."
Alejandro took the ring to put it on her finger.
Note; (1) My mother thought she had indigestion when she started having stomach pain in the wee hours of the morning. It wasn't dinner, it was me being a month and a half early and in a hurry. Apparently she was taken to the delivery room on the room´s bed, which had wheels, with my grandmother running behind. I was born in the room instead of in the hallway by the skin of my teeth.
(2) The midwife who attended my childbirth preparation and infant massage classes is called Encarna, and she is an unleashed force of nature, more or less like the character. In fact the phrase about how slow men are is hers.