Victoria Escalante disliked her new tenant. The woman was too beautiful, too fearless, too full of herself, too infatuated with Diego, and too intended on capturing, perhaps even killing the man she still loved. What was there not for her to dislike?

Since the day she had arrived, and so utterly humiliated the Alcalde, Mya had became the pueblo's main attraction. Women disguised their envy of her behind the veil of malicious gossip; men concomitantly feared, admired, and desired her; while the renowned bachelor Diego de la Vega apparently couldn't stay away from her.

Neither could his son, Felipe, stay away. In fact, the young man had taken to spending most of his time in the tavern just watching her, the same way his father always watched Victoria. When he was trying to be inconspicuous, he contented himself with looking out the window or to other people in the taproom, all-the-while listening to her sweet voice as she was talking to Diego.

From the first moment he had laid eyes on her, the youngest De la Vega knew that the woman was special. He knew that she was somehow connected to him, for reasons which he could not understand. However, Felipe kept that knowledge only for himself, not even sharing it with the man who had raised him, but hoping, nevertheless, that he might one day be in the right position to do so. In the meantime, he was increasingly more preoccupied about Senora del Rioblanco's interest in Diego.

The green-eyed woman was, indeed, finding the tall caballero rather charming, soon enough craving his company.

Considering he was one of the very few people in the pueblo who didn't seem to either fear or be, in any way, intimidated by her – a trait she found very attractive in men - and in the absence of fresh tracks she could use to follow and capture Zorro, Mya spent much of her time with the De la Vega heir. At first, she had agreed to his company mostly out of boredom, but, soon enough, she found herself truly drawn to him.

He was chivalrous, had a bright mind, a constantly cheerful mood, and was not like most men she had known thus far. He was a rare breed of men who regarded women as equal, rather than as inferior. That was still a flaw in her eyes - since she had known, her entire life, that women were far superior to the other gender - but it was one she had long since learned to ignore.

While deeply emerged in her talks with the tall caballero, though, Mya also took note of the young man he called a son, but was nothing of the sort. She knew quite well, since the first time she had laid eyes on him, that he was no one's son, just as she was no one's daughter. Initially, she hadn't given him much consideration. He was polite and had had the luck to be adopted by a good, intelligent, and very wealthy man. With some more luck, she thought, Felipe would die of old age after having lived a beautiful and fulfilled life.

As for Diego, despite what both Mya and Victoria thought, he had other than romantic interests in the new arrival. On one hand, he found her stories fascinating, and her knowledge of history quite incredible, so he appreciated the opportunity to learn. On the other hand, however, what he really hoped was to dissuade her from trying to capture his masked self.

The caballero didn't want to fight her, not because he feared she'd out skill him. Although, after her demonstration with De Soto, he honestly admitted to himself and Felipe that she just might. What truly concerned him, however, was that he knew that he'd be at a disadvantage if forced to fight a woman. As a true caballero, he wouldn't be able to use any of his tricks, nor could he hit or punch her, as he usually ended his fights with the Alcalde. He might even be unable to injure Mya, as he wanted to avoid doing that almost as much as he wanted to avoid killing her or allowing her to take his own life.

All he could do under such circumstances was to avoid riding as Zorro, if at all possible, and hope his intended captor might either get bored of waiting, or simply change her mind after hearing enough stories confirming Zorro was not an ordinary bandit, but a defender of the people.

With no thugs to catch for the following week and no unjust action by the Alcalde, not donning the mask proved much easier to do than he had expected.

Ironically, however, everyone was simply acting under the wrong assumptions.

Alcalde De Soto, who wanted Zorro apprehended, having vowed to see him hang, despised Senora Del Rioblanco even more than he despised the outlaw. That was mainly because, while the former had humiliated him without him having given her a real motive (or that was how he interpreted the situation, at least), the latter had only ever humiliated him with good reason (De Soto had started admitting that that to himself after the Risendo episode), and had even saved his life a few times. Thus, faced with a choice between the perspective of having Mya catch his nemesis (an idea he did find somewhat amusing, until realizing the position in which he'd be if the woman would actually succeed where he had failed), and keep Zorro away from her, he chose the second option. That was how, for over a week he was on his best behavior, unwilling to do anything that might elicit the masked outlaw's intervention while she was in town.

It was his way to defy the woman, but he was, at the same time, also prolonging her stay, despite wanting her gone.

Mya truly believed Zorro to be a common criminal, and had long since closed her mind to any other perspective on the man. She had believed the Governor, who had recounted for her how the masked menace was responsible for the former Alcalde's death, a false account, he, too, had been given by his predecessor. Impressed with her skills, the high-level official had even allowed her to read the reports received from Los Angeles. Mya, thus, knew that the masked outlaw was attacking the lancers; preventing acts of justice; had helped prisoners escape from jail, and even condemned men escape from the gallows. Under these circumstances, and considering Mendoza's accounts always included enough of his own imagined version of how things went to make her doubt anything he said was true, Zorro's capture remained her prime objective while in Los Angeles.

Had she known the true identity of the man she was after, nevertheless, she would have changed her mind in an instant. That was because, while waiting for the opportunity to catch the masked legend, she was also growing more and more infatuated with Diego. Not only that, but she had a deeply-rooted suspicion that he was one of the best and most honorable men she had ever met.

Under the given circumstances, however, while still bend on ending Zorro's career, she had, nonetheless, started to hope he would delay his appearance long enough to give her the opportunity to seduce the tall caballero and make him her lover.

In his turn, Diego was employing the wrong tools to dissuade her from her declared mission, at the same time unwillingly giving the woman a reason to remain in the pueblo, rather than to leave. That was because, in his hope to make her see things his way, by attempting to familiarize Mya with the pueblo and its problems, he was providing her with the needed entertainment to keep the beautiful from getting bored.

Furthermore, the attention he was paying to the new arrival, by meeting her almost daily for meals and long talks, as well as by inviting her to the hacienda for soirees and dinners – to which Victoria was also always invited to attend - was stirring the taverness' jealousy. As a consequence, the frustration was causing her to behave more and more recklessly.

Flirting with vaqueros* was a bad idea, and Victoria had never done that before. It was against her very good instincts and better judgment to fraternize with any of her customers. Yet, she was willing to ignore all that, in the unacknowledged hope that it would give Diego a reason to pay more attention to her.

However, she had also picked the worst moment to do so because, just as she headed for the men's table, her back at the one for whom the demonstration was intended, Don Alejandro signaled his son from the terrace, and he went outside to talk to his father. By the time he returned, Mya, who had seen that one of the men was trying to force Victoria to sit in his lap, had already come to her rescue. So, when Diego re-entered the tavern with his father, the three rough men clumsily bumped into them as they were exiting, Senora Del Rioblanco was standing triumphant in the middle of the taproom, and Victoria looked both mortified and somewhat angry at her rescuer.

Supersaturating some of her food with chili, to punish the caballero for what she perceived as negligent behavior, was Victoria's second bad idea. Diego had come to the tavern but didn't stay long enough to eat that day. Others, however, did, and, before Victoria was able to prevent it, her helpers served to the other customers the food she had made especially for her friend, causing her to lose their patronage. At least, for a while, since she was running the only tavern in Los Angeles.

"So, Diego," Mya asked one evening, while Mendoza was, at his invitation, recounting some of Zorro's adventures, and she was, as usual, ignoring the story, her mind busy with imagining the tall caballero shirtless "do you have any plans for tomorrow?"

"Ah…" he hesitated for a moment as the Sergeant stopped mid-sentence, "I do need to finish some articles for the next edition of The Guardian," he answered, certain that his commitment to the town's (only) newspaper, as its editor, was both a good excuse to avoid any suggested activity he might dislike, and a light-enough work for him to say he could finish quickly, should he decide to agree with whatever activity she had in mind. He did feel uncomfortable with the way she was staring at him, though, and was fairly certain that she was much harder to fool than the people of his pueblo.

Felipe, who, as usual, was accompanying Diego, just stared at her, somewhat upset with the way she was looking at his father. Did she not know he was already taken? Did women not sense such things, even if men didn't make them public?

"That sounds quite boring!" Mya replied. "I'm sure your son can do a good job at that, as well, since I expect you to accompany me to visit the village of Povuu'nga. I've always been fascinated with the Indian tribes, but I doubt they would welcome a stranger, such as I, and you did tell me you are on good terms with them. But, don't worry! I know you are not a morning person, so come I shall meet you here at 10… and be so kind as to lend me one of your horses."

With that request, which sounded an awful lot like an order, she got up, uttered "Gentlemen," instead of 'Goodnight', and headed for her room, leaving her companions dumbfounded.

Felipe was convinced that, had Victoria been present for that conversation, she would have probably either thrown Mya out of her tavern or try to kill her in her sleep. He wasn't certain, and it was lucky that she only found out about it after the tall caballero and her new rival for his affections had already left.

That evening Diego spent a lot of his time in the cave, just thinking. His son tried to find out what was wrong with him. He explained what he understood, since, for all his skill with weapons and the brilliant mind on his head, women were as much of a mystery to him as they were to any other man of his time and age. Blind to the true purpose of the ride on which Mya was forcing him to accompany her – alone, one should add - the tall caballero had begun to suspect that she had somehow guessed his secret identity, and had simply decided to confront him in a secluded place.

The younger man partly hoped he was right and did not share his suspicions about the beautiful woman's true purposes. After all, up to that point, she hadn't said or done anything that might have been considered as an indecent suggestion or proposal.

So, after a fencing session with Felipe who, having spent over nine years of his life training under his adoptive father's guidance, had become quite proficient with the sword, Diego packed his second-best saber to take with him the following morning.

As for the younger man, despite his own feelings, knowing about his father's principles and reluctance to cause harm to any member of the opposite sex, he decided to follow them from afar. Considering he had perfect aim with the musket, he was also cautious enough to take a couple with him, knowing they were to come in handy in scaring her off, should the Senora make an attempt against Diego.

She did.

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*vaquero(s) = cowboy(s)