CHAPTER THREE

"Who are they?" Anita cried as Bernardo pushed the horses faster. Diego gripped the side of the wagon and looked back at the two men. Both men had bandanas pulled up over the lower halves of their faces.

He sat down and took her hand in his. "I cannot see their faces. Bernardo!" he called up front. "We need to get off this road!" He tapped the mozo and pointed emphatically off the road. Bernardo nodded and turned the horses onto a fork. The wheels protested as the terrain got rougher.

Anita dug her nails into Diego's palm. "I wish I'd never left Spain!" she cried.

Diego's mind was racing, trying to think of options. He couldn't risk fighting these men without giving away his other persona, but the wagon wasn't made for this kind of ground to cover either. What to do…what to do…

"They're gaining on us!" Anita wailed. "Oh Don Diego, I'm scared!"

Diego was starting to feel that way as well. One of the men managed to catch up, riding alongside the carriage on Diego's side. He reached into the vehicle and Diego batted his arm away. They rode parallel for a long while, Diego battling to get the man away from him. At one point the rider had to swerve to avoid a stand of cacti and veered away from them. Diego took a moment to breathe, and to think.

Bernardo reached a hand behind him, trying to get Diego's attention. "Bernardo, what-"

Then he saw it, too. A cloud of dust ahead of them. Riders. "All right, go !" Diego slapped him on the back as he spoke. Bernardo turned them in the direction of whoever was up ahead.

Diego had never been happier to see a detachment of lancers from the cuartel . "Gentlemen! We are being chased!" he called to them as they rumbled past. The lancers saw who had spoken to them, then spotted the two men a hundred meters behind. As Bernardo brought the wagon to a standstill, he spotted the two bandits behind them pull their horses up short and turn them around as the lancers chased them back in the direction they had come. He sat back, exhausted. Anita was crying. Diego pulled her into his arms. That was close .

"Come on, senorita ," he told her. "Let's go home."

_/_

Back at the hacienda , Diego left Anita to rest in the guest room after the stress of their ordeal while he shared what they'd learned from Padre Felipe with his father. "The poor girl," Alejandro murmured. Ever since she had arrived…there had been something about her. Alejandro could not put his finger on the feeling that he had.

"I know. I felt awful," Diego said. "I was so sure your suggestion would end this entire mystery."

"Do not give up hope just yet, my son," Alejandro told him. "We have other avenues to pursue."

"I know," Diego replied. "It's just…if this were an issue for El Zorro , it would have been over in a moment. If I would have been on horseback, I could have chased the two men and tried to find out why they were following us! It is frustrating that there isn't more we can do for her."

_/_

Anita turned her mother's brooch over and over in her hands, thinking about the day. Nothing but dead ends, she thought unhappily. It is not what I thought would happen. And then to be chased twice in one day…I don't know what they want! She had hoped when she left Spain, it would be like the stories her mother told her that she would go on a great quest and arrive in Los Angeles, and just know her father when she saw him like a princess sees a prince and knows he is their one true love. She had hoped she would see a man in the plaza, and he would see her, and she would just know.

She got up and flicked open her trunk. As she did, she caught something out of the corner of her eye. A shadow on the wall. She screamed.

The scream from the spare bedroom brought Diego and Alejandro both running. Diego threw open the door to see Anita crouched on the floor in the corner, her hands over her head. "Anita!" He came around the bed, dropped to his knee next to her. "Anita, what happened?"

"Someone was at the window!" she sobbed.

Alejandro darted to the window, looking out. "There is no one here," he said. "Are you sure?"

"I saw his shadow on the wall!" Anita cried. "He was there , I know he was!"

Diego and his father exchanged a glance. "You can see for miles out that window," Alejandro said. "Where on earth could he have gone, if he was there at all?"

"He was ," Anita said angrily. "I wouldn't lie about that!"

"I believe you," Diego said firmly. He looked at his father. "Perhaps we can have Bernardo take a look around before supper."

"Perhaps," Alejandro said evenly. He called for Cresencia while Diego helped Anita to her feet. She threw her arms around him, and he hugged her comfortingly.

"Who are they, and what do they want?" she whispered into his jacket.

"I don't know," Diego said, as much to her as to his father. "This is twice in one day. Perhaps they saw me in town. The de la Vega name is well known. It could have been nothing more than an attempt at highway robbery."

"I think if any more strange things happen," Alejandro said, "we bring in Sergeant Garcia." Diego caught the insinuation-he still didn't believe Anita was telling the truth about the shadow on the wall.

_/_

"It cannot be a coincidence that she arrives in town, and you are nearly run off the road!" Alejandro told Diego.

"Father, please, what are you saying? That this is her fault somehow?" Diego questioned. He shook his head. "I am willing to believe it might have something to do with her, but you seem to insinuate that she is behind it!"

"We don't know anything about her!" Alejandro pointed out. "For all we know, this is a ruse to get close to us for some other purpose."

"I have spent more time with her than you have," Diego said. "I don't believe for a second that Anita is anything other than a young woman looking for her father."

"All the same, perhaps we should return her to Sergeant Garcia to send her home," Alejandro said. Diego opened his mouth to protest, but Alejandro held up a hand. "Diego, there is no one in Los Angeles with the last name Cabrillo. Her mother probably told her some story to make her feel better or to cover up for some past indiscretion!"

Diego shook his head. "And you would send her back to Spain alone?" He studied his father. "You have been on edge about her since she walked in the door. Why is that?"

"I…" Alejandro crossed his arms. "It has nothing to do with her and everything to do with the men I thought I'd hired to work the rancho . I hire two vaqueros , and instead I get a little girl!"

Diego looked at him curiously. "That 'little girl' is our responsibility. I promised Sergeant Garcia we would look out for her. I am going to fulfill that promise." He looked at his father. "With or without your permission."

Alejandro stared at his son…then chuckled. "All right, all right," he said, holding up his hands. "You have inherited your mother's stubbornness."

Diego laughed. "Oh no," he disagreed. "That came from you."