Chapter 3
Later that evening in the tavern, Don Alejandro and Mendoza were seated at a table with Pedro Gonzales discussing the rather surprising actions of Zorro. "And I found all the money back in the bank's vault." Gonzales said in a confused manner, he had never expected to see that money again. First Zorro took the money and then he returned it, it was very puzzling.
Mendoza replied with pride. "Of course, now that Zorro knows that I am the new commandante of the garrison, he will do anything to avoid my considerable wrath." he said as he puffed out his chest with great self-importance.
Don Alejandro didn't know what to make of the good Sergeant's strange statement, he had been acting peculiar all day and he didn't think that de Soto would appreciate Mendoza's odd humour. He shook his head as Victoria came up to them.
"Then why would Zorro steal all our money then return every peso. There is more to this story than we know." she said as she placed Don Alejandro's drink in front of him.
Don Alejandro nodded. "Victoria's right. There's much more here than meets the eye." he replied as he took a sip of his drink.
Victoria nodded. "Si and I think that Lozano was involved somehow, I mean strange things only started to happen after he arrived. First there was Diego's actions..." she paused as blush crept over her face as she remembered his kiss. "Then Zorro's strange behaviour and now Mendoza..."
Mendoza straightened up. "I have you know that my behaviour has been perfect for a man of my high station, Senorita." he said haughtily.
Victoria exchanged a knowing look with Don Alejandro before she let out a sigh. "Perhaps we will never know the full story." she added before she turned and walked back through the curtains and into the kitchen.
She picked up a plate and as she turned to go back out, she jumped as she saw Zorro standing in the corner.
"Please, don't say anything." he said softly.
"I certainly have nothing to say to you." her heart pounded in her chest at the sight of him, she didn't know if he was going to hurt her again or not. She couldn't shake that horrible memory of the night he had robbed her.
He took a couple of steps towards her. "Victoria, for whatever I've done, I truly apologise. It wasn't me."
She set the plate back down on the table. "Oh, it was you all right." she said heatedly.
Zorro sighed, he knew that he had hurt her, that he had betrayed her trust in him and wanted to re-assure her that it would never happen again. "No, it was something deep inside me. An irrational force, perhaps a dark side we all share, unleashed by a dangerous mental science. The same irrational force that seems to have Sergeant Mendoza in its grip." he replied as he tried to make sense of what had happened.
"So you're free from this...force? This...um...dark side?" she asked sceptically.
"Yes. Completely." he said earnestly.
"How can you be sure?" Victoria asked. She wanted to be re-assured that he was better now, that he wouldn't hurt her again. She saw that he was behaving more like his old self, more like the man she was in love with and not that horrible person that he had been.
Zorro gave her a small smile as he stepped closer and placed his hands on her waist. "I'll let you be the judge on that." He leant down and kissed her gently, lovingly, his lips brushing against hers before he deepened the kiss.
Victoria sighed and melted into his embrace, this was the man she knew and loved, the tender, loving and passionate man. Whatever had made him turn into a monster was gone but now unexpectedly she was hit by a wave of familiarity of his gentle touch, it reminded her of something or someone. But before she could ponder more about it, Mendoza came through the curtain and they reluctantly pulled apart.
As Zorro talked with Mendoza, Victoria gave a small gasp as she recognised the strange sense of familiarity that she had felt. Zorro's kiss was very similar to Diego's kiss from the other day. 'Dios, it couldn't be…" she thought as she stared at Zorro's profile.
She really looked at him for the first time, and saw his resemblance to her best friend, the same height, the same moustache, the dark hair that poked out from under the mask. She put her hand to her mouth in shock, her heart pounding hard in her chest. 'It couldn't be Diego, could it…? Could her best friend be Zorro?' She felt herself hoping that it was, she always liked Diego, perhaps liked him a little too much and besides she had always wanted Zorro to be someone she knew, not some stranger who would take her away from her friends.
Victoria had an idea of how to confirm her suspicions, if she could get Zorro to kiss her again, she would know wouldn't she? Would she be able to tell by his kiss? She saw Mendoza turn and leave through the curtain and she realised that she had not heard a word they had said.
Zorro turned back to her and held her hands. "Forgive me." he pleaded as he gazed into her brown eyes.
"Always." she said softly, her heart pounded.
As his warm lips touched hers once more in a loving caress, she thought with her head and not with her heart. As she put her arms around his neck, she concentrated on the touch, on the feel of his lips, on the way he kissed. Then she had her answer. "Madre de Dios' she thought, both Diego and Zorro kissed the same way because they were the same man.
Zorro felt a change in her behaviour and reluctantly pulled away from her sweet lips. "Victoria is there anything wrong?" he breathed as he gazed at her questioningly. He was startled by a strange look on her face, almost like the look she had when he had kissed her as Diego.
She gently caressed his face with her hand and whispered in his ear. "I know." she said simply.
Zorro stiffened, his eyes widened in surprise, his heart pounded, did she mean...? "What do you know mi preciosa?" pleased that his voice sounded normal.
Victoria smiled warmly as she ran her fingertips over his warm lips, gently tracing his moustache, making him shiver slightly. "You can mask your face but you cannot mask your kiss, Diego de la Vega." she whispered in his ear.
He stiffened once more at hearing his name from his lady's lips. Was it a guess or did she really know, he asked himself. He decided to play it safe. "I'm not sure what you mean Victoria."
She sighed and dropped her hand to her side. "Please Zorro, the truth this time." her voice reflected her weariness. She was tired of the secret, she just wanted an end to it all. She wanted to be with the man she loved.
Zorro's heart pounded, his palms sweated inside his gloves, he felt a rush of relief that she finally knew his secret. He heard her weariness and it matched his own, he too wanted an end to the secret, to finally marry the woman he loved. He quickly glanced towards the curtain, heard the chatter from her customers on the other side. He took her hand and gave her a small smile.
"Victoria, I am..." he stopped suddenly as Pilar and Maria came through the curtain, giggling together. They stopped short when they saw Zorro standing with their employer.
"Ahh, sorry..." Maria stuttered.
"We don't mean to interrupt..." Pilar said as she gave a quick wink to Victoria, who tried to keep her irritation off her face without much success.
They started to leave the kitchen but Zorro smiled warmly. "Please don't leave on my account. As much as I would thoroughly enjoy the company of three such beautiful senoritas, I must be going."
Pilar and Maria giggled again at his compliments, while Victoria just rolled her eyes, he was always charming with the girls.
Zorro turned back to his lady, took her hand and gallantly kissed the back of it. "Your humble servant, senorita." He said and was gone.
The girls giggled once more. "He really is charming isn't he?" Maria said.
Pilar nodded. "Si, I wonder if he has any brothers. I mean he is already taken, isn't he?"
Victoria blushed at the teasing. "Okay you two, back to work." she said easily and the girls giggled once more before going about their chores.
She sighed as she began washing the dirty plates and glasses. She felt that Zorro was going to confirm his true self right there and then, but she realised when the girls came in, that it would have been too dangerous for him to declare himself with her tavern full of people, including lancers. Then she had an idea. She would go to the De la Vaga's hacienda for dinner tomorrow, it was too late tonight, and she would make Diego tell her.
She had an open invitation from Don Alejandro to come to dinner anytime she wished and she was going to take him up on that offer. She knew that Don Alejandro and her father had been good friends and over the years, she had even come to see him as a second father. And Diego, what did he mean to her? Her feelings towards him kept changing over the years. When he first came home, she felt a definite attraction to him and believed that he had felt the same. Then Zorro appeared and she was swept away by the romance of being singled out by the masked bandit, and all thought of Diego slipped from her mind.
As she thought back over the last three years, she came to understand that her attraction to Diego had never really died away, it had just been buried. She shook her head as she remembered how she felt when she had heard that Senorita Amanda Herrera was staying alone with him at the hacienda while her father was surveying further north. Then there was the time when he was absent when Senor Turron's barn burnt down and she had jokingly confronted him with being involved in a burning romance. And instead of denying it, he had practically admitted to it. And of course there was Zafira, the woman he was once engaged to. Victoria now realised that the strange feelings that she had at the time, was in fact jealousy. She had been jealous of these women because deep down, she loved Diego. She had always loved him.
She was a little angry with herself for not seeing the truth that had been in front of her all these years. That she had wasted all this time pining over Zorro, who she saw only, what, twice a week if she was lucky and even then it was just for a couple of minutes at best. But Diego was always there for her, almost every day and she never saw it, never saw his love, and never saw that he was waiting patiently for her. But all that is going to change now, she chuckled to herself as she finished her washing.
"Hmmm, I think that Zorro should come more often." Pilar said as she came through the curtains.
Victoria turned. "What?"
Pilar chuckled. "You always seem more...I don't know, more glowing, when he comes by."
"Pilar, really!" Victoria blushed.
Pillar laughed this time. "Oh yes, a woman in love, glows when she sees her man, and you Victoria Escalante are positively glowing."
Victoria threw her dish cloth at the other woman and laughed. "Just for that, I need you to close up late, as I will be having dinner at the De la Vaga's tomorrow night."
Pilar laughed and nodded. "Sure, anytime."
As Zorro rode back to the cave, he felt strange. He was elated, relieved, and anxious, all at the same time. His mind was in a whirl, his heart was still pounding at the stunning revelation that Victoria discovered his identity, in a way he never thought of. By his kiss!
His fear that she wouldn't love dependable, piano playing, poetry reading Diego de la Vega, had been proven wrong. By the look of love on her face, not only had she accepted his identity but she loved him. He was feeling light-headed by this discovery and was grinning like a fool. A fool in love, he chuckled to himself.
But the pragmatic side of him pushed through his euphoria. What were they going to do now? Would they be able to keep their love for each other hidden from the citizens? Would he be able to keep Victoria safe? She was in more danger now that she knew his name. He shuddered to think what would happen if the Alcalde ever found out that she knew. de Soto would use any means to capture him.
Zorro shook his head to clear his mind of these disturbing thoughts. What were they going to do right now? Then he smiled as an idea slowly formed in his mind. The more he thought about, the more he knew it was the right idea. He would court Victoria as himself, like he had always wanted to, when he first came home from Madrid. He had lost his heart and soul to her that first day in the tavern.
Then after enough time had passed, he would ask her to marry him and he had just the ring to give to her. Of all of his mother's jewellery that had been left to him, the diamond and ruby ring was the most perfect for Victoria. The red gem, matched her fiery spirit completely.
He reached the cave and felt relieved that Felipe wasn't there. He had to get his happiness under some kind of control otherwise everything would be lost. As he changed back into his normal clothes and unsaddled Toronado and started to brush him down, he knew it was time to tell his father as well. He no longer wanted any secrets from those he loved, he wanted to heal the growing rift between them. As he continued brushing Toronado down, he couldn't keep the smile off his face.
