Chapter 6 Victoria in trouble
It was already late, but Diego was still at the Guardian when Felipe knocked at the door gesturing agitated. It took him some moments to understand him.
'Victoria is what? She is drinking at the tavern? She is drunk? There is trouble?'
When Felipe nodded, he got alarmed and rushed over to the tavern. What he saw shocked him.
Victoria who was obviously drunk was sitting at a tavern bench with two men who weren't sober either. One of them had put an arm around her shoulder and was trying to pull her tight.
"Victoria, what are you doing? You never drink with your customers!"
"Diego, you don't care for me any more, so why are you concerned now?" She reached for the wine bottle and took another drink. "Just let me have some fun with my new friends. Zorro is gone and these are my friends now." She pointed to the two drunken vaqueros.
Her words hit him and he remorsefully realized that it was due to his actions that Victoria was so desperate. He had left her as Zorro and as Diego he hadn't been there for her either. How would he get out of the mess he had created?
"This will stop now, Victoria. You have had enough to drink for tonight." He took the bottle out of her hands and put it away. "And you senores should better leave now."
"Diego, you have no right to tell me what to do. If I want to drink, it is my decision, so hand me back my bottle," Victoria babbled drunkenly.
"The lady is right," the men with the arm around Victoria's shoulder added. "We were just starting to have fun. You can't make us leave."
"Try me," Diego growled, his anger slowly rising. "Either you leave now or you'll regret it."
Victoria was too drunk to notice his changed voice and attitude and the men payed it no heed. They laughed and rose from the bench to meet his challenge.
Diego raised his leg and one of the men fell down after he got Diego's foot into his chest while the other was knocked out by his fist. Diego quickly bound them and then he called Mendoza from the plaza.
"Don Diego, what happened?" the sergeant inquired looking at the two men who had regained their consciousness.
"These men tried to assault Victoria. A night in jail should sober them up," he replied.
"That's a lie," one of the men retorted. "We were just a little friendly to her. Because he is a caballero, he thinks he can come in and have the girl for himself."
"Shut up," Mendoza told him. "A night in jail will teach you to behave."
"What about the senorita?" Mendoza pointed to Victoria who had slumped over the table.
"I'll take care of her," Diego assured the sergeant.
"As I said, the caballero only wants her for himself," the man complained again.
Without further warning Mendoza gagged him and his companion, before he got some of his men to lead them to the jail.
After the lancers had left with their charges, Diego turned to Victoria. In her drunken state she was only half aware what was happening around her. He carried her to the kitchen where he found a wet cloth he put in her face, but it did not sober her up as much as he had hoped.
"I'm so sick, Diego, I have to throw up," she moaned.
Afterwards he helped her to clean her mouth and carried her to her room where she instantly fell asleep. The tavern had to be locked for the night and the mess in the kitchen had to been cleaned up. The menial work couldn't distract him from his worries and in his fatigue he wasn't able to think of a solution to his situation. He only knew that he could no longer abandon Victoria like he had before and except for making up again with her as Zorro, he saw no way how he could be together with her, not after she explicitly stated her opinion about Diego. It would make her a target again for the alcalde or any other who wanted to capture him and that could be deadly for both of them. There had to be another way, but he just didn't see it.
Victoria was sleeping soundly when he looked after her again. Sitting in a chair beside her bed he decided to keep her some more company in case she needed help when she woke up. It was also a good excuse to stay by her side and simply look at her without having to guard his feelings. Tenderly he caressed her cheek and placed a kiss on it.
"Zorro," she moaned in her sleep without waking. Holding her hand he leaned back in the chair and closed his eyes for a second luxuriating in the feeling to be close to her as Diego.
Having let go of her hand during the night he woke at dawn with stiff muscles from the uncomfortable chair while Victoria was sleeping in her bed. She looked much better now than the night before and would be fine again except for a bad headache.
Quietly he slipped out of the tavern confident that it was too early for anybody to be up already and see him. As Diego he couldn't use the roofs or windows and he had to leave through the door.
The whole incident would have been smoothed over if the alcalde hadn't seen Diego leave from the tavern.
Always curious what was going on, he questioned the prisoners in his jail and then he got his idea. Smirking quietly to himself he set his plan into motion that would crush his archenemy Zorro.