The sun was grilling the plaza. It was nearly midsummer, and warmer than ever. Fortunately, inside the white Tavern Victoria the temperature was still pleasantly cool. So it was only logical that the people gathered there instead of in the shimmering heat of the plaza. Victoria and her two assistants, Maria and Pilar, had their hands full in serving everybody.
"Señorita, can we have some more wine, please?"
"Two orange juice, please."
"Do you have anything left over from lunch? I´m starving!"
"Señorita, a cup of tea, please!"
"A whole pitcher of water."
"Three coffee, please, señorita!"
Victoria swallowed with difficulty as she rushed back to the kitchen to prepare everything that was being ordered. What was wrong with her!? What was wrong with the coffee?! Every time she saw or smelled coffee... Another swallow: even when she just heard the word, or only thought about it... Again she had to swallow down an instant urge to throw up. What was the matter with her!? It wasn´t like there was something wrong with the coffee - yet another cramp in her stomach - or she would have heard about it by now.
She pushed a strand of hair back. She was just being ridiculous. This was nonsense; there was no reason why the mere thought of coffee should... She turned abruptly and ran for the outside toilet. Just in time...
When she returned, pale and still a bit shaky, she found Maria looking at her questioningly. But she merely shook her head and got back to work. With a very uneasy feeling, nearly holding her breath when she passed out the coffee to the three caballeros, but she managed.
At that moment, señora Perez came bursting in through the door. The gloating excitement radiated from her face, and she headed straight for the ladies´ corner. And Victoria couldn´t help overhearing her latest piece of gossip as she was clearing off the table next to them: "Have you heard the news!? Young Maria de la Cruz is forced to marry Pablo Gonzalez, a mere vaquero! Don Pedro is outrageous, can you imagine? They´ll be married within a few weeks! Pablo Gonzalez had gotten her in the family way, but she managed to keep it a secret for months! Sick as a dog she is in the mornings, but she kept a straight face and never mentioned a thing! Can you believe it?"
Victoria sighed. Poor Maria. She was but fifteen, sixteen years old, and then being with child and forced to marry... And here was she, Victoria Escalante, twenty-seven years old and longing to marry her love and have children...
"How did they find out then?" she heard Doña Paula ask.
"Coffee!" señora Perez stated with a self-complacent grin, and Victoria winced. She stood stockstill, listening to señora Perez´s tale. "Coffee became her downfall. We all know how fond Don Pedro and Doña Luisa are of coffee, don´t we?"
Victoria swallowed down another attack of nausea, and she wondered if it was just caused by the mentioning of the C-word, or partly by this piece of information on how to discover a pregnancy. It couldn´t be... Could it?
"Well," señora Perez continued, "apparently Maria excused herself every time coffee was being served after dinner. In the end, Doña Luisa became suspicious about her always disappearing as soon as coffee was served, and she quietly followed her. And it appeared that Maria simply ran for the bathroom as soon as she was out of the dining-room, to throw up. At first she denied everything of course, but in the end she confessed about the morningsickness and everything. Can you imagine: she had already missed out on her period three times! The De la Cruz are going to be grandparents before the year is over! How shocking!"
Victoria stood frozen to the spot. She, too, had not had her period since... Yes, she had missed out on two already; the third was supposed to be due next week. It couldn´t be... It couldn´t be...! Or could it...?!
She came to with a start when señora Perez turned to her and asked: "Señorita Escalante, can you bring me cup of coffee, please?"
She stood there like a pilar of salt as a new wave of nausea washed over her. She had to swallow two, three times to fight it down before she could mumble: "I... I´m sorry... I don´t feel very well..."
Instantly she fled towards the safety of the kitchen, leaving her tray and the glasses on the table she had been cleaning. The ladies turned their head and watched her disappear through the curtain.
"My, my," Doña Inez said slowly as she refound her speech, "she sure is in a hurry."
Doña Paula nodded and added pensively: "She didn´t look very well indeed. Almost green in the face. Do you think she´s coming down with some illness?"
"A very interesting shade of green, too," señora Perez reflected cunningly. "And her behaviour... that´s not like the señorita, is it? What do you think upset her so much in our conversation? For I´m quite sure she overheard us talking. I had no idea she cared so much for young Maria..."
Doña Paula started to say: "Well, señorita Escalante has a neck for caring for everybody", but Doña Inez sharply drew in her breath: "Do you mean...?"
A meaningful silence followed as the ladies looked at each other and then intently watched the curtain where Victoria had disappeared from the room.
"I knew something was different," señora Perez said in an excited gloomy whisper. "Her face is all puffy, and she has been unusually touchy lately. Haven´t you noticed? I´m pretty sure it was our talking about coffee that made her feel so indisposed. Did you notice she had to swallow several times before she could utter a word?"
"Yes, but who?" Doña Inez wondered in a hoarse whisper. "We all know that Victoria Escalante is violently in love with Zorro, so..."
"So it has to be Zorro!" señora Perez completed. "Zorro has dishonoured a respectable young lady!"
Doña Paula sighed. "Zorro! Who would have thought... I always believed he was the picture of a true gentleman..." Her voice trailed away in shattered dreams.
"Well, he may be a friend of the people, but he is an outlaw," Doña Inez pointed out.
"Yes, but Zorro...!" Doña Paula could scarce believe it. "I mean: when do they ever get the chance to...? With so many people around in the plaza, and the alcalde and the lancers always at his back...?"
"And who says he doesn´t sneak into the tavern every night to share the bed with the señorita?"
The ladies stared at each other in horror, and Doña Paula swallowed. "I would never have thought señorita Escalante could sink that low," she whispered in shock. "To let Zorro get her in the family way... Zorro, of all people!"
xxxxx
At the cornertable, Felipe frowned slightly. He hadn´t been paying much attention to the ladies´ chattering, but when he had heard them mentioning Zorro, he couldn´t help but listening in more carefully. And he had to call upon all his self-control not to let his eyes grow wide. Zorro would have gotten Victoria in the family way?! What nonsense! Sure, he was well aware of Diego´s feelings for Victoria, and of his frustration having to dress up in order to court her since she wasn´t very interested in the ordinary Don Diego de la Vega. But Diego would never, ever do such a shameful thing! He was a gentleman, a real one, who couldn´t possibly bring any harm to any lady. Especially the lady he loved!
He watched the gossiping ladies go to their respective husbands. Whispers, gasps of surprise... Obviously this nonsensical rumour was spreading like wildfire, and there was nothing he could do!
A sudden silence fell over the room as Victoria appeared with the most recent orders. She halted for a moment, sensing the sudden censure. Every eye in the room was turned upon her, with contempt, with disdain and curiosity. Felipe felt sorry for her and tried to catch her eye with a comforting smile. But she looked down on the tray in her hands and started passing out the drinks. The coffee first; he couldn´t help but notice her quiet sigh of relief when she had disposed of that. It was so quiet that you heard every glass she put down on a table. And as soon as she disappeared through the curtain again, a storm of half-whispered censure filled the room around him.
Casually, Felipe got up and walked towards the kitchen. Now that the ladies had drawn attention to it, he, too, had noticed how pale she looked.
When he stepped through the curtain, he found Maria at the stove and Victoria with a bottle of wine in her hands. Maria looked at her inquiringly as Victoria bent down over the bottle in order to open it. Shyly but determined Felipe stepped forward and took the bottle out of her hands. She looked up in surprise.
"I´ll do that," he signed with a shy smile. She looked so vulnerable. He could easily imagine why Diego was so fond of her.
He had the bottle open within a minute, and with the tiniest smile Victoria accepted his timid chivalry.
"Are you allright?" he signed - slowly, so she would be able to follow him. "You look pale. Shall I go and get the doctor?"
Victoria shook her head and looked away. "I´m fine." She grabbed a few onions from the counter and started to slice them for dinner. Both he and Maria saw the tears gathering in her eyes, and Felipe felt helplessly clumsy. What should he do? He couldn´t very well take her in his arms, could he? That was more Diego´s - or Zorro´s style. Fortunately, Maria put a comforting arm around her shoulders.
"I´m allright," Victoria sniffed. "It´s the onions, really."
"Of course."
Felipe could easily hear the compassionate concern in Maria´s voice. And after standing around a little longer in the awkward silence, he touched her arm to say goodbye and left by the back door. He had to get home. And fast! There was only one man who could put a halt to this malicious gossip, and he had to do it fast, before it was all over the territory! Nor Zorro, nor Diego could possibly stand aside to see señorita Escalante´s reputation being smudged like that!
xxxxx
Upon arriving at the hacienda Felipe barged in through the door and into the library. But only Don Alejandro was there.
"Hola Felipe! What´s the rush?"
Felipe waved something vague and ran towards Diego´s quarters. But he wasn´t there either. Nor in the dining-room, the kitchen, the study... Hopefully he wasn´t in the cave, with Don Alejandro preventing him from going in there... But finally he found him in the garden, absorbed in a book.
Diego looked up when Felipe rushed towards him. "Hey, what´s up?"
Felipe signed so hastily that he stumbled over his own signing, but Diego had no trouble understanding that Victoria was in trouble because of Zorro. His jaw tightened and he cast his book aside. "That disgusting De Soto! Is he using her as bait again? Come on, we´ve got to stop this once and for all!"
He paced away towards the library with Felipe in tail. The young man tried to explain more, but since Diego´s mind was set on getting to the cave as quickly as possible in order to save Victoria, he wasn´t paying much attention to his young friend´s urgent gestures.
Fortunately, Don Alejandro had gone elsewhere, so they could go down the secret passageway without any dodging around. Diego had already started taking off his blue caballero-jacket, but Felipe grabbed his arm and signed: "Not the alcalde!"
Diego´s eyes narrowed. "Bandits?"
Felipe shook his head and started to explain what he had witnessed at the tavern just now: the gossiping ladies, Victoria crying and not looking very well, the rumour about Zorro having put her in the family way spreading through the tavern, and the sudden contempt with which the customers had treated the señorita after that.
Diego´s face turned livid as he started to grasp the story. Nervously he chewed his lip.
"You have to tell them!" Felipe urged him as Diego remained motionless. "Señorita Escalante is truly miserable. You can´t let them despise her like that!"
But all Diego did was sinking down in a chair and bury his face in his hands. Felipe watched him incomprehensively. "Aren´t you going to do something?"
Diego moaned. "Oh, what a mess..."
Felipe frowned at his patron´s strange reaction. What was going on here?
But in the end Diego looked up. "Are you sure she was unwell?"
Felipe shrugged. "According to the ladies, she was green in the face and she had to swallow down nausea. But I only noticed she was rather pale. And she was definitely crying, even though she said it was because of the onions."
Diego rested his chin in his hands and looked away.
Several minutes passed in complete silence before Felipe mustered the courage to sign a general question of wonder and lack of understanding to his patron.
Diego looked up and shook his head. "I feel awful about having to admit it, Felipe, but... those rumours might just be true..."
Slowly, Felipe´s jaw dropped and his eyes grew wide as he understood the impact of Diego´s words. "You...?" he finally managed to ask flabbergasted. "You...?! And... Victoria??"
Diego nodded miserably. "It´s weeks ago," he started explaining as Felipe watched him incredulously. "I had climbed into her bedroom at night as I sometimes did when I just wanted to see her. To hold her. Stupid of course, her bedroom, of all places... But we never went any further than kissing, so I didn´t think... And that night... She was tired of waiting, she said later on. But she drew me into an embrace, so passionate, so overwhelming... Afterwards she admitted that she had seduced me on purpose. She wanted this to happen. I tried to use my brain and back out a few times, but she... she simply had me in her power... Believe me, Felipe: one lady is more dangerous than a whole army of soldiers! And so... I couldn´t stop myself, I couldn´t help it... I made love to her..."
There was another long silence. Felipe slowly closed his mouth, and in the end Diego sighed: "So there is a possibility indeed that Zorro... that I have made her... well, put her in the family way..."
Felipe sank down on a chair, too. His mind was racing around with questions and possible solutions. "Did you take off your mask?" was the first thing he dared to ask.
Diego shrugged. "No, I didn´t. But when you´re so close, so... intimate..."
Felipe blushed.
"She might have guessed," Diego completed.
"Don´t you know?!"
"I´ve hardly seen her since. I hardly dare looking her in the eye as Diego now, and after what happened that night, Zorro wasn´t too keen anymore either on those nightly expeditions to the tavern." A tiny smile tugged at his lips. "I was scared to death that she´d repeat that performance..."
Felipe nodded with understanding. "So what are you going to do?"
He sighed. "I´ll have to go and talk to her. I have to take my responsibility; I can´t let her being despised and censured by the whole town."
"You mean marrying her?" Felipe inquired cautiously.
Diego nodded. "There is nothing else to do, is there?"
"But you´re going to have to unmask for her if you´re going to marry her," Felipe signed worried. "Padre Benitez is a very nice man, but he won´t let you get married as Zorro."
Diego heaved a sigh. "If that was my only worry... When the alcalde hears that Zorro has put Victoria in the family way, there´s no chance that he will leave her in peace. She´ll be tortured and flogged and eventually hanged..." He shuddered at the thought. "What have I gotten her in to?!" he moaned before continuing: "And even if he hasn´t heard yet, he´ll get suspicious the minute he´ll hear about me marrying Victoria. Before we know it, we both may be dangling from a rope..."
He sighed heavily and started to get up. "But first I´ll have to face Victoria. I only hope she´s not in jail yet."
But Felipe grabbed his arm and motioned him to wait.
"What is it?" Diego inquired.
An impatient gesture told him to keep quiet, as Felipe tried to oversee the consequences of his idea. A slight smile appeared at his lips, and he pulled Diego back in his chair to unfold his plan. "Why don´t you save her reputation as yourself? An act of chivalry towards a dear friend in need?" he asked.
Diego frowned. "She doesn´t love me, Felipe; you know that. And besides..."
But Felipe continued already: "You go to her as her good friend Diego because you´ve heard this malicious gossip, and you offer her your help, since you are aware of the fact that Zorro probably can not marry her for safety-reasons: it would be his death as well as hers. So you offer to marry her in Zorro´s place to save her reputation!"
Diego sighed. "Nice plan, but no one is going to buy that, Felipe. Everyone knows how Victoria thinks about me."
"They´ll buy it as an act of chivalry," Felipe insisted. "After all, no one can doubt your affection for her." He rolled his eyes. "The way you tend to gaze at her in the tavern..."
Diego sat up with a start. "I do not gaze at her!"
"Yes, you do!" Felipe persisted. "A lot of people have noticed. Even Victoria herself has commented on it once or twice. Don´t you remember?"
Diego didn´t answer.
"You´ll only have to convince Victoria that you care for her so much that you´re willing to take over Zorro´s responsibility."
"My responsibility," Diego corrected him sharply.
"But you don´t have to tell her that right away! Please, Diego, give it a try. It would let Zorro off the alcalde´s hook. And Victoria! And besides," a devilish twinkle sparkled in his eyes, "if you insist upon blaming yourself, you could always start the rumour that you have raped Victoria yourself and that it´s your child she might be carrying..."
Diego looked at him in disgust. "I would never...! You´ve been reading too many pulp magazines, my boy!"
Felipe shrugged, unmoved by the reproof. "But it would solve your problem as well as Zorro´s. And Victoria´s," he stated with self-confidence.
Diego pondered a while, and finally he nodded. "It might solve a few problems, yes. But I don´t want to deceive Victoria anymore. Not after what happened. Can´t you see that?!"
Felipe sighed with resignation. "Very well, tell her the truth then if you really must. But that shouldn´t stop you from pretending to everyone else that you´ve either raped her or that you´re being extremely chivalrous to the lady everyone knows you fancy anyway."
Diego sat quiet for a while. And in the end he had to give in. "I think you may be right. I´ll try this strategy of yours. I don´t see any other way..." He sighed heavily and got up to change into Zorro´s clothes. But once again Felipe stopped him.
"What is it now?" Diego snapped at him.
"Go to her as her dear friend Diego; not as the source of her troubles!" Felipe signed urgently.
"But I... No, you´re right." Diego cut short his own protest and headed back to the library.
"Would you like me to come with you?" Felipe offered as they crossed the room.
But Diego shook his head. "Thank you, but no. This is something I´ll have to do all by myself. Wait," he said as he thought of something. He dodged back to the fireplace and returned to the library within ten seconds. "If I can manage to sort out this mess alive, I´ll see you again." And all of a sudden he just had to hug him. "Gracias, amigo."
Then he stepped outside just as Don Alejandro came into the hall. "Felipe, could you give me a hand with..." And as he caught sight of his son outside he muttered: "What´s with Diego? He looks like he´s going to a hanging!"
Felipe only shrugged in response, and prayed that Don Alejandro would not have the gift of prophecy...