A few minutes later they left Los Angeles on Toronado´s back. The horse walked at a calm pace through the darkness. Victoria sat side-saddle in front of Zorro, and he held one arm around her waist to keep her balance.

"Why aren´t we going a bit faster? Or is it too heavy for Toronado?"

Zorro shook his head. "Toronado is just fine. But flying horsehooves might attract the lancers´ attention; they are probably on their way back here. But more importantly: a bumpy ride may cause harm to your baby."

"It can?" Victoria was highly surprised. "You mean I can´t go anywhere till this baby is born?! That´s months away!"

He chuckled at her indignified tone. "Taking a carriage should be quite harmless, I suppose."

"Well, at least that´s something," Victoria huffed, and Zorro grinned. Gently he squeezed her waist as he said: "Well, you´ve got to realize that for the upcoming months you´re not just responsible for your own well-being, but for our child´s as well."

Victoria couldn´t help a smile. "Where are we going?" she asked next, for she couldn´t distinguish much in the moonless night.

"To the hacienda. I would like you to rest up for a few days. It can´t be very healthy, so exhausted as you were the other day."

"What?!" She sat up with a start. "I can´t! I have to get back to the tavern!"

Zorro sighed. "Victoria, the baby´s condition is similar to yours. Now I´m sure Maria and Pilar can manage for a few days. I think you really need a rest."

Victoria sighed and leaned against his chest again. "Hm... Perhaps you´re right. I feel like I could sleep for days..." Then she thought of something else. "Can´t we go to your cave instead? I´d love to see it again." She wrinkled her nose in thought. "It must be somewhere near or in the hacienda, right? For I don´t suppose that delicious dinner at the time just grew on the rocks. Or that you kept your mother´s ring in some muddy hole."

Zorro shook his head. "Women... Why are they so curious?"

"Please, Diego?" Victoria pleaded. "Please, no more secrets."

He looked at her sharply. "If you are going to call me Diego when I´m wearing this suit, there soon won´t be any secrets left to keep," he warned her gravely.

Victoria nodded with regret. "I´m sorry, Zorro. I´ll keep a better check on my tongue." She looked up at him. "But can we please go to the cave? Please, Zorro?"

"Allright then," he gave in with a smile. "Your wish is my command, milady!"

Victoria chuckled. "It better be!"

Zorro slightly changed Toronado´s direction, and not long after that he told Victoria to keep her head down. "The entrance is rather low when riding a horse," he told her.

She did as he told her, and felt him bending low over her, too. She heard the rustling of some branches and leaves, and then there was light.

"Thank goodness!" she heard someone exclaim, and when she looked up, she looked straight into Don Alejandro´s dark eyes.

"Are you allright, my dear?" he enquired anxiously.

Victoria nodded as he stretched out his arms to help her dismount from Toronado´s high back. Smoothly she slid into his arms.

For a moment he held her at an arm´s length, but then he hugged her tight to his chest. "Welcome to my house, my daughter."

Zorro dismounted, too, and left Toronado in Felipe´s care. He pulled off his hat and his mask, and looked at his father hugging Victoria.

"You know," Don Alejandro said in a mocking stern tone as he let go of her, "actually I think the two of you deserve a good spanking! But I think I may defer it until this new grandchild of mine will come into the world. By then, I might feel more like celebrating anyway!"

xxxxx

It was a few days later that Don Alejandro stomped into the tavern with a face predicting seven days of storm. His gloomy entrance was so different from his usual cheerful self, that everyone present looked up in wonder and surprise.

"Buenos dias, Don Alejandro!" Victoria chimed. But the cheerful note was clearly clouded by uneasiness and fear, and all she got in reply was a glare shooting daggers. She winced, and quickly disappeared through the curtain.

"Alejandro, what´s the matter?" Don Sebastian got up from one of the side-tables.

Don Alejandro looked up and groaned. "I´m ruined," was all he said. And then he sank down on the bench next to his friend and buried his face in his hands.

"Have a glass of wine," Don Sebastian offered to comfort him. He went over to the counter and got one from Pilar. Don Alejandro took a huge sip, and then he hid his face in his hands again, groaning like a wild animal in agony.

"I´m ruined, Sebastian," he mumbled to his friend again in the end. "Ruined, that´s what! You don´t know how fortunate you are, having four sons..."

Don Sebastian frowned in puzzlement. "Yes, I know how fortunate I am with my sons." And after a moment he carefully inquired: "Why, is something the matter with your Diego?"

Don Alejandro looked up with a start. "Something the matter, you ask!? Well, yes! Not only have I managed to raise the most loathsome coward in California, who rather hides his nose in one of his books than to take action, I´ve also managed to raise a..." His voice faltered. "... A c... a cad..."

Shame washed over him as Don Sebastian - and with him half the room - stared at him in astonishment.

"I´m a failure as a father, Sebastian," Don Alejandro continued tormented. "I must be, otherwise my son - my only son could not have turned out like this: a coward, a good-for-nothing, a..." He nearly whispered now, but everyone heard even the last word: "A cad..." He sighed. "But how can I leave my hacienda to a man like that when the time has come? Oh, if only I had been able to father some more sons, I could simply have bestowed that responsibility on the next! But as it is, I only have Diego..." He moaned. "I have to face it, Sebastian: I´m a failure. I´ve thoroughly spoiled my son. When he was a boy, I let him get away with just about anything. And now look at the result! I´ll have to make him marry the girl as soon as may be... And then I´ll just have to pretend that I´m ever so happy to see my only son finally getting married and providing me with grandchildren and next heirs. Which means he´s getting away with things again. Oh, where is this going to stop!?"

By now the whole room was shamelessly listening in. And as Don Alejandro took another sip of his wine and then buried his face in his hands again, a sudden excited whisper filled the tavern.

"Don Diego?! Having taken advantage of a girl? Madre de Dios, who would have thought!"

"I always thought he was so extremely composed!"

"Apparently not. If he has dishonoured a girl..."

"I wonder who that might be..."

"Yeah... I never noticed he was much in to getting a lady. I even suspected he was... well... you know. Different."

"Not interested in ladies, you mean?"

"Yes. It would fit in with his unmasculine pursuits. After all, he doesn´t act like a man either. Always playing the piano, or the violin. Or paint, or write poetry."

"How shocking!"

"Well, that can´t be it. If he has raped a girl now, he must have a big untamed masculine beast hiding behind that serene mask of his."

"Yeah..."

Someone shivered. "Poor Don Alejandro. How hard this must be on him. To have such a beast for a son..."

"But I can scarce believe it! Are we really talking about the well-educated and overpolite De la Vega son?"

"You bet we are."

"But he seems such a gentleman! A shy one, but nonetheless a gentleman."

"Well, apparently he is everything but a gentleman. A yokel!"

"But the idea of him being ´different´ is rubbish. Have you never seen how he´s always making cow´s eyes at the señorita?"

"Señorita Escalante?!"

"You´re kidding!"

"No, she´s right. I´ve noticed it more than once, too."

"He´s always staring at her, watching her every move. I believe it´s years ago I first noticed it. But he doesn´t do anything. He doesn´t court her or anything; he just stares at her."

"Well, you must admit that Zorro is a formidable rival. I can imagine that someone as shy and untrained as Don Diego would prefer not to get in a quarrel with Zorro over his lady."

"Yeah, sure... And instead he rapes her, you mean?"

A stunned silence followed that last ironic remark. People looked at each other in astonishment, and then, as one man, they turned their eyes to the curtain separating the kitchen from the public area. But Victoria was and remained in the kitchen. So they turned to stare at Don Alejandro, who - with his head still buried in his hands - obviously was not aware of what was going on around him. And then the people looked back at each other. Could it be possible that the señorita had been put in the family way by Don Diego de la Vega instead of by Zorro?! No wonder she had refused to go into the matter earlier this week!

Exactly at this tense moment Don Diego chose to come in. And by a miracle (or perhaps she had been eavesdropping behind the curtain?) Victoria showed her face in the room, too.

Diego sensed the curious hostility in the room, and he looked around with obvious uneasiness. "Buenos dias," he ventured to no one in particular. But all he got in reply were reproving stares. So with a guilty look he turned towards Victoria and said in a half whisper in the tense hush: "I´ve spoken with padre Benitez. He will hear our confessions tonight, and after that we can discuss the ceremony with him. But I think we´d better be prepared for a whole month or more of praying ´Hail-Mary´s´. For he didn´t seem very pleased."

Victoria nodded. "That was to be expected." She looked past him, at the curious but glooming faces. Don Alejandro was glaring at them; his face one big expression of displeasure. And with a motion of her head she told Diego to follow her into the kitchen.

As soon as the curtain fell shut behind him and the voices on the other side were being used again in slaunder and despise, Victoria clasped Diego and nearly cried for laughing, smoldering the sound against his chest as best as she could. "Diego, he was marvellous! Your father should have been an actor!"

Diego grinned. "So I take it that our strategy worked?"

"Yes, it did. Absolutely perfect!" She wiped away a few laughing tears and looked up to him. "He didn´t even have to give hints about who the unfortunate lady might be; they easily figured it out by themselves. Are you really always staring at me? I remember sometimes, but..."

"Perhaps I am. Felipe says it, too, you know."

Victoria snuggled up against his strong chest. "Though I thought they were being pretty harsh on you out there now. I´m glad you didn´t hear it."

Diego shrugged. "Don´t worry about that. I´ve gotten used to it."

At that moment the curtain was thrusted aside. Many people in the room had the chance of witnessing Don Diego and Victoria Escalante quickly letting go of each other at the sight of the revengeful father, before the curtain fell shut again.

Don Alejandro´s eyes flashed fire as he saw his son in the arms of his ladylove again. "Haven´t you disgraced me enough?! Out of here!" His booming voice was audible throughout the entire tavern; the simple curtain doing very little to confine the sound to the kitchen.

"Father, please...!" the tavern´s curious customers heard Don Diego plead.

"Out! I don´t want you being alone with that woman again for a second until you two are properly married! Heaven knows what else you might get yourself into!"

"Well, there´s not much more he can get me into," Victoria pointed out matter-of-factly, and the entire tavern gasped. So it was true...! It was Don Diego who had gotten the señorita in the family way, and now he was forced to marry her!

"I bet Zorro is not going to like that," someone commented.

But everyone was too interested in Don Alejandro´s next outburst to worry about Zorro´s possible heartache: "Oh, being impertinent, too, huh? Well, if you´re becoming a De la Vega, my girl, I should recommend you learn some manners! And now: out, Diego! And don´t let me see you two alone again!"

Diego winked at Victoria before he let his father push him out the back door, and Victoria nearly giggled. And as the door slammed shut behind them, she heard the voices inside suddenly being raised again. And outside the door she heard a faint snickering. Diego?

But it was Don Alejandro, trying to suppress a quiet fit of laughter. "You know what, Diego? I believe I actually enjoy acting!"