Thanks for the reviews, it has been some stimuli to continue writing and learning about using . I am sorry for the headaches. I hope you won't have them now I have changed the format. So to all please keep reviewing, even if you don't agree with the things I do. Then there is always an opportunity to grow. As for the comments of the contents, yes there will come some nice parts with the señoritas, but I am afraid, I haven't worked it out very well. If you have suggestions, please feel free to email me about your ideas. Anyway, I won't keep you from the story now. Hope you enjoy this part.
~Z~
Part 2
To don Alejandro's amazement, Diego was already sitting in the sala, waiting for his father to come home. Diego laid his book down in an attempt to let his father know he was ready for the lecture he surely would get. The air was pretty tense as both men looked at each other, expecting the other to bring up the subject.
Diego was pretty annoyed making him the first to spit out his frustration. "Tell me father, you weren't serious about me announcing my wedding on your birthday, were you?"
"Indeed I was, son," don Alejandro retorted angrily. "And I still am!"
Diego clenched his teeth as his mind raced for the solution of this problem. He didn't want to lose Victoria.
"Diego, you know how much I want grandchildren. Come to think of children, at your age I already had a son. You were six years old, then. So, don't you think it is about time to get married and make sure you have an heir?"
"Must I be forced into a marriage, then?" Diego asked insulted. "You have no idea…."
"No Diego, I don't want to hear your excuses anymore," don Alejandro interrupted harshly, but Diego tried to make him listen and raised his voice as well. "I will have an heir! Have you forgotten that I intend to adopt Felipe?"
"No, I haven't. I know we haven't discussed this further, then."
"So then, there is no problem," Diego insisted.
"That is absolutely out of the question, Diego!"
"What?" Diego questioned his father's attempt to stand in the way of something he wanted to do for so long, but recently had announced.
"I don't think it's a good idea for you to adopt Felipe."
"Why not? I have always been like a father to him, so what would be the problem then?"
"This still wouldn't have solved the problem of having grandbabies." Don Alejandro couldn't understand why Diego was being so difficult, normally he accepted his father's wishes, but this time … no … now his son was showing he had some backbone. Where did that come from?
"Oh yeah, right, because of this little thing I can't adopt Felipe and give you a grandson." Diego got ironic by his father torturing him with this interrogation.
"Indeed it is, but there is something else as well."
"Oh really father?"
Sounding a bit calmer by knowing that this was another key to lock the doors of his son's escape route and to push him into marriage, don Alejandro revealed a little but important detail. "Years ago, I changed my will in case something would happen to you before I passed away. Sailing to Europe and back again is still a risk one takes. Besides, there were some huge changes of politics when I asked you to return home. He had already lost a home and I didn't want him to lose another as well. Therefore, I have given him some rights to guarantee he will have a good life on a piece of our land. I even had opened an account on his name, which will be given free to him after I am dead. So, partly I had already adopted him to give him some security in life."
"You never told me about the will." Diego felt a bit insulted as his father used to tell him everything.
"You were still in Madrid, son! The change of politics made it necessary. Now, how about those grandchildren, son?"
Diego looked defeated. How he wanted to tell his father about his plans and dreams. But this was not the right moment. His father was way too angry to be reasonable, nor was he. However he had to assure his father that he was working on something, maybe his father would spare him slightly and changed his mind to give him some more time to work this out.
"Father, honestly I do want to have children, there is only one difficulty …."
"Yes Diego, that difficulty is that you don't court any nice marriageable women. Now tell me Diego, doesn't even the poorest woman of Los Angeles approve of you?"
"I never cared for class difference, and you know that, maybe you would, but I don't!"
Diego's voice was filled with venom as he stared back at his father's accusative glares. His father really didn't want to understand him and that was upsetting Diego even more. Nor did his father believe that he truly wanted to have children, which was obvious by the incredulous look on the elder man's face. Worse, he longed to have them, with Victoria of course.
Don Alejandro really got tired of Diego's excuses and assuring him that he was taking care of having children somehow and questioned how honest his pleas of not arranging his marriage were and decided to play one of his last trumps.
"What would you do, if … and I am not saying you have to do this, heaven forbid, but if I were serious, which I am not, what would you do, if I asked you to get married, only on paper and your wife made sure you had an heir, whatever it would take her to have a child?
Diego's eyes grew large in astonishment and his mouth fell open. After five seconds he was able to voice again, "Do you hear what you are saying father?"
"Yes I do son," don Alejandro retorted angrily, but at the same time deep in his heart it pleased him to see his son's reaction to this preposterous proposal, but he wanted an absolute confirmation. "Now what would you do?"
"Con Dios, I wouldn't marry," Diego replied between gritted teeth. How could his father even suggest a thing like this, let alone expected him to accept it? At the same time Diego moved his hand through his black, shiny hair. Then, he faced his father sternly and continued, "I have seen how happy you were with mother, so why would Iwant to marry on rational grounds? Maybe to get rid of your nagging me and leave the unmarried state? No, I won't! As I was trying to explain …."
"Enough, Diego!" don Alejandro cut in after having let his son ramble a bit more, "I don't want to hear any excuse of yours. Make sure you won't disappoint me this time! There will come plenty pretty, young señorita's to find one suitable."
"Really, Diego, this time you will allow me to be perfectly proud of you. By the end of next month you will be married."
Diego sensed the discussion was over, but he wouldn't allow himself to be pushed into the corner.
"And what if I don't find one suitable?"
"That is out of the question. You will! And grandchildren I will have." Don Alejandro didn't like to be spoken against by his son, even though he happened to have grown up. He should know how far he could go, and now he definitely had crossed the borders; a son should obey his father.
"Or else?" Diego challenged bitterly between clenched teeth hating to find a way out of this "non-existing" problem.
"Else," don Alejandro repeated, while saving time to think of a fitting threat, "I want you to leave the hacienda, forever."
"What?" Diego screamed not having expected to hear this consequence of not pleasuring his father. "You can't be serious, father."
"Oh yes I am, I am done with your disappointing attitude."
Diego got so furious that he decided to leave the room, whereas he was afraid of losing his temper and would attack his father. What good would that do? Or he might tell his father that he was Zorro and that he wanted to marry Victoria, have children, but the alcalde still stood in his way. His father wouldn't even believe him if he told his father everything. He had to admit his own pride stood in the way too. He would not use the fact he had been lying about everything for so many years right now to make his father understand why he never wanted to end his bachelor life. The danger his father would be in then, was still too mach.
So much for nothing! No, Diego didn't think it wise to share his secret with his father now. It would only be a coward's action to escape his fate. He started this creation, so now he had to pay for the consequences. He should have told his father earlier about his secret then. At the same time he understood his father's frustration over this, but Diego thought his father should have told him about his plan when he started inviting their family, then Diego could have been able to explain that he is not interested in those señoritas and why.
Don Alejandro stared at his son's sudden retreating form and was tempted to call him a coward, but he was too angry to do so. Anyway, if his son didn't leave the room, he surely would have. He felt truly disappointed in their conversation and now he only hoped that Diego wouldn't embarrass him in front of his friends by not choosing a woman at all. Why did he have to be so stubborn? He couldn't understand why Diego still refused to see that a woman completes a man's life.
"Wait a minute," don Alejandro mused out loud as he paced the room to calm his ruffled nerves, "Diego was quite disgusted with the idea of getting married on paper and ordering his wife to get pregnant without his assistance."
A little spark of hope filled his body. He thought back of his conversation with Diego and had to admit that Victoria saw his son through. She saw it so clearly, why else would she suggest proposing this insane offer to his son?
Yes this idea truly offended Diego. It even made him angrier than he already was. This left some thinking. Don Alejandro had never seen his son so outraged before. Apparently, Diego had some passion in his soul. He felt glad that earlier his son was the wiser and left the taberna instead of exploding right there in front of the whole pueblo.
~Z~
In the meantime Diego rode on Esperanza to the beach. He needed to be alone, to have room to think. As usual he rode to the beach when he was upset over things. The sound of the waves breaking on the shores had always calmed his agitated state of mind. This time it only took more time to be able to think rational again. On his way over the rough area to the beach his father's threat still remained repeating in his head. Else I want you to leave the hacienda!
By the end of next month you will be married.
"So little time! What about Victoria? I don't want to give up on her! Should I tell her about me being her hero?"
"Hello Victoria, here is your hero, marry me right here and right now, if you want to spend the rest of your life with your hero!"
"Oh yes, she surely will accept my hand in marriage immediately. Marrying her best friend, who had always been lying and deceiving her! Surely she will be terribly happy bringing flowers to her husband's grave year in and year out. Our esteemed alcalde will absolutely allow his fiend to live on the life with one of the most silent citizens of Los Angeles." Diego sounded very sarcastic because of his tantrum.
How could his father do this to him? Why didn't he want to see it? He must have slipped so many times. He was still amazed nobody had ever seen him through, not even Victoria. If only she had. Things would probably have been quite different. She probably had rejected him and he would have had to go on with his life. Or she might have found a way for them to come up with a solution and live happily ever after.
But that was all "what if". It didn't really matter, because Diego was determined to go on and make the best of his life, but if it could have been under other circumstances he would surely have welcomed it with open arms. But still he had no idea how to approach this problem. It made him feel so powerless and being out of control of things. This felt completely like the contrary of Zorro's victories. It seemed like someone had taken away the base his whole life depended on.
"Yes some hero," he thought mockingly.
"This time you will make me proud son!" Another sentence coming out of his father's mouth echoed in Diego's ears.
"Father you should know!" Diego shouted angrily and despaired over the empty beach. Nothing but these words lingering in the air and the sea took those words away into the deep darkness above the big blue ocean. Today everything seemed black. The clear sky with its millions of white twinkling stars was the only exception of the colourless world.
Desperate Diego fell on his back into the sand. What should he do? He got so tired from frustration and thinking that his mind went blank. There was only the sound of the sea meeting the shores of the Californian coast. Some seabirds were searching for food and when one of them had found something, another bird hurried over.
Numb, Diego watched the birds jumping upon the sand and picking in it to get to their preys, but soon he lost interest and tried to focus on something else. Everywhere Diego looked the only tints he noticed were black or white. His shirt accented his dark blue pants, which looked like black now. The white sand on the beach was having its contrast with the black sea and the dark colourlessness of bushes at the side of the pueblo. Further there was only the blackness of his problems; there was nothing and everything like the black and white of this clear night.
New moon. Maybe there was some light in the darkness concerning his troubles. And the only thing there was, was silence. Silence, a magic word. The word almost meant "nothing".
A soft breeze took Diego's sorrows away into this calming silence, giving some peace to his soul. That was what Diego experiences; balance of his soul with nature. Some balance, or piece, he had always fought for. Unconsciously, he knew that there was no silence, no balance and no peace, when he left this state of trance, his union with nature.
It could not be prevented. Diego almost jumped when some birds were making so much noise while they were fighting over a bit of food. Having opened his eyes, Diego thought his fight with his father was of no importance. What was marriage compared to having no food!
He still had a month to find an escape and even then. His father wanted him to be engaged to be married. This big day would be in two months. Maybe the time had come to tell Victoria about his secret life. Or he should try and court her himself. Whatever he chose then he really had to be cautious or else the alcalde would find out as well. Just maybe, the alcalde would never find out. He was so possessed by wanting to capture Zorro that he was blinded to see what was under his noose all the time. Winning Victoria's heart by hanging around to escape all those women would make it more believable that Victoria could fall in love with him, because they had spent so much time together. People may think it logical that he wanted to marry her because of her understanding toward his feelings.
Diego started feeling a bit more relaxed now he had found a surrogate solution. He would try and court Victoria by himself, if he didn't want to lose Victoria forever. No he wouldn't let that happen, not by such unreasonable thing as this!
And what…. Diego's heart was beating in his throat, what if I don't succeed in time?
Diego took a deep breath. Calmness claimed his tensed muscles. Time would tell, it always did. Despite of his father's outburst, Diego didn't really believe that the old man would throw him out.
Then Diego got back on his feet and inhaled deeply, realising he felt so much better now. So easily he rode back to the hacienda which was like a harbour all seamen longed to go to after having had a long and exhausting journey.
In the dark and quiet hacienda Diego moved on tiptoe to his room in which he found a short and restless night.