Chapter 22: Talks

"Señor, as agreed, I placed a calash at your disposal so you can go to the pueblo." Don Alejandro affirmed by turning towards Don Hernando and Doña Lucinda.

"Gracias, Señor De la Vega." Hernando said by bowing.

"Señor Monastario, could you come along with me please... We will need you at the cuartel." Toledano asserted.

"Si. Señor De la Vega..." He began.

"Of course. What did I sooner said to you?" Don Alejandro interrupted him by guessing his silent question.

"Gracias."

While Capitán Toledano, Sergeant Garcia and Señor Monastario went out, Don Hernando lingered a little more.

"Don Diego... You should rest. I will inform Doctor Avila about your state. I know that he knows some efficient balms to improve the cicatrization and lessen pain. Believe me, you will need it."

"Gracias, Señor. However, it is useless to disturb him for that. Bernardo, my manservant, knows these balms."

"There is no need to thank me, Señor." Hernando asserted by resting his hand on his left shoulder, looking him firmly in his eyes. "One last thing, young man, above all don't even try to move your right arm or to exert force on it. You risk soon regretting it."

"I will follow you advices." Diego said by smiling lightly.

Hernando let go of Diego and turned to Salena.

"As for you, Señorita, I know you are in good hands. Know that I'm sorry to have had to... manhandle you in the past."

"... I ... Gracias, Señor." She said ill at ease.

"Señores, Señorita, Señora." He saluted before going out while dragging his wife after him, arm in arm.

That's how Toledano, Garcia, Monastario, Hernando and Lucinda found themselves on the road for Los Angeles.

"Diego."

"Yes, Father."

"Salena and you need rest..."

"Don Alejandro, Doña Salena and I didn't finish making acquaintances." Isabella intervened.

"Indeed." Salena smiled. She had understood that the old hidalgo must talk in private with his son. "Diego, rest yourself... I will do the same." She winced in spite of herself and put a hand to her wound.

"Salena!" Diego exclaimed by seeing her wobbling.

She firmly gripped onto him.

"I'm fine, Diego. I just need rest." She said by forcing a smile.

"Father, permit me to take Salena back to her bedroom."

"Very well. Doña Isabella, stay with them please."

"Of course." Isabella smiled.

Diego helped Salena to stand up and wrapped his left arm around her waist to help her walk.

A little time after.

"Rest, mi corazón." He said by stroking her cheek with the back of his hand before kissing her gently on her lips.

After a silent exchange of looks full of promises, Diego went closer to the room's door, to leave both young women alone.

"Isabella, don't feel guilty." Diego whispered by passing close to her.

"Yet..."

"Yet nothing. I made an error of judgment... Thank you for taking care of Salena."

"Congratulations are necessary, I presume."

"When all will be done in form." Diego said cheerfully to hide his pain, nonetheless...

"Uncle Zo... Uncle Diego?" The child called him.

Uncle Diego? The young don repeated silently. And this Zo... Did he want to say Zorro?

"What can I do for you?" He asked by crouching to be at his height.

"How do you do not to be in pain?"

"You see, my young friend, it's not that I'm not in pain... It's that, in a way, I hide the pain in order not to worry my family and my friends. However, sometimes it is better to show this pain and not to suffer too long, do you understand?"

"I think yes."

"Good. Don't hesitate to go and see Bernardo, so he can put some cream on your face... Have you been beat?"

"Yes." Little Diego answered sheepishly.

"But you have been brave, I think to know." The young don said as he stood up.

"A true little man." Isabella intervened.

Diego ruffled his hair and joined Bernardo which was waiting in the hallway.

"I will need some help, my friend." He whispered to him.

Bernardo hastened to go on his left and helped him to move forward.

"Gracias. I asked you a lot, I'm aware."

When they arrived in Diego's bedroom, Alejandro was patiently waiting for them. Once his son was comfortably laying in his bed, he came straight to the point.

"Diego, I was with Capitán Toledano when Don Sebastián boasted of having seriously wounded the Fox. Not to see you dying in the cabin was comforting, but deep within me I wasn't more reassured. Can you imagine for one moment what I could have felt when, arriving to the hacienda, I didn't find you?"

"I'm sorry." Diego stammered, blushing with embarrassment.

He felt like a child of ten-years-old to whom his father was making a lesson.

"Diego, I only have one son..." Alejandro sighed. "Now, explain to me what happened and how you found yourself with Monastario, please."

Diego related him his misadventure from the beginning to the end, omitting nonetheless having forced Bernardo to remove the dagger. But Don Alejandro wasn't duped, especially as Bernardo was hiding badly his embarrassment.

"Diego, Diego... You were lucky that Monastario caught a glimpse of you. Incidentally, Zorro gave an astonishing talk this morning, where did he get his information?"

"I received a missive from Marcos."

"Oh. You looked for information quite far away."

"Father. There is another thing you should know."

"Except that you think that I'm right about Salena and you?"

"Yes." Diego smiled. "You're not the only one in the confidence anymore."

"I already know that, Son. But Padre Felipe won't talk and neither will Salena. "

"That's not to them I was thinking."

"How's that? Whom are you thinking about?" Alejandro interrogated, puzzled.

Diego smiled briefly.

"Don Esteban." He said serenely.

Don Alejandro and Bernardo opened their eyes wide while Diego closed his.

"The viceroy!" Alejandro exclaimed thinking that his son was going to answer him.

But Diego had fallen asleep. The old don sighed while Bernardo checked that his friend wasn't feverish.

... At the same time...

"Capitán Toledano, how will my presence be necessary?" Monastario questioned.

"I'd like you to relate to me what you learnt about Don Sebastián... After all, you were in close contact with him regularly."

"I could have done without it." Enrique retorted abruptly. "Why having settled the Señorita De Santa Anna at the De la Vegas?"

"Come now, you know the political tension which currently exists. The Californians are not far from doing like the Mexicans and revolting against the Monarchy. Some royalists would risk taking benefit about her presence. At the De la Vegas', she is sheltered. Although Don Alejandro supports the King, he is wise and shrewd. He won't let her fall. And if she informs her brother by mail, it would be easier for her to do it from their home."

"Aren't you afraid that Santa Anna will take advantage of this?"

"No... Those are king's soldiers, Spanish soldiers who freed her, so did Zorro I'm sure of it. According to what she will write in her mail, this could change the flow of history and the plans of the Mexican general... For now, he has a lot to do and he won't move here himself, I'm convinced."

Toledano turned to assure himself that the calash at the disposal of Hernando was far enough away.

"What is it?" Sergeant Garcia asked, puzzled by the capitán's behavior.

"I just want to be sure that the carriage won't be too far in case we have to intervene."

"Oh... Would you like that I go closer to them?"

"That's a good idea." Toledano smiled, mischievous.

Monastario guessed the meaning of his gesture, therefore when they were alone, he asked:

"What secret do you have to tell me?"

"I will be frank, it's about..." Arturo interrupted himself by seeing riders coming closer.

Both men stopped and were caught up by the sergeant and the calash before the riders arrived at their proximity.

"Señores?" Toledano interrogated by recognizing amongst them Don Nacho Torres and Don Cornelio Esperon.

"Capitán Toledano? What happened to your clothes?" Don Nacho astonished.

"It's a long story... What is leading you by here?"

"As we didn't see you coming back, we were worried for you and Don Alejandro."

"Señor De la Vega went home shortly before the thunderstorm. I joined him a few minutes before the sky fell on our head."

"Was Don Sebastián apprehended?" Don Cornelio asked.

"Señores, it seems reasonable that this conversation pursues its course in my quarters in the presence of the viceroy, the governor and your alcalde. Señor Monastario, we will take back our conversation later. Stay however, you could, I think, enlighten some points."

"Si." Monastario approved with a nod.

The riders and the calash pursued the road to Los Angeles.

There, Don Hernando, after having settled his wife to the tavern, went to his colleague and made him a summary of the situation. Besides Don Diego, which was for him a priority, Hernando asked Avila to check the care lavished on Doña Salena and on Doña Isabella.

"Why don't you stay to assist me?" Avila asked.

"Señor, my life, my family and my friends are in Monterey... I had patients who came every day to see me... For talking most of the time."

"So you're the doctor which had disappeared without so much as a word?"

"Yes, I am."

"Well, I will take care of those three people without fail."

"If I can permit, let them sleep a while before you go to see them."

"In this case, I will go on the end of the afternoon. On their behalf, I thank you."

"But you're welcome. Adios, Señor."

"Vaya con Dios." Avila saluted.

In the commandante's office, it was turmoil between the cramped men.

"You said that Don Sebastián has escaped?"

"Diego? Wounded?" Don Esteban exclaimed.

"How did it happen, you say?" Don Donatio questioned.

"Yes. Don Sebastián has escaped. He took benefit of the bad weather for disappearing. By the way, Sergeant, you should go and change yourself. You're still very wet."

"At your command."

"As for Don Diego, he was attacked on his way to the pueblo... He was lucky that Señor Monastario saw him while we were heading to his home."

Don Esteban observed Señor Monastario hiding a smile of satisfaction in front of the flabbergasted faces of the dons.

"Señor Monastario, did your last meeting with Don Diego open your eyes?" Don Donatio asked.

"Undoubtedly, not the last that you're alluding to, Alcalde. I got the leisure to cross his path numerous times since then." He said enigmatically for the dons but not for the capitán and the viceroy.

After all, they had read the sergeant's reports and they knew that the former capitán had contributed to the elimination of a criminal sought by the crown.

"Señores, I will launch the search straightaway. I told Don Alejandro that I will keep him informed of the continuation of the events and that's what I will do. Señor Monastario, we will see each other again once we put a hand on this man. Until then, go back close to your niece and your little nephew."

"Si. Señores." He saluted before going outside.

"Señores, don't do anything silly nor foolish. I wouldn't want to arrest you." Toledano explained firmly all by staying understanding.

The dons saluted him and went out at their turn. Only the alcalde, the governor and the viceroy remained. Toledano addressed the viceroy:

"How did the continuation of the events at the pueblo progress?"

"Once you left and Doctor Avila took care of the wounded men, I took back my speech where it had stopped. Men are called to go to the polls."

"Good... By the way, we have, on a military point of view, a new asset in our sleeve." Toledano asserted.

"What do you mean?" Don Esteban questioned.

"The soldiers of the King had freed the prisoners from the bandits and among them was..."

"The loved one to Santa Anna." The governor intervened.

Don Esteban startled. "You don't want to use this person by means of pressure, I dare to hope."

"No, no. Far away from me and you that idea, Viceroy. We won't hold her like a prisoner at our turn. It would be immoral, contrary to my principles and it would only inflame our relations with Mexico City." Toledano took offence.

"Do you know who that person is and where she, or he, is?"

"That person is no other than the sister of General De Santa Anna. I have escorted her to the De la Vegas'." The capitán explained.

"To the... Where did you get that idea from?" The governor exclaimed.

"I was afraid she would be badly greeted by the pueblo if her name spreads in one way or another... Also it would be preferable not to mention her in talking. Everybody doesn't share my opinion regarding her presence here, I'm afraid."

Don Esteban nodded his agreement. "You are right on this point. I will go to the De la Vegas' to talk about it with Don Alejandro, if you don't see any inconvenience."

"Do you want an escort, Viceroy?" Arturo hastened to ask.

"No. I will take a civilian calash. I would go more unnoticed."

"Very well... When does the vote take place?"

"In two days." The governor answered.

"It's a short time to catch up with Don Sebastián." The capitán thought aloud.

"Zorro must already be on his track."

"I doubt it, Viceroy. When we apprehended Don Sebastian, he... He was boasting of having seriously wounded the Fox."

"What ?!" The governor astonished.

"How's that?" The viceroy said, dumbfounded.

"A treacherous stabbing. But, apart from his statement, we didn't see any shadow of Zorro."

"If you didn't see him then nothing proves that Don Sebastián says the truth." The viceroy emphasized.

That being said, if Diego is really wounded, it can unfortunately be true. Did Capitán Toledano make a connection? Don Esteban wondered.

"When we went outside the cabin where Señorita De Castillos and Señor Monastario's niece were enclosed, I observed a fresh stain of blood. And then, this man was slightly cut on his neck. And there is not a lancer, including me, with which he could have crossed blades."

Thoughtful, the governor sighed a long time, intriguing each in the room.

"A wounded Fox is easier to catch."

"Governor, what were we talking about some days ago?" Don Esteban took offence.

"You weren't serious, Viceroy?"

"Of course I was!"

"What are you talking about?" Don Donatio asked.

"We're talking about freeing Zorro of his burden and to make him a free man." The viceroy firmly underlined.