Chapter 19
Señorita Alacen thought hard, racked her mind, but the strange feeling of the head of her humerus going back in place, the sudden understanding of what had happened to her shoulder and above all the intense, burning pain seemed to be the last things her memory had recorded.
Then? the man sitting at her bedside had asked. Then? she repeated inwardly.
"Well... nothing," she finally answered. "That's it. Nothing else. Nothing more."
The pain, Diego thought. The sharp pain combined with venom and above all with the blow to the head had finally made her faint. And then blood loss, venom, infection and fever did the rest and had kept her unconscious.
"Nothing more?" Diego repeated.
"No, sorry, nothing more after that. Why…?"
Not answering her question right away, Diego insisted:
"So the young man made no attempt to… to harm you on purpose, but only intended to give you assistance, is that right?"
Quite puzzled, Luz looked at him, wondering what he was trying to get at.
"Yes, he meant well," she answered. "Regardless of the outcome..." she added, staring at her still uncovered reddish and lacerated thigh.
Seemingly finally realising the incongruity and lack of decency of the situation, she pulled the blankets back up over her legs.
But anyway Diego hadn't been paying attention to it anymore for quite some time. He had other things on his mind.
"This young man, Señorita, is called Felipe. He's my son," he revealed at last, "and now he's in dire need of your help."
"Your son?!" Luz exclaimed wide-eyed, interrupting again. "Good Heavens," she added, scrutinising Diego from head to toe, "exactly how old are you?"
Oh, Diego thought. Yes, I suppose I'll have to get used to that reaction, coming from strangers to this pueblo...
"This is an adoption," he explained, a bit annoyed at having to justify himself.
Not that it was any of her business, but on the other hand he understood the woman's stupefaction. It was legitimate. And in a sense, he felt quite relieved to see that despite his first – and discreet – white hairs, he could still pass as rather 'young'... or pretty much so... He just hoped that Victoria shared this opinion.
"Ah," señorita Alacen simply answered in the same tone of voice as when he informed that Felipe was a deaf-mute.
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Above all, Luz loved to understand. She never felt so annoyed than when she was facing something, a situation, a problem, a phenomenon she didn't understand. Señor de la Vega's explanation perfectly cleared up the puzzlement and question mark that had lit in her mind when he told her that the young man who had appeared to be what... maybe just ten or fifteen years younger than he was himself... was in fact his son. Granted she had to admit that she had paid little attention to the young man's – Felipe, right? – appearance, let alone to his features, and also that she was now not seeing much of Señor de la Vega's since he was sitting with his back to the light...
Well, their family stories didn't matter, after all. Anyway, didn't he just tell her that the young man needed her help?
"I don't really know how I can be helpful to your son, Señor, however if it is in my power to be of assistance to you both, I can't imagine that I'd shirk it. Be assured that I only wish to be of help to my neighbour. Within the realms of my possibilities, of course."
But Señor de la Vega kept silent – as if he'd gone mute too, she thought out of the blue. She chastised herself for this unspoken comment and swept this rather unkind and disrespectful remark away from her mind. She then incited him to explain what he expected from her:
"What can I do for you then, Señor, or rather for him?"
That was one more thing she'd like to understand, since she didn't see at all what this young man could need her for.
Señor de la Vega appeared to actually have something to tell her, but at the same time he seemed quite reluctant to do so. Luz didn't understand this apparent reluctance either, even to the point of vaguely beginning to worry.
"So," the man went on, "the shouts, calls and pleas you aimed at Felipe, unaware as you were that he was deaf, had the only purpose to prevent him from carrying out the first aid gestures he was trying to perform on you?"
"That's exactly that," she confirmed, still a bit lost and wondering what the hell he was trying to get at. "At first, because I knew what he meant to do with his knife, and I maintain that this is not the appropriate treatment…"
He seemed to hold back and keep to himself a reply he was certainly itching to shoot back at her, probably realising that this was not the time to argue over this particular point.
"And next," she went on, "because I was dreading the pain I'd feel if he touched my arm. I fought him instead of letting him set my shoulder back in place, which ultimately only made things more complicated for him and even more painful to me, come to think of it... But how... how can you know I screamed and pleaded?"
Still with some reluctance, he explained:
"Señorita, a military patrol was passing by not far from there at the same time. These soldiers brought you the pueblo after…"
Oh no, now he stopped short again!
"Well," she said as if to fill the awkward silence, "I'll therefore thank them in person as soon as I can. In the meantime, would you please convey my thanks to them?"
He nodded absentmindedly. He had something else in mind. Something else to say, obviously, and his hesitation was beginning to seriously worry Luz.
"Actually, you may have a chance to do it yourself this morning, or so I hope, if ever you're able to get up so soon after coming round. Otherwise I will ask the alcalde to come here himself, or to send his sergeant to speak with you..."
The alcalde? she wondered, in utter amazement.
"But what on earth about, exactly?" she asked a bit too sharply. She was beginning to get rather worked up by his tiptoeing around. "Will you eventually tell me what you daren't tell me?"
He stood up suddenly. Dios, he was tall! Especially since she herself was sitting, leaning back on her pillows.
It looked like he'd finally decided to talk, and in a both firm but soft voice, he told her:
"Señorita, I beg you to forgive the hesitancy I've been having so far as well as the trouble I have to address the topic I'm about to broach, but... well, please forgive me in advance for daring to address such a topic with a lady… and I confess I don't really know how to do so with the required delicacy that such a subject calls for..."
"Golly!" she exclaimed with a smile in an attempt to lighten the mood, "this time you're really beginning to worry me!"
But he seemed to remain perfectly impervious to her irony, and she suddenly feared that this interruption did nothing but stop him in his tracks.
"The soldiers... heard your screams... and also what you told Felipe… pleading with him not to touch you... and when they saw you, you were already lying unconscious... And Felipe was pinning your shoulder down..."
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Diego had stopped and was staring at her intensely, waiting for her to understand what he wasn't saying. Yet it didn't seem to happen and he knew he had to go on:
"And since your... um... your clothes were hitched up over your uncovered legs... well, because of the sting of course, but...
Again he looked at her. She still seemed as confused as before.
"Well?" she asked, apparently still in the dark as to what exactly he was trying to get at.
Goodness gracious! Diego thought quite dismayed, was she possibly that naive and ingenuous? Suddenly, Diego felt terrified of maybe having to explain certain things to a young señorita. Things that were absolutely not his to explain. Having this conversation with Felipe all those years ago had already been... well, awkward and embarrassing enough…
But just thinking of having to have it with a young lady...
Maybe he should call on Victoria for help?
Coward! he then called himself. No way! He really did not want that on top of everything else his ladylove could take him for some prudish and blushing maiden.
So rather than seeking refuge in Victoria's pocket and tying himself to her apron strings, he took a deep breath to work up the courage, and began:
"Well... appearances were very deceptive at the time… to outsiders and... and... they could suggest that… give the impression that… that Felipe's intentions... that he was trying to force himsel–"
"WHAT?!"
She sat bolt upright in her bed, the hem of the blanket crumpled in her clenched fists.
"No! NO!" she exclaimed. "Not at all! Señor, I assure you that your son has made absolutely no attempt of that sort!"
Diego couldn't suppress a sigh of relief at the idea that after all, señorita Alacen knew exactly what there was to know about what he had been trying to hint at since the beginning of his very embarrassed explanation, and that he therefore wouldn't have to explain anything to her with regard to that particular matter.
Señorita Alacen, for her part, apparently mistook the reason for his sigh.
"I assure you, Señor, that your son's behaviour towards me remained most honourable," she said hastily, "and that apart from this incident with the knife which is just a regrettable misjudgement–"
"I know, Señorita," Diego interrupted, "I never doubted Felipe. But I thank you for defending him against these accusations with so much... vigour. This is indeed precisely what he needs you for."
She raised her eyebrows at him quizzically.
"As I said," he went on, "the soldiers don't exactly have the same faith in him and they have mistaken the scene they happened to witness. My son has been put in jail, locked in a cell, and is suspected of these serious wrongdoings. I beg you, Señorita, just a few words from you would clear up this misunderstanding as soon as possible, and then we could all finally put this unfortunate incident behind u–"
He had not even finished his sentence when señorita Alacen sprung to her feet and, still barefoot, reached the door. In doing so she discovered that she was limping due to her right leg, but that did certainly not stop her in her tracks: she leaned against the wall with her right hand and opened the door to the inside passageway overlooking the main room of the tavern, while asking Diego:
"Well, what are you waiting for?"
Meanwhile, she didn't seem to notice at all that she was wearing nothing more than a thin white nightshirt, and one that was too short for her at that!