Chapter 20

Victoria was polishing her counter, making the most of the fact that it was still early and there were few consumers in the tavern yet. She was far better rested than the day before and in a better mood – to the great relief of the few customers present – thanks to Don Diego who had taken the night-watch at the stranger's bedside, allowing Victoria to sleep like a log.

At some point in the quietness of the early morning, the sound of a door and footfall could be heard upstairs and Victoria looked up the stairs. Up there she discovered an unusual sight, especially for an establishment as respectable as hers: a woman wearing nothing but a mere nightshirt, her long hair down and tangled, was walking barefoot and apparently hobbling to the top of the staircase, leaning with her hands on the wooden guardrail that overlooked the ground floor.

Victoria barely had time to recognise Don Diego's stranger – how so, Don Diego's? she corrected herself – before the woman reached the stairs; her right leg then seemed to give way and she half-collapsed before she caught hold of the banister with both hands, wincing. In three strides Diego ran to her and caught her, sliding his arm around her waist to lift her up and thereby pressing her more than lightly against his own chest.

"For Heaven's sake!" he exclaimed, "don't try to walk alone! You should have waited for my help. I don't want you to overestimate your strength!"

Awake! Victoria thought, relieved at first for Felipe – and for this woman too. Only... only seeing her half naked and wandering her tavern's corridors dimmed her joy somewhat. And in the presence of a man, at that! Admittedly, it was only Diego, the last man on earth who might take an interest in... well… but still! And her establishment had a reputation and standards to preserve.

Anyway, this notwithstanding, she was mainly relieved to see that the woman had regained consciousness and that her life was no longer at stake. The good care provided first by herself, then by Don Diego, had paid off... even if nature and luck certainly had also their share in this recovery. Admittedly, Don Diego's knowledge, even though it didn't equal of course Dr. Hernandez's, had certainly played its part here. This girl could be grateful to him. Truth be told, out of concern for Felipe he had spared no effort either to nurse her back to health, spending most of the past day – and night, too! – looking after and watching over her.

The stranger, for her part, had still not fully straightened back up and was still partly leaning on Diego's chest.

"Don't even try to go down these stairs on your own!" he then ordered her.

Victoria saw her nip her parched lips, hiss a bit and finally try to unglue herself from Diego.

"I'm not totall–" she began, looking a little annoyed and setting her right foot down on the first step.

But when her weight went from her left leg to the other one she winced again, screwing up her eyes, holding the banister with both hands so tight that her knuckles went white, inhaling sharply through her flared nostrils.

Not thinking twice and without further ado, Diego slid one arm under her knees, the other over her shoulder blades, and lifted her before she collapsed. Then, carrying her like a child to be put to bed, he began to go down the stairs as if she weighed nothing.

Although it was already spotless, Victoria then resumed polishing her counter with greater intensity: Don Diego was definitely enjoying far too much playing nurse...

In Diego's arms, with her legs raised and left exposed by Victoria's too short nightshirt that came down only to her mid-calf, the girl unwillingly displayed much of her legs to anyone who could see. Thank God, only Victoria was facing the stairs at the time. Diego, for his part, did not even seem to note the incongruity of this situation.

Once downstairs, he put the girl down; still limping, she slowly headed to the front door without looking back to him. Victoria then rushed to her:

"Señorita, you're awake, finally! How are you feeling?" she asked, taking her hands in her own.

The young woman, a bit dazed, looked at her but didn't seem to react.

"Are you sure you're in a fit state to walk?" Victoria went on. "Don Diego," she added, turning to her friend, "you shouldn't have let her get up... Señorita, but… but where are you going to?"

The young woman, looking stunned by this avalanche of questions, couldn't answer and turned to her good Samaritan, a both puzzled and inquiring look painted all over her face.

"Señorita, allow me to introduce Señorita Escalante. She owns and runs this tavern, and she too watched over you while you were unconscious, hence her concern for you. Victoria, let me introduce our guest, Señorita Luz Alacen."

Señorita Alacen politely bowed her head and shoulders, and was even about to give a hint of a curtsey when the effort it asked her thigh intensified the pain she was feeling there, and it sharply reminded her of her injury.

Victoria nodded as well and added:

"Welcome to Los Ángeles, Señorita. In spite of the rather… chaotic… circumstances of your arrival here."

"Thank you for your welcome, Señorita," Luz replied, "and for taking care of me. I'm sorry for any inconvenience the peculiar circumstances of my presence in your tavern may have caused."

"All's well that ends well, that's the main thing," Victoria assured her.

"Not quite, yet," Diego cut in, reminding them that Felipe's situation wasn't completely sorted out yet.

"Yes you're right," Señorita Alacen told him, "let's go."

"Where..." Victoria began, "where do you think you're going like that?"

With a general gesture, she illustrated her point by indicating her guest's state of dress.

"There's no time to loose," the señorita replied, "Señor de la Vega's son is wrongfully imprisoned as a consequence of a terrible misapprehension. I have to clear up this misunderstanding with the authorities as soon as possible!"

Meanwhile, Don Diego seemed to finally realise that the young woman was wearing nothing else than Victoria's nightshirt, since he immediately took off his own jacket to chivalrously wrap it around the señorita's shoulders, for the sake of modesty and propriety.

Mmm, Victoria couldn't help but note with narrowing eyes, Don Diego was being very gallant today... But the result was still only remotely seemly...

"And you're barefoot!" Victoria then added.

Diego looked downwards and saw that he had failed to notice that other detail.

"I'm taking care of it!" he said, leaping up the stairs two by two to the bedroom he had just left.

Meanwhile, Victoria took things in hand:

"Take at least some time to get changed, Señorita, I'm sure Felipe won't hold it against you..."

But señorita Alacen was unable to stay put:

"Señorita, I will not let an innocent young man rot in jail one more minute. Not if I can help it! I couldn't look at myself in a mirror if I put the concern for primping myself before his release and-"

"Well, that's not what I meant, Señorita!" Victoria exclaimed. "But you can't cross the plaza in a nightshirt! It's not very proper."

"Oh..." simply said Señorita Alacen who appeared to notice only then that she was… well… rather scantily clad.

They both saw Diego come downstairs holding the señorita's dusty shoes in his hands. She then shrugged her shoulders almost imperceptibly and, slipping her feet into her shoes while tightening Diego's jacket around her chest, she told Victoria:

"Never mind, no time..."

"Let me at least..." Victoria started before pausing to untie her apron.

She tied it around Señorita Alacen's waist. It was only barely more seemly. She then grabbed a large shawl behind the counter and tied it too around the woman's waist, this time hiding the back of her nightshirt. Well, now the result was a little better.

"Fine, thank you," Señorita Alacen hastily said turning round and walking away. "Cm'on, let's go!" she added for Diego as she headed for the door, leaning on the tables with her hands along the way in order not to put too much of her weight on her right leg.

Diego caught up with her and, rather than just offering her his left arm so that she could lean on it, he slid it around her waist as he took her right arm to raise it behind his neck and over his shoulder. And so, her pressed against him, him holding her waist, Victoria saw them leave her tavern.

Felipe's predicament was about to be sorted out and to have a happy ending, so she should feel elated. And she was, she reflected, she truly was. She really felt relieved for him, relieved for Don Diego. And yet for some unknown reason, she also felt far less relaxed and not really in as good a mood as a few minutes before. Weird.

Without fully realising it, lost as she was in these reflexions, she had resumed rubbing her already immaculate counter with renewed vigour, at the risk of wearing a hole in it…