Chapter 30

When came the time to get up from the table, Don Alejandro announced that he would go on ahead on the way back and send a carriage for the señorita and her personal belongings.

"Oh, my belongings will take up very little space," she replied, "but thank you very much. Especially as I am hardly fit enough to ride yet."

"Diego will keep you company until the carriage arrives. Come on, Felipe."

"Actually Father, I still have two or three things to see to with Felipe," Diego lied. "And after these last two days I would like to enjoy his company a little longer..."

At least that last sentence wasn't a lie. But it also was really timely and very convenient to help him in his current predicament.

"Yes of course," Don Alejandro sighed, "what was I thinking?"

Diego, Felipe, and even Victoria who was passing by, inwardly thought that they knew very well what Don Alejandro had been thinking of, but no one dared tell him so.

"However," he tried again as a last resort, "Felipe is certainly exhausted after these last two days, and he surely dreams of a good warm bath and a good cosy bed..."

Felipe, whose guilty conscience was starting to gnaw at him with regard to the trick he had just played on Diego, resisted the appeal of the bath and rest he nevertheless was dreaming of and signed that he could wait one more hour. He decided to stay with Diego, much to the latter's relief. And besides, the young man too wanted to spend some more time in his father-to-be's company, even though they wouldn't be alone and couldn't talk freely.

He smiled apologetically at Diego and the latter briefly hugged him, both happy to have him back and grateful of him not completely following Don Alejandro in his matrimonially-oriented manoeuvres.

"If you'll excuse me a moment," said señorita Alacen who suddenly felt out of place in the middle of these family displays of affection, "I'm going to pay off what I owe to señorita Escalante for the last two days, before I go back to my room and gather my belongings."

"Please Señorita," Diego said, suddenly getting back all the chivalry and courteousness of a proper and decent host, "leave this to us and be our guest! Especially since you could hardly enjoy your stay at the pueblo..."

"I can pay my own expenses, Señor. I want to," she added firmly.

Diego then understood he would offend her if he insisted and he gave up.

That's why, limping, leaning for support from table to table, offering here and there an apology to the customers she bumped in passing, she reached the counter.

Diego wanted to take this opportunity to have a private conversation with Felipe, but his father was still there, waiting for the señorita's return to take his leave of her in due manner.

At the counter Victoria took the coins señorita Alacen had taken out of a pouch hanging from her belt. Luz found the charming innkeeper suddenly much less affable, or anyway more taciturn, and wondered what could possibly have changed her behaviour that was yet still friendly barely one hour earlier.

"Thank you again for your hospitality, señorita Escalante," she tried to cajole her. "I am extremely grateful for the good care you took of me, but you're probably now relieved since my departure will lessen your workload..."

Luz expected the polite and formulaic answer – sincere or not, that was not the issue – like oh please, that was nothing, or you didn't bother me, or simply don't mention it that such an opening normally triggered from any courteous person, instead of which Victoria retorted:

"Oh but I have no doubt that you will be very well cared for at the de la Vegas', won't you? With all these people to look after you..."

And all this said in a tone that left Luz very puzzled, and did not enable her to determine whether or not señorita Escalante was glad to see her leave, in the end. Had she offended her that much, by shortening her stay under her roof?

A bit confused, she went back to her new hosts, banging again into the same customers, apologising profusely again to them.

As Don Alejandro started to take his leave and all four of them got closer to the tavern's door, she suddenly remembered her horse.

"Don't worry about him," Diego reassured her, "he'll stay in the garrison's stables as long as his leg has not healed. He's well taken care of, you can rest assured."

"I'd like to see him," she simply said, almost pleading. "Before I leave I would like to go and see him, please."

"Diego will accompany you there," Don Alejandro said with a smile. "See you later, children!" he added as he crossed the threshold.

Once again entrapped by his father, Diego had no other choice but to offer his arm to the señorita so that she could lean on it and walk at her own slow pace. They had barely stepped out through the door when he suddenly remembered he hadn't paid Victoria for their dinner and stopped dead in his tracks.

"If you'll excuse me, I must first go and pay our own bill before I forget... We wouldn't want to drive Victoria into deficit," he added with a smile. "Sorry for the delay, Señorita."

"It's nothing, I assure you," she told him. "But beware, I'm afraid she's quite cranky right now..."

Felipe, as if to apologise for having had so much fun at his father's expense and for having played a part in dragging him down the tricky situation Don Alejandro had put him in, offered to replace Diego in accompanying Luz to the stables, therefore appeasing his guilty conscience and thereby taking a small thorn out of his father's side.

So coming to his rescue, he proffered his own arm to the señorita while Diego withdrew his.

Diego thus thought he had the best son any father could dream of. Yes, really, Felipe was a good lad after all, so he gave up his idea of retaliation and of set-up date with the certainly very charming but hardly known señorita Iturbide.

Felipe and their new guest had barely taken a step to the plaza, their backs to the tavern as well as to Diego, when Victoria joined him on the porch.

Without a word, she tentatively stood on tiptoes and then, resolutely, she landed a kiss on Diego's cheek.

The latter, rather stunned, slowly turned towards Victoria and managed to articulate:

"...What... what... what was that for...?"

She smiled and simply said:

"I'm glad Ramone released you from jail after your first articles in the Guardian..."

Then she went back inside just like she had come, disappearing inside her tavern.

A blushing Diego then looked back to the plaza and saw that Felipe, his back still to the tavern but his head turned toward him, hadn't missed anything of that scene. A taunting smirk was adorning his face, matched by impish eyes sparkling with mischief.

"Oh, just shut up!" Diego silently mouthed at him.

But Felipe didn't 'shut up' at all. Quite the contrary: his sardonic grin broadened even more...

AUTHOR'S NOTE:This chapter marks more or less the end of what would constitute the 'first part' of this story, the part devoted to Felipe's predicament, the end of it laying the foundation for the rest of the story...

At one pointI thought I might split this fic into two (or three) fics to be read one after the other (rename this one "Mésentente cordiale - Part I" and then create another fic named "Part II", etc ...) but ultimately I think I'll go on just like this, continuing in the same fic, even if it means a long story with many chapters... What do you think?