I've realized that when I get home in the evening and I see that there are comments on the story (both in Spanish and English) I open the next chapter to review it and I end up adding something. So if you want longer chapters you know what to do. At the moment you owe a lot of content to Cris Martin and Caatmikmak.

Capítulo 14. Don't Give Me Details.

Victoria was putting clothes away in the cupboard and couldn't help overhearing the discussion as the count and his sister chose a nearby corner to talk.

The count was trying not to raise his voice, but there was much harshness in his words. "It is imperative that you marry, if not señor de Soto another suitor who will take you to Spain. There are too many people here who know that Diego was born a bastard, and that would be a burden to him in the future. If you arrive in Spain married with a son no one will ask questions."

"Don't call my son that." said Marina with a much firmer tone than usual.

"It is what it is, you didn't want to give him up and now you have to think about his future. If you don't want people to call him that you'll have to give him respectability by marrying someone and going where no one knows what you did."

"What I did" She said in a scathing tone. "You all remind me all the time that what-I-did was wrong, it's perfect, everybody knew what I wasn't supposed to do except me."

"Don't come up with excuses. I'm sure your Aunt Enriqueta told you that you shouldn't lie with a man before you were married."

"Why yes, that's exactly what she told me."

"And what part wasn't clear to you?"

"Well let me explain it to you, what I didn't know was what she meant by lying with a man. In fact if it involves lying down I never lay with him."

"I beg your pardon?" he said in a tone more surprised than angry.

"My aunt told me that when I married, my husband would have conjugal rights, that I should lie in bed and do as he told me, and that though I would find it annoying and even unpleasant, that was what I had to put up with in order to be able to beget a child." She said it off the cuff, as if she had learned it by heart after hearing it many times. "As well as what I did with Diego...I mean Ignacio in a library armchair was nothing like what I had been told, I didn't know it was the same."

"I'd rather you didn't give me so many details." said the count in annoyance.

"Well, I would have preferred that someone had given me some detail, and then I would have known what I was doing."

For a moment they were both silent.

"Then you didn't know that after what you did with de Soto you could be pregnant."

"I assure you that if I ever have a daughter I will explain clearly to her how babies are made so that no one can cheat her like that. I thought I was sick, and when Auntie called the doctor he looked at me with that face everyone looks at me with when they think I'm talking nonsense, told me I'm a healthy young woman, that it was female discomfort and not to worry. Then my belly started to grow, and I thought I had something wrong with it, but the doctor had treated me so badly that I didn't dare ask him again. When it started hurting I was convinced I was going to die. Didn't they tell you? I guess not, because apparently you don't want details. I locked myself in my room, and when they heard me scream they broke down the door. Leandra was the first to realize what was happening and sent for a midwife while my aunt asked me loudly who the father was, and I didn't know what she meant."

The count said in a voice in which one could guess his frustration. "I didn't know."

"How could you know?" She said almost shouting, on the verge of tears in frustration. "You went almost four months without talking to me. And it's not like we talked much before you hid me at the uncles' house telling me not to tell anyone who I really am. I think you spent more time training your dogs than talking serious business with me. You were always telling me not to worry about anything, that you would take care of finding me a husband to take care of me."

"I wanted to protect you from those who only wanted to marry you for your money. It's my fault."

She shook her head, as her anger dissipated and only sadness and helplessness remained. "It's not, well, at least not entirely. It's not your fault that I'm stupid and ignorant."

"Don't say that."

"Why not, if it's the truth? I'm a fool and my son is a bastard. Now it's up to you to find a way to hide it. I suppose in spite of his fine words that man now wants to marry me because he knows I have money. Isn't that right?"

"Quite possibly, after all he started showing interest when I told him about your dowry. I have told him that it is up to you to accept him, and that I will make sure he treats you well. I have to leave early tomorrow morning, but I'll be back in a few days."

"The alternative is to marry Emiliano."

"That would be the only option. I need you to leave for Spain in a little over a month, and it would not give time to find another candidate."

"Do I have to decide in this week?"

"I'm afraid so. Whoever you choose will have to wait a month for all the requirements to be met. The Church has gotten very serious about the banns, and I haven't found any priest willing to perform your wedding without all the requirements being met. If you finally decide on de Soto the priest will read the banns for the first time this coming Sunday."

She nodded, resigned. "I suppose he's a better choice than Emiliano."

"He's younger and has a nicer look. He seems intelligent and ambitious, I think he will do well in Madrid, though he will have to be supervised." the count mused.

"All right, I'll do it for my Diego." The girl sighed. "Why doesn't anyone love me?" she wondered, almost to herself, in a sad voice.

"Why do you say that?"

"I've noticed the tavern owner, and I've seen how her fiancé looks at her, even though she's not a lady with a good dowry. Men only come to me for gain. No one, except mother and you, until I met Ignacio, had ever looked at me with love, and in his case it was also for gain, though in another way."

"I do not understand what Don Diego could have seen in that woman; it is strange to me that a gentleman should marry such a one, and that his father should not object. I suppose this village is very secluded, and here things are different."

"That may be."

The two siblings walked away and Victoria waited a few moments before peeking out to check that they were no longer nearby. She walked out of the cupboard thinking about the conversation she had just overheard. She felt sorry for her, but her feelings towards the count were not very cordial, she found him to be conceited and was glad he wasn't going to stay the whole time.

Victoria always treated all her clients with respect, and of course she had been kind to the young mother since she arrived, but that conversation had made her see the girl for what she really was, a naive young woman who had been taken advantage of and whom no one had bothered to advise.

After finishing his lunch, the count got up from the table to go and talk to some landowners. Don Manuel, the girl's uncle had decided to accompany him, and Doña Enriqueta was in a corner of the tavern chatting animatedly with Doña María, the local matchmaker and unrepentant gossip. That left young Marina sitting alone finishing her lemonade, because the servants were occupying another table. Victoria saw that her assistants could take care of picking up what little was left and went over to talk to her.

"Everything all right señorita?"

She smiled somewhat shyly. "Thank you señorita Escalante, the food was very good."

"Thank you, do you need anything else?"

"No." she sighed. "I'm fine." she tilted her head slightly to look wistfully at her baby, who was in the wet nurse's arms.

"Why don't you play with him for a while?" asked Victoria.

"When children are small they should be with the wet nurse, and then with their governess to acquire good habits." said the girl in that tone of voice which revealed that she had learned the phrase by heart.

"Can't they acquire good manners with their own mother?" asked Victoria quizzically, the concept was completely foreign to her.

"They say they get spoiled and then they're rebellious." she said trying to convince herself more than Victoria.

"That would explain my character." said Victoria smiling causing the girl to giggle uncontrollably, though she immediately covered her mouth and tried not to make a sound. Victoria was puzzled by that behavior. She wondered if she wasn't allowed to laugh either.

"You grew up with your parents." said Marina.

"Of course, and with my brothers, and my grandmother, who raised chickens, and the other children in the village."

"My brother was already 14 when I was born, and I was only related to two other children, my cousins. They came to visit on Sundays after mass, and we all wore our best clothes and were not to wrinkle or stain them. Then I entered a boarding school for young ladies."

"Is that where you were told you couldn't make noise when you laughed?"

"Yes, it's not ladylike."

"Well then I'm glad I'm not a lady, so I can laugh when I want to."

The poor girl had to hold back her laughter again.

"But you are going to marry a gentleman."

"Yes." said Victoria looking like she didn't know where she was going with that comment.

"You'll have to learn to behave like a lady."

"Just because I was raised in a village doesn't mean I don't have manners." said Victoria somewhat dryly.

"Of course I didn't mean that," replied the other girl with wide eyes, fearing she had offended her. "I just meant that maybe he's used to women behaving differently."

Victoria pondered for a moment. "No, the de la Vega's aren't like that. Diego shies away from well-bred señoritas. I've seen him avoid them for years. I think he finds them boring."

"Surely he won't be bored with you."

"Of course not, I'm not like them, I'm rebellious." Hearing that response Marina laughed twice before remembering not to. Victoria approached the wet nurse and asked her to give her the baby. She looked at the child's mother, who nodded her head to indicate agreement, so Victoria with the baby in her arms returned to the table where Marina was, placed him on his mother's lap and sat down across from them.

"And now let's play with this precious baby." said Victoria with conviction as she began to make silly faces at the little one who started laughing almost immediately.