We are going to a wedding. We are all invited, Don Alejandro pays for the drinks and Victoria provides the food.
Chapter 19. I knew it.
There was a knock at the door, and when Victoria answered a female voice said, "Señor de la Vega is here. Would you like me to tell him to come up?"
Victoria took a deep breath to calm herself. "No, we'll be right down, thank you."
Victoria shrugged her shoulders and headed for the door. She went downstairs, where Don Alejandro was waiting for her smiling. He kissed her hand affectionately.
"You look even prettier than usual."
"Thank you Don Alejandro."
"Please call me Alejandro. Today we become family."
Victoria smiled warmly. "Of course, Alejandro, it will be an honor."
Meanwhile Pilar had gotten everyone into the church to wait for the bride. Diego was already in front of the altar waiting for her a bit seriously.
Victoria was still a little nervous, although when Diego offered her his hand and she took it she began to feel better.
They read the vows from the prayer book, then they exchanged arras and he put on the ring that the priest had just blessed, it was then that what she feared happened.
"Stop this wedding immediately!" shouted a gentleman bursting into the church followed by at least a dozen men.
"What now?" said Diego in a low voice.
"I knew it!" exclaimed Victoria gripping Diego's hand tightly. He looked at her and she knew they would face anything together.
"What is the meaning of this scandal!" said the priest in a much more authoritative tone than usual.
"This woman cannot marry him." said the gentleman as he arrived next to the bride and groom, seeing Victoria he made a quizzical face. "Who are you?" he asked sharply.
"I am the bride, AND YOU?" she replied in the same tone.
"Isn't this the wedding of Don Diego de la Vega?"
Diego moved forward and stepped between this stranger and Victoria, although it was unclear who he had to protect from whom, because Victoria seemed about to do something really drastic. "Yes, I am Diego de la Vega, and this is Victoria Escalante, my... fiancée?" he said finishing the sentence in a confused tone and turning to padre Benitez.
The padre blinked, also stunned at the events, but finally said crisply, "I pronounce you man and wife."
Diego nodded and turned to the one who had interrupted their wedding. "Victoria Escalante, my wife." (1)
Diego's tone caused her to look at him for a moment with a beaming smile before turning back to the other man and continuing to glare at him.
The man turned to look at the wedding attendees, and finally found the person he was looking for.
"Doña Marina, I am glad that you are not marrying this man. I hope that means you have decided to accept my offer. To avoid further problems we should get married right now. I'm sure the padre is willing to join us in marriage."
"What are you saying?" said the alcalde getting up from the pew and heading toward the front of the church with furious strides. "The young lady will marry me."
Marina stared at them dumbfounded. "But what is the meaning of this? You two look like two dogs fighting over a bone. I don't intend to marry either of you. I'd rather go to Spain with my son and pass myself off as a widow."
The newcomer approached her and grabbed her arm roughly. "No way. You're going to marry me immediately and cut the nonsense."
She shook her head with wide eyes.
"Padre, marry us." the man ordered padre Benitez.
"I can't do that. Not only because the church requires that you meet the deadlines for banns to avoid problems of previous engagements. The señorita has said she does not wish to marry you."
"I'll give you a thousand pesos."
"Take your hands off her!" said de Soto approaching the other man. He pulled out a pistol and pointed it at him. At the same time several of the men who had come in with him also drew their guns. Victoria noticed how Diego tensed up next to her and looked at all the men around him trying to dissimulate.
Padre Benitez was the first to speak. "No matter how much money you offer me I cannot marry you. Without the bride's consent there is no wedding."
Confident as he saw his men aiming at his rival, the man turned the pistol on the priest. "I said marry us. Say the words."
The priest drew himself upright and looked at him coolly. "That would not be a Catholic marriage, but a sham. I will not sully a sacrament. Do what you want, if I must face my maker today it will be with a clear conscience."
Victoria heard Diego say in a very low voice. "Wow." she nodded slightly showing her agreement with Diego's opinion.
The man pulled the girl toward him. "I'm sure it won't be long before I find another, more reasonable priest." then he said to his men. "We're leaving."
"Let go of me!" the terrified girl screamed, struggling.
"You will not take her." said de Soto in a fit of heroism. The kidnapper turned his gun on him and fired.
"Ignacio!" she screamed trying to break free once again. Her captor slapped her and dragged her away as the alcalde fell to the ground.
Diego ran to the alcalde to try to help him. The bullet had hit him in the chest on the left side. Dr. Hernandez also ran over from the bench he was occupying.
As Diego began to unbutton the alcalde's jacket he began to groan.
"He's taken her, and I couldn't save the only woman I've ever cared about. I've thrown it all away because of my ambition. She is worth far more than her dowry." he said in an anguished voice.
Diego and the doctor managed to remove his jacket and loosen the scarf he wore around his neck.
"Now I'm going to die without telling her that I really care about her."
Diego snorted in exasperation. "Knock it off, señor alcalde, you're not going to die."
"He shot me in the heart, I know what that means." the alcalde said in a desperate tone.
"If he had hit you in the heart you wouldn't have had time to make a speech." replied Diego as he and the doctor finally managed to unbutton his shirt and see the wound.
"You are right, Don Diego, the bullet has hit the second rib and slipped over it. It's right here." he said pointing to a bulging area on the alcalde's chest.
"I'm not going to die?" said the stunned alcalde.
"I can extract the bullet with a simple penknife. If you help me get the alcalde to my office I'll do it there, I have my equipment." said the doctor calmly.
"How could it have happened?" asked the stunned alcalde.
"I would say that the gun had little powder, or maybe it was of poor quality, it was a little wet or the gun had been loaded too long." said Don Alejandro with a professional tone remembering his times as a soldier.
After solving the most immediate emergency Diego began to think that he needed to go out after the kidnappers. He looked at Victoria, who realized what he was thinking. "I need to go home immediately." he whispered to her. She nodded slightly and raised her gaze to Don Alejandro. Most of the other attendants were watching as the soldiers helped de Soto up and led him toward the exit, following the doctor. Only padre Benitez and Pilar noticed the communication between the de la Vega family.
"Don Diego, you should take your wife home, this situation can't be good for her," said the priest.
Victoria looked at him quizzically, but then understood what he intended to do.
"We can't go to the wedding celebration, we have to organize a party to go and look for that poor woman." Don Alejandro said. "Let's go home right away."
"Diego, I'm going to need you to stay with me, I'm not feeling well." said Victoria. Diego could only nod, amazed by the reactions of the others, but it was nothing compared to what he felt when he heard Pilar speak.
"Yes, those men have taken a woman by force. They are capable of anything. I plan to go home and lock myself in. All young women should do the same." she said very seriously.
"Sounds like a very sensible idea to me." added the priest.
"All right. Let's go." said Diego taking Victoria by the hand. However before leaving he looked at the priest and in a low voice said sincerely, "I am proud that it was you who married us."
The priest replied with a slight smile. "Coming from you that sentence means a lot, my son. Go and be careful." He then laid his hands on them again to bless them.
Diego and Victoria walked briskly toward the door, to the astonished gaze of all in attendance.
"Those who want to participate in the search to meet me and my men in the plaza in fifteen minutes." said Don Alejandro.
Diego helped Victoria into the buggy and climbed in after her as Felipe jumped over the davit and don Alejandro also climbed in on the other side. Felipe shook the reins as soon as everyone was finished sitting down.
"Do my excuses always sound so stupid?" asked Diego.
"Sometimes they are even worse." stated Don Alejandro with conviction. From his expression Diego knew that Victoria agreed.
Note:
(1) I have already commented in other stories that in Spain, Spanish territories in America and the current Hispanic American countries women do not change their surname when they marry nor did they do so at the time. This can be verified in the censuses and parish records of weddings, baptisms and deaths, as well as in other documents such as judgments and wills. Curiously, in some areas of Spain during certain periods, men inherited their father's surname and women inherited their mother's surname. In the middle of the 19th century it was instituted by law to use two surnames, the paternal and maternal, although it was already customary in many places since the beginning of the previous century.