As I said in a previous comment, at some point in this story the secondary character started to take over the fanfic, and I couldn't end it without telling what happened to her. The alcalde has turned out to benefit in the process; he's a very lucky scoundrel, I guess. Just this chapter and two more to finish.
Chapter 31. Something Different.
At dinnertime, de Soto noticed that Marina was very quiet.
"How was your day?" he asked his wife with his best smile. "Have you done anything interesting?"
"I've accompanied Victoria to the mission. We've been helping Padre Benitez with the clothes for the children at the orphanage."
"And have you enjoyed helping at the orphanage?" he said with interest.
"Yes, those children need a lot of help. They are so innocent..." she said with a melancholic look.
"In Madrid there are also orphanages and hospices where they would really appreciate your help, if that's what you want to do."
"I'm not sure what I want. I'll have to spend some time there until I get used to it, but I would certainly like to do something for the children."
De Soto tried to hide a calculating look. "And have you talked to the padre about anything else?" he said disguising his interest.
She blushed a little. "About a few things. I've also gone back to confession."
De Soto looked at her quizzically. "So soon? Was it necessary?"
"Yes, when I went to confession before the wedding the padre told me to tell him my sins since my last confession, but in talking to him now I told him that my confessor had refused to give me absolution in Puebla, because according to him I was not sufficiently repentant." Marina blushed as she said this, arousing de Soto's curiosity. " Padre Benitez decided to confess me himself to see what the problem was, and when I told him everything he didn't agree with my other confessor and he did absolve me."
She seemed not to want to continue talking about the topic and de Soto thought it would be better not to press her, although he hoped that the conversation with the priest had helped her.
Two servants cleared the table and de Soto waited for them to finish before indicating that they could leave. Marina looked tired.
"I'm going to retire too." she said.
"I have to finish writing a letter, but I'll join you in half an hour."
He had an idea, he didn't know if it would work, but maybe it would be good to try.
"I've been thinking that I'm not being a good husband to you. I'd like to ask you for a chance to start over."
"In what way?" she asked with a hint of distrust.
"I was your lover in San Rafael, and that was wrong, but it was my fault, and now I should like to behave towards you as I should have done if I had courted you and we had married afterwards, instead of seducing you."
"We're already married-what does that matter now?"
"It matters a great deal. A husband can be his wife's lover."
"No, if she's his wife she won't be his lover." she replied, looking like she didn't understand what he was saying.
De Soto sighed, trying to find a way to explain it to her. "A man can treat his wife as he would treat another woman he wanted to please. That is allowed."
She frowned, trying to remember her conversation with Victoria and what Padre Benitez had told her. Finally she nodded slightly when she was convinced it all fit.
"Think about it. If when I go to our bedroom tonight your candle is still lit, I'll understand that you want to give me a chance to behave differently with you. If you blow it out I'll understand that you want to sleep without me bothering you."
"But it is my duty to allow you..."
"A good husband doesn't coerce his wife."
She looked confused, and he stood up and offered his hand for her to rise as well. Then he walked her to the bedroom door, kissing her hand as a farewell, and went to the office to finish his letter.
He left the office door open, from there he could see a corner of the bedroom window across the courtyard. A few minutes later he saw the candlelight extinguish. Disappointed, he shook his head. "It's my fault." he grumbled. "It's going to be hard to convince her."
Marina, in the bedroom, couldn't stop thinking about what her husband had told her. "He thought that now I'm going to do whatever he wants as if I were his mistress and not his wife. Who does he think I am? Letting him do those things to me was a mistake, even if I liked them." She stirred in bed, uneasy. "But Padre Benitez said now it's not wrong for me to like those things if I'm married to the man I do them to, he says we can do that as long as I can get pregnant, and I did get pregnant." She punched the pillow a little to fluff it. "Then I can really do those things again, can't I?"
Soon after Soto heard the baby cry, but it soon quieted down; barely two minutes later he heard a scream coming from his private room.
He got up in a hurry and ran there. When he opened the door he saw that the quilt was on fire. He pulled it to the floor and stomped it off. After checking to make sure it was completely extinguished he noticed that his wife was holding a candle and the room smelled of burning hair.
"What the hell happened here?" he shouted.
She burst into tears. "I heard Dieguito crying, although I realized that I didn't need to go because he calmed down right away, then I remembered that his nanny always has a candle burning in a corner and that I could go to his room to light mine, but as it was dark I couldn't find my slippers when I went out, and when I came back I stubbed my little toe on the bedside table, and as I was startled the candle set my hair on fire, and as I was putting it off I dropped it, and then the quilt began to burn. I picked up the candle from the floor, but I didn't know how to put off the quilt." she said between whimpers.
"And if you wanted to light a candle why didn't you use the link, flint and tinder that are in the drawer?"(1) said de Soto pointing to the bedside table.
She looked at him without stopping crying. "The tinder is that black something in a tin box?"
De Soto put his hands to his face trying to calm down and not to keep yelling. A soldier knocked on the door.
"Sir, is something wrong? I heard screaming, and it smells like smoke."
"No, you can go back to your post, everything is under control."
"At your orders, sir."
Marina was still crying and he approached her slowly. He picked up the candle and set it down on the ceramic candle holder on the bedside table. Then he looked her up and down.
"Did you hurt yourself?" he asked worriedly. He was a little surprised he wasn't angry with her. If any of his men had done something like that he would be furious at their incompetence, but at that moment he could only be relieved that she was all right.
She shook her head and composed herself a little.
"No, my toe hardly hurts anymore."
"But. Did you burn yourself?"
"No, well, just this lock of hair, I'll have to cut it off." she said looking at the singed lock. "And a little bit this finger with the hot wax."
"Let me see your hands."
She held them out to him and he reached over to make sure she wasn't badly burned. He took his wife's hands between his own, caressing them and feeling relieved to find that she had not been hurt. Then something dawned on him.
"Did you want to relight the candle?" he said with a small smile.
In the dim light he couldn't be sure, but it seemed to him that she was blushing again. "I blew it out, but then I thought it would be better if it was lit when you came back."
It looked like he was indeed going to have a chance after all.
Note
(1) Matches had not yet been invented. A woman like Marina would never have lit a fire in her life, that was taken care of by the servants.