Chapter 71 – The not-so-secret, secret wedding

Padre Benítez never closed the front door of the pueblo's church. His main reasons were simple ones: firstly, he doubted anybody would go in at night to steal anything, because there wasn't much to steal, and because Zorro was always guarding the pueblo, acting as a good deterrent; and secondly, because maybe someone would need his help in the middle of the night, as it was the case this time.

Zorro pushed the door and walked inside the small, sacred building. The priest was still awake and active, tidying up the main aisle, between the pews, in preparation for mass in the morning, and lifted his head when he heard the door.

"Zorro! What are you doing here at this time of night? Do you need my help?"

"Yes, Padre, I do."

"How can I help you?"

"I would like to get married to señorita Escalante tonight, please."

"Tonight? Why tonight?"

"Because I have been waiting for too long, and because the wedding has to be secret, like my identity is, and this is the best time for that."

"Does she know who you are now?"

"Yes. And we need your blessings now before we have the real, public wedding later on."

"What do you mean? I can't marry you twice! That's ridiculous."

"Why?"

"That would be like making a mockery of the sacred rite of marriage. If you want to have a public wedding later on, I can't marry you now."

"Well, in a way it would be like two different weddings, one marrying Zorro, and the second one, marrying the real me."

"That would be like marrying Victoria to two different men. That's even worse!"

"But I am the same one!"

"Sorry, I don't think what you are asking me to do is right. I could marry you tonight, yes, but I still need to know who you are, and I can't marry you again later on."

"Well, in that case, consider this a secret of confession, and you can't tell anybody about it."

"Yes, of course."

When Zorro took off the hat, and then his mask, the priest looked at him, squinting his eyes, as if he couldn't believe it.

"Don Diego? My goodness, I never saw that coming!" he said, taking a seat in the nearest pew, as if feeling dizzy. "Really? Aren't you supposed to be collecting the doctor's medicines in Monterey?"

"Yes, I am," Diego said, walking a few steps to kneel in front on the priest. "Yes, Padre, it's me, Diego de la Vega, and I really need your help. As you can imagine, I am going through very difficult, trying times right now, still trying to cope with the tragic death of my cousin, because I feel responsible. Besides, I've been badly injured, and poisoned, I nearly died only four days ago, and I'm hiding at the moment while pretending I am in Monterey, before I can return to the pueblo. I need to get married to Victoria now, so I can spend time with her without my father giving me grief about that improper situation. If I stay on that cave on my own for another day, I'll go insane. I need her there, I need her soothing presence, without my father's disapproval."

"I don't understand, Don Diego. Do you want to get married now because you want to have… carnal contact with her… in a cave? Is that it?"

"No!" Diego cried, standing up quickly, taking his hands to his head, wandering right and left in front of the priest, until he stopped to look at him again. "But that's what my father thinks it's going to happen every minute I spend with her now! I can't stand his lectures and admonitions anymore. It's killing me. If we get married now, at least he would leave me alone, and Victoria can give me the support I need. I'm having a hard time, Padre, even worse now after my cousin died. You can ask the doctor. He knows all about this. I've been spiralling down for a while now."

"Doctor Hernández knows you are Zorro?"

"Yes, he had known since Sergeant Mendoza shot me. My father and Victoria have only known for a few days, since I got poisoned. And Esteban sacrificed himself, killing the alcalde so we can be together. And that makes me feel really bad, because it wasn't necessary."

"I see. My goodness, I am so baffled I don't know what to say!"

"You don't need to say anything, except: "I declare you husband and wife." Tonight, please."

"And then, when would you like to have the proper wedding?"

"As soon as possible, but first we must pretend she breaks up with Zorro, and I have to court her as Diego. It may still take a while."

"All right, Son. In this instance, I think we can make an exception and have you married twice. For the looks of it, you two should have been married ages ago."

"Yes, that's precisely the point. But we couldn't because of the alcalde. This secret wedding is only possible now because he is no longer here."

"Is Victoria coming here tonight, to the church?"

"No, she is waiting for us at the tavern."

"All right. Let's go there then; it doesn't really matter where we do this. But let me get the stole first, and my Bible. Have you got the rings?"

"Drat! No, I haven't. Well, she has the engagement ring I gave her, and she can use that one. But I don't have a ring."

"Don't worry. I always have a few, cheap ones to spare. You'll be surprised how many times people forget the rings at home!" the priest said, chuckling. "We'll use one of those tonight."

ZZZ

After Zorro left, Don Alejandro returned to the library. He took a seat, still shaken by the discussion at the cave, and wondered how and when Diego had discovered his secret. He had been visiting Andrés Collado's widow regularly for nearly a year now, roughly every three or four weeks, but he had always been careful, and he didn't think anybody had ever seen him going to her small hacienda for that purpose. The most probable explanation was, Diego had seen him at some point when he was out as Zorro one night, but he had never said anything about it. Until now, when Diego had lost his temper completely, thanks to his father's reckless spurring and the rather abusive, sharp admonitions about his improper behaviour.

Azucena Collado's husband died a few years ago, and she never remarried. She had lived on her own with a couple of servants since her two daughters left with their husbands to create their own families, and she was lonely, the same as Don Alejandro had been since the death of Diego's mother. When the affair started —God knows exactly how, because he couldn't recall how it happened, only that it did, after too much wine at a dinner party—, he offered her to get married, but she wasn't interested. They clearly didn't love each other, and not even liked each other enough to justify marriage, and they also liked their independence too much. So, that arrangement of sporadic encounters to help with their respective loneliness and longing for that kind of intimate, physical contact, suited them both nicely. However, Don Alejandro felt uncomfortable about it, even more after he started scolding his nephew about having sex out of marriage, and now he was doing the same with his son. He somehow felt as if he was purging himself of his own, perceived sinning through them, by trying to prevent them from following his steps into immoral transgression, rather too aggressively sometimes.

No wonder Diego was so cross with him and his "double moral", as he so rightly put it, if he knew about that affair. But, for how long had he known? And why he didn't say anything before? Once again, Diego's self-control to deal with secrecy had left him baffled. He probably had known for a while, but he kept it to himself until he pushed him too much, during these difficult times, when he was already on edge; when he needed compassion and help, rather than rebuking and humiliation. Diego wasn't coping well with the death of his cousin and the transition to get rid of Zorro, and he probably needed Victoria by his side, not just for sex, but mainly for companionship and support, as he claimed.

"Mierda," he cursed under his breath while recalling the way Diego had cried in his arms when he confessed how bad he had felt for years, with all the abuse he received from him when he didn't know he was Zorro. And he was still abusing his son now, until he blew up with the pressure, turning on him like a rabid dog.

He considered then going to the pueblo to attend that secret wedding, but he thought Diego would not appreciate his presence there, and anyway, he would probably be too late if he set off now. Instead, he actioned the secret switch again and returned to the cave to wait for him, because he had a few explanations to give, and lots of apologies to offer.

ZZZ

Mendoza approached the tavern and had a peek inside through the small slit between the shutters at the window, a very narrow gap, but big enough for him to see the scene unfolding inside, while he squinted his eyes to focus better. He could not believe it when he saw Zorro and Victoria getting married in secret.

Madre de Dios!

He waited with anticipation by the window, thinking Zorro would remove the mask at some point during the ceremony, but he didn't. Not even when the priest said the final words.

"You had betrothed yourself to the other in love and compassion, righteousness and truth. In the presence of this witness, you have spoken the words and performed the rites that unite your lives. Bride and groom, I now pronounce you husband and wife in the sight of God, even if not in the sight of people yet," the priest said, taking a moment before he continued, looking at Zorro intently. "You may have kissed a thousand times already, but today the feeling is new. You have become husband and wife and can now seal the agreement with a kiss. Zorro, you may now kiss the bride."

He leaned to kiss Victoria, with his hands around her waist, and she embraced him as well, passing her arms around his neck, in a kiss that was tender but long, very long, much longer than usual in a wedding; a kiss that could have been considered a breach of decorum and a totally inappropriate behaviour in a public ceremony.

They only parted when Padre Benítez cleared his throat loudly, waking them up of their daydream.

"Congratulations," he said, tapping Zorro's shoulder.

"Thank you, Padre," he replied, letting go of Victoria.

"Muchas gracias," she said, kissing the priest on his cheek while Felipe hugged Zorro, nearly crying with the emotion of seeing his mentor finally married, as he so much wished.

"I hope you are happy now, my child," Padre Benítez said. "I always wanted to see you married, and happy. I'm glad you now know who is the man under that mask, and that he is a good person who will take good care of you."

"Yes, he will. Everything will be all right now."

"Thank you, Padre," Zorro said, shaking his hand while Felipe hugged and kissed Victoria. "You'll never know how much you have helped us."

"You are welcome. I should go back to the church now. Take care. Goodnight."

"Buenas noches. Felipe, are you staying?" Victoria said.

"No, I'm riding back to the hacienda. I guess you'll want to be alone tonight," Felipe signed with a cheeky smile.

"No, not really, so no need for that cheeky grin," Zorro said, mocking a blow to his shoulder. "I'll stay only a little, or Toronado will get very cross with me, and then I'll return to the cave tonight. Come on, my dear, let your husband take you to your room for the first time," he said, smiling, swiftly lifting her up in his arms as if she was weightless as a piece of paper, an action that made her giggle loudly.

"Get off me! My room here won't be our marital room, so let me down!"

"No, this is what tradition expects of me, so there we go," he said, also laughing, stepping on the stairs. "Grab that lamp. And be careful not to spill the oil on your clothes this time, please."

"Oh, no, never again," she said, carefully taking the lamp at the bottom of the stairs.

"Goodnight," he said, turning to Felipe and the priest, who were already by the front door.

Mendoza ran across the plaza quickly, back to the alcalde's office before they could see him outside, and he got back to the window to keep watching. He could not believe what he had just witnessed. If the alcalde was still alive, he would probably wait a bit and then order the lancers raid the tavern while the newlyweds got intimate upstairs. That would have been a very humiliating way of finally catching Zorro. Which got him thinking. What if he could be the one trapping the masked bandit? He would become famous, and surely be promoted and decorated for outstanding services to the Crown. He indulged in that thought for a moment, puffing his chest with pride. However, it wasn't the right thing to do, and he couldn't do it.

It was all a nice dream, but he could not do that to Zorro, the masked man he oddly considered his "friend", and to señorita Victoria, who had always been so nice to him. No, it was bad enough he had nearly killed that man by shooting him, and he never retaliated. He could not betray him like that now, not on his wedding night.

He grabbed the cigar, still burning on the ashtray, and puffed a couple of times, while trying to get rid of those crude and salacious images of the couple making love, the images that were flooding his idle mind, refusing to go away.

ZZZ

"Here we are. Husband and wife," Diego said, opening Victoria's bedroom door. When she left the lamp at the side table, he gently laid her on the bed, sitting beside her. "How does it feel?"

"Wonderful. It feels wonderful. And even better now because I can do this." She got up a bit, on her elbows, took his hat and tossed it to the floor, across the room; grabbed his collar to drag him down, closer to her face; and then she took his head between her hands, lifting the mask slowly over his forehead with her thumbs. "Diego de la Vega, my husband."

"Doña Victoria de la Vega, my wife," he said, stroking her arms with his gloved hands.

"Oh, yes, Doña Victoria," she said, laughing, letting go of his head, keeping the mask. "Thank God I still have a few weeks before anybody calls me that."

"It's not a curse, you know?" he said, also laughing. He stood up to take off his gloves, the cape, and his weapons, and then he lay down in bed with her on top of the covers, with his clothes and his boots still on, embracing her. "Unfortunately, we were interrupted before and I couldn't cuddle you properly after we made love."

"Are we… doing it again now?"

"No, sorry. I need to prove a point to myself and to my father: that I don't really need to be married to you for that, and that it's not the main reason to do so now."

"What?"

"It won't make sense to you, I know, but it does to me. No more sex tonight. Cuddling would be good enough for now." He pressed his body against her back then, spooning, holding her left hand in his, with his arm around her, and his head resting on hers.

"Oh yes, this feels nice too," she said, closing her eyes.

"Yes. I love you, Doña Victoria de la Vega."

That made her giggle again.

"I love you too, Don Diego."

They lay still enjoying each other's warmth for a while, nice and cosy, not needing to do anything else, until Diego giggled to himself.

"All right. Ignore that. Nothing is happening here, we can just keep cuddling."

She didn't know what he was talking about, until she felt that pressing at her rear end, and she also giggled.

"Are you sure about that? Just cuddling?"

"Yes. This is trial by fire. We are just cuddling. I can do this," he said, also closing his eyes, trying to relax.

She lay still in his arms for a while, until she wriggled out of his embrace to turn on her other side to face him.

"But maybe I can't," she said, kissing him. He looked hesitant to begin with, hardly reacting, but soon he responded to the kiss passionately, urgently, just as before, only a couple of hours ago, down at the cave.

"Oh, please, don't do that. You know I'm hopeless if you start," he said, already panting with desire again when she let go of his mouth. "I'm not made of stone."

"Neither am I. And, we have the Padre's blessing now to go ahead," she said, touching that over his trousers. "Oh, my… I'm not so sure you are not made of stone…"

"Shit. I guess I'll fail that trial by fire test miserably, then," he said kissing her again, already fumbling with her clothes, reaching for her breast.

ZZZ

It was very late when Zorro returned to the cave that night, already morning, with the first light of dawn appearing in the horizon. Diego found his father asleep on his mahogany chair, by the desk, hugging a pillow from one of the armchairs at the library, in a rather uncomfortable-looking position. The items on the desk had been rearranged on the surface, no longer pushed to the sides, and there was a bunch of buttons in a little pile, in the middle of it. He imagined his regretful father picking them all up from the floor, one by one, in a gesture that made him smile with great fondness. Despite the differences and the arguments, he loved and respected his father greatly. And now, after making love to Victoria for the second time that night, in a space of three hours, he knew his father was right: he could not control himself. He sighed then, taking off Zorro's weapons and clothes, changing back into Diego's. Then, he took a light blanket to cover his father with it, but doing so, he woke him up.

"Diego. You are back."

"Yes."

Diego took the stool he had by the laboratory table, and sat down in front of his father, ready for another "talk".

"Are you married now?"

"Yes."

"Congratulations."

"Thank you."

"I'm so sorry for what happened here before, Son. Please, forgive me. I got carried away, and yes, you are right: I am the least suitable person to scold you for your weak disposition with Victoria when I'm guilty as hell myself of the same issue, also having sex out of wedlock. The irony!"

"Father, when I found out about your visits to Azucena Collado, I empathized with you. I knew you had been lonely, and I thought the company could make you some good. But you felt guilty about it, and that made you miserable, rather than happy. But you have no right to transfer the anger you feel about your own weakness onto others, like me, or like you did to Esteban, when he had done absolutely nothing wrong in that respect all the time he stayed in Los Angeles, despite his reputation, and you put him down repeatedly about his depravity, when he was very fragile about what happened to him at Madrid."

"And what happened at Madrid? Did he tell you? I still don't know."

"Yes, he told me, but it's better if you don't know."

"Why?"

"Trust me. It is a burden you don't want to carry, and knowing will only cause you anxiety, and deep perturbation."

"And what about you?"

"If you haven't noticed yet, I'm kind of used to this kind of thing, to keep disturbing secrets. I'll try to deal with the matter at some point, because I owe him that. But not now," Diego said, stirring on the stool. "Look, I didn't want to say anything about your affair, because it's none of my business, but you really got on my nerves tonight, hurting me, really deep, inside, as only you can do. I'm not myself at the moment, because I'm on edge all the time, and the way you talked to me knocked me out of balance, driving me mad. I'm sorry for shouting back at you, and disrespect you. Please, forgive me."

"You are the one to forgive me, because I pushed you to the limit. And now I realize you really need Victoria by your side for support, not only for sex, because you are struggling to cope so much, with all the stuff that is going through your head."

"Hum. I'm afraid you may have been right about what you said. I tried to stay away from her tonight after we were married, but I couldn't. I feel attracted to her like a month to the light. So maybe it won't be a good idea that she stays here with me."

"Don't be silly, Diego!" the old don said, laughing. "They call that period the honeymoon for a reason. At the beginning, once you start, once you have sex with the person you love, it is difficult to stop. We all feel the same at first, having the urge to be at it like rabbits, and that's why couples take a few days off and go away on short holidays, or retreats, to hide from the world after they tie the knot. But that feeling will settle soon, don't worry."

"Well, that's good to know, because tonight I thought there is something seriously wrong with me," Diego said, amused by the way his father chuckled like a naughty kid in the know. "When I think about Esteban I feel even worse, because I shouldn't be so obsessed with sex right now, even less with her, because he also loved her, but… I can't help it."

"Don't worry, Son. You can have your honeymoon here at the cave. Just be careful because the honeymoon period invariably ends up with a pregnant wife, and Victoria is not officially married to you yet. But you can close the door when you need to. I won't interfere, I swear. The only thing is, you'll need a bigger and better bed than that rickety thing if she is going to stay here, if only to sleep on it."

"Yes, we can't both sleep in that narrow thing. Unless she uses me as her mattress."

They both laughed, and when Don Alejandro stood up to leave, Diego got up from the stool and hugged him tightly.

"It's all right, Son. Everything is all right," Don Alejandro said, tapping his back.

"Thank you, Father," Diego said. "I love you."

"I love you too, Son. Of course I do, even if sometimes it looks like I want to tear your head off with a blow. Sorry about that. I'm so glad you stopped my hand."

"Yes, me too. Another bofetón of yours could have killed me."

"I'm sorry," Don Alejandro apologized again, ruffling Diego's hair before he broke the embrace. "Now, let me go upstairs to sleep, because that chair of yours is a killer. I don't know how you managed to do… whatever you did before. I don't even want to try to imagine it. I'll see what I can do about a bigger bed. Poor Victoria deserves better than sleeping in that piece of shit," he said, pointing at Diego's tatty bed, laughing again.

"Yes, she does, my poor princess," Diego said, also laughing. "Goodnight, Father."

"Good morning, you mean," Don Alejandro said, when he opened the secret door and saw the daylight coming through the library's windows.

"Whatever. I'll see you later."

ZZZZZ