ZZZ
"Don Diego, I knew I'd find you here!" Luis Ramone stated as he came into the tavern one day to find the young man sharing a table with Felipe and Mendoza.
"Were you looking for me, Alcalde?" The caballero innocently wondered.
"Yes. You've seen Zorro, haven't you?" The official inquired.
Since, by the end of January 1812, there was hardly anyone in the pueblo who could reply negatively to that question without arousing any suspicion, Diego knew there was only one right answer he could give. "Of course, Alcalde. Who hasn't?" He, thus, replied.
"Good! Good. Then you can draw him." The man concluded.
"Draw him?" The caballero wondered.
"Exactly. You are the only one in the pueblo with any talent for it, or so I heard your father mention. I, thus, want to enlist your services. It is, after all, your civic duty to help the garrison when need be." Luis Ramone explained.
For a few moments, Diego couldn't decide whether to laugh or be outraged. "You want me to draw Zorro?" He asked, just to make sure he had heard right.
"Precisely! I want you to make a portrait of him." The official confirmed with uncharacteristic enthusiasm.
"Did you finally decide to acknowledge his deeds and hang his portrait in your office, Alcalde?" Victoria mocked having overheard the conversation, as she came to take Mendoza's empty plate and to bring Diego and Felipe a pitcher of lemonade.
"Both, Señorita!" He answered with a smear. "I do have every intention to hang him. As for the portrait, I expect it will soon be on every notice board in California, thus acknowledging his many deeds."
"You're asking me to make a portrait of Zorro, so that you could have it copied on 'wanted' posters to distribute all over the territory?" Diego inquired pensively, pondering the irony of the request.
"Yes. I assume it won't be a problem for you, Don Diego? After all, should you refuse, I'd be tempted to believe you are trying to protect Zorro and, I would, of course, have to act accordingly." The Alcalde threatened, a smile on his lips.
Diego stared at him for a few moments. "If I am asked to do my civic duty… I believe I could draw the portrait, Alcalde." He answered with a smile, to Victoria's dismay. "But I want something in return… As payment for my services."
"What?" Luis Ramone asked cautiously.
"That you make public the amounts established as property tax this year, for each semester… including the one you, yourself, are due to pay, as the new owner of Don Baltasar's old estate," Diego uttered.
"I didn't know you had bought a hacienda, Alcalde!" Mendoza said from the table, not understanding his commander's frown as his tone of voice made sure the entire tavern had heard him.
"How do you know I was the one to buy it, Don Diego? I haven't told anyone yet." Luis Ramone looked at him suspiciously.
"That might be so, but Don Baltasar had come to our hacienda to offer my father to buy it first, then again to inform us he had sold it to you, just before he left the pueblo," Diego told him, knowing full well that the don had already embarked on a ship for Spain, and his story, although a lie for its second part, was, at least, hard to check.
"I see." Luis Ramone uttered, pensively.
The Alcalde had bought the property, which was situated next to the De la Vegas', only because, at passing through it one day, he had accidentally found a boulder there displaying one of the symbols on the treasure map Tadeo had shown him in Mexico City. However, since he didn't intend to ever waste his time using the land in any productive way and, for the most part, it was, actually, worthless – with the slight exception of potentially hiding a treasure - he didn't see why he'd have to pay taxes for his land. The Alcalde was, consequently, planning to pay his own property tax by distributing it among everyone else's, only revealing he had bought the hacienda after the money was already on its way to Monterey. The fact that the obnoxious De la Vegas knew about his acquisition certainly didn't fit his plans. He'd now have to invent a new tax to get the money he owed back somehow, he considered.
"Very well, De la Vega!" Luis Ramone, eventually, replied. "You have a deal! But I want that portrait done to perfection! Do this right and I will keep my end of the bargain. You have two days!"
"Only two days? Alcalde, at least two weeks must have passed since I last saw Zorro, and I'm not sure I can get the portrait right without seeing him again. If you want it so soon, the only way is if Señorita Victoria agrees to help." Diego considered. "You have seen him more often than I, and from up close, haven't you?" He asked the taverness.
"You expect me to help you help him capture Zorro, Don Diego?" Victoria wondered, pointing towards Luis Ramone, just as she saw her old friend slightly winking at her. The man she had known her entire life was no fool, and certainly not an ally of the Alcalde, so she decided to trust him when his mischievous look and a slight nod encouraged her. "Fine…" She eventually agreed, then glanced back at the caballero pensively. "But I also want something in return. I want you to rescind the prohibition on public events being organized at my tavern." She addressed the official as the idea came to her.
Since the man had arrived in Los Angeles, fearing people might use fiestas and various events to organize a resistance to his rule, Luis Ramone had forbidden any such event from taking place there to everyone's disappointment, most of all Victoria's, who saw her monthly and yearly earnings diminishing. Not even on Christmas Eve had he allowed Victoria to organize a party, so, for the first time in years, she ended up spending that evening at the De la Vegas.
The Alcalde thought about her request and decided that getting rid of Zorro was his first priority. Then he'd be free to impose all the rules he'd want in the pueblo. "Very well, Señorita! As long as I don't hear of any plots against my rule being discussed at such gatherings, you may restart organizing public events here." He agreed. "Remember, De la Vega! Two days." He uttered before, signing for Mendoza to follow him, he stomped out, heading towards his office.
"Are you really going to draw that portrait, Don Diego?" She asked once they were gone.
"The portrait will make no difference as long as nobody knows who he is." He explained. "After all, I doubt anyone seeing a masked, black-clad man riding a black stallion would have the slightest doubt it was him, even without seeing him up close." He answered with a smile.
She thought about his words and grinned happily, realizing her friend had just come up with a way to get much more from Luis Ramone than the Alcalde was getting in return.
ZZZ
After arriving back at the hacienda with Felipe, Diego headed for the cave and, putting on his black mask, hat, and shirt, a mirror to his left, he started drawing a self-portrait, much to the boy's amusement.
"Well, I did say I wouldn't be able to draw Zorro unless seeing him again up close, haven't I?" He muttered just for his ward.
On purpose, the caballero made sure to include some mistakes in his self-portrait, modifying his chin, lips, and mustache, also making sure to draw his hat a little bigger than it truly was.
The following afternoon, he returned to the tavern with his sketch, and spent the following two hours having Victoria correct it and giving her input until a final portrait bearing a rather good resemblance to his masked self – although not good enough to give others any real clue as to his identity – was ready.
Later that evening, certain he had done a perfect job and decided to let his mustache grow a little bigger so that it wouldn't resemble the thin one in Zorro's portrait as much, he headed for the Alcalde's office.
"Yes…" Luis Ramone said with an awed grin. "The resemblance is incredible!" He continued to mutter as he held the portrait in his left hand, dismissing the caballero with his right.
"I'm glad you think so. Victoria and I did our best." Diego replied, pretending not to understand that he was being asked to leave. "Since the portrait meets your approval, when can we count on you publishing the information regarding the taxes?" The De la Vega heir then asked.
"What?" Was Ramone's reply.
"Our deal, Alcalde. You do remember it, I hope." The caballero replied, innocently.
"Oh, yes! Of course. I will publish them as soon as I finish the computations." He answered, rather unpleased, then returned to looking at the portrait, smiling at imagining Zorro was before him, at his mercy.
Diego left with a grin on his lips, heading home for the evening.
ZZZ
The list of the taxes owed by each Los Angelino was published a few days later, after the Alcalde had made sure to send his lancers with the poster announcing the reward on Zorro, which he had, meanwhile, increased to 2,000 pesos - double as much as the money he actually had in his safe - to every garrison and Mission in Alta California.
ZZZ
"I must commend you, Alcalde! It bears a rather good resemblance…" Zorro uttered with a candid smile the very following day, as Luis Ramone entered his office that morning, finding the outlaw seated on his desk, studying the poster.
The official was about to call his lancers when he found himself at the wrong end of the masked man's sword.
"I'd rather not be interrupted," Zorro uttered, "since we need to have a serious talk."
"What about?" The Alcalde wondered as he frowned at the sight of the Toledo-steel blade.
"The reward money you have received as bounties for the bandits I have captured so far." The masked man replied. "By my calculations, they should amount to exactly… 960 pesos."
"That money is part of the reward on your head!" Luis Ramone replied.
"Really? Because I believe that money is the new donation to the Mission's poor box." He answered with a smirk on his face.
"You expect me to donate such a large amount of money for the… poor box?" Luis Ramone asked in disbelief.
"Of course not! I am not so naïve as to trust you to do that, Alcalde. What I expect is that you give me the money, so that I make sure it gets to those most in need of it." The masked man answered, pointing his sword in such a way as to guide him to the safe in which he kept the pueblo's tax money. "I will also let the padre know that you will donate any future reward as soon as it arrives. Are we clear?" He asked, pushing his sword against the man's neck.
"Yes!" Came an unconvincing answer through gritted teeth.
"I haven't heard you, Alcalde!" The masked man informed him.
"Yes! We're clear! I will give all future rewards to the padre." He almost shouted.
After retrieving the 960 pesos, Zorro took another look at the portrait on the Alcalde's desk. Unable to help himself, realizing nobody would understand his gesture, anyway, he signed it with a Z in the lower right corner, then, as the official tried reaching for a pistol he had hidden in his desk drawer, the masked man punched Luis Ramone unconscious, and headed out.
Knowing the padre was at the San Gabriel Mission that day, which was several miles out of the pueblo, he whistled for Tornado and headed that way. There, he gave the money to the padre and instructed him on how to use it, by helping the poorest of the farmers pay the tax on the little they owned.
The man smiled at the outlaw and promised to make sure the money would get to those who needed it.
ZZZ
The masked man had barely arrived back at the cave when he heard his father calling for him. Hurrying to change his clothes while leaving Felipe to stable Tornado, he made his way upstairs and into the library. The mask, which he had absent-mindedly left on while changing his clothes, he took off and hid behind his back just as his father returned from the back of the house.
"Were you looking for me, Father?" He asked calmly, one hand hiding the mask in his sash.
His father didn't notice a thing.
"Yes, Diego. Come, Son, there's a matter I wanted to discuss with you." The elderly don uttered, motioning for his son to sit in a nearby armchair, then sat in the one next to it.
"What is this about, Father?" Diego wondered.
"You know how much I have loved your mother, don't you, Son? How much I still love her and always will?"
"Of course, Father. We both miss her very much."
"Yes. We most certainly do." The older don said as, feeling rather nervous, he stood up and admired the picture of Dona Elena he kept on a nearby desk, taking it in his hands. Putting the portrait back, he turned to his son. "She was the most wonderful woman I have ever met, Diego. But, since she left us, and even more so since you've grown up and become a man who might soon, I hope, have a family of his own, I must confess I've been craving the company of a woman... Someone with whom to share my worries and thoughts, as I used to do with your mother. Someone to counsel me… This house, Diego, would surely do with a woman's touch…" He added, realizing he was just stalling.
"I don't know if I mentioned this before, Son, but, for several years now, I have been in correspondence with a widow. She's about my age, and she, herself, lost her husband to the same disease which took your own mother. I have her cameo…" He said, retrieving the small portrait from a desk drawer. Taking it to his son, Don Alejandro handed it to him. "Her name is Francisca de la Pena and, after all these years of correspondence we are considering… uniting our solitudes."
"You want to remarry?" Diego asked, trying to hide his shock. His father had never mentioned another woman before and, for some reason, he could not even imagine someone else taking his mother's place. Moments later, he realized those thoughts were selfish. His father was a man and he had been alone for a long time already. Thus, even if he had a hard time believing he was considering marrying someone neither one of them even truly knew, the tall caballero still wanted his only remaining parent to be happy.
"Well… It's not an already-taken decision. First, we'll have to meet, of course." His father meanwhile answered. "In fact, it's what I was meaning to tell you. I've just received her latest letter today. She's coming here for a visit. She'll arrive just a few days after your birthday, and I really hope you will keep an open mind about this, Son."
"Father…" Diego replied. "My mother has been dead for almost 8 years now and, if there's something I know, is that she would have wanted for both of us to be happy. So, you have my full support, should this woman prove to be the kind of person who might make you happy and alleviate, at least in part, the pain you feel because of my mother's absence."
His father smiled proudly at him and nodded.
ZZZ
Being Diego's first birthday home after four years away, Don Alejandro made sure to throw him one of the biggest birthday parties the pueblo had ever seen, despite the young man's many objections to him doing so. Since the Alcalde was not invited, as he was usually not on the guestlist for any of the events organized by the caballeros, he was left to brood over the dons' reluctance to accept him in their midst. As for the tall caballero, in all fairness, he would have preferred spending the evening with the Alcalde – more specifically, teaching him a new lesson in swordsmanship – rather than having to endure the rather embarrassing stories about him growing up his father spent his time telling their guests, and which, at least, had the benefit of cementing the image of the studious caballero prone to accidents he was doing his best to create for himself. At least, he realized, he got to spend some time in Victoria's company, although, in order to dance with her while making sure not to start any rumors, he also had to endure dancing with most other señoras and señoritas attending the party.
ZZZ
Luis Ramone left carrying the property taxes to Monterey, accompanied by two of his lancers, as soon as the time for their collection ended and, miraculously (although he was rather certain there was no divine intervention involved) for the first since he had arrived in Los Angeles, everyone had managed to pay theirs in full, and on time.
ZZZ
It was a week after Diego's birthday when, *about the same time a newcomer called Rodolfo Ramirez, who had taken a room at the tavern, started cheating Victoria's patrons at cards, the widow Francisca de la Pena arrived at the De la Vega Hacienda.
She was nothing like either of the caballeros had imagined, and certainly nothing like the woman in the cameo the old don kept in his desk.
Not questioning much the reasons for her deceit, preferring to consider himself lucky to have gained the love of a woman who was incredibly beautiful and decades his younger, Don Alejandro spent most of his time with her during the week after her arrival.
Diego did his best to keep an open mind, but several of the hesitant answers the Señora had given him when asked about her former husband and her own estate made him feel uneasy around her. It, thus, took little time for him to suspect she had her eyes on his father's money rather than on the man himself.
The young señora's repeated assurances that his father was all she desired in a man, and the absence of her doubts at the idea of marrying him only increased Diego's uneasiness with her. However, it was not until, having ridden to the pueblo as Zorro to deal with some vaqueros which were causing trouble, that the masked man realized the truth. Noticing a rider using one of the De la Vega horses sneaking to the tavern just as he was leaving the mentioned establishment, the black-clad man steered Tornado back and followed him. As he did, he realized it was none other than Señora De la Pena herself, and that she and Victoria's newest guest were, in fact, lovers.
As he returned home, finding out that his father was away, visiting one of his friends to discuss a cattle exchange, he decided some exercise would help him clear his thoughts about how to tell the old don what he knew, and the way he had come about that information. Felipe was a good listener, and he had already started giving his ward fencing lessons. Since there was no one in the house, other than the three servants, who, however, were engaged in the back rooms, they started practicing in the library as the caballero confessed his doubts.
His father's return and the way he asked what he needed to tell him after overhearing part of his conversation with Felipe only seeded more doubt in Diego's mind, as he certainly didn't want to be the one to give his father the news about the young woman. Yet, when Don Alejandro announced, the very next day, that they had decided to marry, setting the date for Early April, as soon as weddings could start being officiated again after Lent, the tall caballero realized there was no more postponing telling him the truth.
Señora De la Pena was just coming their way when she caught the beginning of what sounded like a conversation aimed at dissuading the old don from marrying her. She, thus, headed towards them, a large, fake smile on her lips, set on reminding Don Alejandro there were many things requesting his attention, thus getting a chance to talk to his son alone.
Under normal circumstances, she would have tried to seduce him, offering to become his mistress after becoming his stepmother. Had he been the sort of man to accept such an arrangement, getting rid of him after her marriage to the old don would have been only a matter of convincing her new husband that his son had forced himself on her. The young De la Vega, though, was clearly not such a man.
As soon as the elderly don left, just moments later, remembering to have established a meeting with his lawyer to discuss the marriage contract the young woman suggested when she agreed to their marriage, she, thus, addressed the tall caballero, hoping to find a way to get him on her side.
*"You don't trust me. Do you, Don Diego?" She asked cautiously, trying to seem disappointed and hurt by his attitude towards her.
"A good friend of mine, someone I trust, saw you with your lover last evening." He told her, not even looking in her direction.
The young woman searched her mind for the right reply, wondering how it had been possible for anyone to have spied on her and the man she loved. "Can I convince you that what your friend saw was not what it appeared to be between Ramirez and me?" She asked.
"Ramirez? Your lover?" Diego inquired, staring right at her.
Realizing she needed to confess, if for no other reason, at least to buy herself some time, she told Diego everything. From how, when she was very young, she found herself trapped in a relationship with a vicious man; to how she had met the true Señora De la Pena and introduced her to Ramirez, who drowned the old woman off the boat and took over the correspondence with Don Alejandro, planning to use his young lover in order to get his hands on the De la Vega fortune.
A while later, as soon as she was certain Diego was headed for the pueblo to have Ramirez arrested, she warned her lover about the caballero, thus giving him just enough time to set a trap for him.
Diego would have fallen straight into it, had he not noticed the carrier pigeon she had sent to warn Ramirez.
Zorro made sure to scare off the vaqueros the man had convinced to help him kill the De la Vega heir, then thoroughly enjoyed defeating him in a duel, one which, for the first time since leaving Spain, tested all his mastery at handling a sword. Then, after letting Mendoza and his lancers take charge of the man,* it also fell to Zorro to ride to the De la Vega hacienda and tell everything to Don Alejandro.
The old caballero already trusted the masked man as much as he trusted his own son, despite not knowing they were, in fact, the same person. After listening to what he had to say, then confronting the young woman, Don Alejandro refused to utter another word to her, only asking the servants to help her pack and make sure she'd be out of his house and into the lancer's custody before nightfall. Later, after realizing that his actions and infatuation with the one he believed to be Señora de la Pena could have cost him his only son, he also promised himself to never again act so foolishly, as all thought of remarrying was chased out of his head for years to come.
*"You'll be over it soon enough!" Diego encouraged the elderly caballero the afternoon the plot was discovered, as they were both standing in the courtyard, watching the young woman join her accomplice, Ramirez, in the barred prison wagon headed for San Pedro.
His father's face expressed a large range of emotions, from frustration and anger at himself for allowing the woman to deceive him, to disappointment and remorse about the possible consequences of his shortsightedness. "My time for love has long since passed, and, even if I lost my wife, I was luckier than most people to have found happiness, for as long as I had her," he realized. "At my age, I should focus on getting grandchildren rather than someone to replace the irreplaceable."
"In the meantime," he, thus, told his son, after watching the wagon leave with the two prisoners, "there's a widow in the next valley. A Morena Gonzalez. She has a very pretty, and very marriageable daughter. And I thought, perhaps, you and I could take a trip over there – "
"Father, surely you're not thinking…" Diego uttered in disbelief.
"Not for me, Diego. For you, my boy. Babies, Diego, I want babies!" Don Alejandro replied, and they both chuckled.
As for the ill-inspired men who had tried to kill Don Alejandro's only son, Mendoza made sure to imprison them the following day, having meanwhile found out that Zorro had warned Diego about Ramirez's plan, thus saving his life. They only stayed in prison a few days, since the caballero decided not to make any official complaint against them, certain they did not deserve to be hanged since they had not committed a crime in the end, but convinced that Luis Ramone might try to do exactly that, should he return to find them in prison, even if only to set a trap for Zorro.
Don Emilio, the one for whom they were working, however, fired them as soon as word reached him about their deeds, fearing Don Alejandro might turn the other haciendados against him. With no one willing to hire them, to Victoria's undisguised joy, the vaqueros were forced to leave the area, seeking employment elsewhere.
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
AN: You didn't really think that that portrait of Zorro had made itself, right? Who else but Diego could have made it so accurately? :)))))
*The excerpts in this chapter are from the episode "Deceptive Heart" written by Bruce Lansbury.