Chapter 1- Hope Amidst the Ashes
The niñera held Constancia de la Vega tightly in her arms as the de la Vega hacienda burned down and she watched the former governor Montero holding Contancia's sister in his arms as he made his way to Señor de la Vega who was screaming for his lost children. The niñera had made a split decision and grabbed the youngest of her master's daughters in his arms when she had seen the soldier kill Señora de la Vega and Montero had hit the master over the head and said that the masters children should have been his and he wanted the master to suffer as he had watching him married to the Señora and having the children. She carefully wrapped the little baby in a blanket. Elena was the fussiest of the two, while her sister rarely cried for a newborn. Constancia had been born seven months earlier and looked like her father more than her mother. Elena had the opposite; she looked like her mother and had her father's temper.
She watched as Montero came to the prison wagon, Elena, whimpering, in his arms. Niñera hoped Constancia wouldn't start crying and give herself away to Montero. "Let me hold her. Let me hold her! Rafael!" Don Diego barked, extending his hands through the prison wagon. Niñera's heart broke for her master. If she could, she would let him hold Constancia.
"She has her mother's eyes," Montero said with a mocking smile. Through the bars, Niñera could see a stunned look on Don Diego's face as Montero turned an walked to her. She felt waves of relief that Montero would never have Constancia. The little girl would know she was a de la Vega and would be waiting for her father to come home.
"Rafael, you'll never be rid of me! Never!" Don Diego shouted as the wagon pulled away. Constancia gave a slight whimper that only Niñera could hear and she tightened her hold on the baby. She remembered the master showing her and the mistress the land grant from the king of Spain. She would dig it out of the wall by the ocean and assert Constancia's rights as a de la Vega. Mexico should acknowledge it if she said the girl was the heir and they could use the wealth from the de la Vega's fortune to rebuild the hacienda.
20 years later...
Constancia de la Vega stood in the cove next to her friends and servants Pedro and Juan. They served as bodyguards and servants at her hacienda and had been there since she was a baby, waiting on her, tending her orchards and horse herds, and protecting her as if she was a princess. Both men were old enough to be her father and had sometimes been confused as such. "Mistress, is that him?" Pedro asked as a man with a neatly trimmed beard and rich clothing stepped onto the beach.
"It looks that way," Constancia said cryptically. Her niñera had told Constancia that Montero had killed her mother, kidnapped her older sister, Elena, and threw her father into prison for being the legendary bandido Zorro. It had taken some doing for Constancia to have her rights as an heir to the de la Vega fortune, Niñera had had to go to Santa Ana , the president of Mexico for Constancia to be recognized among the landowners.
"Do you think he will know who you are, Mistress?" Juan asked, a look of consternation on his wrinkled face.
"I don't know. He threw Father in prison. I am not going to offer the information unless I have no choice. I haven't done anything to warrant that," Constancia said, not noticing an old man with a beard and long hair standing next to Juan and looking at her.
"Very good, Mistress de la Vega," Pedro said softly.
"Of course," Constancia said, her lips forming a thin, grim line across her face. Most of the Dons had tried to pair her with their sons or nephews, but Constancia had other matters to think about besides courting. She went to Mass every Sunday like a good Catholic and tried to be good during the week to her workers. Most of the Dons thought she was too generous with the peons and servants who worked for her.
" Doña de la Vega, my children want to know if you are bringing more food?" Fray Felipe asked. If Constancia heard the slight gasp she would have turned to see the old man next to Juan.
"Of course, Padre. I have given my peons orders to slaughter a bull for the children. God knows the Dons won't feed them," Constancia said with barely concealed contempt.
Diego watched as his daughter conversed with the priest. All these years, he thought she had died in the hacienda and to see her and realize she went by Constancia de la Vega brought great relief to his heart. Constancia had a generous helping of her mother's kind heart and his quiet ire when she saw something was wrong. A stubborn look crossed his baby girl's beautiful features. A look that was all Diego, if he could be honest about it. That was another thing she hadn't gotten from Esperanza; her looks. She looked like Diego and his mother. She had his mother's name and his mother's eyes. Elena had her mother's looks and the other grandmother's name. Diego felt a smile cross his lips as he thought of when he was going to reveal that he was her father.