AN: Dear readers, this story is not my idea. It's an idea born out of frustration about a certain other ff writer not finishing her story based on the idea that also led to the creation of this story. (I have a way with words, don't I?)

If you're wondering about the title, Dragonera is an uninhabited island next to Palma de Mallorca, east of Valencia, Spain. Frankly, I chose it for this story because I liked its name.

This is also my first mashup (and, yes, I believe it can safely be called that even without the horror elements normally defining the genre) combining the NWZ with a certain very popular French novel that was butchered by every on-screen adaptation ever made.

But it is not that story, as it's not NWZ either, though fans and avid readers will certainly recognize parts, ideas, and even dialogue from both. I do not take credit for those parts.

I did my best to follow canon (both canons, actually, to a certain point) whenever possible, but I also needed to change the characters and adapt them, so, if they don't always act as you expect them to, it's because they are not 100% the characters you know.

I do hope you like them, however, and also love this story. Please follow and review it if you do. It is long but I intend to post very regularly.

Disclaimer: I do not own NWZ, nor make any money on this. This story, though, belongs to me, as do the OCs, so do not use them or republish without my consent.

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California, early May of 1806

Two days they had left. Two days to walk and ride together. Two days to make plans for the future and to swear eternal love to each other. Two days to kiss and cry into each other's arms.

Diego must have changed his mind hundreds of times. Victoria as well. He didn't want to leave her and she didn't want to let him go.

But the girl didn't want to be selfish, no matter how many fears she harbored in her heart. Besides, her mother had told her that, if it was their fate to be together, nothing would prevent that future from coming true.

"You'll see, mi hija," the innkeeper assured her as she embraced her daughter, allowing her to cry in her arms for a few minutes. "Diego is smart, healthy, and strong. He'll be fine. And when he'll return, he'll be a man, able to fulfill all those promises he made you."

"But… What if he won't love me anymore? What if he'll fall in love with another?" she asked. "I don't think I'll be able to live if he does. I love him so much, Mother!"

"I know! I know, mi amor!" the woman sighed and pushed Victoria slightly away from her to look at her face, then wiped the tears of her right cheek. "You really should stop crying right now or, when he'll get here, Diego will find you with puffy, red eyes. You don't want that, do you?"

The teen took a deep breath and shook her head. "I suppose not," she said as she got up from the bed she was sitting on and headed for her mirror. "I look horrible," she noticed. "He said he'd be here at 9. What time is it?"

"It was already 8:30 when I came up…" her mother said.

"Then he's about to arrive and find me like this!" Victoria said in a panic. "I'm not even dressed!"

Her mother took in a deep breath and stood up. "Well, then, I'd better delay him till you're ready," she said with a knowing smile and headed downstairs.

Diego de la Vega was just entering the tavern when she got there, two bouquets of flowers in his hands. "Señora Escalante," he said as a greeting while offering his beloved's mother one of the bouquets. She accepted it with a smile and brought it to her nose to smell it. "Is Victoria ready?" he inquired just as the woman was about to thank him.

"Not yet, I fear. But I'm sure she won't keep you waiting too long. If you want to sit down, I'll bring you some lemonade."

"Thank you, Señora," he said gratefully as he sat down, fixing his eyes on the door to Victoria's room. "A glass for Felipe, as well, if you don't mind. He's just outside," he added just as a boy of about five walked inside, followed by a teenager. "Hola, Juan!" he saluted at recognizing the newcomer and was met with a similar reply.

"Are you here to say goodbye to Victoria? You are leaving soon, are you not?" Juan Ortiz, a sixteen-year-old who had also had his eyes on Victoria for a while, asked.

"Soon. But not yet. We are going on a picnic." Diego said.

"Just the two of you?"

"Felipe will also accompany us."

The boy nodded as Diego signed to him what he had said, then signed something back. "Yes, we'll also go for a swim." The young man promised the deaf-mute child.

Juan just nodded as he watched them.

About ten minutes later, Victoria exited, heading straight for Diego, and he stood up to embrace her. "I brought the carriage," he said. "Felipe and I are taking you on a picnic today."

She smiled and agreed, accepting with a wide smile the flowers Diego offered her. Then, after giving them to her mother to put in water, her right hand in Diego's and left one holding Felipe's, they headed outside, hardly even taking their goodbyes from Juan. The teenager glanced back after them, then left, as well, inwardly glad Diego was to soon head for Madrid.

ZZZ

About thirty minutes later, they stopped by a lake bordering the De la Vega lands.

Diego and Victoria spread the two blankets they had with them on the ground, under an old tree they once used to climb, and started checking the food Maria, the De la Vega cook, had prepared for them. Meanwhile, Felipe took care of the horses, then joined the couple. A few minutes later, though, unable to just sit and just watch the water anymore, he suddenly stood up, signed something to Diego, then took off most of his clothes and went for a swim, leaving the two lovers to laugh at his attempts to impress them.

"God, I'll miss you…" Diego remarked at one point, as he was watching Victoria laugh at Felipe. Her smile disappeared that very moment, and he regretted having opened his mouth.

"I'll be counting the days till you return," she said, and her eyes suddenly filled with tears.

"So will I," Diego promised. "I am just sorry I can't marry you right now so that I may take you with me. I don't want to ever part with you, Victoria!"

"Nor I you… I… I fear that… That you might fall in love with someone else. I am so afraid I will lose you," she confessed, starting to cry in earnest and reaching for Diego to bury her face in his chest.

"Never!" He promised as he held her tight. "Perhaps… Perhaps there is a way I can assure you of that," he considered.

"What way?" she asked.

"We cannot get married… But we can get engaged. Today! Right now! We can ask the padre." He said, his enthusiasm increasing.

She pulled back to make sure he was serious, and seeing the way he looked at her, as if waiting her answer, she nodded.

"Let's go then!"

"But… What of our parents?" She asked.

"This is about us, not them. We'll do this for us. So that we both part certain we'll wait for one another. That we'll one day marry each other, no matter what." Diego explained, standing up, then helped her to her feet.

Three hours later, for the mission was about 10 miles from where they were, and they had first needed to convince Felipe to get out of the water, then the padre to agree to perform the engagement ceremony, they linked their hands, finally certain that nothing would ever come between them.

ZZZ

"So… You and Victoria decided to get engaged. Without telling me or her parents!" Don Alejandro fumed the following morning when his son confessed the events of the previous day to him as they were watching one of their men train a black colt of about 10 months.

"I just… I love her, Father. She loves me, and" he answered, but found himself interrupted as the don ordered his man to hold the horse tighter. "We want to be together." He still continued when his parent' attention returned to him. "This way, we part certain that we will marry each other one day." Diego tried to explain.

His father wondered what to say next but, eventually, decided to be kind. After all, he, himself, had once been young and in love. "Are you certain she is the one, Diego? You're leaving for Spain where you will meet many beautiful, well-bred señoritas. Do not give the girl false hopes!"

"I am not that sort of a man, Father. I know I want to marry Victoria. I've known that for quite some time now."

Don Alejandro smiled and nodded sympathetically. "You like him?" he then asked, pointing at the colt.

Diego nodded. "You very well know that. I helped with his birth, remember? Not to mention I am usually the one training him…" he said.

"Perhaps that's why he's giving Pablo that much trouble…" the don muttered just loud enough for his son to hear.

"He's quite a smart boy, but I think he likes me better..." Diego said with a smile.

"By the time you return, he'll be tall and strong, fit for a caballero." Don Alejandro pointed out. "I'll make you a deal, son. This colt will be your wedding present for when you wed Victoria. Just make sure to return to us in one piece."

"I will, Father!" the son promised. "In turn, please look after Victoria and Felipe while I am gone."

Don Alejandro nodded his own promise at embracing his son. "You needn't worry," he promised.

ZZZ

One more day Diego and Victoria spent in that blissful joy of being together, then they said their goodbyes, and Victoria watched, together with Felipe, and Don Alejandro, as Diego's carriage headed away and towards the port, already missing him when she could no longer distinguish his carriage on the horizon.

Don Alejandro and Felipe escorted Victoria back to the tavern that morning, then spent several hours in the tavern, unwilling to return to a house where Diego was not. Finally, the don and the boy returned home to find that the black colt, as well as several other of his horses, had been stolen.