"So… You are a haciendado now…" De Soto uttered one evening of mid-August, a day after Gilberto, together with a small contingent of his men and his mother, Inez, returned to California.

He no longer wore his uniform, having traded it in for a nice grey suit that made him look rather dashing and far less intimidating. That, however, didn't mean people felt more at ease in his presence.

"As I was always meant to be…" he replied.

"What do you mean?"

"That's none of your business."

De Soto nodded, unwilling to annoy his former commander whom he always considered to be quite dangerous and unpredictable a man to risk crossing. "And your career?"

"I was lucky. The Viscount of Castillo de Almansa was sent to Mexico City by the King, with a new contingent to fight the rebels. He arrived there a few days before me. And, after learning about the dangers for the Crown to lose this territory to the rebels, he begged me to return and make sure that doesn't happen."

"But there are no rebels in California!" De Soto pointed out.

"There are rebels everywhere. It's just a matter of finding the right time and circumstances to draw them out." Risendo said. The way he uttered those words made De Soto's hair stand on end.

"I understand… But, tell me, have you also had news from Spain?" The alcalde asked.

"Yes. Nothing of much importance, though."

"Are you ready to order, Señores?" Alicia, the tavern helper, asked as she came by their table.

The alcalde tried to smile politely at her. "A bottle of your best red wine, Señorita. And what is there to eat?"

"Arroz com pollo."

De Soto frowned. "Arroz com pollo… Is that all Señorita Escalante can cook?"

"Well, the Sergeant already ate all the tamales, and arroz com pollo is… was" she corrected herself, "the favorite dish of the young don Victoria was engaged to. She cooks it every night because it reminds her of him."

"Do bring us two plates, please," Gilberto ordered. "I hardly see why you are complaining." He then told his companion. "I've never had better arroz con pollo than here…"

"I am growing tired of it, and all because of a man who is long dead. I never understood what women even liked about him," De Soto replied with obvious annoyance in his voice.

"You knew the señorita's fiancé?" Gilberto inquired.

"So did you. She was engaged to Diego de la Vega."

The younger man gave him a look of disbelief. "Diego? So she's the one…" he said, a strange innuendo in his voice. "He did mention being in love with a woman back home."

"That never stopped him from courting other men's women… Perhaps I should make a pass at her. He stole my chances to be happy with the one I loved, I should get some sort of compensation, don't you agree?"

"You will stay away from her, Ignacio."

"Why? You fancy the wench?"

Gilberto didn't answer but did give him one of his "my orders are not up for discussion" looks.

ZZZ

"He is back? And bought the former Henche Hacienda?" Don Alejandro asked Victoria when the young woman came to tell him about all that had happened in the pueblo during the last week, since last he'd been in town, busy as he was working on expanding the hacienda.

"Si, Don Alejandro," she replied. "Apparently, he was planning on doing that before he left. De Soto had bought it for him a few weeks ago when he headed for Mexico City. It's where the alcalde spent most of his time lately, supervising the renovations. Now that the Emissary is back, he says he wants to be a haciendado - spend his life, growing horses here! He even hired two of Don Manolo's former vaqueros to help him and the former guardsmen who accompanied him back. They say he bought some 12 foals thus far, all of very good quality. Yesterday, I heard Don Sebastian say that he seemed like a new man. And I also heard that his mother had followed him here, so everyone thinks he had decided to move to California long before he first arrived here."

"So he quit the army to become a haciendado? Just like that? And in Los Angeles? Without having first received a land grant from the king?"

"It is unusual, is it not?"

"Very unusual, Victoria… And his mother? What's she like?"

"I have never met her. He says her health is not very good, so she prefers to stay at home. He, on the other hand, has been to the tavern every morning for several days now," she continued. "I believe he is trying to court me…"

"Court you? Risendo?" the elderly caballero seemed astounded.

"Si, Don Alejandro. Not that I would ever give him the time of day. That man… that man is the exact opposite of Diego. And I still hope to see your son again," she replied.

"Victoria, my dear… I certainly don't encourage you to consider Risendo's courtship, but Diego is gone, and nothing can bring him back, no matter how much we might pray for a miracle."

"I… I can't believe he's dead, Don Alejandro. I think I'd known if he was. I would have felt it, I am sure. We've loved each other too much for it to be otherwise…"

The old man looked at her with pity in his eyes and embraced her like the daughter she was in his heart. She allowed herself to shed a few tears, then pushed herself a little away from the old man and slowly stood up from the bench on which she had been sitting.

Looking around, she headed for the part of the hacienda she knew was being reconfigured.

"Is that count going to destroy your entire hacienda, Don Alejandro?" She asked, baffled, at seeing that the walls offered a perfect view inside the house.

"His man wants it enlarged. There will be a second floor and a ballroom. And I understand certain plans also exist for the gardens…" the don said.

"But that is not right, Don Alejandro! This is your house…"

"Not anymore… Besides, he's not demolishing it, Victoria…" he consoled her. "In fact, he decided to keep most of it intact. I can but be glad about that. To be fair, I always wanted to add a second floor to it, but I was waiting to get a couple of grandchildren before starting the work. I always imagined a big family growing up in this house, my dear… But dreams don't always come true… Perhaps it's for the best that the hacienda is no longer mine. As soon as the count arrives, I will leave it, and it will be easier for me to do so if it's no longer the house I once knew.

ZZZ

Gilberto did become a new man, at least in his interactions with the other people in the pueblo. As for his mother, she kept to herself, only once or twice visiting the pueblo, and, even on those occasions, without interacting with anyone.

"Why is it you want that woman, Gilberto? She's nothing but a wench…" she once asked, after Gilberto returned home in the evening to destroy a large bouquet.

"I want her because I like taming wild horses, and that woman needs someone to tame her," he replied. "But, mainly, I want her because Diego wanted her yet never could have her. He might be dead but, who knows? Perhaps, he's watching… "

"Then, perhaps, I can help you, my son."

"Help me? How?"

"I know of a substance that, put in a tea, makes whoever drinks it fall into a deep sleep. She will be fully in your power, yours to do with her as you want."

"No, Mother! I want her to willingly give herself to me, not take her by force." Gilberto refused. "That would be no victory at all…"

The elderly woman sighed her discontent at watching him leave the room, and sat down, wondering what should be her next actions aimed at ensuring the demise of Don Alejandro de la Vega.

She hated the man from the bottom of her heart. She had hated him since she had first learned his name: the name of the man who had forced her beloved Antonio into exile by falsely accusing him of having killed his brother, Alfonso de la Vega. Antonio's last letter to her had explained in detail how, envious of Alfonso, who was to inherit all their parents' fortune, Colonel Alejandro de la Vega had killed his brother, then blamed the murder on him to escape the consequences of his actions. That was why Antonio could never return to her, and all chance of a future with the one she loved – to have children and grow old with him – was gone in a heartbeat.

So, she decided to take her revenge: a revenge she planned for a long time and put into practice the very day she drugged Doña Elena de la Vega, stealing her firstborn child: Gilberto.

To the young man she had raised, she had told a different tale, of course. For all he knew, his father had discarded him like garbage due to a small birth defect which corrected by itself before he was even old enough to know that he had had a slightly twisted foot as a baby. The man, thus, grew up to hate his birth family, never even suspecting the lie: that neither of his parents ever knew about his existence, and that, had they ever known about him, they would have stopped at nothing to get him back. Instead, he learned to hate his father for a crime the man had never committed, and Diego because he believed the young man had stolen his birthright just by existing. De Soto's description of the man cemented his despisement of him, and nothing Diego did or said after they had met served in any way to rectify his bad opinion of his brother.

Now that he had learned his twin was dead, all Gilberto could feel was frustration. For he had rather the tall caballero suffered more for having stolen his parents' love from him. That was the main reason why, when De Soto had told him Victoria had been his brother's fiancée, he decided to win the young woman's heart; to delete his brother from it and claim the one he had loved for himself.

His efforts, however, seemed in vain. No matter how much he tried to pretend to have changed, Victoria didn't care about his efforts, nor did she believe a word he said when telling her he had become a new man due to the love he was feeling for her.

To Victoria, all his gestures seemed false, and nothing he did or say made her feel anything but contempt for the man.