Heading back to the house at a slower pace, Diana wondered what to tell her parents. Her plan had just gone astray. Or had it succeeded? He surely seemed in love with her. But was he, really? After all, they had only known each other for a little over a week.
She spotted the young man on the way, at a tavern's terrace table, a glass of brandy before him.
Stopping in place as she inwardly debated what to do, she headed for him.
"May I sit?" She asked as she reached his table.
Emmanuel glowered at her, anger and resentment clear in his gaze. "I'd rather be alone." He clipped out.
"Unfortunately, you'll first have to hear me out."
"Why? So you can walk all over my heart some more?"
"It's not like you didn't deserve it."
"Deserved it? What did I ever do to you to lead me on like that? To make me think that you care about me just so you could… what? Exert some misguided revenge?"
"My cousin was never the same because of you."
"I hardly even knew your cousin. There was no time for us to develop feelings towards each other."
"That's hardly true. I very well remember how you two behaved when you were together!"
"Remember?"
"Yes. I know you think we only met last week. But we had met before. In February, of 1808, in my cousin's house." She said. "I was but a child… But I still remember that day like it was yesterday.
"I remember you bowed and kissed my hand when my cousin introduced you. Later that afternoon, when some of her friends also came for tea, you joined me in the yard and we played with a kite. Then you read to my cousin, and recited poetry to her... You surely knew how to make a woman fall for you. Can you even reproach me for having served you that same medicine? Besides, you had no right to read a confidential letter."
"No… I guess not. I did so because I recognized the name…" He said, looking attentively at her. "So what was your plan? Had I not read the letter…"
"I would have left you at the altar." She said.
"I see." He said standing up. "Because you don't actually have any feelings for me."
"Exactly."
"You masterfully manipulated me into thinking you did." He continued.
She nodded.
"When, in fact, you couldn't care less if I live or die."
She didn't nod at that, just stared at him, baffled, suddenly confused about how to answer.
"Then I'll need to have a serious conversation with your parents." Emmanuel declared.
Diana seemed baffled as she stood up and followed him back to the house.
ZZZ
"Don Emmanuel! You returned sooner than we thought you would. But I saw already that you had great success in acquiring some exquisite fabrics." Doña Antonia said, delighted, as soon as the young people got there.
"Indeed. And it was, if I may say so, an eye-opening experience." The young man uttered, glancing at Diana. "Please be so kind as to ask your husband to meet us in the sala, in ten minutes. I would like to talk to the three of you." Emmanuel said next, then headed for his quarters.
"Si, of course…" The doña agreed as he climbed the stairs to the second floor, then turned towards her daughter. "He hardly has the air of a man due to give good news. What happened?"
Diana shook her head, then silently climbed the stairs towards her room. Once there, she sat on the bed, wondering how to explain her actions to her parents. They seemed so grateful to Dos Santos that the thought crossed her mind that they might even decide to disown her, and she had no idea what she would do with herself if that happened.
Then, it occurred to her that Emmanuel had, after all, saved her life, as well as her virtue. That, in addition to all he had done for her family during the last week.
True, he had been in another woman's room just after he declared to be serious about her. But, at the time, she did nothing to indicate to him that she shared his feelings. Or, if she did, she did so with the intention to deceive him. Was his behavior truly that reprehensible compared to her own?
"What did I do?" She worried as she lay down, dreading having to face both her parents and Emmanuel soon.
A knock on the door caused Diana to stand up.
"We are waiting for you…" Her mother said.
She nodded, and, taking a moment to gather her courage, she followed her to the sala.
"Here you are, my dear." Don Janos said, wondering why everyone was so somber. "I believe we can start, Don Emmanuel." He continued, fully expecting a proposal.
"I believe Señorita Diana should speak first." He replied. "Why don't you recount for your parents our conversation at the tavern, and the reason for it? Don't leave out any detail!" He then told her.
She never liked to be put on the spot. But things were as they were, and she had every right to defend herself and her actions.
"Don Emmanuel discovered today that I… that I don't have any feelings for him. That it was all just a ruse. That all I wanted was to get even for the heartbreak he had caused to my cousin, Lucia, back in Madrid." She said, head held high.
Her parents glanced at each other, a mixture of confusion and concern clear on their face. "What did you say?" Don Janos asked in disbelief, hoping he hadn't heard her right.
"Her initial plan was, it seems, to leave me at the altar. So I can only be glad that I discovered this now, not later." Emmanuel explained.
"Ay, Dios!" Her mother uttered, glancing at her husband.
"You were… and you…" The don tried to make sense of what was happening, glancing in-between the two young people in the room. "No… No! This can't be happening." He eventually said as his wife began crying.
"Forgive her! Please, forgive her!" The doña asked Emmanuel among sobs. "She was just a child! We had to lie to her… Had I known what she had in mind, I would have told her everything."
"Tell me what, Mother?" Diana wanted to know.
"Your cousin… She was raped. That is why she was in that state for so long… Not because of any heartbreak this young man may or may not have caused her!" Don Janos replied.
"What?" The young woman asked in disbelief. "You raped my cousin?" She then asked Emmanuel.
"I never put a hand on her!" He replied, offended.
"It wasn't him! It was a French soldier, may he burn in hell!" Her father replied almost at the same time. "Don Emmanuel had disappeared almost a month earlier. Your uncle needed to blame his daughter's state on someone, and he decided to put it all on the last young man who had courted her, however briefly." Saying that, he turned towards Dos Santos. "Forgive us, Señor… I had long since forgotten who my brother-in-law had chosen to blame for his daughter's distress. Frankly, at the time, we were all certain you had been killed by the French."
"My uncle was. It was why I left Madrid as I did. That, and the fact that some French soldiers were looking to arrest me, as well… But that's part of the long story I have yet to finish telling you." Emmanuel explained pensively.
"So… He's innocent?" Diana asked, glancing at him in horror.
"Of course, he's innocent! He did nothing wrong! Not to us." Her mother said. "On the contrary."
"No… But…" the young woman said, dumbfounded. "You… You said you were serious about me, then went to another woman!" She accused Emmanuel next.
"When did I do that?" He asked.
"At the Mission! I saw you entering a woman's chamber at night."
He became pensive as he searched his memories. "You mean, you saw me with Doña Dolores? When I went to check on her husband?" Emmanuel inquired.
"Doña Dolores?" Diana asked, this time falling into an armchair. "I had forgotten all about her…" She then said as she raised her eyes to meet his.
"I apologize, Señor!" Don Janos uttered, not daring to look the young man in the eyes. "I am ashamed of my daughter's behavior towards you. You saved our lives, went out of your way to help us, and we wronged you. All of us. Please, allow us to gather our things, and we'll be out of your house in ten minutes."
As he said that, his wife, still sobbing, took her daughter's hand, dragging her towards the hallway. The elderly don followed them.
"No!" Emmanuel said, stopping them in their tracks. "No, I will not give you ten minutes, and I will not allow you to go anywhere. Not until the Señorita and I have a little chat. Privately."
Slightly turning around, dumbfounded looks on their faces, the three Gamboas remained pinned to their spots.
"If you please, Señorita..." Dos Santos uttered, accentuating each word as he indicated an armchair for her to sit in.
She glanced at her parents, who nodded, then left the room as she went to sit down.
Emmanuel closed the doors after them.
"I have six questions." He said. "And I want a true answer to each of them. You owe me that much."
Diana nodded clearly intimidated.
"Question one:" Dos Santos started. "Considering all that was just said here, do you still blame me for what happened to your cousin?" He asked.
She shook her head. "No… I don't. I see now how wrong I was…" She uttered, daring to look at him for just a moment as tears sprang from her eyes.
"Question two," he uttered as he offered her a handkerchief. "Do you regret the way you acted towards me?"
Diana glanced at him. "Regret? Of course, I regret it. I am mortified!" She replied.
"Question three: how long have you been in love with me?" He asked.
"What?"
"Should I repeat the question?"
She shook her head. "But I am not…" the words died on her lips. "It was just a ruse…" She wasn't in love with him, was she?
"You promised me the truth." Emmanuel said.
She glanced at him, then again shook her head.
"I remember that day, you know… Your pink kite with blue and yellow ribbons." He uttered when she didn't reply. She looked at him in awe, so he continued. "I remember you, and that contagious laughter of yours. For some reason, I never imagined that you grew up. In my mind, until today, you were still that little girl I had met on a sunny day, in February of 1808. In truth, I am still struggling to reconcile the girl you were and the woman you've become. Strange, isn't it, how, in one's mind, someone can exist as two different persons…"
"I thought about you many times." Diana eventually replied as tears filled her eyes and she stood up, slowly pacing the room as she hugged herself. "Whenever a man came to court me, I compared him to you on that day, when you visited my cousin… Your words, your gestures, your smile… there was something about you… Something I never found in any of the men courting me. The reason why I always found them wanting."
Emmanuel just continued looking at her.
"I don't know… I don't know how I feel about you…" The young woman said next, an exasperated tone in her voice. "I know I was jealous when I saw you leave Doña Dolores that night. I thought she was your lover, and I didn't like that… It was when I came up with this stupid plan… But that doesn't mean I love you. Does it?" She asked, looking pleadingly at him.
In truth, before then, she had not realized that Emmanuel had infiltrated her heart while she was trying to make her way into his. She might have succeeded in getting him to fall in love, but, while doing so, had she also fallen for him? Or had he, perhaps, been in her heart all along? Since that Sunday she had met him in Madrid? The first young man to truly pay her any attention…
"That is not exactly an answer, but I'll take it." He said.
The young woman just looked at him horrified, and glanced down before she sat back into the armchair, her lower lip slightly twitching.
"Question four," Emmanuel said. "Do you want my forgiveness?"
Diana glanced at him but didn't reply. Instead, she just nodded as tears started falling down her cheek.
"I'll take that as a "yes". Question five," Emmanuel continued. "Should I ask for your hand in marriage, would you accept my proposal?"
Again she looked at him, this time shaking her head. "Don't do that! Please... Don't give me hope when I know there is none… When I know that I deserve no forgiveness for my actions." She begged him.
Emmanuel nodded. "Question six." He said, then went silent for a while. "Will you marry me?"
At that, Diana raised her head to find him on one knee in front of her, a ring in his hand.
"I don't understand…" She said.
"I asked you a question. You promised me a truthful answer."
"Is this some sort of… of a cruel joke?"
"Answer me and find out." He simply said.
In that moment she understood his game: should she accept, he would rescind his offer, pointing out he would never marry such a stupid, misguided woman as she.
But she couldn't think of another answer to give him. After all, she had promised him the truth.
"Yes," she said, not daring to look at him, bracing herself for what was to follow.
She didn't know what was happening when she felt his hand reaching for hers, and she only dared look at him when he placed the ring on her finger.
"Don't you dare leave me at the altar!" He said with a smile.
She began crying even harder at that, as he pulled her into his arms.
"You really still want to marry me?" She asked after a few minutes.
"I have been waiting too long for you. I am not letting you go now that I've found you." He answered, lifting her face to look her in the eyes.
She smiled and, as her gaze descended towards his lips, he bowed to kiss her.
ZZZ
"Stop crying, woman! What's the point in that?" Don Janos admonished his wife as they were packing their luggage. His wife had been constantly whimpering since they had left the sala and it was getting on his nerves.
"How could she have done this to us? To me?" She replied.
"You're asking me? I can hardly understand how she came up with such a stupid idea as to get a perfectly-eligible young man to fall in love with her just to break his heart. You should have taught her better!"
"I? I should have? You –"
A knock interrupted her mid-sentence.
"Yes?" The don said in a loud tone.
"Don Emmanuel has asked for your presence downstairs." A servant said without entering the room.
"Tell him we'll be right there." The man answered. "He'll probably inform us that he'll make sure nobody in Los Angeles will want anything to do with us. Just when I thought we had finally found a place for us…" He continued as they left the room, heading downstairs.
When they entered the sala, Diana was standing and turned away from them as she wiped her tears.
"Oh, my dear!" Her mother uttered as she went to embrace her. "I know she wronged you, but that doesn't mean you must be cruel!" She then chided Emmanuel, who was standing by the young woman's side.
"He wasn't cruel, Mother." Diana said as the doña embraced her.
"Then why are you crying?" She asked, taking her face into her hands.
"I am crying from happiness." She answered. "Because he still wants to marry me."
"What did you say?" The woman inquired.
"He asked, and I said yes. We're getting married!" Diana said, showing her the ring.
He mother took her hand to look at it in disbelief. "I… I…" she muttered, "Is this true, Don Emmanuel?"
"I know I should have asked for your permission first, but I assumed that, under the circumstances, neither one of you would object." He replied.
"You mean… You still want to marry her?" Don Janos asked in disbelief.
"I do." Dos Santos answered. "If you agree, of course."
The young woman's father shook his head. "No… No… That can't be… You can't be serious… What are you after? Revenge? Because I won't allow you to mistreat my child, no matter what she did. She's my daughter!"
"Father!" Diana uttered.
"While it took me a while, I can assure you that I have learned that revenge is never truly worth the trouble. And I certainly have no intention of ever mistreating your daughter. Not only because I am not that kind of a man; but, most of all, because I love her. I want her to be my wife, and I will do everything in my power to make her happy." Emmanuel answered.
"He speaks the truth, Father! I know he does." Diana assured the older man.
The don didn't seem very convinced. "If that is so," he said, "prove it! Make the engagement official before a priest, and I'll believe you."
Dos Santos nodded with a smile. "As far as I'm concerned, we can head for the Mission right away." He said.
"I… I can't go out like this! All puffy and tearful…" Diana said. "I need to wash up… and make myself presentable." Saying that, she took her mother's hand and dragged her upstairs."
"You are really willing to still marry her?" Don Janos asked again, still skeptical, after he and Emmanuel were left alone.
"I surely am."
"But her behavior towards you –"
"Was misguided, true. Yet no damage was done in the end." The young man explained. "The way I see it, I can either forgive your daughter's mistake and choose to be happy with her at my side or become the victim of my bruised ego, forever wondering what my life would have been like had I been just a little more forgiving. I chose the former."
The older man studied his face for a moment, then shook his head. "You are a wise man, Don Emmanuel. My daughter will be lucky to have you as a husband." He said.
About five minutes later, Doña Antonia descended the stairs, followed by her daughter, who was wearing the dress Emmanuel had just bought her.
He smiled as they locked eyes, and offered her his hand. Her mother linked her arm to her husband's as they admired the young couple.
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