AN: Dear readers, this is the first of two chapters I am publishing today as a New Year present for you all, thanks to La Cuidadora, who was kind enough to review them in less than a day. Enjoy!
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It was already night when the De la Vega men arrived back at the hacienda and fell exhausted on the couches and armchairs in the library. Felipe, who had just returned from San Pedro about an hour earlier, hurried to bring them some water and wine, and they gratefully accepted.
"Were you able to put out the fire?" Victoria asked at hearing them come in.
"Yes… But it wasn't easy…" Don Alejandro said. "Diego had the idea to cut the untouched trees near the ones already burning. It took some effort but, luckily, there were some fifty of us and we managed. The men must be as exhausted as we are… Be so kind as to ask the servants to heat some water for baths… for them… and for us…"
"And for Alicia, Juan Carlos, and their daughters. With their farm gone, I invited them to stay with us for a while." Diego added. "They will also need a room prepared."
Victoria nodded and, after informing them that, having anticipated they'd be exhausted, she had already taken measures to prepare hot baths for them, she hurried to instruct the servants.
"I'll go to my room…" Don Alejandro said. "I don't think I've been this tired in decades…"
"Good night, Father!" Diego wished him.
"Good night! Make sure you get some proper rest, as well!" The elderly don answered.
"We will!" Dario replied before saying goodnight to his father. "I should go check on Elena." He then uttered in a tired voice, standing up and slowly directing his steps toward the living quarters.
Diego and Emmanuel nodded, wished him good night, and just remained there in silence for a few moments, as they heard him heading away.
"I was worried out there for a few moments…" Emmanuel uttered.
Felipe signed to ask why.
"Well, Zorro wasn't coming out of the burning house. I was just about to go in myself, and I hate fire… I was worried I might get a nasty burn."
"I'm sure Zorro would have appreciated your help and sacrifice, but I am glad it wasn't needed," Diego replied.
Felipe again signed.
"Really?" Emmanuel inquired. "Burned?"
"It's not that bad," Diego said, taking a hand to his shoulder to check on it. A burning log had fallen on it as he was cutting the bonds on the two girls' hands, causing him a rather nasty bruise, though the fire didn't do more than slightly damage his shirt and worry Felipe. Now that he was home and had just been reminded of it, the throbbing returned with a vengeance.
In the meantime, Dario had checked on his daughter to find her asleep, then returned to the library. The conversation there, however, stopped him in his tracks, before announcing his presence.
"Do you think Juan Carlos knew who those men were?" Emmanuel asked Diego just as Dario stopped behind a nearby wall.
"He seemed to know, but I doubt he will admit it. Not to us, at least…"
"Then won't the hacienda might be in danger with them here?" Emmanuel asked next.
"It wouldn't hurt to organize the guards. Just to be on the safe side. Though I doubt they will dare attack us…" Diego replied. "By the way… They should have arrived by now… They were just behind us…" He then uttered, standing up and heading for the door.
Emmanuel and Felipe followed him.
"They're nowhere in sight." Dos Santos uttered at they opened the door.
Dario neared them at that point. "Is there something wrong?" He asked.
Diego turned around in surprise. "I believe our guests decided to head someplace else for the night." He replied, returning inside followed by his best friend and adopted son. "Well, in that case, I guess I'll also retire. I wouldn't want my bath to get cold…" He then said, before wishing everyone a good night.
ZZZ
"Thank God you are alright!" Victoria said as soon as her husband entered their bedroom. "When you left as Zorro and I saw only Tornado return, I almost died of worry!"
"Didn't you see the note?"
"I did. But only after I had a small heart attack. Never do that to me again."
"I'm sorry, my love. I never wanted to worry you."
"If that were so, you wouldn't ride as him anymore."
"We tried that. In the end, I only resurrected him because you had asked me to."
"I know… I know, Diego… But…" Victoria let out a sigh and sat on the bed. "When we first got married you didn't even seem to miss him. At least for a while. But, as time went by, and you decided to keep Zorro a secret from Don Alejandro, you changed. You didn't realize it, I'm sure. But I could see it. It was like you had lost part of yourself. And it didn't get better when you started working on the newspaper. I thought it would, but it didn't.
"When Don Homero became alcalde and proved to have less in common with his predecessor and more in common with De Soto and Ramone, I knew you wouldn't be able to just sit and do nothing while he terrorized the poor and arrested innocents."
"Father and I did try to reason with him first, you know that!" Diego pointed out.
"Yes, I do. Just as I know the dread I felt when I found you in the cave that day, trying on the mask. I asked you to be Zorro again because I knew you only felt whole when riding as him. He is your calling, Diego, and I gave up trying to deny it. But I don't know how to stop worrying when I know that your life is in danger every time you ride as him."
"I only put on that mask after exhausting every other option, Victoria! I never took you, our children, my family for granted."
"And I never accused you of that. Whatever happens, Diego, I will always be with you. No matter what, you may always count on me, my love."
"I know."
"All I want is for you to do everything in your power to come back to me."
"Always!"
Victoria smiled at that. "Come now!" She uttered. "Your bath is getting cold… And I want you clean when you join me in bed."
"Oh? Well, I hope I can comply... I mean, I am thorough, but I may miss a spot." The young man said, a certain innuendo in his voice. He was tired and his entire body was aching, but there wasn't any pain Victoria could not cure.
"In that case, I will have to make sure that no spot is missed," she retorted with a seductive smile as she took his hand, guiding him towards the steaming tub.
ZZZ
The following morning, just as Dario was heading for the stables to saddle a horse for his morning ride, a wagon stopped before the main entrance to the house. Rounding the corner, he saw that it was the homeless farmer and his family.
"Good morning!" Diego came out of the house to say. "What happened to you last night? You were just behind us, then you disappeared."
Somehow, his brother's curiosity seemed false to Dario, but he could not think of a reason why.
The young woman looked at her husband. "Tell him, Juanito!" She uttered.
"I… I thought it would be safer for us to find another place to stay, Don Diego. For you, as well… You see… I… I know the men who burned down our house... and… And I fear they will try to hurt us again."
Diego crossed his arms and stared at him. "They were your friends then? Emmanuel told me that was what they told your daughters."
"Si, Don Diego… I mean… They are not my friends now, but they were once… When I was young…"
"Well, perhaps you can tell me more about that while Alicia takes the girls to the room we had prepared for you. They must need a good rest, in a proper bed." The tall caballero uttered, inviting them inside.
He didn't follow them, yet his brother's attitude and words struck Dario as strange and, perhaps, a little out-of-character. It was nothing in particular to make him suspicious of his brother. What it was, was impossible to define or point out.
Something in Diego's behavior, not only that day or during the previous evening but for quite a while, seemed off to Dario. It seemed fake somehow. And, however much he wanted to ignore his instincts, the young man couldn't avoid becoming more than a little intrigued when it came to his brother, which also caused him to become more observant.
ZZZ
A couple of days later, Zorro apprehended the three men who had set the fire.
On that occasion, the entire pueblo, not just the alcalde, found out that the three bandits and Juan Carlos had worked for the same haciendado in Baja California about ten years earlier. When the other three, who were vaqueros at the time, decided to rob their master's house, Juan Carlos tried to convince them not to do it. Since they refused to listen, he warned the garrison, and they were caught red-handed. After that, the judge forced him to give testimony as to what had happened, so he found himself as the main witness for the prosecution.
His former friends were, thus, sentenced to ten years in jail for their deeds. As soon as they got out, all they cared about was taking their revenge on the man who, they felt, betrayed them. Tracking him down to Los Angeles, they hoped they'd find him at home and kill him. Instead, they found his daughters and, after a while spent deciding what to do with them, they left them tied up in the house and set fire to a big oak tree in the family's garden, not realizing at the time that the fire might cause the house to burn down and almost kill the girls.
ZZZ
Nine weeks had passed since he got his freedom, and life for Dario was finally entering a sort of routine. He'd ride every morning to get familiar with the landscape, then return home, have breakfast with his extended family, spend an hour or two reading or playing chess with either Diego, Emmanuel, or Felipe, while Don Alejandro was seeing to the books, then either ride with the other men to inspect and repair the fences, or spend a couple of hours training the horses, before heading for the pueblo at lunchtime.
Victoria was no longer working at the tavern, which she had entrusted to her brothers, but she very much liked spending time there, so the young woman normally accompanied them.
The afternoons, Dario spent playing with his daughter or teaching her how to ride a horse, and the girl was more than happy with the attention.
Finally, after a rather early dinner, he'd tell Elena a story, then let Victoria put her to bed. True, there were nights when the girl asked for her Papa to tell her a story before going to bed. On those occasions, Dario would spend his time talking with his father or reading in the library.
He still didn't particularly like the fact that his daughter addressed Diego as Papa, but, on the other hand, it was clear to him that his brother was very attached to the little girl he had helped raise as he was to his and Victoria's twins.
So the young man simply accepted the situation, reminding himself not only that he was still extremely lucky to be accepted as a member of the De la Vega family and to have had the chance to meet Elena, but also that two fathers are always better than no father. He knew that from personal experience.
In the meantime, Zorro kept making the occasional appearance in the pueblo, mainly to deliver various thugs to justice. Dario wondered on more than one occasion why he was now rooting for the masked man, considering that, when first they had met, he had instinctually hated him.
Time changes things, though. Zorro had been gone for a little over two years, then reemerged when the new alcalde turned out to be an evil idiot, inclined to abuse people and unwilling to respect any of the promises he had made during his campaign.
The day the masked man first returned to Los Angeles to stop the execution of an innocent man, the alcalde put a price on his head once again, and ordered all his men to chase him. Moe than two years later, no one had even come near to catching him, and Dario could not help himself but admire his former enemy for that.
ZZZ
"Something bothering you?" Diego asked his brother one day, noticing that he was pensively staring into the distance.
"I was thinking I should like to go search for her… For my wife, I mean."
Diego didn't reply right away. Instead, he just followed his brother's gaze. "Alright." He eventually said. "But I am coming with you."
"You want to help me search for her?"
"Yes."
"Why? You believe her dead."
"True. But I have tried to disprove that theory for almost two years now. It will comfort you knowing that we have left no stone unturned in her search, if there's even the slightest chance she is still alive, I will do my best to help you search for her." Diego replied with a kind smile. "But I do have duties, so we can't be away for more than a month at most."
"How long will it take to reach the shipwreck?"
"About three days. The storm that sank the ship happened on the third night of their voyage from Monterey. They were due to dock in Santa Babara the following morning."
"But why are you certain the ship sank in the storm? They could have fallen prey to pirates… Or the ship might have had an accident. Perhaps impact with some cliffs during a night…"
"I did consider that. Bouchard did attack San Diego and Capistrano in late 1818. But he and his men headed south afterward, several months before we lost Juliana. As for the ship having possibly sunk earlier, I did find two fishermen who saw it heading south. They assured me that it was intact the afternoon before its disappearance."
"Couldn't it have been another ship?"
"No… While it was far away, the description they gave of it matches 'Santa Elena', the ship Juliana and her servant were on."
"And you've searched the entire territory for her?"
"Yes. My men and I have looked everywhere we could think of to find her…" Diego said. "But California is a big territory. Perhaps there is something we missed… I will need a couple of weeks for the preparations, and to write to my men in the territory. Is that agreeable to you?"
Dario nodded gratefully and, parting with Diego, who left to find their father and head for the northern vineyards to inspect the year's crops, he headed for the stables, set on going to the pueblo.
ZZZ
It was just before the siesta when he arrived, and, as he tied his horse to the post outside the tavern, he noticed the thugs Zorro had captured about a week earlier being loaded into a barred wagon. Curious, he neared Mendoza.
"What will happen to them?" He asked the lieutenant.
"We have orders to send them to San Diego to be judged. But I doubt they will be sentenced to prison again…"
"What do you mean?"
"They will most probably be executed… Unless the judge takes pity on them. But I doubt he will. Not after reading all the accounts the alcalde is also sending him about their crimes."
With that, the lieutenant headed towards the cuartel, while Dario remained pensively watching the men getting inside the barred wagon, remembering a time when he himself, came close to paying for his crimes. Had the Count of Dragonera not intervened, he would have truly been in that grave Diego had once insisted to dig next to Inez's and fill with all the things Gilberto Risendo had brought with him to California.
As he remembered that day when the Governor almost had him executed, his eyes briefly rested on the Escalante brothers, both serving the tavern's clients at that very moment, and the thought also crossed his mind that all three of them shared a debt of gratitude towards the Count. After all, he had bought the young men's lives with their weight in gold – or so Emmanuel told the story.
Smiling slightly, he headed for the tavern and sat at a terrace table.
"Buenos días, Compadre!" Ramon greeted him placing a water jar and a glass in front of him.
"Hola, Ramon!" He greeted back. "Will you keep me company?"
"Of course! But, first, I had promised Alicia to bring her a couple of sacks of flour from the cellar. I won't be long." He promised.
Dario poured himself some water and drank it eagerly while watching the people in the plaza, then poured another one and slowly drank half of it.
"What brings you to the pueblo today?" Ramon suddenly asked as he sat down on a chair next to the one Dario was occupying.
"I took some flowers to the cemetery and decided to also come by for a short visit."
"That's very nice of you. You don't come to town often enough."
"I doubt the people here want to see me very often, Ramon… Trust me, if you knew me before… you wouldn't want to see me, either."
"Yes… Well… Emmanuel and Felipe told us about all the unpleasantness on our way back from Mexico City. But they also said Don Diego has forgiven you."
"He does seem to believe so, though I am still unsure if that is true… He did try, I know that much. But the kind of harm I caused him can't be erased by willpower alone in only five years."
"You must not know your brother well yet, if you think so. He's never been one to do things halfway. If he's decided to forgive you, he did."
"I do hope so… I do hope so, Ramon…" Dario replied, pensively taking another sip of water. "By the way… I wanted to ask you something? How did you and Francisco know to write to the Count of Dragonera and let him know you needed his help?"
"We? We did nothing of the sort. Frankly, we have never even met the man. One day we were in a prison, waiting for our sentence to be carried out, and the next, we were being taken to the courtyard where, instead of a firing squad, two young men, who we had never seen before, were waiting for us. When we were released into their custody we weren't even sure whether to follow them or try to escape. The lieutenant who released us was the first one to even mention the count to us. He told us that the gold used to ensure our freedom would ensure Spain prevailed over the rebels.
"For the following six weeks, we had just enough time to find out about everything that had happened in Los Angeles. At least, everything Emmanuel and Felipe decided to share with us."
"What do you mean?"
"I could hardly explain it properly but… with those two, we always had the strange feeling that they were hiding things from us. Particularly when mentioning our benefactor."
"So you… never met him?"
"No. Never."
"You must have, at least, met some of his servants…"
"No. The only servants we met were the De la Vega ones, who had accompanied Dos Santos and Don Felipe."
"I see…" Dario uttered pensively. "Well, the Count is nothing if not mysterious in his ways." He said with a smile. "But, tell me, what's the latest –" His question died on his lips as he saw a former commander of his, a certain Colonel Palomares, entering the pueblo, accompanied by some ten royal guardsmen. Recognizing the man who had once been his fencing professor, Dario stood up and just watched the scene before him, open-mouthed.