The Secret of Zorro
Blessed Mother
Chapters One through Three
by Ella Christian @1999-2001
Contact author at EllaChristian@aol.com


Chapter One
Starting Over

Nine weeks after Elizabeth brought little Esperanza into the world, the doctor made the last of his regular visits to oversee her mending from the near-fatal delivery.  After a thorough examination he asked her many questions about how she felt, what she could and could not do, how well she was managing with sleep, and nursing the baby, and being part of the household again.  Elizabeth answered all his questions honestly, saying that she still tired easily, but she was up and around for much of the day, she enjoyed nursing her daughter, and that the baby's sleeping habits allowed her several hours of consecutive sleep every night.

"Good," he said.  "I think you are pretty well mended," he concluded, patting her knee where he stood at her bedside.  "It was a close call, but I'm giving you a go-ahead to get on with your life."

"Oh, that is good news," Elizabeth said.  She was extremely bored with being treated like an invalid.  The entire household still clucked around her as if she could barely walk, which was no longer the case.  She was therefore very anxious to tell everyone to kindly return to normal now and let her do the same.  Her gardens needed her attention.  Esperanza needed to be carried about and shown off to anyone who would be an audience.  She wanted to get on Blanca again. And Diego...

"Dr. Sanchez," Elizabeth said, thinking of her husband.  

"Si?" he smiled at her as he collected his instruments and placed them in his bag.

"I must...ask you about something we have not discussed.  It is about....you see, Diego has been so patient since the baby was born.  He is here with us a great deal of the time, he helps me when I am nursing her, he makes sure I get as much sleep as I can and...he asks nothing of me, if you know what I mean.  Is it....is it possible for us to resume our lives fully now?"  She desperately wanted the doctor to read between the lines of her vaguely worded question.

"Oh!" he said.  "Medically, there is no reason for you and Diego to...refrain from your customary practices... "  He then eyed her.  "I don't know, of course, how enthusiastic your practices might be, but I would suggest..." here he paused for a moment, and then said, "tell Diego to be gentle with you for a while."

She smiled.  "He can be very gentle."

The doctor nodded.  "Well, then....carry on."

*****

Suppertime became a complicated and unpredictable affair in the de la Vega household after Esperanza's arrival.  During the first month, Diego generally oversaw an early meal for Elizabeth, taking his own meal late with his father after Esperanza finished her late evening feeding.  Elizabeth began joining them around three weeks into her lying-in, though her appearances were often curtailed by exhaustion or the baby's needs.  Don Carlos's frequent visits often meant another plate at the table.  Once in a while Clementia would appear in the evening rather than the daytime. When she did she was usually accompanied by Sergeant Garcia, who would peer down at Esperanza when she was brought out to be passed around.  

"I have never seen such a tiny little thing," he would say.  

Diego tried more than once to hand the baby to him but he would not dream of accepting her, vowing that he would rather die here and now than drop anything so little and beautiful.

"What if you ever had a baby of your own?" Diego and Bernardo heard Clementia asking him as they departed one evening.

"How could that ever happen?" the Sergeant replied.

They did not hear the rest of the conversation.

Despite these and other visitors, most nights found Diego dining alone with his father.  

"This is feeling too much like it did before you got married," Alejandro observed to his son a few weeks after the doctor's final visit.  Elizabeth had fallen asleep while nursing the baby upstairs.  Diego had gotten them both comfortable and departed.

"It is only temporary," Diego said.  "Though I confess I miss Elizabeth's stories at the table." He sighed.  There were other things with Elizabeth that he was missing rather greatly, too.

"Si.  Too often we get them from her father instead!" Alejandro snorted.

"It is so hard on her," Diego continued, "trying to recover and care for Esperanza.  She can't keep us entertained, too."

"I suppose not," Alejandro agreed, setting down his glass of wine.

"Father," Diego said, deciding to amuse himself, "have you not ever thought of ...perhaps...marrying again?"

"What!" his father blurted, caught completely off guard.

"Seriously," Diego said. 

 Alejandro caught the twinkle in his son's eye. "No one will ever replace your mother, Diego," he said.

"Of course not," Diego agreed.  "But that does not mean you cannot find some companionship..." he smiled, raising his eyebrows, "...and a little romance..."

"Pah!" said Alejandro.

"It is very nice...." Diego said enticingly.

"I will not insult your mother's memory with this!" Alejandro exclaimed.  Diego could see that he was making progress.  He knew his father's loneliness had increased in many ways when Elizabeth moved in.  Now he was being reminded of the joys of young parenthood.  It had to be hard.

"Look at her," Diego waved up at Matilde de la Vega's portrait over the fireplace.  "She is still smiling.  I think she would want you to be happy, Father."

"I am happy!" Alejandro snapped testily.

"Oh?" Diego said, lifting his wine glass to his father.  "And you display it by barking?"

"Haven't you got other things to do tonight?" his father asked.

Diego shrugged innocently.  "No?" he said.

"Doesn't Zorro need to go...straighten anyone out?"

"Not that I know of.   Zorro is still in Monterey, as far as I have heard."  He paused, and then said, "You know, I understand that Leonora Bocca has a widowed sister in Santa Cruz..."

"Diego!" his father cried.  "You are not to start matchmaking with me!"

"Why not?" Diego asked.  "You did with me."

"That is entirely different," Alejandro said.  "I am an old man now, I cannot think of....courting a woman!"

"I don't know why not," Diego said.  "Look at Governor Pena.  He courted ladies all up and down the coast before he married one less than half his age."

"I will not be doing any such thing!"

"No, no, but there are ladies close to your age who are available and quite attractive, Father."

Alejandro scowled.

Diego held up his hand.  "I know when to retreat," he said.  "But think about it."

"I will not think about it!"

Diego chuckled.  "I want to go back upstairs for a while and see how my girls are doing.  Perhaps I shall join you for a cigar later, on the patio?"

"Perhaps," Alejandro said.  "But will absent myself if you bring up this subject again!"

"What subject?" Diego asked innocently as he got up.  He patted his father's shoulder affectionately and departed.

*****

"I planted a seed with my father tonight," he told Elizabeth.  She was lying in bed; Esperanza nestled beside her.  Diego was sitting on the other side of their sleeping baby, his eyes wandering between the baby and her sultry-looking mother.  Over two months after giving birth, Elizabeth was much returned to her former state of slimness.  To Diego, she looked nothing short of spectacular.  At first she had been so weak, and then recovering so slowly and concentrating so much on Esperanza, that Diego's concern and worry wiped other feelings or desires out of his consciousness.  But she seemed well now.  She was spending time in her gardens again, and wandering often to the stable to see Blanca.  Diego could barely see her now without remembering that this was the lover he had not had in many weeks. It was beginning to feel like an eternity. 

"You are planting seeds all over the place," she replied to his remark.  Her eyes were on Esperanza but she then smiled at him.  "And look at the splendid results."

He lay on his side next to them.  "The one with my father is unlikely to have quite so much impact," he said.  "I have encouraged him to consider starting a courtship with someone."

"That's what I want my father to do!" Elizabeth exclaimed.

"Then let us hope they do not decide to try to court the same woman!" Diego laughed.  Then he grinned wickedly.  "Just think, one of us might get a little brother or sister yet....and Esperanza would be their niece!"  

Elizabeth rolled her eyes.

He leaned over and gently kissed Esperanza's cheek.  "I can't believe we brought her into the world," he murmured.  

"'We?'" Elizabeth said, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, I had something to do with it!" he said indignantly.  He looked again at the baby.  "She is so beautiful," he sighed.

"Especially when she is sound asleep," Elizabeth agreed.

Their eyes met, and Diego leaned across the baby to give his wife a lingering kiss on the lips.  "I miss you," he said.

She half-smiled.  "The doctor says I am all right now," she said, almost shyly.

"All right in what way?" he asked.  

"I asked him if we could resume our lives in every way and he said yes...although he told me to tell you to be gentle."

"Oh!" Diego said, picking up her meaning.  He perked up.  "I can do that." 

There was a pause.

"I'm really very nervous about it," Elizabeth confessed.

He stroked the baby's cheek, and then hers.  "Why?" he asked.

"I don't know how it will be," she said. 

"How do you mean?" he asked.  He propped his head up by leaning on his elbow, his cheek in his hand.  He was trying very hard to contain his eagerness.  

He ran his finger down her cheek again. "Darling, do you mind if I put our sleeping beauty in her cradle for a while?" he asked.

Elizabeth shook her head, and then buried her face in her pillow.  He sat up, calmly lifted the baby, and placed her undisturbed in her small cradle beside their bed.  He then lay back down, putting his arms around his wife.

"I just don't want to disappoint you," she murmured.

He smiled, his face coming close to hers.  "That would be impossible," he said.

She paused, and then said, "I am still afraid."

He pressed her head against his shoulder.  "Then we will re-discover each other a little at a time.  You decide when and how it will be, what you are ready for.  How is that?"  

She snuggled against him.  "I'm glad you never stopped sleeping with me, even though all we have done is sleep," she began giggling, and he joined her in the chuckle.

"When we can sleep," he added.  "But she is a good baby, Elizabeth. She already has her own personality; can you imagine that?  I never dreamed she would already be herself, even when she is this little. "

"Si," she said. "It is hard to understand, how we can love her so much, and understand her so well, and still be surprised by her, all when she is still so new." She rubbed her hand over his shirt, remembering how much she loved his chest. 

His hand moved slowly up her torso.  He planted his lips on her cheek.  "I am missing you more and more," he said softly.  He turned her head slightly and gave her a long, deep kiss.  She was reluctant at first, but then accepted him.  Then she pulled her head back, needing a deep breath.

"Oh, Diego, I am so out of practice," she said.

"You taste so good," he whispered, kissing her again.  His lips moved across her jaw and down to her neck.  "I am out of practice too," he added. "It is a very great reason to practice."

A whimper rose from the cradle beside the bed.

"She's waking up," Elizabeth told him, trying to push him away.  Her hand came to her breast almost involuntarily.  It was to a point where hearing the baby whimper would cause her milk to start flowing.  She ached.  "Diego, please."  She pushed him again.

"Maybe she'll go back to sleep," he said, keeping his face lost in her neck. 

"No, that is her I'm-waking-up-and-I'm-hungry sound," Elizabeth told him, still trying to sit up.  "Diego, I need her," she said.  The baby started crying.

Diego flopped onto his back, groaning.  Elizabeth got off the bed and retrieved Esperanza.  She carried the baby over to her chair in front of the fireplace.  "There, there, we'll have you eating in seconds," she told the baby.  "Hold on, little girl...and we'll get you fed..." She tried to comfort Esperanza as she sat down, untied her gown, and the scooted the baby into position. "Mommie is right here."  She laid her head back on the chair.  "Oh, yes, sweetheart," she sighed.

Diego lay on the bed wishing sorely that their daughter had remained asleep for another half hour.  Reclaiming Elizabeth as his lover was taking far longer than he'd imagined. He was feeling none too patient at the moment.  Hearing her sigh as the baby nursed did not help.  Those were sighs he alone used to bring on.

"Elizabeth?" he said.

"Si?" she answered, keeping her gaze on the little face at her breast.  Esperanza's eyes were closed, her long black lashes and eyelids blinking with each rapid suck.  "Oh, Diego, look, she is so funny sometimes," Elizabeth said.  "Her eyelids are blinking!"

Diego sighed.  "Calm down," he said.

"What?" Elizabeth asked, still not turning to look at him.

"I was only talking to myself," he told her.

Elizabeth was quiet for a little while, and then said, "She will be finished in twenty minutes or so, and then she will sleep for a couple of hours at least.  I'm not very tired tonight.  I had a long sleep this afternoon."

Diego detected a certain tone in her voice.  He sat up.  "Perhaps I shall go light a cigar with Father and come back," he said.

She turned around to look at him.  "I will come find you," she said.  That tone was still in her voice.

Diego got up and went over to look down at them briefly.  He ran his hand over Elizabeth's hair, and then quietly left the room.

*****

It was more than half an hour later when Elizabeth finally made her way downstairs to find Diego and Alejandro seated at the table in the courtyard.  Diego had a nearly-finished cigar in his mouth and his guitar in his lap.  He was playing it idly.  Alejandro was lingering over a glass of sherry.  Elizabeth sat down with them.  

"Would you like some?" Alejandro asked, holding up the sherry.

"Si," Elizabeth said.  "Just a little."  She watched as he poured.  "She was very wakeful after she ate," she told them.  "She just wanted to look around at everything.  She's becoming more alert now, very wide-eyed sometimes. It is so sweet, the way she wants to see what is going on around her."

"Soon she will start smiling whenever you enter the room," Alejandro said.  "It will thrill you and break your heart all at the same time, I warn you.  When he began smiling at us," he said, looking over at Diego, "I believed my heart would burst."

"You mean it doesn't any longer?" Diego joked, removing his cigar and flashing his smile at his father.

Alejandro rolled his eyes.  "You are very cheeky tonight, my son," he said.  "Elizabeth, it is lovely to see you down here. Please enjoy this little refreshment.  I am afraid I must retire for the evening."  He got up and leaned over to give her a kiss on the cheek.  "Pass that on to my granddaughter, will you?  I shall hope to see her and carry her around in the morning.  Perhaps she would like to sit under the fig tree with me for a while."

"I am sure she would like that, Father," Elizabeth smiled.

"Goodnight, Father," Diego called, with a strum of his guitar.

Alejandro gave his son a short glare and said, "Goodnight, Diego.  Remember what I suggested."  He then looked at Elizabeth and said, "Watch yourself tonight, my dear.  He is in a very provocative mood."

"Si, Father," she laughed.  "I have already discovered it.  Thank you for the warning."

Alejandro disappeared into his room at the top of the stairs.  Elizabeth watched him go, and then looked at Diego to discover his eyes already very intent on her.

"What suggestion was he talking about?" she asked.

Diego looked at his guitar, and then began playing something.  "He told me about something he and my mother did after I was born.  Something we might want to do," he answered.

"That's very pretty," she said, listening to the music and watching his fingers on the strings.  "I don't believe I have heard it before."

"It is new," he said.  "It is my song for you and Esperanza."

"Can you sing it for me?"

He stopped playing and looked at her.  "Not yet.  It isn't finished."

They looked into each other's eyes for a long moment.  She got out of her chair and moved over to him, sitting on his lap.  He put the guitar down and caressed her face with his hand, and then kissed her.  First it was gentle, but then it deepened and became passionate, his arms coming around her and holding her tightly against him.  Her arms came around his neck and she returned the kiss.

"Please," he whispered into her neck, suddenly overcome.

She felt a confused mix of excitement and hesitation running through her.  "Can we take a walk in the garden?" she asked.

"I would prefer to take a walk up the stairs to our room," he answered, his lips traveling across her jaw and down her neck.  "Please, my love."

She could hear the near-desperation in his voice.  "I am still afraid," she told him.

"We will do what you want.  We won't do what you don't want," he said, his tone still pleading.  "But I need to be with you, darling.  It has been over two months...."

"I know, I know," she said, stroking his head and trying to comfort him.  "Let's go upstairs," she said.

They walked slowly up the stairs to their room, his arm draped around her shoulder. She could feel his hand squeezing her arm gently, anticipating what was to come.  Once they reached the entry to their room, she lit a candle and went in.  He followed after, pulling the door tightly shut behind him. 

Chapter Two
On The Mountain

As the week began, Diego was noticeably more cheerful. Everyone in the household exchanged knowing smiles after he passed.  Often he was whistling or offering exceptionally upbeat compliments to anyone who crossed his path.  Alejandro finally had to pull him aside after watching him give Maria a special exhortation. They were on the balcony between Diego's room and his father's.

"Diego, you are being much too obvious!" he said.

Diego frowned, not following.

Alejandro waved at Diego's bedroom door.  "You and Elizabeth!"

Diego started.  "But...." he paused, for once not wishing to go into details.

"You are being very obvious!" Alejandro repeated.  

Diego folded his arms.  "How?"

"You go around whistling to yourself and telling the servant girls they should find themselves husbands!" Alejandro said.  "You are telling me I should start a courtship!"

"You should!" Diego interjected.

"You are being undignified!" Alejandro continued, ignoring him.

"Oh," Diego said, "And I should be dignified about enjoying my wife after over two very long, very trying months without her?"

"You should keep some things to yourself!" Alejandro snapped.

"We do!" Diego said, beginning to find some amusement in the conversation.  "Unless of course you would like me to leave the door and windows and shutters wide open tonight in order for everyone to hear what is going on in there."

"Ai!" Alejandro exclaimed.

"Ai yi yi," Diego agreed.

Alejandro sighed.  "I do not know why I somehow imagined you would be more private about these things," he said.  "You certainly were brought up that way."

"I think I am very private," Diego said.  "But we are under no constraint to pretend we do not...inspire one another, Father."

"Stop right there," Alejandro said, holding up his hand.  "I do not want to hear another word."

Diego smiled.

"Personally I think you two need some time just to yourselves to work all of this out of your systems," Alejandro continued.  "You're away from her most of the day and Esperanza still needs Elizabeth and by the time you finally...." he gestured a bit helplessly.  "If you had a few days just to concentrate..." he gestured vaguely again, "...on each other..."

Diego considered it, still amused.  "I have been thinking about your suggestion, Father," he said.  "That little trip you and Mother took. I am not sure Elizabeth and I would work anything out of our systems, however."

"It might at least bring restore some dignity in the household!"

"We would have to take the baby along..." Diego mused.

"Ai!" Alejandro exclaimed again.  He wholly disapproved of Elizabeth's nursing.

"I'm going to ask Elizabeth what she thinks," Diego said.  "Don't worry," he patted his father's shoulder.  "We will keep the windows closed, if we become inspired."

"Ai!" Alejandro said, heading down the stairs.

*****

Diego returned to their bedroom to find Elizabeth in her chair where he had left her, feeding Esperanza.  .  She looked up at Diego.  "You're back!  I thought you were going to town to buy a new bridle for Padre."

"I am," he said, sitting across from her.  For a moment he was lost in watching the baby.

"Why did you come back?" Elizabeth asked.

"Oh, my father reminded me of something.  She is almost ten weeks old now, I think it might work..."

"What idea is that?"  Elizabeth asked curiously.

"Let's go away for a few days.  Just the three of us."

"Go away?  To where?"

He shrugged.  "Why not up to the little cabin?  I can have Bernardo stock it up, Maria can take up a lot of diapers for her...and we can have a few days to ourselves."

"Diego, taking care of her completely by ourselves?"

"Si, we often do anyway," he said.

"But help is always nearby," she pointed out.  "And we do not wash diapers!"  Elizabeth looked down at her dark-haired, occupied little angel.  "Daddy is forgetting how much work you can be," she whispered loudly to the baby.

"No I'm not," Diego said.  "We can keep her with us all the time, she's still little and easy to transport.  Someone can come once a day to pick up and replace diapers.  What do you say, darling?  We can have no distractions at all, we can concentrate on one another, we can swim in the lake..."

"I am not leaving her on the shore for the bear!" Elizabeth exclaimed.

"Of course not," Diego chuckled.  "I will take my musket and my knife, and we will take her in the water with us."

"You will bring your sword, too," Elizabeth instructed, always feeling better when El Zorro was around.

"Oh yes," he said.  "Always."

That made her laugh.  "Diego!" she said.

"Besides," he continued, "we have an anniversary coming.  We must celebrate."

She frowned, thinking.  Then her eyes widened.  "Oh!  It is our wedding anniversary!" 

"Si," he said.  "The fourth day of July.  That is next week."

"I remember," she nodded.  "It is the American Independence Day."

"Is that right?" 

"Si.  I remember thinking I was losing my freedom on Independence Day."

He laughed.  "You kept yourself for some time after our wedding, as I recall."

"Must you remind me?" she asked, helping the baby finish and then holding her against her shoulder to help her burp.  "There sweetheart," she said, hearing the little gas bubbles come up.  "Oh, you're going to spit up a little?" She wiped Esperanza's mouth.  "There, how is that?  Better? Oh, look, Diego, she is getting the sweetest little smile."  

He peered over and sure enough his daughter was smiling at them.  "Let me hold her while she goes to sleep," he said.

Elizabeth handed her over.  Diego cuddled the baby as she looked up into his eyes and then yawned.  "You are all full now," he told her, "so it is perfectly all right to let your long enchanting black eyelashes pull your pretty hazel eyes shut and go to sleep."

"I hope she does not come to expect all men to talk to her that way," Elizabeth said, watching the two of them.  Esperanza was smiling at her father, who in turn was visibly melting with joy.

"They'd better not!" Diego said, not taking his eyes off his daughter.  "No one sweet talks you except me," he told her.  "At least not until you are..." he glanced at Elizabeth, then returned his attention to Esperanza. "...thirty," he finished.

"Oh!" Elizabeth laughed.  "Do not listen to him, muchacha, he is only teasing you."

Esperanza gave a little sigh and her eyes fell shut.

"I think she is taking your advice," Diego chuckled.  He looked over at her.  "What do you say, darling? The little cabin next week?"

"Can we take Blanca?" she asked.

"I think not," he said.  "We will go up in a carriage and take Apache and Cloud Dancer. I do not believe you are ready to get on Blanca yet, darling."

"We'll see about that," Elizabeth said.  "No Tornado?"

He shook his head.  "Just the three of us, and the other horses."

Elizabeth looked at him, her sly look coming across her face.  "She does sleep more now," she mused, nodding at Esperanza.  "Will El Zorro be up at the little cabin?"

"El Zorro, rumor has it, returned to Monterey after he finished with those gypsies."

"Oh?  I heard he returned to Los Angeles, swearing off Monterey forever.  His gypsy still sits in the cuartel and spits at Sergeant Garcia."

Diego raised one eyebrow.  "Oh, so there is still talk about El Zorro and Carmen?" he asked.  He looked at Esperanza, now soundly sleeping in his arms.  "Sometimes she sleeps through the night," he said softly.

"She slept through the night once," Elizabeth said.  

"She'll do it again," Diego said. "Won't you, muchacha?"  He took a lock of Elizabeth's hair and twirled it around his finger, thinking.  "Perhaps El Zorro should visit Carmen again?" he asked.  

"Not unless he wants to inspire someone to whack her on the head with another silver tray," came the reply.  "I am strong enough to lift it myself now, you know."  She squinted at him, adding, "Perhaps it is El Zorro who deserves the silver tray on his head, for even considering his gypsy."

*****

On July 3 they departed.  The days since deciding to go were more hectic than they'd expected, leaving no further opportunity for them to, as Diego delicately put it to his father, "...enjoy one another."  Esperanza had two wakeful nights in a row, and one night El Zorro was called for when a dispute between a pair of feuding dons over a section of river flared into a threatened duel.  Zorro intervened with a flaming torch in the central square of the pueblo, vowing to vanquish whoever won the first duel himself.  This threat subdued both men considerably and allowed everyone in the pueblo walls a better night's sleep.  A rumor surfaced that El Zorro made a secret visit to the cuartel that night and stole another kiss from the gypsy girl.  Elizabeth got wind of the rumor and teased him mercilessly on their last night at home. Despite his earnest wish to renew their amorous activities, she first claimed that she had to wash her hair. Then she stated that she had a headache. Finally, a gleam in her eye, she advised her exasperated husband that Esperanza, who was in fact sleeping quite soundly right in front of them, was too fussy for her to pay him much attention.  

It all left Diego irritable.  By the time they were ready to depart he was snapping at all the servants and at his father, who was more than ready to see his son go.  Alejandro was not so enthused about his granddaughter's departure, however.  He stood by the carriage as the servants loaded things in, and took Esperanza while Elizabeth alighted.  When mother then reached for daughter, grandfather did not cooperate.

"You do not really want to go with them, do you?" he asked the baby.  "Don't you want to stay here at home?"

The baby, wide awake, looked up into her grandpapa's eyes.  

"Alejandro," Elizabeth said, extending her arms.

Diego got into the carriage beside his wife.  "It is time, Father," he said.  "We will be back in a few days."

"Grandpapa will miss you every single minute you are gone," he told the baby.  She responded by giving him a big smile.  "Oh, you are finally giving me a smile?" he exclaimed.  "Now I shall never let you leave."

"Alejandro," Elizabeth said, more insistently.

"We are trying to leave," Diego said.

"She has to come with us," Elizabeth said.  

Alejandro sighed mournfully and with great reluctance handed Esperanza to her mother.  

"Thank you," Elizabeth said.  "Hello, my sweet.  Were you flirting with grandpapa?"

"I believe he was flirting with her," Diego said under his breath.  "Buenas tardes, Father," he said more audibly, flicking the whip on the horses' flanks.  

Alejandro and Bernardo stood together watching as the little family pulled away.

"Oh, my," Alejandro said, his voice becoming husky.

Bernardo looked over at him and nodded sympathetically.

*****

The journey of several hours did nothing to improve Diego's disposition.  At first Elizabeth was cheerful and excited, commenting on the scenery, humming to the baby, and speculating on the state of the romance between Sergeant Garcia and Clementia Bocca.  Diego half-listened and commented little, besides an occasional "uh huh."  He did observe that the Sergeant was regularly looking somewhat anxious.  Halfway through their journey, one of the carriage wheel sockets popped out.  It left Diego with the aggravating task of repairing it.  He did so with much cursing while Elizabeth lay on a blanket under a tree with the baby.  Both of them fell asleep.  Once they were all underway again it became very hot, which upset Esperanza and led to a long rash of crying.  They stopped again to feed and change her, waiting for the heat to subside.  It was only as the late afternoon cooling began that she finally calmed down and fell asleep.  Then they resumed the journey, though by this point Diego was silent and Elizabeth was so put out by his foul mood and unwillingness to make conversation that she was not saying much either.  

When they hit a heavy rut in the road, Diego barely averted another wheel socket from flying out.  After making sure it was secure, he returned to the buggy and launched into a litany of everything that had gone wrong in the last 24 hours.  He did not fail to mention Elizabeth's teasing over Carmen. He added that she was enjoying a lot of being waited on hand and foot, which caused her to stare at him in disbelief. 

"I'm the one holding this hot, sticky little baby," she finally pointed out.  "This is ten pounds of work that you only help with when you are home and in the frame of mind to do so!" 

"Would you like to be driving?" he snapped at her.

"I would be happy to, if you want to feed her, change her, and let her spit up all over you," Elizabeth snapped back.  

That shut communications down completely.  They made the rest of the journey in silence, and pulled up in front of the little cabin an hour before sunset wondering what had gotten into them to do this.  Esperanza was waking up and starting to fuss.

"What now?" Diego asked, jumping out of the carriage and coming around to get her.

"She's hungry," Elizabeth said, handing the baby over and waiting for him to help her out.  He turned and began walking away.  "Diego!" she cried.

He stopped and turned around, to see the hurt and astonished look on her face.  Hoisting Esperanza onto his shoulder, he came back to the carriage and offered a hand to help Elizabeth down.  When she reached the ground she looked up at him, tearful.  "What's gotten into you?" she asked, partly angry and partly hurt. 

Seeing her so wounded began to bring him to his senses.  He looked down for a moment. "I'm sorry," he said.  "I don't know why I am being this way."

"I don't either," Elizabeth said.  "You wanted to come up here."

"I didn't expect so many things to add up to making it so hard," he confessed.  "I will never take the servants for granted again."

"It does not help that you have had so little sleep," Elizabeth murmured.

"It does not help that you keep reminding me about that kiss I never got from Carmen!" he snorted.

They stood there for a moment, both of them looking at the little house in front of them.  Esperanza began to squall.

"Here," Diego said, giving the baby to Elizabeth.  "Go in and sit in the rocker and feed her, she will like being rocked."

"She will like being fed," Elizabeth sighed, patting the baby's back.  How could Esperanza suddenly feel so heavy? she thought.

He sighed too.  The baby was, he had to admit to himself, demanding.  "I will put the horses away and draw some water for us, and then get some food started."

Elizabeth nodded, and looked back at the cabin again even as she tried to calm Esperanza.  He looked again at the house, too.  Both of them were thinking back to the day they last stood on the porch laughing as El Zorro tried to button the good Seņora's dress hooks.  They looked at each other.  That carefree moment was gone forever.

Elizabeth tried to make the best of it. "Look, Esperanza," she said, holding the baby up.  "This is a very special house. Mommie and Daddy love it here."

Esperanza continued to squall.

"I don't think she is impressed," Diego observed.  "I think she just wants her dinner.  Go on, sweetheart, everything will be in order, Bernardo was just here yesterday."  He leaned over and kissed her cheek, his tone softening.  "I'll be there in a few minutes."

Elizabeth let herself in and looked around.  Everything was in perfect order, the bed shoved into its corner on an angle, the little kitchen stocked, the rockers in front of the fireplace.  She carried the baby to the rocking chair and sat down, opened her blouse, and let Esperanza start nursing.  She began humming softly to the baby, feeling a breeze find its way in the wide open front door.  

*****

It took Diego a while to unharness the horses and make sure everything in the corral was secure.  The air was clear and the cool evening began to help him relax.  He picked up two large water buckets from the small shed behind the house, carried them to the creek, and dipped them in to capture water for cooking.  As he looked down into the streambed he saw several shards of his mother's broken plate, shattered when he accidentally let it slip out of his hand at the end of their fish dinner in front of the bonfire on their last visit.  The memories of that day with Elizabeth welled up in him, the tenderness and the fire as they finally and fully found one another.  Was it only ten months ago?  It seemed to him like a lifetime.  Now they had a child.  The permanent realities of that were setting in.     

He carried the water up the steps and set the buckets down to enter quietly.  Elizabeth was rocking Esperanza as she nursed, humming a little tune Diego had taught her when she was pregnant.  She looked up at him and smiled.  The sight made his heart do a somersault.

"I believe I am seeing the most beautiful sight on earth," he said softly, walking over to them.  Suddenly all the inconvenience vanished and his heart was full. He sat in the chair next to hers, stretching out his legs.

"You did that on our wedding night," Elizabeth said.  "You sat down and stretched out and I thought you had the longest legs in the world."

They were quiet for a moment, lost in their thoughts.  "Didn't you want me, even a little bit, that night?" Diego asked.

She looked down at Esperanza.  "I wanted Zorro," she answered.  "I only felt confused that night.  You were so handsome."  She looked at him.  "It shocked me that you never demanded it, not that night, not ever."

"Waiting for you was the hardest thing I have ever done in my life," he confessed. He had never admitted to her how difficult those early weeks had been for him.

"Why did you?" she asked.  "You didn't have to.  And I would not have refused, if you had insisted."

He considered the question.  They had never talked about this.  "I suppose some of it was stubbornness, and pride," he said.  "It hurt that you refused me and I didn't want to give you the satisfaction of being desperate. Although..." he laughed ruefully, "I admit I was feeling pretty desperate.  But I think, more, it was wanting you to want me.  I did not want a concession, I did not want your duty.  I wanted your love.  And I knew...." he paused, "I knew what you didn't.  And I felt guilty about it.  I was lying to you and I knew it."  He shook his head.  "Keeping it from you was the most foolish thing I have ever done."  He looked over at her.  "I hope I never exceed that foolishness."  

"We have learned a lot," she said.  "I still cannot believe I never figured it out!  It was so obvious."

"It isn't that obvious!" Diego said.

"Lolita figured it out in no time."

"Lolita had Zorro on her table unconscious, wearing his wedding ring, and asking for you!"

"She did have some big hints," Elizabeth conceded.  She adjusted the baby slightly.

"How long will you keep feeding her like this?" Diego asked.

Elizabeth shrugged.  "At least six months, I suppose."  She eyed him.  "Remember what the doctor said."

Diego sighed.  "I remember." He got up and went to pour water into the kettle on the stove.  "I'm going to start making the stew," he said.  "And then if you don't mind I will take a late siesta."

"I think you should, darling," she said.  "Muchacha, are you finished?" she asked the baby.  Then she said, to her husband, "You have had several hard days in a row."

"With no rewards," he added, beginning to chop the root vegetables Bernardo had laid out.

"Diego de la Vega," she said.

"What?"

"You are actually feeling sorry for yourself."

"I certainly am!" he agreed.

The baby was indeed finished, after a particularly long feeding, and fell into a deep sleep.  Elizabeth buttoned herself, then got up and laid Esperanza on a blanket at the foot of the bed. Then she went over to stand beside Diego while he chopped.  She watched in silence for a while.  Then her hand slid across his back.

"Are you trying to make me chop my fingers off?" he asked.

"Oh, no," she replied.  "I like your fingers." 

He put the knife down and looked at her.  "Are you hungry or not?"

She took her hand away.  "I will be soon enough," she said.  "I am just trying to let you know everything is going to be all right."

He gave a deep sigh.  "Hand me that onion, will you?" he asked, nodding at the shelf.

She reached for it and handed it over.  "I am going to take a little walk," she said.  "Esperanza is asleep at the foot of the bed."

"All right," he said, resuming his chopping.  "Don't go too far," he added, as she went out the door.

*****

When Elizabeth returned an hour later, she felt refreshed.  She had walked a while on the path beside the creek, letting her head clear and reminding herself that Diego was exhausted and showing it. It did no good to punish him for it.  She loved simply being out to see the trees and sky. It was the first time in over three months that she was by herself doing something other than lying in bed.  She watched the fish pass through the streambed for a while.  She thought about the baby, that wonderful dark-haired little sweetheart asleep in the cabin.  She still could not believe she was a mother, that she and Diego had brought another person into the world.  She could not understand the huge love she felt for either one of them.  She talked it over, in her mind, with her mother at great length.  As she approached the cabin on return, she realized it was the first time in months that she was able to finish a thought about anything.    

She entered the cabin to see Diego sprawled on the bed on his stomach, asleep.  Esperanza, no longer at the foot of the bed, was snuggled beside him, also sleeping.  The beef and vegetable stew was simmering.  Everything smelled wonderful in the cabin.  She stood for a long time at the foot of the bed, watching father and daughter.  Diego's deep breathing confirmed how tired he really was.  It was unlike him to go to sleep this late in the day.  Esperanza's dark head matched his, they were a pair, lying there together.  Even asleep in her babyhood, Elizabeth cold see that her firstborn was a de la Vega who had her Daddy's looks and her Grandmama Matilde's self-contained disposition.  

Diego's hand shifted slightly and moved up to rest beside the baby's face.  Elizabeth smiled as the tiny fingers curled reflexively around her father's thumb.  Diego's eyes opened and he looked at the little fingers.

Elizabeth came over and sat beside him, stroking his head.

"Look at her fingers on my thumb," he whispered.  

"I know," she whispered back.

"How long was I asleep?" he asked.

"Not very long," she said, continuing to stroke his head. "Maybe 45 minutes, depending on how fast you got the stew in the pot.  I think I have two tired sweethearts, after our long ride."

"Mmmmmm," he said, enjoying her gentle touch.  Elizabeth was the first woman since his mother who was free to "mess with my hair," as Diego put it.  He had thick, wavy, beautiful dark brown hair and every female since the first he was involved with as a teenager made much of wanting to run her fingers through it.  That he refused to allow it became a source of much grief on more than one occasion with more than one love interest.  In one instance it was the final straw in causing a break-up when he was in Spain.  

As with everything else, it all changed when Elizabeth swept into his life.  Long before they were even betrothed, he knew there was nowhere her touch wasn't welcome.  When she stroked or ran her fingers through his hair he felt as if a saving breeze had arrived.  It was certainly the case as the shadows lengthened on this July evening.  Now, Esperanza's tiny fingers were gripping his thumb and he did not want to move his hand.  But he did want to respond to Elizabeth.

"Don't move, darling," she said, nearly reading his mind.  "Go back to sleep for a while.  I can stir the stew." 

"Are you sure?" he asked.

"Si," she said, rubbing his neck gently.  "I may even join you for a few minutes.  I had a lovely walk and I would not mind a rest myself."

"I came up here to make love to you and I am so tired I don't think I could if I tried," he sighed.  "Not that I have done a very good job of it when I did try...."

"You have barely slept for three days, my love," she reminded him.  "And you had to fix that wheel this afternoon...While Esperanza and I got to nap under the eucalyptus trees."  She kissed his cheek softly.  "It will be all right," she assured him.  Then she got up, and gave the stew a thorough stirring.  Returning to the bed, she lay down beside him and snuggled up against his back.

"How will we wake up?" he asked drowsily.

"Oh, we have a built in wake-up now," Elizabeth laughed.  "Who will want to eat in another hour or two."

He sank further into the bed.  She felt him relax more deeply beside her.  She turned over and half sat up, to look over him and see that Esperanza, on his other side, was still asleep, and still clinging to her Daddy's thumb.

*****

The early night stillness was indeed broken by the baby's whimpering some two hours later.  Elizabeth awoke immediately.  Aside from feeling Diego beside her she wasn't sure where she was.  Then she smelled his stew simmering and remembered their drive up into the mountains.  She sat up and reached over him to retrieve Esperanza.  To her amazement Diego didn't wake up, so she fed the baby in the darkness, sitting up in the bed while he continued in his slumber. She even began singing softly to the baby but Diego didn't stir.

"I think Daddy has worn himself out more than any of us realized," she whispered to her daughter after she finished her song.  "He has taken such good care of both of us since you were born, and he has gone off to ride Tornado and do his good deeds as El Zorro, and he has put up with very little attention from Mommie for at least three months.  I couldn't be a very good sweetheart to him, I guess that is the price we pay for bringing you into the world...and I think maybe it has all caught up with him.  What do you think, Esperanza?  Do you think Daddy has earned his sleep?"  

Esperanza turned her head looked up at her mother, yawning. 

"Are you sleepy again?" Elizabeth asked.  "You didn't eat a lot, my sweet.  Are you sure you don't want any more?  Mommie isn't quite ready for you to finish, won't you help me out a little more? Guess not," Elizabeth sighed.  "Everybody is sleepy except me."  She patted the baby's back until she gave another good burp, and then replaced her beside her father.  

Elizabeth got up and lit a candle, checked the stew to find it burbling nicely, and wondered what spices he had thrown in which made it smell so magically good.  She took one of the loaves of bread Bernardo had left from the shelf and sliced a few pieces.  Setting them out on the table, she then laid out plates and poured two cups of wine.  Then she went over to the bed and put her hand on Diego's shoulder.

"Sweetheart," she said.  "Get up and eat something."

"Mmmmmm?" he said hazily, barely moving.

"Come, Diego, pull yourself out of your dreams for just a little while," she said, rubbing his shoulder gently.  "You need to eat."

He took a deep breath, opening his eyes.  The first thing he saw was Esperanza lying beside him in the candlelight.  "She must be hungry, too," he murmured.

"No," Elizabeth said, "I have just fed her and she's down again."

He turned and looked at her, surprised.  

"Si," she said.  "You slept right through it."

"What time is it?" he asked, sitting up slowly.

"After nine, I imagine," she answered.

"How long was I asleep?"

"Over three hours."

He lay back down.  "I had no idea," he said.

"Get up, sleepy man," she said, pulling at his shoulders.  "You stew smells very good.  I have kept the fire going and the pot stirred."

He sat up again, and watched as she returned to the stove and began ladling the stew into large bowls.  She heard him chuckling softly.

"What?" she asked, as she set the steaming bowls on the table.

"You are finally making yourself useful in the kitchen," he observed.

"I have become a very good stirrer and ladeler," she said.  She pointed at the loaf.  "And I can slice bread."

He got up, stretched briefly, and came over to put his arms around her.  "I shall never again question your talents," he said, giving her a hug.

"You had better not!" she said, wiggling away from him and sitting down, pointing at his chair.  "If you do I have only to wave Esperanza in your face to remind you of what I can do!"

He held up his hand with a laugh.  "I yield!" he said.  He looked at the food, sitting down.  "This does smell good," he said.  "But before we eat," he lifted his glass, "we must have a toast."

"Shall we toast our sleeping beauty?" Elizabeth asked, raising her glass.

"No," he said, "we love our sleeping beauty but on this eve of our anniversary, the toast is reserved for the kitten and the fox." He touched his glass to hers.  "And to the many more years of happiness and adventure that certainly lie ahead of us..."

"I am glad you put the happiness first!" she interrupted.

"I am not finished," he said.  "...and to the year that ends at midnight, our first year together, oh what a year it has been."

With that they took a drink from their glasses, and Diego leaned over to kiss her lips lightly.  "It has been the best year of my life," he told her.

She looked into his eyes, smiled softly, and said, "We have been given an uncommon love."

"Si," he agreed.  He kissed her again, lingering a little.  "Very good wine," he told her.

She laughed.  "Eat seņor," she advised him.

As they ate, they talked quietly, recalling the highlights of their year.  While they agreed that Esperanza's arrival was the highest point as well as the moment closest to great tragedy, Diego was determined to keep the conversation focused on the two of them.

"Tell me your three favorite moments, between us," he said to her.

"That is hard to narrow down," she answered, thinking.

"Try," he said.  He was devouring the food.  "I'll do one first.  Do you remember the morning in Monterey when we were walking on the beach and you nearly jumped out of your skin when a sand crab popped up and ran across your toes?"

"Oh, yes!" she said.  "I went three feet into the air and landed on you!"

"Si," he said, "and I was so happy at that moment, because you were feeling well and when you were frightened you jumped straight for me, and everything was so quiet and so peaceful on the shoreline, all the grays and greens and blues everywhere....that was a magic morning."

"I think you are remembering what we did right after I jumped on you," Elizabeth laughed softly, her voice low.

"Oh, I am remembering that, too," he said.  

"That was a good one," they both said at the same time, which made them both laugh aloud.

Esperanza stirred, whimpering in reaction to the sound.  They shushed one another.

"I think that night in Santa Barbara when you gave me my ring back after all those months was one of my favorites," Elizabeth said.  "There we were all snuggled up in the hayloft after you delivered that baby...and we felt her move for the first time," she nodded towards Esperanza, who quieted on her own.

"That was quite a night," he agreed.

"I wonder what happened to those peons," Elizabeth mused.

"They left the next morning," Diego shrugged.  "We'll probably never see or hear of them again."

"Did you ever learn their last name, or what they named the little girl?"

"All I knew were Maria and Pepe," he said.  "But I believe they named the baby Magdalena."

They were quiet a moment, remembering that night.  "We made love after they left," Elizabeth recalled.  "Christmas morning."

"Si," Diego said.

Their eyes met and they both said, "That was a good one, too."  It caused them to start laughing and shushing one another again.  Elizabeth got up and came over to sit on his lap as their giggling together continued.

"I think this wine is making us very silly," she said, taking a sip from his glass.

"I think you have slipped a little of your punch into it!" Diego laughed, trying to take the glass away.

"No, no," she said, letting him have it.  "Oh, now that night was one of my highlights.  Seeing the whole town as tipsy as they could be..." she began giggling again.  "And we were so mad at each other, until you took me to the stable and we kissed and made up..."

They looked at each other and began laughing again.

"As I recall there were at least two good ones that night," he chuckled, covering her ear with his mouth.

"At least that many," she said, biting his hear back.

He took a deep breath, looking into her face and cupping her cheeks in his hands.  "I feel better for having eaten, but I am still tired," he said.

"Then go back to sleep," she said, rubbing her nose against his.

"I am going to go to the stream and clean up first," he told her.  He kissed her cheek and, after pausing to check on his sleeping daughter, he stepped out into the night, pulling off his shirt as he went towards the tumbling water.


Chapter Three
Anniversary
The sunshine swept through the windows as morning dawned.  Elizabeth pulled a robe around her shoulders and went to the kitchen to pour some water into the kettle and slice a piece of bread.  She stoked the stove.  The morning sunlight was streaming in, dappling the room.  She took a deep breath and went to the front door to open it, letting in the morning air.  The fire in the stove rose.  She could not believe how good she felt.  She realized she had forgotten what it was like, to awaken refreshed and ready for a new day.

Once the fire was high it did not take long for the water to boil.  She removed the kettle from the fire and made coffee.  That much I can do, she thought, glancing in the direction of the sleeping cook.  She put on her lightest dress, sent with Bernardo and hanging with two others on the wall peg by the door.  She checked her family again, feeling ready to have someone to talk to.  Diego was still lost to the world and snoring lightly, which made her smile.  Esperanza, however, was wide-eyed and looking around.   

"Are you awake?" Elizabeth whispered, looking down at her daughter brightly.  "Shall we get you a new diaper and then go outside for Mommie's coffee?"

She changed the baby and then took a blanket and her bread and coffee, set them on the porch outside, and retrieved Esperanza.  Then she sat on the shady steps, spreading the blanket beside her and setting her daughter on it.  There she enjoyed her bread and coffee.  The sunlight was brilliant and Esperanza was awake without being fussy, so Elizabeth played with her, tickling her and making her smile.  It dawned on her that she now had someone else to talk to and get to know, not just Diego.  This business of making a family held endless wonder.  Esperanza, she was learning, was amused easily and took in what went on around her in a near-contemplative fashion. She waved her hands and arms as her mother shook her long hair in the baby's face.  It elicited a wide, toothless smile, which in turn made Elizabeth laugh softly.  "Do you like Mommie's hair?" she cooed.  "Does that tickle your nose and make you want to sneeze?"  Oh, Mommie loves your big smile.  Where are Esperanza's teeth?  The little baby has no teeth!"  She shook her hair again and the baby made a little cooing sound that was trying to be a laugh.  

Diego awoke slowly to the sound of soft laughter.  He drifted up from a deep, relaxed place and recognized Elizabeth's voice. Then he realized the other sound he heard was his little daughter.  He smelled coffee.  Opening his eyes, light was pouring into the room.  Is this heaven? he thought.  Then he heard the sound of laughter, Elizabeth's voice drifting in from outside.  He got up and pulled on a pair of trousers hanging on the wall, and went to the doorway.  On the steps sat his wife, shaking her hair in the baby's face.  Esperanza lay on her back on a blanket.  They both giggled again.  Elizabeth caught his movement out of the corner of her eye and looked up.  He got a big smile.

"You are awake!" she said.  "Get your coffee and come play with us."

He smiled, shaking his head at the sight, and then went to get his coffee.  It was still hot in the pot, so he was back on the porch soon and sat down beside Elizabeth on the steps.  By then she had Esperanza at her breast and was nursing her.  He kissed Elizabeth's cheek, and then leaned over to kiss her breast above Esperanza's head.  They sat there for some time in silence, while Diego slowly woke up and Esperanza ate.  Elizabeth leaned against him beside her.  He stroked her hair.

"All I seem to be able to do for any length of time is sleep," he said.

"I think it is long overdue," she told him.  "For nearly three months all you have done is take care of us and be Seņor Zorro and help run the rancho and wear yourself out with work and worry.  It is a miracle you are still able to stay on your feet."

"It is not staying on my feet that I am worried about," he said, kissing her head.

"After we have all finished eating, I think we should go up to the lake and have little swims and give Esperanza a bath," Elizabeth said.  "She is a dirty little baby and she needs a good bath, and we can take turns enjoying the water and sit in the shade and have a picnic.  What do you think?"

"It is a good plan," he smiled.  "I'm going to get dressed.  Shall we all ride up on Apache, or take the carriage?"

"Apache," Elizabeth said.  "And bring your rifle.  Tornado is not here to save us."

He chuckled and got up.  When he entered the cabin he noticed his unsheathed sword lying out on the table.  He frowned and picked it up, puzzled.  "Elizabeth?" he called out to her.

"Si?"

"My sword?" he said, going back to the door.  "Why is it sitting out like this?"

"Oh," she laughed.  "I take it with me when I wash in the creek, in case the bear appears."

"In case...?" he laughed.

"I don't know why!" she joined his laughter.  "I have no idea what to do with it, besides wave it at...whoever."

Diego frowned again, and then went back in to finish dressing.  When he re-emerged he brought the sword with him.  "Is she finished?" he asked about Esperanza.

"Just about," Elizabeth answered, holding the baby to her shoulder and patting her back.  "There you go sweetheart," she said, wiping the baby's mouth off.  "Now you can go back to sleep for a while.  You were awake for a long time!"  

Sure enough, Esperanza Matilde de la Vega promptly fell asleep in her mother's arms.

Elizabeth put the baby back on the blanket and looked at her husband, who was standing there practicing with his sword.  "What are you up to?" she asked.

He stepped out into the sunshine and waved her to join him.  She followed him. He got behind her, putting the sword in her hand.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"I'm going to show you something," he said.  He put his hand over hers where she held the sword, adjusting her grip.  "This is how you hold it." 

"Oh, Diego, I can't learn this!" she said.  "Women don't fence!"

"You certainly can learn it," he countered.  "And you should.  And you will have a good teacher."

She peered up at him over her shoulder.  "El Zorro himself," she said.

"Shhhhhhhh," he replied.  "Now, let me show you how to salute your opponent in a formal match."  He took the sword, stood back, held the blade up, then whipped it down and to the right in the formal salute.  "You do it," he said, handing her the sword.

She rolled her eyes, but then stood back and tried it.  It was harder than it looked.

"You must be more swift and forceful with it," he said.  "Cut the air with it."  He took the sword back.  "Watch me again.  From the moment you first face your opponent you must let him know you are formidable.  You give him your respect, but you also let him know you intend to defeat him."  He raised the sword slowly and then whipped it down and to the right again, while his eyes bore into hers.  Then he handed it to her and stepped back.  

She stared at him, realizing for a moment what it must be like to face him.  No wonder many men simply dropped their weapons when El Zorro appeared with his sword drawn.  

"Concentrate," he told her.  

She accepted the sword, trying not to feel silly.  Focusing, she raised it and then swept it down and right.  

"That's better, darling," he said, coming back to her.  "Did you feel the difference that time?"

"Si," she said.  "I felt it in my arm."

He kneaded her shoulder gently.  "This is one of the places where you will feel it," he said.  "You will learn not to throw it out."  He took the sword from her.  "When we go home I will give you some real lessons."

"If you want to, dear," she said.

"You'll like it," he warned her.

"If you say so, dear," she replied.  

"You will be glad, someday, that I made you learn to fence."

She smiled at him slyly.  "Perhaps someday you will be the glad one, my love." 

*****

They packed up a blanket and some food, and took a while to arrange everything and everyone on the horse.  It didn't quite work, so Diego saddled Cloud Dancer and brought her around for Elizabeth.  "I'll carry Esperanza," he said, helping Elizabeth mount.  "Are you all right?  You have barely been on a horse since she was born."

She settled into the saddle, taking the reins.  "This is fine, she said, kicking the mare's sides and turning her in two circles, then making a figure eight.  

Diego smiled.  His wife had not lost her touch on a horse.  He patted the mare's nose, and then scooped up the baby from her spot on the porch.  Tucking her securely in the crook of his arm, he looked down at her.  "Are you ready for your first horseback ride, Esperanza?" he asked.  He mounted Apache carefully and they took off.

It took close to half an hour at their careful pace to reach the lake.  As soon as she saw it sparkling before them, Elizabeth's heart leaped.  Riding again was glorious.  She knew she would be sore, but she didn't care.  The feel of Cloud Dancer under her gave her nothing but happiness.  Now the lake, spread before them, lifted her spirit even more.  "Oh, Diego," she said.  "It is still so beautiful."  

"Si," he said. "And your daughter, Seņora, slept through the entire ride.  How about that?"

"I think she has a particularly good cradle," Elizabeth observed, seeing how Diego had the baby nestled against him.

Elizabeth dismounted and went to Diego, who gingerly lowered Esperanza down into her mother's hands.  Elizabeth smiled, looking into her daughter's still little face.  "You are still asleep?" she asked softly.  "You liked the horse ride."  She carried the baby to the shade under the pine trees at the lake's edge.  Diego dismounted and followed with the heavy quilt and towels.  He spread the quilt out on the ground for them.

"Shall we sit a little while?"  Elizabeth asked.

He nodded, taking Esperanza while Elizabeth sat down, took the baby from him, and waited until he got settled beside them.  Elizabeth laid the baby on the quilt on her stomach.

"She can almost turn over on her own," Diego said.

"I know!" Elizabeth replied, stroking her daughter's back lightly.  "It will happen any day now, the way she raises her head and tries to move her shoulders.  She wants to be able to follow things on her own.  And I love her little smile." She leaned over and kissed the back of the baby's head.

Diego put his chin on Elizabeth's shoulder, looking at the baby.  "Can you remember what we talked about, before she was born?" he asked.

"We talked a lot, we must have been talking about something!" she laughed.

Esperanza's eyes opened slowly, inspiring Elizabeth to turn her over onto her back.  She blinked a few times, her head and eyes moving to see what was around her.  She focused on her parents' faces, recognized them and gave them a wide, toothless smile. A dimple crept into her left cheek.

"Oh!" Elizabeth exclaimed softly.  "She has your dimple!"

Diego chuckled into Elizabeth's shoulder, continuing to gaze at their dark-haired little daughter.  Then he gave a soft gasp, realizing something.  "Oh, my God," he said.  He put his forehead against Elizabeth's shoulder for a moment, and then looked again at Esperanza.

"What?" Elizabeth asked.

"She looks like my mother," he said, nearly in a whisper.

Elizabeth waited for a moment, looking at the baby.  "I can see it too," she said.  "From the portraits around the hacienda...and how much she looks like you."  She turned her head and kissed his cheek.

"I can't believe I never saw it before," he said, his voice still very soft.  "Just the way she looks at us.  It is the way Mama used to look at me..."

"She is turning into herself more and more every day," Elizabeth replied, tickling Esperanza's tummy.  The baby smiled more widely and gave a giggly sound, waving her hands and kicking her feet.

"Oh, my," Diego said, putting his forehead into Elizabeth's shoulder again.

Elizabeth found his hand where it rested on the blanket and put hers over it.  "She comes from a good line," she said.  Then she laughed softly, also realizing something.  "Diego," she said, looking over her shoulder at him.

"Si?" he asked, barely containing his emotions.

"Happy anniversary."

He laughed too, wiping his eyes.  "Look at me," he said.  He kissed her.  "Happy anniversary.  You have made me the happiest man on earth in this last year, Seņora."

"And you have made me the happiest woman on earth," she answered, kissing him back.

Watching her parents, Esperanza's hands and feet did their kicks and waves again as she smiled at them.

"Are you telling us you're the happiest baby on earth?" Elizabeth laughed softly at her daughter.  "I guess that makes us the happiest family on earth!" She waved her hair in Esperanza's face and the baby giggled again.  "How many little girls get to go to their Mommie and Daddy's first wedding anniversary party?" she teased.

Diego put his hand on the back of Elizabeth's neck, rubbing it gently, amused as he watched her play with the baby. "I knew you would be a good mother," he said.

Elizabeth smiled at him.  "I didn't!" she replied a little sheepishly.  "But now that it has happened I feel right at home, it is so natural for us.  For both of us."  She looked back at Esperanza.  "Isn't that right, muchacha?" she asked.  "You just had to show up, didn't you?  Daddy and Mommie could not have stopped you if we had tried!"

Diego raised his eyebrow.  "Not that we tried," he pointed out.

"No," Elizabeth said playfully, shaking her hair at Esperanza again.  "We didn't do a thing to keep you from happening!  We did all the things that made sure you probably would!"

This made Diego laugh, rolling his eyes.  He squeezed her shoulders and pulled her back against him.  "And that is just the sort of thing we need to get back to," he said into her ear.  

She gave him a grin and then looked back at Esperanza.  She was still looking around, her fingers clinging to a strand of her mother's hair.  

"Was your mother stubborn?" Elizabeth asked.

He was puzzled.  "Why do you ask?"

"I'm trying to figure out what Esperanza will be like.  If she is like your mother, I want to know more."

Diego was quiet for a moment, causing Elizabeth to wonder if he was going to drop this as he nearly always did when his mother came up.  But then he said, "I wouldn't say she was stubborn.  She had a strong will, and a sense of direction.  When she felt something was important she could not be dissuaded, she would hold her ground about it."  He tickled Esperanza's cheek, making the baby kick and wave gleefully again.  "Will you be like that too?" he asked her.  "Seņorita Esperanza Matilde?"

"E....M....D...L...V," Elizabeth said, poking the baby's tummy lightly with her forefinger as she said each letter. Esperanza kept giggling.  "You gave her the right name," she said to Diego.

"I felt as if she named herself, the moment I first saw her," Diego said, remembering the joy and terror of Esperanza's first few hours of life.  He chuckled again.  "I can see why my father didn't want her to leave yesterday morning."

"He adores her," Elizabeth said.  "I think he adores her even more than we do, and that is impossible!"  Every time he sees her he softens, Diego."

"That is how he was with my mother," Diego said.

"They must have been very dear to one another," she observed.

"I believe they were," Diego said.  "I was only just becoming aware of it when she..." he stopped.  But then he continued. "...when she died."

They were in extremely rare territory now.

"It is almost as if she has come back, in a way," he continued, staring down at his daughter.  "It isn't her, of course....but I feel as if she is here in a greater way, now.  Perhaps that doesn't make any sense."

"Oh, it makes sense," Elizabeth said.

Esperanza continued looking about.  Diego reached over, picked her up, and sat her on his long thigh.  "Do you want to look around some more, Esperanza?" he asked.  "Look at the pretty lake out there, see how it sparkles?  It is a place your Grandmama Matilde loved."

Esperanza had eyes only for her father.

"Daddy is very handsome, isn't he?" Elizabeth leaned over and whispered to her loudly.  "Don't you think he is the most handsome man you have ever seen?"

"He is one of the only men she has ever seen!" Diego laughed, holding her high in the air and jiggling her gently.  She giggled down at him.  He brought her back down onto his lap.  "Do you think your grandpapa is handsome?"  She giggled again.  "Oh, both of them?" he answered her.  "And how about Sergeant Garcia, what do you think about him?"  She giggled again.  "Oh, so you like big fellows?" 

"You have started with the best, the one who is holding you," Elizabeth said.

He lay back on the ground, swinging her in the air above him again.  "Look at Esperanza, upside down, in the air," he sang to her.  She waved her hands and feet, causing all three of them to laugh.

"She's going to get hungry again soon," Elizabeth said, as Diego brought her down and rested her on his chest.

He smiled.  "Then it is a good thing we brought her lunch with us."

"Lunch," Elizabeth laughed ruefully.  "That is a new name for your Seņora. I have become Seņora Lunch."  She lay down on her side, teasing the baby where she rolled on her Daddy's chest.  "Do you like that spot?" she asked, tickling her daughter.  "That is a good spot, isn't it?  Daddy has a nice big chest for his girls, doesn't he?  Do you know he has room for both of us there?  Mommie likes that spot too."

Diego sighed, stroking his daughter's back as she calmed down a little.  Her eyes went to her mother and her lips shook slightly.

Elizabeth sat up.  "Let me have her, Diego, she has that 'feed me' look."

He waited until Elizabeth was unbuttoned, and watched as she took the baby and lifted her to her chest.  Sure enough, Esperanza latched on and began nursing hungrily.

"How do you know," he asked, fascinated.

Elizabeth smiled.  "I can't explain," she said.  "Some of it is what my own body tells me, I am such a cow right now."

"You are not a cow," he stated.

She ignored him. "Some of it is the look she gets, this urgent little frown comes over her, with her lips shaking.  And of course there are the times when she starts crying and we all know, don't we, muchacha?" She looked at Diego.  "Do you want to go swimming?" she asked.

He sat up and looked out at the lake, then back to her.  "Do you mind?"

"No, we'll be fine right here.  Just don't swim away too far, in case we need you to rescue us from the bear."

He laughed.  "My musket is right on Apache's saddle, if we want bear meat for dinner."

"Oh, we don't want to shoot Seņora Bear, do we?" she asked Esperanza.  "She probably has a little muchacha bear, too.  We just want to scare her away like Tornado did."

Diego smiled as he got up, recalling the September afternoon when they had fallen asleep near this very spot after making love, only to be awakened by, as Elizabeth put it, Seņora Bear.  Thanks to Tornado, his forgetting any weapons was forgiven.  He pulled off his clothes, dropping them in a pile beside Elizabeth.  

"They'll get all wrinkled," she warned him.

"Oh, I have so many people to impress up here," he said, walking towards the lake.

She watched him go, his tall figure disappearing slowly into the water.  Then he dived and went under.

"Not too bad!" he called to her on surfacing.  

She waved at him and then saw him disappear beneath the shimmering water again.  

Elizabeth looked at the baby, then back out to the lake surface to watch Diego swim.  That he had said so much, and was so open about, Matilde de la Vega left her marvelling.  "You are bringing out things that your Daddy usually keeps hidden deep inside his heart," she told her daughter, kissing her forehead lightly.  "I think that is good for him.  So you are starting your life well as the daughter of El Zorro, Esperanza Matilde.  You are doing good deeds."


*****

The swim further relaxed him.  He emerged 20 minutes later to sit in the sunshine several yards from Elizabeth and Esperanza, letting himself dry off.  Then he rejoined them, to find Esperanza sleeping and his wife looking drowsy in the shade.  He pulled his trousers back on and sat down.

"Do you want to swim now?" he asked.

"Si, and then I want to go to sleep," came the answer.

"I'll stay here with her."

Elizabeth got up, removed her blouse and skirt, and headed for the water, dropping chemise and knickers at the water's edge.  Diego felt a ripple of desire run through him as she walked into the water, followed instantly by a ripple of alarm as he wondered suddenly if she were physically up to the cold water and exercise.  His worry was alleviated when he saw her toes and feet emerge from the water and wiggle in the air. 

"Mommie is up to her water acrobatics," he said softly to his sleeping daughter.  "Americanas do funny things," he added.

He sighed, watching as Elizabeth surfaced and began swimming further out into the lake.  The last two months were still something of a jumble, so much had happened.  Esperanza dramatically altered the landscape of their lives together. He looked down at her and realized that this one was, he hoped, the beginning of their family.  He wanted her to have brothers and sisters.  He wanted many little voices calling across the courtyard at the hacienda.  

He looked back out at the water, to spy Elizabeth floating on her back.  Is she up to it? he wondered.  Will she even want more children, after what nearly happened with this one? He tensed up again, remembering the terror he'd felt in the moments when she lay on that bed, ashen, not breathing, the newborn baby squalling outside the door, Soaring Bird trying to hard to stop the bleeding.  He looked at Esperanza again.  We will love you all the more if you are our sole little blessing, he thought.  But they were so young.  Elizabeth was barely 23, and had made a full recovery.  And sitting there, loving Esperanza no less for it, Diego de la Vega admitted to himself that he wanted a son.

*****


Elizabeth returned from the water glowing, to find Diego lying sound asleep beside the baby.  She smiled, and looked out into the woods, silently thanking Seņora Bear for staying away.  Even the rifle needs someone to shoot it, she thought.  She dried off and put her slip back on.

I think I will not have enough times of seeing you like this, she thought, gazing on her sleeping beloved.  His hand was linked protectively to Esperanza's side, so he would feel her move immediately.  She watched them for some time, trying to memorize the image and wishing she had her little sketch book along to draw them lying on the quilt beneath the trees.  It was at times like this that she thought, if only the people could see El Zorro now.  But she knew in the end that they would not want this picture of a weary man lying asleep under a few pine trees beside his little daughter.  They wanted him waving at them from the back of his great black stallion, or fighting a fierce duel with his flashing sword in the moonlight, or swinging through the cuartel on a rope to free some wrongfully accused prisoner from the jail.  This scene is ours alone, she thought.  This is the man they do not know, the brave man who dons the black and puts on the mask and draws his sword on their behalf.

She lay down next to him, resting her hand on his waist.  For a while they lay there in the quiet, listening to the pines whistle in the light breeze.  Then Diego turned over and faced her.

"How much longer do you think she will sleep?" he asked softly.

"Another hour at least," Elizabeth answered.  "She usually sleeps at least three hours in the afternoon, after..."she chuckled, "her lunch."

"I can't believe I fell asleep again," he said."

"I think this is your version of falling apart," she answered, touching his nose with her forefinger.

"At least I am not bewailing my tiredness in English!" he said with a smile.

"Do not tease me, it could happen again!" she warned.

"Then I suppose I should keep studying my English, just in case."

"It cannot hurt," she said.  "And I think Esperanza should learn English as well as Spanish."

He frowned, for this represented a sudden sour note in their tender moment.  "Why?" he asked.  

"One of her parents is English-speaking!" Elizabeth reminded him in English.

He stroked her face with his hand, his eyes going to her lips.  Elizabeth scooted closer to him.  "Perhaps this isn't the time to worry over how many languages we speak in our family," she said in Spanish.

"Right now I think the language of love will be enough," he replied.  He put his mouth over hers and gave her a long, delicious kiss.

*****

"Do you feel better?" he asked, half an hour later.

She nodded.

"So do I," he smiled, kissing her tenderly.

"We should see to the baby," she murmured.

"She's still asleep, she is just fine," he assured her.

"I need to go to sleep now," she said.

"Me too," he laughed softly.    

Esperanza made a noise.  They both sat up and looked at her at their feet on the blanket.  "Did we wake you up?" Elizabeth asked.

Esperanza looked at her mother and grimaced, getting ready to cry.

"Oh, goodness," Elizabeth said, picking her up and comforting her.  "What's the matter with my sweet girl?"  She stood up, holding the baby to her chest.

Diego watched his wife begin to sway back and forth to calm their daughter, her focus completely changed.  His moment was over.  It dawned on him fully that, from here on, he would have to share Elizabeth.