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

Chapter Four
The Unexpected


After returning to the cabin on Apache and Cloud Dancer, they changed and fed Esperanza.  They took a short siesta, recovering from their encounter in the lake.  Then Elizabeth washed herself in the stream again and took a walk while Diego started supper.  Though neither of them said it, they both knew they would return to Rancho de la Vega in the morning.  As she walked, Elizabeth thought about what lay immediately behind, and what lay ahead.  She continued to feel better.  It began nearly the moment they arrived.  She felt like herself again.  She had energy.  She could take care of the baby without exhausting herself.  And she was Diego's lover again.  El Zorro's lover again, she reminded herself. 

She suddenly wanted just to be around him, she wanted to touch him and smell him and hear his voice and feel his warmth.  She wanted to see him in the black shirt.  

She sighed.  He didn't have the black shirt here.  Then she smiled to herself.  His broad, bare chest with its soft layer of dark, curly hair would have to do.  She turned around and started back to the cabin.

*****

Alone with his daughter, Diego finished preparing the meal and then sat down in the rocker with the baby.  
She was wide awake and looking around.

"This is a good chance for us to get to know each other some, Esperanza," he told her.  "No, no, don't look around, look at me.  I'm your Papa, your Daddy."  He lifted her up and jiggled her in the air.  She smiled at him, toothless.  "That's my girl!" he laughed, bringing her back into his arms and cuddling her.  He blew kisses into her bare tummy.  "Mmmmmmmm you taste good!' he said.  He cuddled her some more, looking down into her face.  "You certainly are a de la Vega," he told her, his eyes sweeping over her dark brown hair and dark hazel eyes.  "No doubt about who your Mommie was entertaining last year!"  He laughed softly, watching her eyes move around the room.  "Are you looking for her, Ranza? I would like to see her coming through that door right now, too.  Every room is a little bit empty without her, si?  Oh, you have nothing but a yawn for your Papa?  That was a very big yawn, too, are you going to go to sleep?  You have been awake for a while, and you inspired me with the cooking, Mommie and I will have a good roasted chicken thanks to you and Bernardo.  Oh, goodbye pretty eyes, hiding behind those pretty lids and those long black lashes...." he rocked in the chair as she drifted off to sleep.  "How about that, and I did not even have to sing to you," he said to her softly.  "My little Ranza, how we love you.  We didn't expect you quite so soon, I will confess.  I am going to tell you a little story. Right out in front of this cabin, by the stream, your Mommie and I sat under a blanket on a beautiful, starry night and ate a fish together.  And Mommie told me she wanted to wait two years before we had a baby.  And I was so silly I thought we could do that, wait two years! But I guess you had other ideas, didn't you?" He lowered his voice to a whisper, seeing that the baby was now sound asleep.  "In fact I will tell you a secret:  I think we probably already made you when she said that to me.  Whoever you grow up to be, Esperanza, I want you always to know that Mommie and I love each other and it was our love that made you." 

He stared into his daughter's face.  He saw himself, he saw his mother.  He saw Elizabeth in the shape of her face and her pert little nose and the way her brows arched above her almond-shaped eyes.  "No doubt about where you came from," he murmured to her again.  He heard a footstep and looked up, to see Elizabeth standing in the doorway.

"Now it is my turn to say 'the most beautiful sight in the world,'" she said, looking at them.

He smiled.  "She went to sleep without any crying," he said softly.

Elizabeth nodded.  "Shall we put her in her nest?"  She came and reached for the baby.  

Diego gave her over, reluctantly.  "Holding her is such a pleasure," he said, watching as Elizabeth laid her on the blanket at the foot of the bed.  "She feels so...." he searched.  "She feels so alive and warm and beautiful and helpless all at the same time.  She needs us so much." He paused, and then corrected himself.  "She needs you."

Elizabeth shook her head.  "She needs both of us."

Diego smiled.  "You are too kind, Seņora, but I think she probably would not know the difference if I were here or not, at this point."

"She would know," Elizabeth said.  

He got up and came over to her, putting his hand on her back and pulling her into his arms.  He stood there holding on to her.  "I am not quite ready to go back yet," he said, his lips in her hair.

"You want to sleep more?"

He laughed softly.  "I think I have finally caught up on the sleep.  I am not sure I have had enough of you yet, however."

"You know how to find me at home," she teased him.

"It isn't the same."

"No, we have no servants to hand her off to once in a while!"

"I tell you, it isn't the same.  We are interrupted all the time, the rancho and the herds need attention, Father is around all the time, your father and Clementia and the Sergeant and even Consuelo show up regularly..."

"Consuelo!" Elizabeth huffed, pushing him away and going to the stove.  "Ooooo, this smells good."

"It will be very good.  Your daughter inspired me to roast the chicken. And do not be hard on Consuelo, Elizabeth, she has a hard life."

"Oh, Diego, how can you be so forgiving, she knocked you out and gave you a bad concussion!"

He shrugged.  "What is there to hold against her?  She was...being imaginative!"

Elizabeth squinted at him.  "You rather fancy her, don't you?"

Diego rolled his eyes.  "Fancy her?" he repeated.

"Yes, you think she is pretty and you like her."

"Well yes, she's pretty, everyone thinks she is pretty.  I don't know if I like her or not, I barely know her!"

Elizabeth folded her arms, looking at him.  "Liar."

"I can't believe you are doing this," he said, coming over to her.  "We have been up here for two days with our brand new baby, making love with each other as if we are newlyweds," he pointed northward, towards the lake above them, "and all of a sudden you are accusing me of some...interest in another woman!"

"Why else would you be so forgiving?" she asked.

"Because I am by nature a forgiving man!' he exclaimed.  He put his hands in the air.  "I do not know what gets into you sometimes!"

She repressed a smile, and went over to him, putting her hands on his hips.  "You," she said softly.

"Not often enough, if this is what you think!" he exclaimed.

She looked up into his face.  "Don't be mad at me, Seņor Zorro," she said.

"I am not mad at you, I am trying to understand you," he said, starting to feel lost in her beautiful ocean eyes.  They had a twinkle to them this afternoon.  "You are just doing this, aren't you," he said suspiciously.  

She smiled at him, shaking her head ambiguously, shaking his hips from side to side.  "I want you to come out and play with me, Seņor Zorro," she said.  

"Oh, you want to play?" he asked, feeling a surge of his own mischief.  "Then come with me, Seņora, and we shall play."  He grabbed her hand with one of his, and reached for his sheathed sword with the other.  He pulled Elizabeth out onto the porch and to the front of the cabin.

"Diego, we need to keep an eye on the baby," she half-laughed as he hauled her outdoors.

"She will be fine, we will hear her if she needs anything," he replied.  He unsheathed the sword and put it in her hand.  "All right," he said.  "Show me your salute, Seņora, and then take your position."

Elizabeth laughed.

"I am serious, you will have no supper, not one bite of roast chicken, until you have shown me you can salute, and take your en garde position, and parry."

"En garde?" she repeated. 

"Si, you may be very hungry before this lesson is finished."

"Oh, Diego...."

He stopped her with a look.

"But...."

He gave her the look again. 

She sighed, and held up the sword before her, to begin working on her salute.

***** 

She retired shortly before he did to nurse the baby in bed.  She was just dozing off when the bed shifted suddenly and she felt him beside her.  

"She's asleep," Elizabeth whispered.

"Then let me put her in her nest."

"No, let's keep her with us, right next to us tonight.  It is nice for all three of us to be here together sometimes."

"I suppose it is all right tonight, I will be asleep soon myself," he said, stretching out on his back.

"We wore ourselves out this afternoon," Elizabeth laughed softly.

"With the fencing lesson, or that other thing we did?"

She laughed again.  "I was thinking of that other thing.  Although you did make me work hard with that sword!  The silver one, I mean."

He chuckled, too.  "We seem to wear ourselves out up here, one way or another." 

They were quiet for a while, and Elizabeth scooted down under the covers beside him, settling Esperanza between them.  

"When we get home we have a lot to do," he said, touching the baby's face lightly with his little finger.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"It is time to fully break Blanca and train her for you to ride. You are certainly up to that now.  And I want to teach you, truly teach you, how to use the sword, darling, and how to shoot my guns."

"Shoot?" she repeated.

"Si, I think you should learn."

"Why?"

"We are in a dangerous world and I am not always home," he said.  "My father is getting older....the Mexicans will come.  We have already been through kidnaps and...." his voice trailed off, as they both recalled the night Diablo tried to rape her.    

"But nothing has happened since those gypsies..." Elizabeth started.

"Something new will happen," he told her.  "It always does."

"Nothing has happened in months!" 

"Nothing has happened since the baby was born, and that is because we both stayed home.  Are you seriously telling me that you are going to stay home all the time now that you are up and around and she can be bundled up and go places with you?"

"Well..." Elizabeth started.

He raised an eyebrow, his eyes widening skeptically.

She sighed.  "Not likely."

"That's right," he said.  "And I want you to have some ability to defend yourself...and her...in case of the unexpected.   I'm going to teach you how to untie knots, too, when you are tied up from behind."

She sighed.  "I would rather be around you."

He smiled at her.  "That is nice to hear, and much of the time we will make it so.  But the more I hear from our fat Sergeant the more I fear the El Zorro's return from Monterey is real and permanent."

She touched his cheek.  "Then the rumors will start again."

"Oh, I don't know," he said.  "We are going to be entertaining again and showing her off everywhere we can, and thanks to your father there is that rumor about El Zorro and the gypsy..."

She waited for him to finish, and ran her finger down the crease beside his mouth that dimpled when he smiled.  "The rumors will start again," she repeated.

He sighed, but could not resist trying to nip her finger. "Perhaps no one will ever see El Zorro with Seņora de la Vega again.  Or perhaps I should now say, with Doņa Elizabeth."

She shook her head at him, a soft smile on her lips.

He held her gaze for a moment, trying to win, but then shook his head, nodding in surrender.  At the same time, they both said, "The rumors will start again."

"I think El Zorro needs some sort of splendid re-entry event," she mused.  "That little tiff in the pueblo last week can hardly do."

"His appearances cannot be legislated," Diego reminded her.

"True, but in addition to his sense of justice he also has a sense of humor," she said.  "The pueblo is having a summer bazaar next week...with a torch parade at sunset."   She smiled mischievously.

"No punch!" Diego said firmly.

She feigned a disappointed pout, and then said, "But El Zorro might make an unscheduled appearance!"

"I take it that Doņa Elizabeth and her little girl will be at this parade."

"Oh, si," she answered cheerfully.  "Clementia has asked us to sit on the wagon representing our Lady of the Pueblo."

Diego laughed.  "And is our Esperanza to be the baby Jesus?"

"No, just a happy baby girl in the hands of the Blessed Mother, I being a blessed mother portraying the Blessed Mother!"

He laughed again.  "Don't you think it would be better for Don Diego to be there to cheer his little family?"

"Oh, so you shall portray poor Joseph, who had to stand aside for the Holy Ghost?" she giggled.

Then she stopped laughing, and both of them had a sobering moment.  Given the rumors, it was in an odd way almost true, in an of-the-earth sort of way.  Many believed that Don Diego had stepped aside for El Zorro when it came to who was the true father of the little girl asleep between them. 

Diego broke the silence, shrugging it off.  "I will tell you what," he chuckled.  "If you will let me teach you about the sword and the gun, I will put in a good word for you with El Zorro, about this torchlight parade."

"Ah, we are making a bargain," she said.

"Of sorts," he said.

******

It was just after dawn that Diego awoke, so he knew it was around 5:00.  Aside from birds twittering and stirring, everything was quiet.  He half sat up, to see Esperanza sleeping soundly at their feet.  Elizabeth was on her back asleep beside him.  She looked relaxed and luscious, her hair drifting on her shoulders. He could never resist her in this state, and he loved waking her up slowly.  This they had not done since before the baby was born. He took a lock of her hair between his fingers, feeling the silky softness.  It made him shut his eyes, the texture was so exquisite.  Opening his eyes, he gently pulled the sheet down and untied the ribbon at the top of her gown. 

She sighed, her hand coming to the back of his head.

"Don't wake up completely," he whispered to her.

"I won't," she whispered back, stroking his hair.

* * * * * *  	

Half an hour later, her parents motionless at last, Esperanza made a cooing sound.  Elizabeth reacted instantly by starting to sit up, but Diego held her against him.  "She's fine," he assured her.

"But..."

He eyed her.  "She's fine. She's just having a little conversation with herself."

"She might be hungry."

"She knows how to tell us when she's hungry.  We just startled her a little, now she's fine.  Let's go back to sleep for a little while."  He cuddled her tightly.

Elizabeth relaxed, giving in to his persistence.  "Go back to sleep, Esperanza," she whispered, closing her eyes and laying her forehead against her husband's strong chest.

He stroked her hair and shoulder as he felt her start to drift to sleep.  The mysterious feeling of peace and possession he had back when he first made love to her was overtaking him again.  His beloved was his again.  He dozed off too.		

*****    

Another hour passed.  Elizabeth awoke first.  Esperanza whimpered.  Diego continued sleeping like a stone.  Pulling herself away from his embrace, Elizabeth smiled to see his deep sleep.  "You wore yourself out," she whispered to him, kissing his cheek lightly, "and it was good."  His head moved slightly but he didn't open his eyes.

She sighed, leaning over the baby.  Instantly the smell greeting her announced that Esperanza needed to be changed.

"We are a messy pair," she whispered to her daughter.  She pulled on a robe and, removed Esperanza's dirty diaper.  Then they went to the rocking chair, where Elizabeth sat quietly as the baby nursed blissfully.  Elizabeth watched her, she realized she was beginning to get to know her little girl.  She had moods, certain things upset her, other things comforted her, there were things she especially liked and other things that didn't interest her.  How can that be, when you are still so little? she wondered.     

"Daddy," she said softly to Esperanza, "is still asleep.  Some day a man will come into your life, my sweet, and you will understand why Mommie and Daddy are so happy." She bent over and kissed her daughter's forehead.  They continued rocking until the baby finished.  

"Now," Elizabeth said, "we need to go to the stream and clean ourselves up.  We'll just let Daddy sleep."

Grabbing a few clean towels, she took Esperanza outside into the bright morning light and made her way to the deep water hole in the rippling brook. Dropping her robe, she sank down and rinsed herself with one hand, holding the baby with the other.  Then she lowered herself into the water, bringing the baby with her.  Esperanza's eyes widened and she frowned, finding her bottom in the chilly stream.  

"What's the matter, muchacha?" Elizabeth laughed, lifting the baby and dipping her again.  "Is that water too cold for you? Do you need Mommie to warm it up for you in the big kettle on the stove?"  She rubbed Esperanza's behind lightly.  "How's that?  Is that warmer when the water is in Mommie's hand first and then we wash the baby?  Oh, do I see a little smile?  Is that better for..."

What happened next was nearly instantaneous.  Elizabeth stopped mid-sentence, hearing a gunshot followed immediately by a blood-curdling screeching sound and a scrambling thud very close to where she sat in the stream.  In the second it took her to jerk around, yanking Esperanza to her chest protectively, another gunshot rang out.  Finishing her turn, Elizabeth saw a mountain cat crumpled on the ground less than ten feet away.  Beyond it, standing on the porch with his musket raised to his shoulder was her bare-chested husband. He looked around, re-filling the barrel hastily.  Then he ran to them as Elizabeth rose out of the water, still holding Esperanza tightly to her chest.  He pulled them both against him, looking around in case the cat had a mate.  Elizabeth, seeing the fierce, dead animal beyond them, burst into tears.

"Oh my God," she wept, "Diego, oh my God."

"It's all right," he said to her, "everything is all right.  It's dead."

Sensing her mother's upset, Esperanza began to wail.  

"Shhhhh, shhhhh," Diego said, taking the baby and trying to pull Elizabeth's robe around her even as he held onto the rifle.  "We're all fine.  Come, let's go back in the house.  Everything is all right."

Elizabeth let him lead her towards the house, but she paused as they passed the cat.  It was huge.  "Diego," she said weakly, "It could have killed me and eaten her..." she sobbed, horrified.

Putting the musket down, he walked them quickly back into the house, holding Elizabeth against him with one arm and keeping the baby scooped against his chest with the other.   Once they were all safely inside, he went back out long enough to retrieve the gun.  After that he moved quickly to diaper Esperanza.  Then he put her into his wife's arms and sat down, pulling Elizabeth into his lap so he could hold them both.  He let Elizabeth cry, stroking her hair with his hand.

"I can't believe I didn't hear it," she finally said, deeply shaken.  

"They are silent creatures," Diego said to her, brushing her hair with his lips.  Now that was over he, too, was aghast at what could have occurred.

"Did you hear it?" she asked him.

"I heard you leave the house with the baby and I got up to keep an eye on you," he said softly.  "I saw it come into the clearing and approach you.  That gave me time to get the gun and get a good aim before it pounced."

Elizabeth shivered.  "I think we were better off with Seņora Bear," she said, still upset.

Diego half-laughed.  Her sense of humor rarely failed her, even in a crisis.  "Yes, I suppose we are learning more than we wish about the creatures we share the forest with," he said.  He shut his eyes, kissing her head.  "It is a lesson for me, not to let you go out like that when the animals are greatly tempted."

"I want to go home," she said, putting her head into his shoulder.  "Diego, Esperanza could have been..."

"Hush," he said gently, interrupting her.  "Nothing is going to eat Esperanza or carry her away, or her mother either.  Not as long as El Zorro is watching over them."

She sniffled.  "Once again you have saved me, and our baby too."

Diego hugged her tightly.  It could indeed have been a disaster, had he not awakened and followed his strange gut feeling that they needed looking after as they headed out the door.  The thought of losing both of them was so impossible to accommodate that he put it out of his mind.  The cat was dead and they were safe in his arms where they belonged.

Chapter Five
Transitions

Diego spent a good hour comforting his family in the wake of the mountain lion's attack.  Esperanza refused to be put down without inconsolable crying.  When she finally fell asleep and he tried to move her to the bed in order to concentrate on her mother, the baby awoke and began crying again.  So, he held both of them in his lap, even after Esperanza fell back asleep.

"I am afraid to let go of her," Elizabeth murmured.  

"She probably senses that and doesn't want you to.  But we do not have to go anywhere just yet," he replied, his chin on Elizabeth's head where it rested on his shoulder.    

"I have never had feelings like that in my life, when I realized something could happen to her," Elizabeth said quietly. "Diego, we have brought another person into the world."

"I know," he whispered, his eyes on their sleeping daughter.  He kissed his beloved's hair.  

"It is such a...responsibility," she said.

"Si.  And also a joy."

"But how do we protect her, how do we make sure she grows up healthy, and happy? How?"

He took a deep breath.  "We do it one day and one hour at a time, sweetheart.  That is all we can do.  When we see a wonderful lake we take her swimming in it and if she is hungry we feed her and if we see a mountain lion leaping at her we shoot it, and if she tells us she wants to move to Boston we say no, you have to stay here with us."

Elizabeth laughed.  

He smiled, seeing he had lured her a little way out of her upset. "What do you think, shall I make us some breakfast before we leave?" he asked.  

He felt her head nod under his chin.

"Good," he said.  "But it does mean you will have to get up.  Do so gently, darling, or we will risk...." he chuckled, "the family jewels."

"I don't want to move," she said, snuggling deeper into his arms. Esperanza sighed in her sleep.  "Yes, we are in a very safe place now, sweetheart," she whispered to her daughter.

Diego squeezed her gently and then nudged at her to get up.  "I don't know about you, but I really am hungry," he told her.

She eased away from him carefully and got to her feet, keeping the baby with her.  "Look at this," she said.  "I don't know how it is that sometimes she will sleep through anything and other times we cannot get her to sleep, or she wakes up if a feather drops to the floor."

Diego got up and went to the kitchen area, where he started the wood fire in the stove.  "It is a mystery," he said as he worked.  "I have noticed, I must say, that she goes to sleep much faster and is more likely to sleep through things if one of us is holding her."

"Do you think that is because it is warmer?" Elizabeth asked.

"No," he laughed, poking the wood in the stove.  He looked at her, standing there holding the sleeping baby.  "I think it is because she likes being held!  What baby doesn't?"

"I don't know, I've never been around any except this one!"

He looked at her in surprise.  "Never?"

"No, never!"

He shook his head in amazement.  

"When have you been around babies?" she asked.

"All the time," he said.  "We had Indians and other servants around all the time, they had babies. I played with them, I carried them around...my mother was a midwife to many of them.  When you grow up in a pueblo the size of Los Angeles, everyone knows everyone else's children from the time they are very small."  He shrugged, breaking several eggs and dumping them into a bowl. 

"So that is where you learned how to deliver babies, from your mother?"

"More from Windhawk's mother...but the fact that my mother did it a lot left me more inclined to it, I suppose.  It seemed like a natural thing to know."  He smiled as he stirred the eggs.  "Now, I did not ever tell my father much about it.  I was quite surprised he made no objection when I went straight for your room when she was coming."

Elizabeth sat down at the table, still holding the sleeping baby.  "He wasn't with your mother when you were born?"

"Hardly!  He told me once it was the longest night of his life.  The midwife brought me out to him after I was born, at dawn."

"You were born at dawn?" Elizabeth asked.

"Si, that is what they told me."

"No wonder you wake up the minute the early sun breathes a hint in the sky."

He poured the eggs into the skillet and turned to slice bread.  "Lifelong habit," he said.

Elizabeth looked down at Esperanza.  "You were an evening baby," she said.  "I suppose that is going to make you our little night owl."

Diego looked over at them, feeling a sense of relief.  "Let me hold her," he said.

"But you're cooking!"

"I can cook and hold her at the same time," he said.  "Maybe she will learn to be a good cook if she is around cooking from the time she is little."

Elizabeth got up and handed the baby to her father.  "Then take her, she will never get that from me," she said.  She sat back down and watched as he managed the eggs, the bread, and their sleeping Esperanza.  "I am having another moment of thinking, 'if they could see El Zorro now,'" she remarked.

Diego laughed.  "Oh, the secrets we must keep!" he said to Esperanza.  The baby opened her eyes and looked up at him, slightly startled.  "Did I scare you with that big laugh?" he asked.

She blinked a few times, focused on him, and smiled.

"You liked that?" he asked her. "Or are you just giving me a big wake-up smile after your little nap?"  He put his spoon down and held her up in the air.  "Do you really want to wake up, or are you just checking on Mommie and Daddy to see if we are behaving?" Esperanza sighed, her eyes wandering around.  "Are you looking for Mommie?" he asked her.  "Are you hungry?"  He looked at Elizabeth.  "Could she be hungry again already?"

"I don't think so...."  She came over to them.  Esperanza saw her mother and lit up.  "Oh, were you just looking for me?" Elizabeth asked with a big smile.

"Here, you take her," he said.  "I can finish this and we can eat."

Elizabeth took the baby back.  Esperanza closed her eyes again as soon as she was settled in her mother's arms.  After swaying for a while as the baby went back to sleep, Elizabeth put her in the center of the bed.  This time she didn't wake up.  Elizabeth watched for a moment, then came back and began setting dishes on the table.  "I think she is over her shock now," she said.

"Are you?" he asked, putting the eggs on the plates she supplied.  They carried the plates to the table and sat down.  

"Diego, I don't think I will ever get used to the life we are living," she told him.  "I grew up in a big city in a good family and I was brought up to marry well and live my life easily."

"Are you telling me you don't think you married well?" he asked, feigning indignance.

She made a face at him. "I married extremely well," she answered.  "As did you!  My point is that we are not leading the life I expected to be living.  In a city.  Instead I am living on the edge of a desert with a man who is likely to disappear at night or carry me away into the wilderness for days at a time or put me on a horse and lead me to...to China!"

"China?" he repeated after swallowing.  He looked down at his plate.  "Good eggs."

"Far away places!"  She took a bite of food.  "Yes, very good," she said.

"I thought you liked adventure."

"In just over a year I have been shot at, kidnapped, nearly raped, chased by a bear, attacked by a mountain lion, imprisoned by gypsies..."

"No," he interrupted, "I was the one imprisoned by gypsies."

"In hiding from gypsies," she corrected herself, "right as I was about to give birth...."

"But how many women can say all these things?" he asked her.  "Your father once told me you wanted to be a pirate, and I believed him!"

"A pirate?" she repeated.  "When did he tell you that?"

"Right after we met!  At the dinner where your father said he was surprised they got you to Los Angeles on the ship intact!"

Elizabeth rolled her eyes.  "I don't remember that."

"I do.  That remark would have caused me great embarrassment had I been required to stand up right after it was made!  You don't remember when he talked about the sailors?"

"I remember that!  I just don't remember anything about pirates."

"It was before you came down for dinner."

"Why are we talking about pirates?"

"Because I took it to mean you had a sense of adventure!  Which I think you do!"

"Not if it is going to get me and our baby killed!"

"Nobody is going to get killed, sweetheart."  He sighed.  He had no idea what to do when their conversations suddenly careened out of control.  "Do you wish you lived in a big city again?" he asked her. "Is that what you are telling me?"

"No," she answered.  "I love California.  And if we live long enough we will have cities right here.  All I am saying is I don't think I will ever get used to all of it.  Bandits. Bears.  Mountain lions.  Gypsies.  Zorro. "

"You wanted Zorro," he reminded her.  

"I did," she sighed.

"Do you still want him?"

"Very much," she sighed.  "Though I wonder if I will ever see him again."  

"You will see him again," Diego promised.

*****
  
After breakfast, Diego packed up the carriage and left the rest to Bernardo and the other servants. As they rode in their carriage back towards Rancho de la Vega, Esperanza sleeping peacefully, they talked quietly, resuming their breakfast discussion.  The mountain lion incident convinced Elizabeth that Diego was right about her needing to learn to defend herself - "not that I would have been able to in that situation!" she added as they made their way home. 

"I blame myself," Diego told her.  "I should have realized it was an open invitation.  We can manage up there fine as long as I am paying attention."  He smiled at her.  "I seem always to be distracted when I am with you!"

"I cannot imagine why," she said with mock innocence.  She looked down at the baby.  "Can you think of anything, Esperanza?"  She looked at Diego.  "When she is asleep like this it feels as if she gains ten pounds, she gets so heavy."

"It is because she is completely relaxed," Diego said, looking down at their daughter.  "It worked out all right, didn't it, to have her with us?"

"Yes, but she is a lot of work," Elizabeth said.  "I will be glad to see Maria."

"You are always glad to see Maria."

"She makes my life much easier."

"Are you saying that I do not make your life easier, darling?"

"You make my life more colorful, my love.  Maria makes it easier."

"Ah."  He flicked the reins to encourage the horses to speed up.  "Then we shall have to get home to her as quickly as possible."

"I am glad we made the journey, Diego," she said, putting her hand over his.  "In spite of that big cat.  Esperanza is a lot of work, but it is good not to have interruptions all the time.  At home, even when she is asleep someone is always knocking on our door. It was good for you to have so much sleep, that would never have happened at home.  And it was good for us...to have some time together."  She looked down at Esperanza.  "And good for you, to have your first swim!"

He smiled at his wife.  "Si, it was good," he agreed.

*****

Alejandro was overjoyed to see them pull into the stable yard.  Reaching instantly for his granddaughter, he was greeted with a big, toothless smile.

"Ohhhhh," he said, smiling back down into her face.  "You have grown at least a foot since you went away!"

Elizabeth laughed as Diego lifted her out of the carriage.  "She is fed and changed, and just awake from her afternoon nap," she told her father-in-law.  "Would you like to entertain her for a while?"

"I am not sure who will entertain whom, but I will certainly keep her if you can part with her!" Alejandro replied.  He looked down at his granddaughter.  "I don't understand why they would let you out of their sight!  Don't they know I might kidnap you and carry you away to Peru?"

"You will not get her that far, Father," Diego laughed.  "My horse is faster than yours!"

"So is mine!" Elizabeth added.

Alejandro scowled at them, and then looked back at Esperanza. "I suspect we can get as far as the duck pond without them," he told her.  The baby responded with a cooing sound.  "Oh, how I missed you!" he told her as he carried her away.

Elizabeth and Diego watched him go, and smiled at each other.  Bernardo appeared from the courtyard.

"Ah," Diego said.  "Can you make sure everything is cleaned up at the cabin?" 

Bernardo nodded.  Elizabeth smiled at him and headed towards the courtyard, where she saw Maria coming her way.

"You will see the carcass of a big mountain cat," Diego warned him quietly.  "Might be worth a good skin, if Indians don't find it first."

Bernardo looked alarmed, pointing at him.  

"No, I shot it," he said.  "It was after them," he nodded in Elizabeth's direction.  "Don't tell my father, or he will forbid us going up there again.  I cannot have that."

Bernardo nodded.  He pointed at Elizabeth and then in the direction Alejandro and Esperanza had gone.  He looked at Diego with worry.

"They are both fine," Diego assured him.  "It was a lesson learned.  Just get up there in the morning and take care of it.  I do not know when we might want to use it again.  And Bernardo, when you get back, I want you to go into the pueblo with me.  We are going to find a good sword for Elizabeth."

Bernardo looked at him, baffled.

"Si, I am teaching her how to fence.  And how to shoot a gun."

Bernardo's eyes widened.  He made the sign of the "Z" questioningly.

"Si, El Zorro will still watch out for her.  For both of them.  But I am realizing I cannot be in two places at once.  And I have a wife who is...independent.  She won't stay here on the rancho all the time."

Bernardo nodded in sympathetic agreement with that. 

"You begin to see why I believe this must be done."

Bernardo nodded again.  His eyes returned to Elizabeth, as she and Maria disappeared through the bedroom door.  He held his hand up as if he were fencing and whisked his arm back and forth efficiently several times, then pointed in Elizabeth's direction.

"Si, I think she will be good at it too," Diego agreed.  "If I can just get her to concentrate!  She is always being distracted by the baby or some flower or a cloud in the sky.  Yesterday afternoon she gave me a beautiful salute, but not until I had pestered her for an hour!"  He held his hands up helplessly.  "I have been married for a year, Bernardo, and I still do not understand her very much."  He paused and then added, "She is a very great mystery, my seņora.  I suppose that is one of the reasons I cannot do without her."

Bernardo wagged his head, agreeing.  He made a cradling gesture with his hands and then put his hands on his hips, making a sharp, alert face.

"Si, anything that might threaten Esperanza would cause her to concentrate, that is certain," he agreed.  They began walking towards the hacienda. Diego looked around, realizing everything was quiet.  "This is very strange," he said, pausing.  

Bernardo stopped, too. 

"Why is it so quiet?" Diego asked.

Bernardo looked around and shrugged.  He waved in various directions, indicating that everyone else was busy in some other part of the house.

Diego shrugged, too.  "We went away because everything is busy here and we have come home to absolutely nothing going on."  He sighed.  "I suppose that is only temporary, though."  He looked up to his bedroom door.  "Perhaps I should take my siesta while peace is upon us.  It never lasts very long around here, eh?"

Bernardo smiled, nodding in agreement. 

"Say," Diego asked.  "What is the news from San Pedro?  How is Lolita?"

Bernardo simply smiled, putting his hand over his heart.  Diego grinned back, and felt for a cigar in his pocket.  "Sweet, eh?"

Bernardo nodded.

"Then I shall make you take some time off soon, to go and visit her," Diego said, heading for the stairs.  On the first step he looked about.  Everything was still quiet.  "Bernardo," he said.  "If you see my father coming with Esperanza, you tell him to keep her for a while longer, will you?"

Bernardo smiled and waved Diego up the stairs.   

*****

"Liz, Liz..." he whispered gently.

"Mmmmmm?"

He kissed her bare shoulder.  "Wake up."

She jerked up suddenly.  "Where is Esperanza?"

"She is all right, darling, she is still with my father."

"She has to be hungry!  How long was I asleep?"

"Only an hour, she is fine. I wanted to talk with you just a little."

"Talk about what?" she asked.

"Come here, lie down next to me."  He pulled at her.

"Diego she has to be hungry...."

"Then stay there, I will find her and bring her to you."  He got up, pulled on his clothes and left the room.  

Elizabeth lay there trying to wake up.  They had fallen asleep cuddled tightly together and she had been dreaming about something.  Esperanza was in the dream. Something was stalking her.  The feelings began to come back.  It was dark and something was coming towards the baby and Elizabeth could not see it and did not know where to aim the gun she was holding.  

She blinked, trying to push the horrible feeling away.  Tears came into her eyes.    

The bedroom door opened again and Diego entered, carrying Esperanza.  Elizabeth sat back up and reached for her, sniffling.

"Honey, what's the matter?" he asked, sitting next to her and putting the baby in her hands.

"I had a bad dream," Elizabeth answered, putting Esperanza to her breast.  "Hello, sweetheart," she whispered.  

Diego ran his hand over her hair.  Then he put his arm around her and waited for peace to descend for mother and daughter.  He leaned over to see the baby.  "How is she doing?"

"She is doing one of the things she does best," Elizabeth said softly, touching the baby's cheek.

Diego put his chin on her shoulder, looking down at the baby.  "I'm sorry you had a bad dream," he said.  "I should have awakened you sooner.  I got up and went downstairs to talk with Father and the time got away."

"My dream was about her, she was in the dark and something was stalking her, and I had a gun but I didn't know where to aim it....it was terrifying."

He kissed her neck.  "I think we need more dreams of swimming and beautiful horses watching us from the shore.  Do you remember that dream?  It was one you told me about the first time we were up at the cabin."

"Si, I remember that," she said.  She looked at him.  "It was the morning after you told me you were El Zorro."

"He is still watching over you," he said, brushing her hair away from her ear with his fingers.

She tried to smile, and looked down at their baby. 

"He is watching over Esperanza, too," he added.  

"Si, I count on that," Elizabeth said.

They were quiet for a little while.

"Darling I need to go into the pueblo tonight, is that all right?" he asked her.

"What for?"

"I just think I should...Father says there is talk of a new commandante arriving.  I suppose perhaps the governor is taking another stab at trying to keep order while this transition into Mexico's hands takes place."

"That will take years."

"Si, and that is why I need to pay attention."

She looked around at him.  "And are you paying attention as Don Diego, or as El Zorro?"

"Don Diego tells El Zorro everything," he smiled.  "But El Zorro does rely on Don Diego to have something to tell."

Elizabeth smiled.  "Then I suppose you will have to go to the Tavern tonight and sit about with our Sergeant and his lancers to see what news you can pry out of the military."

"I hate to leave you...."

"Do not lie, Diego.  I know you are bored with staying home.  So am I."

"We have just been away!"

"Si...." she agreed.  "But you miss the life in the pueblo, at the Tavern..." her eyes narrowed slightly.  "You probably miss all those gypsies, too."

"I do not miss the gypsies!" he exclaimed.  He paused, and then added, "I suppose I miss the sergeant's stories about them, however."

"I cannot believe they are still in our jail after nearly three months."

"It could be three more.  Unless of course Sergeant Garcia releases them on good behavior."

"He had better not release them!  Not after what that Ishtar did to you!"

"Oh, that was nothing, it was just a little scratch."

"It was not a scratch!" she contradicted.  "You have a new bright red scar thanks to that awful man.  He would gladly have cut your head off if he had been a better swordsman."

"He is a very good swordsman," Diego admitted.  "Better than I have faced in a while.  Speaking of which, we must go to the box canyon in the morning, Elizabeth, for your next fencing lesson."

"Tomorrow?" she said.  "But there is so much to do!  I must unpack, I want to take Esperanza into the pueblo, I have to visit my gardens..."

"Fencing and working with Blanca," he interrupted.  "You do want to ride your own horse some day, don't you?"

"Of course!  But not necessarily tomorrow!"

He sighed.  "It will be time to go downstairs for supper soon," he told her.  "I think your father is coming over.  I have some letters to write, I will be in the library."  He got up.

"I will be down in a little while," she said.  "Say bye bye to Daddy, Esperanza," she said.  

The baby continued her nursing.  

*****

Diego and Bernardo made their way to the Tavern in the pueblo in darkness, leaving Elizabeth with Alejandro, Carlos and the baby after supper.  Esperanza was on her Grandpapa Carlos's knee at the moment they departed, bouncing as her mother sang a little song about ponies.  

"I do have moments of wondering if adult conversation is gone forever in the household," Diego mused to his manservant as they rode.  "Everything we do or say seems to be to or about Esperanza."

Bernardo raised his eyebrows, nodding.  

"I wonder if it was like that when I was very small," Diego said.  "It has never occurred to me before, that my arrival might have changed things for my parents. Or Elizabeth, I wonder how having her changed things for Carlos and Catherine.  It is an astonishing thing, Bernardo, to have a baby.  I never thought about how it might make everything different.  It has....made everything different."

Bernardo nodded again.  

"It is different for everyone in the household now, isn't it?" Diego observed.

Bernardo nodded again, but then he smiled. 

"In a good way, you say?"

Bernardo nodded.  He pointed at his ring finger and then at Diego, and then made the cradling motion.

"Ah, Elizabeth made things change, and Esperanza too, for the good?"

Bernardo nodded.

"I cannot imagine my life without either of them now," he said, "but..."

Bernardo looked at him sharply.

"I know, I know, I should not be saying any buts..."

Bernardo nodded.

"But..." he insisted, "it is a very great challenge."

Bernardo shrugged a concession.

"Nothing is carefree anymore," Diego said.  

His servant looked at him a bit crossly.

"Well, I know I wanted to get married, and I know we had a baby very soon, but..."

Bernardo yanked his horse to a stop, causing Diego to stop too.  Bernardo pointed at him, and then at his ring finger, and then made a cradling motion, and then gestured all around at the rocky, darkened landscape.  Then he put his hands on his hips indignantly.

"You think I have everything and yet I am complaining," Diego said.

This brought about a vigorous nod.  

Diego laughed ruefully.  "You are right, my friend.  As usual."

Nodding, Bernardo kicked his horse's sides again, resuming their journey.

Chapter Six
"El Zorro is Back"

"I will need the baby soon."

"Si, and she will need you. But not quite yet. Don't move."

"Just let me...."

"Don't move."

"But there is so much to...."

"It is siesta. Shhhhh."

"Darling it is past siesta! We have been in here for two hours."

"Be quiet. I can't do this if you are going to talk all the time."

"We shouldn't be doing this now."

"So do I. Will you please stop talking? I can't...."

"Ow, don't.....ah, that's better, that feels right."

"Hold on....."

"Ow...ouch...."

"Good, sweetheart. Hold your breath if you need to."

"Diego!"

"What?! This is not exactly... new!"

"Don't, don't.....ow! You keep sticking me!"

"Oh, Elizabeth.  I told you to be still.  I think it's torn."

"I told you we should have waited for Elena.  She is such a good seamstress."

"I love this dress, I wanted to see you in it again!"

"I know, darling, but you...." she began laughing, "you tell me not to get into the kitchen because I cannot cook and then you turn around and want to see how to mend a dress I have not been able to wear in over six months!  You ripped all the buttons off yourself!"  She wagged her finger at him.  "You are not a seamstress!"

"I know, I am only an impatient man who wishes to see his wife in her prettiest dress!"  He sighed.  "And I loved ripping off all those buttons.  I just thought I could help put them back...but I...." he sighed again, letting go of her waist where he was trying to pin things back into order.

"This is not my prettiest dress," she said, pulling the dark green brocade off.  "The silver one is.  But this is the right one to wear for the summer bazaar torchlight parade.  This is more fitting for carrying about our sleeping beauty."

"Do you think she will sleep?"

"No," Elizabeth laughed, "But I think she will have a good time."

He sat on the bed, watching as she took off the dress and put on a blouse and her blue skirt.  "Do you think she knows how to have a good time, when she is so little?" he asked.

"Of course she does!  She laughs, she smiles, she shows us when she is unhappy and when she needs something!  How can you ask that?"

He shrugged, lying back on the rumpled bed.  "I think you understand her better than I do.  I tried to play with her this morning in the courtyard and all she did was cry."

"She had a dirty diaper!"  She went over and sat down beside him.  "Diego, what is wrong?"

He was silent for a while.  Finally he said, "You spend all your time with her."

"I have just been in here with you for two hours!"

"This is the first two hours we have had together since we got back from the cabin a week ago."

"We have slept together in this room every night!"

"Yes, and you are asleep when I come in and still asleep when I get up...."

"And in between I am awake at least once feeding her! And you are the one who is asleep then!"

"Don't you think perhaps it is time to stop feeding her yourself?  Don't you think..."

"No!" Elizabeth interrupted.  "I will NOT stop breastfeeding her, it is good for her and I enjoy it."

"I know," he sighed.

"It is the only thing between us and...."

He sat up, waving his hand.  "I know, I know."

"Then you should not complain."

"I know," he said.  

A knock came on the door.  "It is Maria, I have Esperanza with me," came the voice.

Diego went to the door and opened it.  He smiled.  "Hello, little girl," he said softly, seeing his daughter in Maria's arms.  He accepted her.  "We'll take care of her now," he told the servant.  

"Si, Don Diego," Maria said.  

He closed the door and took the baby to Elizabeth.  

"Hello!" Elizabeth said into her daughter's face. 

 Esperanza grimaced.  

"Oh, that is your hungry look," Elizabeth observed, unbuttoning her blouse.  "I'm going to sit in the chair with her," she told her husband.  He waited until she was seated and ready, and then handed Esperanza over.  He sat down in his chair opposite them.

"You don't have to wait for us if you don't want to," Elizabeth said, as she adjusted and Esperanza began her nursing.  She looked over at him.  He looked rather forlorn sitting there, watching them.  "Darling," she said, "this is what we have gotten ourselves into, by bringing her into the world." 

"Si, I know," he said.

"You love her," Elizabeth reminded him.

"Of course I love her!  She is my firstborn child!  And the daughter of the woman I...." he sighed, stopping. "Elizabeth," he said, "We got back from the cabin and it was as if we never went."

"That is not true.  I remember every moment of it."

"So do I, but I do not want to live off of memories!  We were going to start breaking Blanca, I was going to start teaching you to fence...we...."

"Diego, you have been in the pueblo every day and I have to stay near her, I cannot leave her for...."

"I am not asking you to leave her, I am asking you to spend some of your time with me!"

"I do!"

Esperanza started crying.

"Oh, there, there, muchacha, you have barely started, don't cry!  Stay here with Mommie and....there, that's better...." She rocked the baby and helped her get resettled.

"We have not made love since we got back," he finally said.  

Elizabeth looked from the baby to him.  "That is what you are upset about?"

He held his hands up in the air briefly.  

"Diego, I am trying to take care of her and my gardens, and you are gone to the pueblo a lot, and I have been trying to help Clementia with the bazaar plans... when do you think we can work that in?'

He stared at her.  "So our lovemaking has become 'that'?"

She sighed.

"There was a time when you looked forward to being with me as much as I look forward to being with you," he said.

"It is not that I don't look forward to being with you.  I ask you, when?" she asked.  "When?  We have barely seen each other between you doing things with Bernardo and your father...."

"And you going off to the garden all the time!" he fumed.  "Or off with Clementia, or to see your father, or..." he waved his hand.  

"It is no more my doing than yours!" she cried.  "If you want so much to spend your time with me, then be here at night when we can put the baby to bed and then have time for each other.  But you aren't doing that, you're out!" She waved her hand too, in the direction of the door.

Esperanza began to whimper again.

"I don't know what you want!" he said.  "If I am here, will you give me your attention?"

Elizabeth focused on comforting her daughter.  Diego waited until Esperanza was again nursing calmly.  Then he said, "Elizabeth!  Will you?"

"I don't recall refusing you or being inattentive when we were up in the mountains," she said quietly. "We have a life here, we have other people to be around, we have to put her first, we have to find time for each other when we're both in the same place and we're both awake."  She shook her head.  "I do not know why it is any more my responsibility than yours." 

He leaned against the mantle feeling suddenly weary. "But that is what I am asking.  If I make sure I am here, are you...." he stopped.

"Am I what?"

He lowered his voice almost to a whisper.  "I need you as much now as I did the day you came into my life.  I think perhaps I need you more.  It isn't just making love, it's...." he took a deep breath.  "I feel as if you concentrate so much on Esperanza that you don't need me anymore."

Elizabeth said nothing for a moment.  She looked up at her husband, standing before her in what clearly felt to him like utter defeat.  He wasn't wrong in observing that she was spending most of her time in the gardens, or taking care of the baby, or visiting with her father and her friends.  "I'm a new mother," she said to him softly.  "It took a long time to get over having her.  As soon as I was feeling well, we went away, we had time with each other.  Then we came back and now I am just trying to find a way to be whoever I am  - a mother and mistress of this household, a member of this community...you have always been here, Diego. You know this place and all these people, you have known them all your life. I am still new, everything is new.  We have been married barely a year, we were in Monterey for several months, then it rained all winter long, and then she arrived early.  Is it bad for me to want to have a life that goes beyond our hacienda walls?  It is not that I don't need you anymore. It is not that Esperanza has..." she searched for the word for a moment "... replaced you."  She paused, trying not to become upset with him. "I love our little girl. I give her all this attention because she is so helpless.  Why do I have to say this to you?  She won't be this little forever."

He looked at the floor.  "I feel as if you don't have room for me anymore."

"Room where?  In our bed?  In my heart?"

"I came home early last night and you had her in the bed beside you and you just turned over, you didn't...."

"Oh, Diego, it was midnight and I was already asleep!"

"This conversation is not getting us anywhere," he said.

"How can you say that?" she asked.  "Because you are not hearing what you want to hear?"  She looked down at Esperanza.  "Daddy is not listening very well today," she said.

"Don't do that, Elizabeth!" he snapped.  "Do you know how it makes me feel when you talk to her that way, as if there is some kind of...conspiracy going on between you and her?"

"Oh for heaven's sake, she can't under..." Elizabeth stopped suddenly, looking at him in amazement and realizing at last what was going on.  "You're jealous of her," she said.  

Diego sat down on the fireplace ledge, looking down and saying nothing.  Finally he said, "I am envious of the attention her mother so lavishly showers on her."

"She is a baby," Elizabeth said.  She thought for a moment, considering what the next move ought to be.  "Darling, we are only at the beginning of trying to know what it is like to be a family," she said.  "We are not going to know how it all works before we have been at it for a while."  She shook her head, smiling at him.  "This is the kind of thing you are usually saying to me, you know."

"I miss having you to myself," he said softly.  He looked at her.  "I miss you."  He paused.  "When you were so sick and she was so tiny and new, I could help.  I felt part of everything.  But now you don't need me anymore, you can get on with your life, and she certainly doesn't need me, she needs you.  I feel...lost."

Elizabeth looked at the baby again.  She was nowhere near finished, her little fingers involuntarily kneading Elizabeth's breast lightly.  She looked back at her husband.  "This is a big chair," she said.  "There is room for all three of us, if you will come over here."

He got up and came over.  It took a minute for the shifting around to occur, but soon he was seated in the chair and Elizabeth was in his lap, still holding the nursing baby.  She laid her head on his shoulder and kissed his jaw.  "Is this a little better?" she asked.

"A little," he answered.  "I think I am no good at sharing.  Even with my own daughter."

"I think you are very good at it, you just are not very practiced yet," Elizabeth replied.  "When you invented El Zorro you did not get everything right at first, did you?"

He laughed.  "No, of course not.  I made stupid mistakes all the time.  Fortunately I was never caught."

"Then you should not be hard on yourself or on me if we take some time learning how to be a family.  We barely know how to be married."

He laughed again softly.  "That is true."  He held them both for a moment, relishing the tenderness and warmth of the moment. "I cannot always be here at night," he said, "but usually I am here in the morning, when we first wake up to feed her.  Perhaps that needs to be our time."

"You have been sleeping through that first feeding, since we were up at the cabin."

"I can start waking up."  He kissed her cheek gently.  "I can help with holding her and perhaps after she is finished we can have our time together, all three of us."

Elizabeth smiled at him.  "I would like that.  She loves to be cuddled in the bed with us."

"Only in the morning, when we first wake up," he warned, knowing Elizabeth would gladly have the baby in the bed with them all the time.

Elizabeth nodded.  "All right."  She eyed him.  "And our time?"

"I'll try to be home at night more often."

"All right," she said, skeptically.

He held them for a while.  "How is the planning for the bazaar going?" he asked.

"I think it will be quite a day, and the parade will be a first for Los Angeles.  Even my father is going to ride in it!  He is going to represent the King of Spain.  That is fitting, don't you think?"

"Well, he did it in Boston for a very long time, I suppose he can do it in Los Angeles.  I only hope there are no patriotic Mexicans on hand to protest."

"I suppose we will have to be patriotic Mexicans before long," Elizabeth mused.

"The changeover will take forever, I suspect," Diego said.  "This new commandante who is coming is one more of Governor Peņa's efforts at keeping control of an impossible situation."

"Perhaps he will at least be amusing.  Some of the ones he has sent certainly have been, from the stories I have heard!"

"I think we are better off with Sergeant Garcia, to tell you the truth," Diego said.  He reached around Elizabeth to stroke Esperanza's soft dark head.

"That is because you have more direct influence that way!" Elizabeth laughed.

He smiled too.  "I can hide nothing from you, Seņora," he said.

A knock came on the door.  

"Who is it?" Diego called out.

The door opened and Alejandro entered, only to stop in great embarrassment at the sight before him, of his son, daughter-in-law and nursing granddaughter all cuddled together in the big chair.  He stepped back, clearing his throat, while Elizabeth deftly pulled Esperanza's little white blanket over her chest and the baby's head.

"I am sorry to interrupt," Alejandro said gruffly, "but Diego, a soldier has arrived who says he is the first officer of the new commandante of the pueblo.  I think you should come down and meet him."  He turned his back, flustered, to leave.

"Give me a few minutes, Father, and I will be there," Diego said.  

"Very well," Alejandro said, going back out the door.

They waited until the door was firmly shut.  Elizabeth looked up at him, rolling her eyes.  He chuckled.  "He has always felt free to barge in," he said.  "He did it all the time when I was growing up, he never thought anything of it."

"I think perhaps he may learn to think better of it now," Elizabeth said.

"By and large he has let us have our privacy," Diego pointed out.  "But when something is on his mind he forgets."

"I hope he doesn't ever forget when we are in a...particularly special moment of some kind!"

Diego kissed her head.  "Are you raising my hopes that particularly special moments lie ahead?" he asked.

She smiled up into his face.  "Surely," she said.  "If you will just show up. Now, help me get up so you can go down and meet this new soldier.  I hope he and his commandante do not make me glad I am an American citizen as well as a Spanish one!  Oh, and Diego, when you go downstairs, tell Maria to come up and get this dress.  I do want to wear it next week.  She can make sure it is repaired."

"Warn her that she might have to repair it again one of these days," he told her.

*****

Life began to settle into its new routine after the conversation that started over Elizabeth's green dress.  Instead of sleeping through the pre-dawn feeding of their daughter, Diego would arise at her first whimper, bring her to Elizabeth, and hold them while Esperanza nursed.  After the baby finished they would snuggle up with her and go back to sleep for an hour or two before Diego would leave for his early tasks of the day.  Elizabeth brought the baby downstairs to join the men for breakfast.  Then the men would leave for various errands.  Elizabeth gardened in the morning, often keeping Esperanza nearby in the shade.  Diego, often with his father, surveyed the herds and oversaw rancho operations.  In the early afternoon Elizabeth often joined Alejandro for his midday meal, at which time grandfather would carry granddaughter off for a walk around the pond east of the hacienda.  This ritual was never broken no matter what else was underway in the household.  After the baby was returned to her mother, Alejandro would turn to his bookkeeping while Elizabeth would retire for her and the baby's siesta.  They would come back downstairs in the late afternoon and Maria would watch the baby while Elizabeth supervised supper preparations and handled household matters. Diego usually reappeared in the early evening from his various duties, which often involved trips to the pueblo on business, supervising the training of horses, and, with Bernardo, exercising Tornado and keeping his fencing in top form.  Guests appeared frequently on the summer evenings, as various dons and their families would call to visit with the de la Vegas and admire the new baby.  On most nights Diego would accompany these families home, continuing on to the pueblo to sit in the Tavern with Sergeant Garcia and hear about the preparations for the arrival of the new commandante.  He usually arrived home quite late and would simply give the sleeping baby a kiss in her cradle, undress, slip into bed with his wife, and wait for his own sleep to set in.

A frequent guest a lunch or suppertime was Clementia Bocca, whose energies were focused on two things: the summer bazaar and Sergeant Garcia.  She usually arrived in the late morning and joined Elizabeth in the gardens until the midday meal summoned them to the patio.  On the morning before the bazaar, she cantered rather breathless up to her friend where she sat on the ground.

"Elizabeth!" she cried, dismounting from her horse. "News!"

Elizabeth looked up from her flower beds to see Clementia's horse wander towards the stable.  "Oh, not through my daffodowndilly bulbs," she moaned.

"Shoo!" Clementia said, chasing the horse and shoving at his rump to push him in a different direction.  He snorted.  "Shoo!" she said again, waving at him.  He lumbered on, crushing the carefully tilled earth.

Elizabeth put down her trowel, and tipped her hat back slightly.  "I will fix it later," she said.  "What is the news?"

"Where is Esperanza?" Clementia asked, looking about. 

"Maria has her up the hill in the shade," Elizabeth replied.

"Oh!" Clementia said, disappointed.  Her first task in visiting was always to hold and bounce the baby.  "It is hot this morning." 

"You were saying?"

Clementia sat on the blanket next to Elizabeth, her skirts flopping about.  Elizabeth grabbed the watering can just ahead of the waving fabric, placing it carefully to the side.  "Well!" Clementia said.  "The new commandante has arrived from Monterey!"

"Oh?" Elizabeth said, returning to her seeding project.  "Diego said he was coming.  His first officer was here last week, making rounds to all the ranchos to meet all the dons.  What is he like? Did you meet him?"

"His name is Capitan Roberto Vilaro and he is very dark and handsome," Clementia reported.  "Verrrrrrry charming."

"'Verrrrrrrrry charming?'"

"Si, he rolls his rrrrrrrrrrrrrr's."

"Ah. When did he arrive?"

"Late yesterday.  And he came into the Tavern last night and Senor Zorrrrrrrrro paid him a visit!"

Elizabeth's hands stopped instantly.  "Senor Zorro?" she said.

"Si, because the Capitan announced on his arrival that he would execute the gypsies in the jail, even the women!"

Elizabeth frowned.  Nothing of this had been said over supper the night before, but then they had eaten rather early and Diego had left right away.  Esperanza had been collicky so Elizabeth had paid little attention to his departure. "Even the women?" she repeated.

"Si, all of them!  My cousin wants to go watch."

The mention of Consuelo never brightened Elizabeth's mood.  "That would suit Consuelo," she observed.

"Demetrio says Capitan Vilaro is determined to make an immediate impression on everyone that the law will be obeyed.  Poor Corporal Reyes is beside himself.  He loves Mama Ishtar's goulash."

"So does the Sergeant, from what I have heard," Elizabeth said dryly.

Clementia sighed.  "I am trying to get her to give me the recipe."

"I don't think she cooks with recipes, Clementia," Elizabeth told her friend.  Then, innocently, she asked, "What did El Zorro do, with the Capitan in the Tavern?" Diego had come in very late the night before but made no mention of anything during their drowsy family time at dawn.  He had only done much kissing and cuddling of wife and daughter.  It was a morning when they had managed, despite Esperanza's presence in the bed, to make love.

"Oh, yes!" Clementia said, realizing she had gotten distracted from her story.  "Well, he appeared on the balcony in the Tavern and warned Capitan 'justice must be leavened with mercy' is how Demetrio put it. He came down the stairs and pointed his sword at the Capitan and said that under Spanish law, even gypsies have the right to a fair trial.  And he reminded the Capitan that they had been awaiting transfer to Monterey for three months, and that if someone had come and gotten them as they were supposed to, they would not be here to hang at all!"

Elizabeth continued her seeding.  "Was there a fight?" she asked.

"Capitan Vilarrrrrrro drew his sword and charged at Zorro on the stairs, but then one of the lancers took a shot at the Fox, but he missed, and then Zorro kicked the commandante backwards down the stairs and he escaped through one of the upper rooms and rode his black horse through the pueblo and off into the night!  Can you imagine?  El Zorro is back and he wants to save his gypsy!"

Elizabeth was silent and still for a moment.  

"Oh, my," Clementia said, realizing she had brought up a difficult subject.  "I know you are quite fond of him," she said hurriedly.  "Perhaps I should not have mentioned the....Carmen."  She gulped.    "He was so concerned for you, when you were about to have your baby," she added.  "But then, you and Diego are so happy now....and Esperanza is so sweet..."

"I am sure the Carrrrrrmen would gladly be rescued by El Zorro or anyone else who would release her from the cuartel," Elizabeth observed.  She resumed her work, covering the seeds with dirt.  "But it is good for the new commandante to learn early that Zorro will keep him honest."

"So you think it is good, that El Zorro is back?"

Elizabeth looked towards the hacienda to see Diego riding in on Padre, joining the family for the midday meal.  "California is always better off when El Zorro is riding," she said.  She waved at her husband, who waved back and disappeared into the stableyard.

"And the commandante has agreed to ride in the torchlight parade!" Clementia added.  "I spoke to him this morning.  He will be our grand marshall!"

"Ah," Elizabeth said, watering her row slowly.  "That will surely liven things up."

"He said he will wear his finest uniform."

"And his many medals, no doubt."  She paused, and then asked, "And did he relent of hanging the gypsies, after Zorro's visit?"

"Oh, no," Clementia answered.  "Demetrio is supervising the construction of the gallows.  Capitan Vilaro says he will do it at sundown tomorrow."

"Just before the parade?" Elizabeth asked, incredulous.  "We are to have a hanging and then a parade?"  She shook her head.  "We are turning into the ancient Romans."

"Oh, but don't you see?" Clementia said.  "It is not really about the gypsies, it is just a trap for El Zor...." she stopped herself.

"Did Sergeant Garcia tell you that?" Elizabeth asked.

Clementia was silent for a moment.  Then she tried to change the subject.  "Did I tell you that I have a little job for Diego at the parade?" she asked.

"No, nor have you answered my question," Elizabeth answered.

"I think it is a military secret...or something..."Clementia said weakly. 

"It is a great burden, to have a sweetheart who has secrets, I would imagine," Elizabeth said, eyeing her friend.  

"I think the Governor told Commandante Vilaro that he should...mainly...capture El Zorro...or something...." 

Elizabeth threw her trowel down.  "The Governor has great reason to hate El Zorro," she said rather bitterly, "despite all the good he has done California."  

"Oh, si," Clementia agreed, nodding her head.  "El Zorro broke his wife's heart, before she was his wife of course.....and before he met you...even though you are married now too..."

Elizabeth shook her head.  "No wonder they always had some reason why they could not transfer Ishtar to Monterey," she murmured.  "They were plotting to use the gypsies to flush Zorro out all along."  She got up.  "Clementia, will you go up the hill to find Maria, and bring the baby to the patio for lunch?  I need to find Diego about something, I just saw him ride in."

Clementia got up too, with considerable effort which finally required Elizabeth's help.  "Oh, and 
would you ask Diego, would he ride at the end of the parade, after the last float?" Clementia asked, once she was on her feet.

"He was looking forward to standing on the sidelines to cheer for Esperanza," Elizabeth said, "but I shall ask him.  Or you can.  He will probably join us for lunch."

"That is your Diego," Clementia said.  "Always preferring the sidelines." She smiled.  "I thought it would be good for him to get involved for once!"

Elizabeth glared at her friend, but said nothing.  Instead she turned and headed for the stables.

* * * * * * * * * *  


She found her husband in the stable, studying Apache's left front hoof.  "Diego," she said, coming up behind him.

He glanced at her, then back at the hoof in his hand.  "Hello, darling," he said.  "He is still a bit lame.  I think it is just a bruise of some kind."  He put the horse's hoof back down and patted the gelding's nose.  "You'll get a few more days off, boy."

"I gather Tornado had a busy night," she said to his back.

He straightened up, paused, and turned to face her, coming out of the stall.  "Ah," he said.  "You heard."

"You could have told me!" she exclaimed.  

"When, sweetheart?" he said very softly, mindful of the constant passage of servants and vaqueros in the compound.  

"This morning!" she said.

He stood very close to her.  "I did not want to spoil our sweet time with a report on El Zorro," he said gently, his hands coming to her elbows.  "And you were sound asleep when I came in last night. I did not want to wake you.  It was a small encounter."

"Clementia says they shot at you," Elizabeth said, her voice trembling.

"Oh, one drunken lancer who could not hit the side of the cuartel wall at three feet," he scoffed.  "They do that all the time.  They never mean to hit me."

"One of them might hit you by accident," she lowered her voice, still upset.

Diego chuckled.  "That is possible, I suppose," he agreed, "but I had to warn the new commandante to be fair, even to the gypsies."

"It is all a trap to capture Zorro," she sniffled.  

"Of course it is," he said, pulling his handkerchief from his jacket.  

"What will you do?" she asked, accepting his touch as he wiped away her tears from her cheeks.

"I don't know," he said.  "Blow your nose."

She did.  "I guess you will think of something.  You always do."

He shrugged.  "Excepting perhaps Ishtar, who nonetheless deserves his trial, that family does not deserve to hang.  I am thinking over the best way to handle it today."

"Will you tell me, before you go off doing something?"

He flashed his fabulous smile at her, slipping her hand onto his arm joint and leading her into the sunshine.  "Of course I will, darling," he said, kissing her cheek.  "That is, assuming I think of it before I leave."

She looked up at him, vexed.

"Where is our beautiful daughter?" he asked.

Chapter Seven
I, Consuelo

The gallows were eleven feet off the ground, guaranteeing that even a giant would drop and dangle heavily upon the release of the trap door mounted under the noose.  Commandante Vilaro eyed the structure with satisfaction.

"Verrrrrrrrry good, Serrrrgeant," he said, rolling his r's at length.  "This will make horrrrrrrse thieves and their families think twice before helping themselves to any horrrrrrrse they spy."  He strolled away from them, inspecting the lumber.  The smell of fresh coffee wafted into the cuartel courtyard.  Tortillas were cooking over an open fire in the plaza beyond the open gates.

"Si, Capitan," said the Sergeant.  He glanced at Corporal Reyes, who was gazing mournfully at the jail cell across the cuartel yard.  The gypsies were sitting about glumly.

"I will miss Mama Ishtar's goulash, Sergeant," the Corporal said sadly.

"It is only a trap for El Zorro," Garcia whispered in an attempt to comfort his friend.  "We are not really going to hang her!"

"I don't know, Sergeant," Reyes sighed.  "I think the new commandante is maybe a good soldier but also maybe a bad hombre."

"Zorro will not let them hang!"

"Zorro has been gone a long time, Sergeant.  Maybe he is out of practice with breaking into the cuartel."

"He did not look out of practice with anything in the Tavern last night!"

This point cheered the Corporal some.  "True," he agreed.  "That was a very good kick in the ribs he gave the commandante."

Vilaro whirled around some feet away. Reyes bit his lip regretfully.  

"Yes, this will do, Sergeant, and with any luck, we will hang Zorro with it tomorrow, along with those gypsies!"

Reyes breathed a sigh of relief at not having been heard.  

"Si, Commandante," the Sergeant said.

Reyes sighed again, in memory of the goulash.

*   *   *   *   *   

Clementia Bocca was beside herself.  Three of the peon families who had agreed to set up booths featuring baskets and pottery for the bazaar had not shown up.  The bazaar was scheduled to begin at noon.  Diego had not appeared either.  Over lunch the day before he had promised he would come to visit CapitanVilaro this morning to attempt to persuade him that a village hanging and a village bazaar with a torchlight parade were not a good, tasteful combination and that perhaps the hanging could be delayed.  And then there were the missing Indians, promised to her by the padre at San Gabriel mission. 

"Oh, si, we can send them to you without any difficulty, to help with the cooking," Padre Vincente had assured her.  "Tuesdays are quiet days here, I can spare them. They will make fine tamales and tortillas for you, Senorita."

"Spare them!" Clementia huffed as she marched across the plaza to the Tavern where she hoped to recruit a few lazy bar flies to help with setting up the booths.  "Spare them! One dirty peon making tortillas is not the Indians from the mission!  I have been lied to by a priest!  Snookered by peasants!  Abandoned by the de la Vegas!  Ignored by the military!"  She turned around to look back towards the cuartel, in hopes of a glance of her sweetheart.  "Abandoned by the military!" she revised her assessment, seeing no one.  

The booths were being constructed somewhat haphazardly around the plaza, all facing the center where the pueblo well stood.  After unsuccessfully battling to impose some order on this chaos, Clementia had given up.  As she marched towards the Tavern she encountered her servant Carolina, walking towards the blacksmith with her cousin Consuelo.  "Go to the de la Vega rancho and find Don Diego!" she ordered Carolina.  "Tell him that he must come here to save my bazaar from becoming...the coliseum!"

"I'll go!" Consuelo offered.

Clementia eyed her cousin.  "By yourself?  You must be joking."

"At some point you could try to trust me," Consuelo countered meekly.  "How far can I get, when you have the military at your beck and call?" She nodded in Sergeant Garcia's direction.  "Mexico is very far away."

"You would truly go and try to find Don Diego for me?" Clementia asked.  "You would go straight to the de la Vega rancho and come straight back?  Without fail?"

"Oh, si, I would, cousin," Consuelo answered hopefully.  She had not had a single excursion to herself since the fateful day some seven months before when she caused her uncle's 20,000 pesos to tumble into the sea in San Pedro Harbor.

Clementia considered this offer.  She could send Carolina along, but the servant girl was useful whereas Consuelo was rarely anything but a nuisance.  It was a risk, to let Consuelo go off by herself.  Everyone believed she would head straight south given the opportunity.  But this was to search for Diego, to whom Consuelo was deeply and hopelessly devoted. The attraction was noticed in the family from the moment Diego had returned with his pregnant wife from Monterey at New Year's.  The incident on the San Pedro road, when Consuelo had knocked Diego out with a log and left him unconscious in darkness, had done nothing to diminish the Mexican girl's capacity for softening whenever he was around.  She had wept for weeks after Elizabeth gave birth to the baby, not because Elizabeth had nearly died but because of the pain that Consuelo imagined Diego was going through.  While she was uncharacteristically shy whenever she was around him, Consuelo would agree to nearly any onerous chore if it meant a chance to see him in the pueblo or at the rancho.  Clementia realized that to Consuelo, finding him at home might mean a private ride back to the pueblo with him.  He would keep an eye on her, having learned his lesson on the price of not doing so when she clobbered him with the log.  

"I promise, I promise to be good," Consuelo pleaded.

"My father will kill both of us if you get into any mischief," Clementia warned her.

"Si, and we want to stay alive," Consuelo said hopefully. 

Clementia paused, still considering it.  Despite her downgraded status as a near-servant in the family, Consuelo remained a beautiful young woman who drew the stares of soldiers and townspeople alike when she passed.  Diego was the only man in the pueblo who seemed immune to her, but then everyone knew how smitten he was with his wife, who in turn seemed alternately smitten with her husband and smitten with El Zorro.  Clementia shook her head to herself.  Much as she loved her dear friend, she found Elizabeth's inner life completely incomprehensible.  Clementia wondered what El Zorro's return to Los Angeles would mean for the de la Vegas.  She had not missed Elizabeth's quiet, unhurried questions about the bandito the day before in her garden.  While trying to seem nonchalant about it, her interest in Zorro's reappearance was not lost on Clementia.  

"Pleasssse," wheedled Consuelo, breaking into her cousin's speculations.  

"Oh, all right," Clementia said, waving towards their horses.  "But if you are not back within two hours I will ask my Sergeant to take lancers after you to capture you, bring you back here, dip you in the pond, and tie you to the well for the night in order for everyone to laugh at you during the torchlight parade."

"I'll be back, I'll be back," Consuelo promised excitedly.  She paused for a moment, not quite believing this extraordinary leave had been granted.  Clementia shooed at her. She turned and ran to her horse, mounted, and rode away.

"I hope I don't regret that," Clementia said to Carolina.

"She will come back," Carolina replied as they walked towards the Tavern. "She will do anything to spend time with Don Diego.  Especially if he is not with his wife."

* * * * * * * *  

Riding like the wind, Consuelo urged her horse along the rutted road with a happiness she had not felt in many months.  She felt like herself again, free of encumbrances, on her way to see the man she adored.  She did not let herself consider that this adoration was unreturned. She only dwelt on her firm conviction that one day he would recognize the truth about his wife's infidelities and turn his attentions to the one woman who would give him the uncompromised love he so richly deserved.  "I, Consuelo, take thee Diego...." she muttered to herself every day, practicing the promises she would one day make.  The wind sang in her ears as she rode joyously in the sunshine.  The horse's pounding hooves spelled out a rhythm that uttered his name over and over, "Diego, Diego, Diego, Diego..."

It was in this lather of adoration and anticipation that Consuelo arrived at the outer gates of the de la Vega hacienda.  Yanking her horse to a stop she dismounted and tied the horse to the post near the hacienda wall.  Then she heard a dreaded sound.  

"Waaaaaaaaaa, waaaaaaaaaa," wailed Esperanza de la Vega.  

Consuelo's heart began to sink. She took a few steps and peered in the crack between the door and the wall, peeking into the inner hacienda courtyard.  There, she spied Diego holding his baby daughter, trying to comfort her as she cried.  Consuelo could see that he was saying something to her but she could not hear his words for he was speaking very softly.  He looked upstairs in the direction of the bedrooms in the house, and then jiggled Esperanza again, continuing to try to calm her.  He appeared to be alone.

Taking a deep breath, Consuelo rang the bell.  A few moments later Diego stood before here, opening the wooden door himself.  

"Consuelo!" he exclaimed.  He was still holding the baby, who was still crying.  "Please, come in..." he looked beyond her to see no one else.  "You're alone?" he observed with some surprise.  He looked at the baby.  "Esperanza, Mommie will be back soon, please, muchacha..." He ushered Consuelo in and offered her a chair at the wrought iron table by the fig tree.  "You must forgive me, Seņorita, I cannot be the perfect host at the moment," he held the baby up, "as you can see I have been left with a task for which I am not ideally equipped...hush, hush little one...."

Consuelo sat down and watched as he continued to try to persuade the baby not to cry.  To her fascination, Esperanza began to calm down. He sat down across from Consuelo, continuing to cradle the baby in his arms.  

"That's better, that's better sweetheart," he said to her, kissing her forehead.  Esperanza reached for his face and her hand hit his cheek.  "Oh, now, what did I do for that?" he asked her, smiling and jiggling her again.  She half-smiled at him.  "Ah, that is so nice of you, to give Daddy a little smile," he said.  He held her up slightly so that Consuelo could see her.  "Isn't she beautiful?" he said shamelessly.  

Consuelo took a long look at the little girl.  With her long whisps of thick dark hair, almond-shaped hazel eyes, pert nose and dimpled cheeks, she was indeed spectacular even at three-and-a-half months.  "Si, she is lovely," Consuelo said softly. 

The baby's eyes blinked several times.

"Oh, this is a good sign," Diego said softly.  "I think she is going to go to sleep.  Would you like to hold her?"

Consuelo looked at him in shock, but saw that his offer was innocent and genuine.  She nodded nervously.  Diego got up and handed the baby over, allowing Consuelo to take her gently into her arms.  Esperanza looked up into her face.  She frowned, not recognizing the person holding her, but Diego saw it and leaned over so the baby could see him.  

"It's all right, Esperanza, Consuelo is just having her chance to meet you," he told her.

The baby's eyes went to her father and brightened again.  Then she yawned.

"Oh," Consuelo said, overwhelmed with sudden tenderness.  Then her eyes widened, for Esperanza's hands were suddenly feeling for her breasts.

Diego saw it and laughed softly.  "No, Esperanza, you are not hungry again, Mommie just fed you," he said.  "Rock her a little, and she will go right to sleep now," he told Consuelo.  

Inexperienced though she was with such things, Consuelo began rocking the baby gently.  To her astonishment, Esperanza yawned again and then fell asleep.  Consuelo looked at Diego, overcome with wonder.  He grinned at her.

"It is a precious moment, isn't it?" he asked, keeping his voice low.  "We fight over who gets to hold her as she goes to sleep all the time."

Consuelo looked down at the baby and back at Diego.  "I have never held a baby like this before," she whispered.

"Never?" he said.  "Then it is high time!"

"Si..." Consuelo whispered, smiling down at the sleeping baby.  If only you were mine, she thought.  

"What has brought you out this way this morning, seņorita?" Diego asked, pulling a cigar from his inside jacket pocket.  

"Oh," Consuelo said, remembering her mission.  Then she reduced her voice to a whisper again.  "Clementia sent me."

"It's all right, you don't have to whisper now," Diego said.  "Just speak softly, she won't wake up."

Consuelo nodded.  "Clementia sent me," she repeated, "to ask you if you are going to visit Capitan Vilaro this morning about the hanging."

"Ah, yes, I did tell her I would do that, didn't I?" Diego said, lighting his cigar and taking a puff.  "I have been distracted this morning, with a lame horse and..." he nodded in Esperanza's direction. "Elizabeth insisted on spending some time with her horse this morning, and Bernardo is off on an errand with Maria..." he shrugged.  "I was the only person available to babysit!"

"But you must help Clementia, things are not going well for her in the pueblo this morning," Consuelo said, determined to stay true to her promise to her cousin.  "The gallows is built in the cuartel yard and people who were supposed to help with the bazaar have not arrived..."

Diego shrugged.  "I cannot leave at the moment, there is no one to watch the baby."

"Might you...take her with you?" Consuelo ventured.

"Oh, no," Diego answered.  "It would not do to take her so far from her mother.  She is still nursing, you see."

"Ah," Consuelo said, blushing.

"I know it is not customary for Spanish ladies," Diego admitted, puffing his cigar, "but my wife..." he shrugged, taking the cigar out of his mouth.  "She has a mind of her own."  He replaced the cigar between his teeth.

Consuelo nodded in full agreement.  She was genuinely afraid of Elizabeth, who was never anything but fierce around her.  "I think she has never forgiven me for hitting you," she said quietly.

Diego raised his eyebrows in agreement, chewing on the cigar.

"Have you...forgiven me for hitting you?" she asked.  "I wish I hadn't. It was a...terrible thing to do, when you were trying to help me."

"I have always admired the determination it symbolized," he confessed.  "Though I would have preferred a less violent act of creativity."  He smiled at her.  "Si, I forgive you, Consuelo.  And I am sorry it has cost you so much."

"The cost was more over the pesos than your head," she said.

"True," he agreed.

Consuelo looked down at the sleeping baby.  The feeling of her small, warm body lying so dependently and trustingly in her arms was overwhelming.  "She is a sweet little girl," Consuelo said.  She looked at Diego.  "I could watch her, if you would go to see the Capitan."

Diego smiled slowly.  "Forgive me, Consuelo, but if I did that Elizabeth would hit both of us on the head with logs."

Consuelo smiled sadly.  "Si," she agreed.

As if on cue, the gate from the stableyard into the patio creaked open and Elizabeth stepped into the courtyard.  She saw Diego, and then Consuelo sitting at the table, her daughter in Consuelo Perez's arms.  She walked towards them, her riding skirt swaying. She did not look very happy.

"Blanca is not being cooperative this morning," she said to Diego.  She then leaned over and retrieved Esperanza from Consuelo, putting the baby up against her shoulder.  Esperanza stirred and whimpered.  "You should be upstairs in your cradle, my sweet," she said.  She eyed Diego.

"Oh, Elizabeth," he scolded, "be gracious.  Let bygones be bygones."

Consuelo got up, feeling bereft.  "I should go back to the pueblo now, I have delivered my message," she said.  She looked at Elizabeth and then at the ground.  "Your daughter is very pretty," she said.

"Thank you," Elizabeth replied.  Then she turned and headed for the stairs to take Esperanza to their bedroom.

"Give me just a moment," Diego said to Consuelo, touching her elbow briefly.  Consuelo felt a shiver run up her arm.  

Diego followed Elizabeth upstairs and disappeared briefly into their room.  He emerged after a minute or two, and came back down.  "I will ride back to the pueblo with you," he said to Consuelo, "and keep that promise to Clementia."

Consuelo suddenly had to fight back tears.  "Good," she said.  "Thank you."

"I'll meet you in the front, let me go get my horse," he said.

Consuelo watched him go, and then looked up again at the bedroom door.  Elizabeth was standing in the doorway, looking down at her passively. Consuelo looked away, and when she looked back up again, the door was closed and Elizabeth was gone.

*   *   *   *   *   *

"Ah, de la Vega," the Commandante said, eyeing the tall young don standing before him.  "Here to meet me at last.  Your father tells me you have been verrrrrrrrry busy with business on your rrrrrancho and with your family?"

"Si, I do apologize for being a day late in greeting you and welcoming you to Los Angeles," Diego answered, bowing slightly.  "But as my father has told you, it is a busy time.  Perhaps he also told you that we have a new baby at the hacienda?"

"Si, si, he has told me at length about his granddaughter," Vilaro said.

Diego smiled. "Probably at a little too much length.  He is quite taken with her."

"It is his firrrrrrst grandchild!" Vilaro exclaimed. "It is understandable!"

"Ah, he has told you she is his first grandchild," Diego chuckled.  "He has been talking at length. And...do you have children, Commandante?"

"Me?" Vilaro scoffed. "I am a military man, seņor, I have no time for such domestic..." he waved his hand dismissively.

"I understand, and can only express my thanks for your sterling commitment, which keeps the rest of us safe and free to pursue such domestic..." Diego also waved his hand, generally as the commandante had.  Meanwhile he was sizing the man up.  He was tall, dark-eyed, and wore his hair unusually short. Unlike most military officers he was cleanshaven.  A vivid contrast to the less-than-fastidious Sergeant Garcia, he was perfectly groomed, his boots highly polished and his uniform spotless.  Probably an all-right swordsman, Diego noted, seeing the collection of foils and sabers partially hung on the wall.  It looked as if he were planning to be around for a while.  Diego walked over to the weapons where they were stacked on a bench. He picked one up, deliberately clumsy, waving it in its sheath.

"I see you have a collection!" he said. "I am a collector myself, though not of...weapons."

"Yes, it has been a hobby since I was a boy in Spain," Vilaro said, hurrying over to spare the sabre from the indignities Diego's handling was causing. He retrieved it and replaced it on the bench.  

"I assume then that you are a skilled swordsman!" Diego observed, continuing to eye the pile.  It was for the most part an impressive mix of weapons. Something was actually glittering at the bottom of the stack, but he could hardly reach down and grab at it without knocking everything else off the bench.

"No one has challenged me since I came to Califorrrrrrnia," Vilaro told him with pride.  "But in Spain..." he shrugged.  "If I may be immodest for a moment, I was....undefeated." He rocked back on his feet for a moment, his dark eyes gleaming.

"I congratulate you!" Diego said.  "While I cannot wholly relate to such a great gift, for I am not a man of sport or competition myself, I am all the more grateful to have such a leader in our community."  He paused, and then added, "I fear that you will find no one worthy of your skills here in California, Commandante.  We are a rather untalented lot, as sword fighting goes."

"Oh?" said Vilaro.  "That is not what I have heard. I have heard that there resides here in Los Angeles a bandito calling himself El Zorrrrrrrrro.  I have heard from the Governor himself that this bandito has quite a talent with the blade.  I met him briefly last night, you may have heard.  But there was no opportunity for a duel, as he took the coward's way out and escaped without drawing his sword."

"Ah, Zorro, yes," Diego said.  "Someone told me he made an appearance last night.  We have not seen him in Los Angeles for many months, not since those gypsies were jailed, except for one brief visit some weeks ago in which he broke up a fight between a pair of dons who had no business bickering over a section of the river." He shrugged.  "The rumor was that Zorro has returned permanently to Monterey." He frowned.  "It is not like him to show cowardice.  He is usually very...." he waved his hand, again imitating the commandante's earlier, dismissive gesture, "...brave."

The commandante shook his head knowingly.  "He is not in Monterey.  That is a rumor that has been kept alive for many months, but it is not true.  He is here.  I do not believe he ever left Los Angeles."

"Oh?" Diego said. "Then, where do you think he has been, all these months?"

"Why, rrrrrrrecovering," Vilaro said.

Diego frowned.  "Recovering?"

"Si....from his brrrrrrrrroken heart, Seņor de la Vega," came the reply.  "Would he not want to remain near the object of his affection, even if she is not....available?  Do you think I did not do my homework before coming to Los Angeles?  Do you think I do not know of the story of El Zorrrrrrrro and Seņorrrrra de la Vega?"  He strolled back around his desk, sitting down at his chair, his eyes never leaving Diego.  "It is a well-known matter, this matter of Zorro's devotion to your wife."

Diego pondered this for a moment.  "I know that he was taken with her when she first came to Los Angeles," he said slowly.  "And certainly we all know that he rescued her from Diablo when we were in Monterey....but....I see no reason to attribute his whereabouts to any association with my wife.  I assure you, Capitan Vilaro, she is very much...my wife!"  He took a deep breath.  "Besides, have you not heard that Zorro took a fancy to one of those gypsies, to the pretty one they call Carmen?"

"Perrrrrrrhaps," Vilaro said.  

The rolling r's were beginning to aggravate Diego.  "Commandante, if you must insist on finding El Zorro and fighting with him, I cannot stop you and I wish you good luck, for I have heard from many that he is very skilled with his sword.  But there is something else I must talk with you about.  It pertains to this hanging you are planning for this afternoon."

"What of it?" the Capitan asked. "The gypsies are horse thieves and murderers, they deserve to be put to death immediately. They stole a horse from your own father-in-law and then kidnapped him, from what I am told.  And didn't they attack your home right as your wife was giving birth?"

"They have not received any trial!"

Vilaro raised his eyebrow and then shrugged.  "Your interest in justice for these criminals is verrrrrrrry touching.  There are no judges available.  Come, de la Vega, they are gypsies."

"Irregardless of their race, Commandante, they deserve the benefits the law offers them!"

Vilaro was beginning to lose patience with the conversation.  "I see that you do not grasp the nature of military rule," he told Diego.  "It is not for the weak."

"At least consider delaying this execution," Diego said.  "Seņorita Bocca has been planning this bazaar  for many weeks, and for the sake of decency I beg you to wait until after it is all over.  My little daughter is in the torchlight parade tonight, along with her mother.  I do not wish them to be on hand when there are hangings going on and dead gypsies on a cart in the cuartel!"

"But I wanted to make an example to all of the pueblo about my commitment to punish criminals," Vilaro said.  "When better than when they are gathered for a festival?"

"The nature of the two events do not reinforce one another particularly," Diego stated with some force.

Vilaro met his eyes and held.  "I see that we perceive the world very differently, seņor," he replied.  

Diego broke the gaze.  "I am sure that we do, Commandante," he said.  "But I hope you will see that I represent the feelings of the community in coming to you on this matter."

The capitan considered that.  "I will tell you what," he said.  "I will rrrrrreverse the order of the evening.  We will have the hangings after the torrrrrchlight parrrrrrade.  That way those who wish to go home will not be subject to the executions.  I shall expect you to stay, of course, but if you need to send your wife and child home with a servant you may do so."

Diego stared at him for a moment longer and then nodded.  "Thank you, Commandante," he said.  "You can count on my presence for these events.  May I pass this decision on to Seņorita Clementia?"

"Si," Vilaro said, waving his hand to dismiss Diego.

Diego bowed slightly and then took his leave.  He strode through the cuartel and went straight for the Tavern, where he found Clementia, Consuelo and Sergeant Garcia sitting together at a table.

"Oh, Diego," Clementia exclaimed on seeing him.  "Did you talk him into waiting?"

Diego sat down.  "Not for long," he said.  "He will delay the executions until after the parade. But they will still be tonight."

"He would not wait a day?!" Clementia wailed.

Diego shook his head.  He glanced at Garcia, who was looking more miserable than usual.  He then turned his gaze to Consuelo.  She had been extremely quiet on the ride into the pueblo, despite his attempts to make conversation.  "Consuelo?" he said.  "Are you all right?"

She started, looking at him.  She was lost entirely in the feelings of sitting in the courtyard with him, the warm, sleeping baby cuddled in her arms.  She had never felt anything so beautiful in her life.  "Si, Diego," she answered.  "I am glad you persuaded the Commandante to wait, at least a little while."

"I am not sure it will do them much good," he said.  

"El Zorro will not let them hang," Sergeant Garcia said quietly.

"But what can he do, against all the lancers in the cuartel?" Clementia asked. "Besides, I do not know why he would bother with saving criminals."

"He has managed despite all the lancers before," commented Sergeant Garcia.  "Even when we were ready for him...or thought we were...."

"Ishtar is the criminal," Diego said.  "The others are accomplices and probably thieves, but not of the kind that deserve hanging."

"He might want to save his gypsy," Garcia mused.  

Diego sighed.  That fabled kiss with Carmen might yet prove to have been a good move, though he could never say that to his wife.   "Si, Sergeant," he said.  "He might want to save his gypsy."

The sound of a numerous horses' hooves shuddered through the windows of the Tavern and Clementia jumped up to run to the window and see who had arrived.  "Oh, thank heavens!" she cried, looking back at her friends.  "The Indians have arrived!"

Diego chuckled, lifting the glass just placed in front of him in salute to Clementia. "We do not hear that often!" he said.  

"At least we will have food now!" she exclaimed.  "If you will excuse me, I must go to help them get things started.  Consuelo, come with me, I will need your assistance."

Consuelo gave Diego a long gaze, and then got up and followed her cousin out into the sunshine.

"She is very industrious, your Clementia," Diego observed to the Sergeant.

"Well, you know what they say, Don Diego," the Sergeant replied, staring down at this mug.  "Opposites attract."

*   *   *   *   *   *   *  

It was the late afternoon when Alejandro put Esperanza into the carriage with Elizabeth, Bernardo in the driver's seat.  

"I shall join you shortly, my dear," he told her.  "Carlos told me he would meet you in the pueblo to review the wares in the bazaar and prepare for the parade.  I have one more small chore to perform and I will be along too."

"But where is Diego?" Elizabeth said, with a mix of worry and annoyance.  "I have not seen him since he road away with that woman!"

"Elizabeth, he is quite capable of taking care of himself, don't you think?  I am sure he has encountered something in the pueblo that has detained him."

"I hope it was not another log to his head!"

Alejandro sighed.  Elizabeth's capacity for being unforgiving managed at times to dim his own.  "Consuelo has repented of that deed," he stated, "and certainly she is paying in many ways for the whole escapade...which, I may remind you, was launched thanks to your prank!"

"That is fine, to blame me, but you are the one who sent him off on Tornado with a concussion!" Elizabeth snapped.  "All of you men are so worried over poor Consuelo.  It is shameless.  Even Diego has forgiven her!  I suppose next you will both be wanting to invite her over for supper!"

Bernardo winced.  Diego and Elizabeth bickering was one thing.  Alejandro and Elizabeth hurling insults at each other was quite another.  

Esperanza made a sound, causing Elizabeth and Alejandro to turn their attentions to her.  

"There, there little girl, you are to be the blessed baby tonight," Elizabeth told her.  

Alejandro tickled her chin.  "You are our family's great blessing, little one," he said, smiling down at her.  He then looked up at Elizabeth, sitting in the carriage.  "I shall not have more words with you, Elizabeth, it is not in Esperanza's interest for us to be caught up in these small disagreements over a past we cannot change."

Elizabeth sighed.  She had been in a bad mood all day, starting before Consuelo had ever appeared.    It occurred to her at last that she was taking it out on everyone.  Diego had left before dawn, forgoing their family time together because of a vaquero's report that a fever that developed overnight in Apache's leg.  He was extremely worried about the horse.  Once she was finally up and about, she wanted to work on her own with the fiesty Blanca, who was not taking well to being saddled.  This effort only proved to Elizabeth that she would not successfully break the filly without a lot of help from her husband.  Then she had walked into the courtyard to find him with the Perez woman in whose very willing arms was nestled Diego's firstborn.  As if all that had not been sufficient cause for upset, Diego had told her in short, certain terms that she had been extremely rude to Consuelo and that he was going to see the young woman back to the pueblo whether Elizabeth liked it or not.  "Sometimes your great kindness fails you, my love," he had said to her softly on exiting their room.  Elizabeth was still smarting from the comment, largely because it was so sweetly said and so entirely on target.

Bernardo waited for the signal to go.  Elizabeth looked at her father-in-law and said, "You are right, Alejandro, and I am sorry.  And..." she sighed.  "I will try to be kinder about Consuelo."

Alejandro smiled at her and patted her arm.  "Your loyalty to Diego is not lost on me, my dear," he said.  "But if he can forgive her, perhaps you can as well."

"Si," Elizabeth sighed.  She looked at Bernardo and nodded.  "Let's go to the bazaar," she said. 

The servant flicked the reins and the horses started their journey.

Alejandro watched them go and then returned to the courtyard, to see Diego coming down the stairs.  "Oh, you have just missed Elizabeth and the baby!" Alejandro said.

"I wanted to let them go on their own," Diego answered.  "I am going to need your help with something this evening."

"Oh?"

"Si, we are going to have to foil the hanging without raising suspicions about anyone in the pueblo," Diego said.  

"And how are we going to do that?" Alejandro asked.

"I have a plan," Diego said, putting his hand around his father's shoulder.  "It will take a great deal of cleverness on your part and Bernardo's...." he smiled at his father, "Not to mention El Zorro's."