The Secret of Zorro
Clementia's Wedding
Chapter Seven and Chapter Eight
by Ella Christian @1999-2001
Contact author at EllaChristian@aol.com

Chapter Seven - The Morning After

Standing in the dark bedroom, lit only by a small lantern in the window, El Zorro stroked his baby daughter's back, taking comfort from her oblivious sleep.  He considered Vilaro for a while, saying, "Let me think."  Then he remembered that Tornado was still faithfully awaiting him outside the hacienda gate.  He shut his eyes, shaking his head.  "I have to deal with Tornado," he said.

"Tornado!" Elizabeth exclaimed.  "We have the Capitan knocked out on the floor of my room and you are worried about your horse?"  

"He is my horse!" Zorro answered.  He patted Esperanza's back again and carefully returned her to her place on the bed.  He leaned over her for a moment to make sure she remained asleep.  "There, my muchacha," he said softly.  "You have the right idea, no worries, just sweet dreams."  He straightened up and came over to Elizabeth, who was still standing over Vilaro, her hand over her mouth.

"He's going to wake up!" she exclaimed.

"Not for a while," Zorro said.  "I hit him pretty hard."

"Do you think you hit him hard enough that he will forget what happened?" she asked hopefully.

Zorro shrugged.

A knocking began on the door.  "Seņora," came Sergeant Garcia's voice.  "We heard noises in the hallway, is everything all right?"

Elizabeth pushed Zorro back, waving at the inert body on the floor. 

"Doņa Elizabeth, will you let me in?" Garcia asked.  "Please?"

 "Move him and get in the bed," she whispered to Zorro.  "I'm coming, Sergeant," she called to the door.

Zorro pulled Vilaro by the boots, obscuring him between the bed and the richly curtained windows at the far side of the room.  Then, yanking off his cape and shirt, he climbed - his boots still on his feet - into the bed. Esperanza wiggled at his feet. He ruffled his fingers through his hair to loosen it, and pulled the sheets up to his waist.

Elizabeth pulled on her robe, turning the collar up at the neck to cover any tell-tale red finger marks, and opened the door. Before her stood the groom-to-be in his night shirt, holding a candle.  Corporal Reyes was beside him in similar attire.  

"Sergeant!" she exclaimed.

Garcia peered into the room, squinting into the darkness.  "We thought we heard noises in the hallway!" he said.  

"And scuffling of some kind," Reyes added.  

"Oh...well...Elizabeth said a little demurely.  Garcia saw beyond her to the bed.

"Don Diego!" he exclaimed.  "When did you arrive?"

Diego, bare-chested, answered, "Just a short while ago.  You will forgive me for not getting up, Sergeant, but..." he gestured below him.  "My seņora met me in the hallway, you see, and we were very glad to see one another..."

Garcia's eyes widened in embarrassment, the thought dawning on him that he had perhaps interrupted them at an inopportune moment.  Elizabeth looked flushed, her hair askew, her robe pulled tightly around her.

"We thought maybe you were a prowler," Reyes said, oblivious.

"No, my husband is quite welcome in my room," Elizabeth corrected him, trying to shut the door.

The Sergeant backed up, pulling Reyes with him.  "We are very sorry to disturb you," he said to Elizabeth.  "Good night, Don Diego, I am glad you are here!"

"Oh, I would not miss this," Diego called from the bed.

Elizabeth shut the door tightly and locked it.  Then she hurried back to the bed, as Diego got out from under the covers and got his feet on the floor again.

"I cannot believe you put your muddy boots in my bed!" she exclaimed.

"I did not have time to take them off!" he answered, indignant. Then he frowned.  "Are you saying it is not our bed?  When I have so been looking forward to...."

"Oh, Diego," she interrupted, "how can you think about sex at a time like this?!"

"Darling I have been thinking about nothing but sex for the last three weeks!" he replied, putting his black shirt back on and tucking it into his sash.

"The Capitan has seen your identity!" she exclaimed, exasperated.

"I know that, you do not need to keep saying it!" he said, coming over to her.  He took her by the arms.  "It will be all right."

"How can you know that?  This is the worst thing that has ever happened to us!  He could put you in jail!  He could hang you!"

"Elizabeth, we have had many things worse than this happen to us.  The worst thing that ever happened to us was when you almost died."

She looked down.  "I did not like it when you were poisoned.  Or knocked out.  Or when you broke your ribs, either," she said quietly.

He raised his hands.  "See?"  He looked around for his cape and hat.

"But this is awful.  This could end up being worse!  We got through those things."

"We will get through this, too," he told her reassuringly, sliding his arms through his cape sleeves.

Vilaro moaned.

Esperanza snuffled.

Zorro and Elizabeth looked at each other.

"All right," Zorro said, taking her by the arms again.  "We shall have to establish a story that we will stick with no matter what he says."

She nodded, anxious to cooperate.

"I shall return him to his room, and make sure nothing is out of place.  When he wakes up he will be at least confused, for he will be in his clothes and will probably remember that he was drinking heavily last night.  There will be no evidence of what happened with me.  And I will be here, with you, as Diego.  No matter what he says, we insist he must have been sleepwalking and dreaming.  He saw me come in when he was sleepwalking, and he somehow dreamed it was an encounter with El Zorro."

Elizabeth nodded.  "It does strain credibility, that he would see me and Zorro together, here...." then she frowned.  "What do we say about the lump on his head?"

Zorro thought for a moment.  "He fell out of bed?"

"Maybe he should be found on the floor with something nearby so it looks like he hit his head?"

Zorro grinned.  "You are starting to think like Bernardo, darling!"

She thumped his chest with her hand.  "I am not Bernardo!"

"Si, you had better not be, when I return!" he laughed, holding her hand to his chest.

"But Diego," she said, anxious again, "Your clothes."

He looked down at what he was wearing.  "That is a problem," he agreed.  "But I have already seen Bernardo, and I will find him again in a few minutes.  Did he not bring my clothes with him from Rancho de la Vega?"

"I think he was expecting you to bring everything when you came, I do not think he imagined you would arrive quite this way." She ran her hand down his arm, her palm stroking the black silk.

"Then he will have to go back to get things for me, and return Tornado to his cave.  I have been seen here now, so I must be here in the morning.  You will have to tell everyone I wanted to sleep very late after my long journey."

She raised her eyebrows.

"I suppose we could both stay in the room until he arrives," Zorro ventured, leaning towards her.

Vilaro moaned again, more loudly.

"Darling I have to move him or it will be necessary to knock him out again," Zorro said, stepping back. He reached for his hat and mask, and pulled his gloves onto his hands.  "I had better put everything back on to do this, in case I am caught again."

She watched as he finished dressing and once again stood before her in black from head to foot, his mask over his eyes.  

"Stay here," he admonished, knowing her impulsiveness.  "I will re-situate him and then go find Bernardo, and lead him to Tornado."

"Poor Bernardo," Elizabeth said.  "Lolita is scheduled to arrive tomorrow, he was so looking forward to seeing her."

"He will lose less than a day," Zorro said.  He bowed to her.  "I shall relieve you now of this sorry specimen of the Spanish military."

"Diego," she said, putting her hand on his shoulder as he turned to get the Capitan.

He turned around and smiled down at her, taking her hand in his.  "Let me do this, sweet seņora.  I have already caused one large mess tonight by pausing to steal a kiss from you.  I fear what might happen with another delay."

She smiled and stepped away from him, watching as he took Vilaro by the feet and dragged him to the door.  Then he bent over and with a grunt hauled him up and over his shoulder.  "Never tell your friends that your husband does not help with removing the trash," he said to her.  With a short salute he went out the door.

Elizabeth took a deep breath, sitting heavily on the edge of the bed.  She looked at Esperanza, who was still on her tummy where her Daddy had placed her, sleeping peacefully.  "Oh, Esperanza," Elizabeth said, touching her daughter's back lightly.  "What a family you landed in."

******

Minutes passed.  Then an hour.  Elizabeth lay in bed shivering, partly from the chill of being out of bed and mostly without a robe for a quarter of an hour, and partly from fear of what was happening and what would happen given the incident in the hallway with Vilaro.  It was impossible to anticipate what he would remember when he awoke.  The plan Diego had concocted was defensible, but who knew what the Capitan would do?  

She warmed up slowly.  She kept sitting up to check on Esperanza, under a blanket beside her, to find that her daughter was staying sensibly asleep.  Finally she drifted off, her tiredness overcoming her worry.  

She awoke feeling warm breath at her cheek.  She opened her eyes to see Diego leaning over her.  He was still in his black shirt and trousers.  

"Oh!" she whispered, reaching for his neck and pulling him down onto her.

He covered her face with kisses and then whispered, "I must give these clothes to Bernardo, darling, he is at the door. We had quite a time finding Tornado but we have him in a good hiding place now."

Elizabeth released him reluctantly and waited as he stripped, handed the clothes over, re-shut the heavy door and locked it, and returned to her.  "It's cold in here!" he exclaimed, slipping between the sheets.  He sat up long enough to move Esperanza to slightly to the right of center at foot of the bed He made sure she was covered with her blanket and stroked her cheek lightly.  Then he turned his attentions to his beloved.  

"Oh, this is better," he said, feeling Elizabeth's warmth  in the bed.  They were both still for a moment.  He leaned onto his side, his hand coming to her face.  "Everything is taken care of," he told her.  "Vilaro is in his room on the floor.  Benicio is in his room, tied up on the floor. Tornado will be on his way home shortly.  And I..." he leaned over her, "am where I have wanted to be for many weeks."

She accepted his embrace, putting her face into his shoulder.  "I have missed you so much," she said, beginning to cry.

"Oh, sweetheart, don't cry," he began kissing her face anew, his lips covering her tears.

"Are you all right, are you truly all right?" she asked, her hand sliding down his side and touching his hip.

"That feels good," he whispered, continuing to kiss her.

"Diego, tell me you are all right," she wept.

He looked down into her eyes.  "I am all right," he assured her.  "You saw me haul the Capitan out of here!"

"I know," she wept, "But now I have you here with me and I..."

"Liz," he interrupted her, giving her more kisses.  "Listen to me.  It will work out somehow.  Vilaro will not be a problem.  And I am fine.  Truly.  You would know if I wasn't, wouldn't you?"

"Si," she agreed.  She stroked his chest with her hand.  "Oh, Diego," she continued crying.  "I am so afraid."

He pulled her fully against him and held her as she sobbed into his shoulder.  He stroked her back and finger-combed her hair and kissed her head gently.  If he had learned nothing else about his beloved in their fifteen months of married life, he had learned that she could be comforted.  "Do not be afraid, little kitten," he said softly.  

"I have my fox back," she wept, holding onto him tightly.

"Si, your fox has come home. Home is wherever you and our fox-kitten are," he whispered to her, resuming kissing her.  


******

Clementia awoke at around 7:00 and got up with excitement.  It was the day before her wedding.  Demetrio was here, as were all of her most important young friends, and by nightfall the last absent member of the wedding party, Diego, would arrive.  Other guests from Los Angeles would be arriving all day long.  She bathed hastily and, with the help of Martina and young Lupe, she dressed and pinched her cheeks.  By 8:00 she was downstairs in the kitchen with Conchita, reviewing the status of the wedding cake and preparations for breakfast.  "In the dining area," she kept repeating as Conchita valiantly tried to work around her.  "We must lay out a lovely buffet for everyone as they are rising.  Fruit, tortillas, make sure there are eggs..."

"I suggest that you serve the breakfast on the patio," Conchita said firmly, moving about the kitchen.  She had been up since dawn and had good reason for making her suggestion.

"No, the sala will do," Clementia said.  "We want to save the courtyard for the dinner this evening."

Conchita put her hands on her hips.  "Seņorita," she said, "I will say this only once.  You will want to serve the breakfast on the patio!"

"What for?" Clementia asked stubbornly.  

Conchita gave an exasperated sigh.  "I am from the de la Vega household, and I tell you that you will wish you had put it in the courtyard before this morning is over!" she exclaimed, picking up her wooden spoon to begin stirring more cake batter.

"That makes no sense at all," Clementia retorted.  "It is my wedding eve and I wish you to put it in the sala!"

Finally Conchita, who was kind but also famous for her unwillingness to tolerate extended bossing around, looked the seņorita in the eye and, with her wooden spoon, pointed at the door.  "Then I shall put it in the sala!" she exclaimed.  "And you will remove yourself from my kitchen!"

Clementia took the hint and retired to the patio while the moving about of food was managed by the servants.  She returned just as her Sergeant appeared on the stairs.  

"Demetrio!" she sighed happily, going over to him.  

"Good morning, my almost-seņora!" Garcia smiled, straightening his uniform and then bending over to give her a kiss.  He put his arms around her and hugged her.  "Did you sleep well?"

"Si, but then I retired long before you did!" she smiled back.

"It was a night for much laughter and good wine," Garcia agreed, seeing the table laid out beyond her.  "And do you know that Don Diego arrived last night?"

"No! Did he?" Clementia asked, taking his arm and leading him towards the spread. 

"Si...I think he was very glad to see...." he stopped in mid-sentence as the full array of what was available on the table revealed itself.  "And we have more wonderful things to look forward to this morning," he said, his eyes wide and happy.

Martina and Lupe appeared on the stairs, and also went straight for the plates stacked on the far side of the table.  

"I did not imagine we would have a feast for breakfast!" Garcia exclaimed, continuing to review what was before him - a plate of pastries, tortillas, eggs with salsa, an enormous platter of fruit, slices of bacon, hard and crusty bread.  At that moment he heard what seemed like a strange thumping noise from the ceiling.  He looked up, frowning.  The women were all picking up plates and did not notice it.  He looked at Clementia, frowning.  The thumping noise slowed down.  He shook his head, thinking he had heard nothing, and went back to perusing the food.

"Oooo, look at these wonderful apples," Martina said, picking one up.  She turned to Clementia.  "Have you seen Benicio this morning?"

Doņa Corinna appeared from upstairs at this point, followed by Consuelo.  The household was definitely waking up and was definitely hungry.  Everyone looked fresh.  

"It is the day before your big day!" Martina said to Clementia, who at the same time said, "I have not seen my brother yet, but he was up late with the Capitan and the other men!"

"We all climbed the stairs at the same late hour," Sergeant Garcia agreed, beginning to pile his plate up with food.  Then he heard the thumping noise again.  He looked up at the ceiling again.  

Consuelo heard it and looked up, too.  Clementia, seeing them look up, looked up also.  The sound was unmistakable, rhythmic, sustained.  Doņa Leonora looked up, frowning.  "What could that be?" she asked.

Clementia considered the hallway and whose rooms were where in the wing above. She cleared her throat and clattered her plate against another.  "Has anyone seen Elizabeth this morning?" she asked.

Martina, Consuelo and Doņa Corinna all said "no."  

"I suppose she is with Don Dieg...." Garcia started, but then stopped.  All eyes returned to the ceiling.  The thumping continued.  They all looked at each other.  Doņa Corinna's eyes widened and she put her plate down.  "Come, Lupe, we must go out to see if your father has arrived."

"But he is not due until this after..." the girl protested as her mother took her arm and led her out the door.

"Isn't their little girl with them?" Doņa Leonora said, still looking at the ceiling, scandalized.

"Oh, Mamma, Esperanza was born in May, she is barely seven months old, she cannot tell...what they..." Clementia started, but did not finish.  

"But..." Leonora sputtered, horrified. "This is not...proper!"  The thumping continued unabated.

"What is not proper?" Clementia asked.  "Besides that perhaps we should have given them a different room instead of the one over the sala!  They have not seen one another in three weeks, what are we to expect?!"

Suddenly Conchita's cryptic remark about being from the de la Vega household began to make sense.

"That is a very old bed up there," Doņa Leonora murmured.  

Consuelo, shaken by what she was hearing, dropped her plate. The sound clattered across the room.  Everyone bent over to help pick up the shards. The sounds from above continued unabated.  

"I think perhaps we should ask Conchita to move the breakfast onto the patio," Clementia said.  "It is such a lovely morning, after all."

"Si..." Sergeant Garcia said, putting more bacon on his plate.  "Everyone seems to think so."

Clementia waved everyone away and then went into the kitchen again.  Conchita raised the wooden spoon in her direction but Clementia stopped her, saying, "We must move the breakfast to the patio!"

Conchita waved the spoon at her.  "Next time you will listen to me!" she scolded.  "I am from the de la Vega household!"

Clementia turned and flounced away, passing Bernardo as he entered the kitchen with the heavy saddlebag.  

"Ha!" Conchita said to him.  "You cannot hear me so I will tell you this: I tried to warn her about what it is like to try to do anything in the room under the room where Don Diego and Doņa Elizabeth sleep. You should be glad you are deaf, Bernardo, for your master and your mistress can be very noisy with their attentions to one another!  If I did not know better I would say that your master learned his ways with his wife from a gypsy!  Ai!"  

As he exited the room, nodding politely, Bernardo smiled to himself.  His master and his mistress, he knew, were very happy at this moment.  

*****

Some 45 minutes later, most of the family and visitors were sitting in the patio sipping coffee when the young de la Vegas appeared, Diego carrying the freshly-bathed Esperanza.  The entire family looked very relaxed.  Greetings were exchanged, and Clementia took the baby immediately.  Consuelo blushed when she looked into Diego's eyes, which in turn caused him to wink at her.   Elizabeth caught the exchange and gave her husband a withering glance.

"We had a late morning," she announced to everyone, going to the table for some food.  

"Si, we....can see that," Doņa Leonora observed.

No one dared mention that they had heard it as well.

"Did you sleep late my pretty angel?" Clementia asked Esperanza.  

Sergeant Garcia looked around.  "It is very strange, is it not, that we have not seen Capitan Vilaro this morning?"

"Perhaps he is still sleeping through the remains of your party last night," Diego suggested, following his wife to the breakfast table.  "Elizabeth told me it went rather late!"  He scooped a few eggs onto her plate, followed by some to his own.  Then he took a pastry and some fruit.

Elizabeth added more eggs and several rashers of bacon to her plate, filling it.  Diego watched her pile it on and smiled to himself.  "You are hungry this morning," he whispered playfully in her ear.

She glared at him, still annoyed at his flirtation with Consuelo.  But there was no hiding it, they both knew her perpetual weakness for food after intense amorous encounters.  She took her plate and returned to the table, sitting beside Clementia and Esperanza.  There was no seat beside her, so Diego sat down at the next table with Sergeant Garcia, who was still eating.

After several swallows, Diego said "Conchita is a marvelous cook, isn't she?" to no one in particular.  

"Oh, si," Doņa Corinna agreed.  "You are lucky that Alejandro agreed to this loan," she told Doņa Leonora.  "Pilar would not be equal to this."

"It was my idea!" Clementia said, bouncing Esperanza.

"De la Vega!" came a loud, male voice from the doorway to the sala.  

Everyone looked around to see Capitan Vilaro standing there, pointing at Diego.  Diego put his fork down slowly.  Elizabeth looked over at her husband, frightened.  Everyone was shocked, for the fastidious Vilaro was half in uniform but looked as if he had slept in his clothes.  His jacket was missing, his shirt was half out of his trousers, his feet were bare, his eyes were bloodshot, and he had his hand on the back of his head.  He looked awful.

"Capitan!" Garcia exclaimed, jumping up and going over to him.  "What is the matter?"

"I have been attacked!" the Capitan said, standing there very unsteady.  Garcia took him by the arm.

"Attacked!" Doņa Leonora exclaimed.  "In our hacienda?"

"Si, by El Zorro!" Vilaro declared.  "Where were you, de la Vega?!"

Everyone looked at Diego, who sat very straight and still in his seat.  They all looked back at Vilaro.

"What do you mean, where was he?" Garcia asked.  "El Zorro was not here last night."

"He was here!  I saw him!  But then I...." Vilaro felt his head again.  "He knocked me out...I....cannot remember..." he began to falter in his words and lose his balance.  Garcia tried to steady him.  

Elizabeth stood up.  "Clementia, I think the Capitan may need a doctor," she said.

Vilaro looked around the table.  "Benicio," he muttered.  "Get Benicio."

"We have not seen him this morning, Capitan," Garcia explained.

"Check his room, you idiot!" Vilaro exclaimed.  He sat down heavily in an iron chair.

Diego rose quickly and said, "I will go up and check on Benicio."  As he passed Elizabeth he shook his head ever so slightly.

One of the women brought a glass of water to the commandante and he took it, sipping and then coughing.  "I awoke on the floor of my room, I was knocked out," he said.  "My head..." he winced.

Elizabeth tilted her head slightly.  "Could you have fallen from your bed?" she asked, planting the seed.

"I....no, I encountered El Zorro in the hallway..." he said, trying to reconstruct what happened.  He looked at her.  She was part of this somehow.  "You...." he started.

Then a shout from a window above took everyone's attention.  "Benicio is tied up!" Diego called from the windowsill.  "I shall release him!"  

A minute later Diego emerged from the sala doorway with Benicio, who walked stiffly and had red marks around his face and mouth.  

"El Zorro was here last night," Benicio said.  "He tied me up and left me in my room."

"I told you he was here!" Vilaro exclaimed.  The sound of his own agitated voice made him wince.  "Did he hit you on the head?"

"No," Bocca answered.  

"What did he do?" Clementia asked.

"He...." Benicio stopped, remembering the warning about being on good behavior.  "He advised me to be a good brother," he told his sister.  "And then he tied me up and left me in my room."  He looked at Diego.  "Thank you, Don Diego, for finding me."

"It was my idea!" Vilaro spewed. 

"I think you need to rest and recover from your fall, Commandante," Doņa Leonora advised.

"I did not have a fall!" he exclaimed, wincing again.

"Of course you didn't," Garcia agreed.  He nodded at Corporal Reyes, who had finally appeared in the courtyard.  "Corporal, will you help me get the Commandante back to his room?"

"Si, Sergeant," Reyes answered, coming to Vilaro's other side.

"I am not...I do not need assistance!" Vilaro snarled, but then on attempting to pull himself up he sat back down again.

"That looks like quite a knot on your head," Reyes observed.

"He hit me with something!" Vilaro explained, as the two men helped him away.

Everyone stood there for a moment as they disappeared.  Benicio looked over at the spread of food.  "Breakfast!" he said, going over to it.

Diego sat back down, resuming his cup of coffee.  He glanced at his wife and gave her a tiny shrug.

Garcia and Reyes re-appeared in a few minutes.  "He thinks he was knocked out by El Zorro, but I think he hit his head on the table beside his bed," the Sergeant said softly.  "He keeps talking about you, Don Diego, I do not know why."

Diego shrugged.  "He must have fallen out of bed before I arrived last night, Sergeant," he said.  "We did not hear anything unusual after you mistakenly knocked on our door."

"Si, I did mistakenly knock on your door," the Sergeant agreed.  He sat beside his fiancé and looked at her.  "What an unusual morning it has been," he mused.  "I cannot imagine what the rest of the day may hold."

She smiled at him.  "It is the morning before our wedding day and everyone we love is here," she said.  "Even my brother."

"Si," Garcia said, looking over at Benicio as he put food on his plate.  "Even your brother."

Diego sat back and relaxed.

Chapter Eight - Aunt Hortensia

The afternoon was as calm as the morning was eventful.  When she arrived, Lolita paid a call on Capitan Vilaro, who remained indisposed and cloistered in his room all day. When she saw Elizabeth after leaving his room her only comment was, "He got a hard knock on the head and he is still dizzy."  Vilaro did conduct a late morning meeting with Benicio Bocca, something Elizabeth knew only because she spied Benicio leaving the commandante's room as she was bringing Esperanza upstairs for her early nap.  Benicio slowed down and smiled at her as she passed him in the hallway, but said nothing.   

Feeling suddenly overwarm and sleepy herself, Elizabeth dozed off on the bed with her daughter and missed the midday meal, which proved to be an extension of the morning meal, which had never really ended.  All in all, it was a day of eating and greeting people as more and more of the guests arrived.  Clementia shuttled between entertaining and attempting to sew, though even with the help of Consuelo, Martina, Lupe and Doņa Corinna it was clear that finishing her trousseau was a hopeless cause.  This was considerably more disturbing to Doņa Leonora than it was to her excited daughter.  

Sergeant Garcia tried to keep a low profile throughout the day.  It was the first time in his adult life that he was not on duty, not scheduled to be on duty, and not slated for duty for many days ahead.  In the absence of a particular mission to perform, and because Clementia was so distracted by all the arrivals and activities, he opted to pursue Diego's company first and foremost.  Diego was, after all, his best man. And they had not had their important conversation.

Early in the afternoon, the wedding dress arrived.  It had traveled to Los Angeles, and on from there to San Juan Capistrano, in an entourage of servants from several haciendas.  Among the servants was Maria, whom Elizabeth welcomed with great happiness.  The arrival of the dress brought all the women scurrying down to the hacienda gate to get a first look at the creation of the famous dressmaker from Monterey, who had accompanied her latest gown on the journey down the Camino Real.  It was none other than Senora Ramirez, the very woman who, a year earlier, had told Elizabeth about El Zorro's many bastards among the Indian children and made her spectacular silver gown.  When Elizabeth saw her step down off the wagon to supervise the unloading of the dress, she burst out laughing.  Diego, inside the gate on the patio, went over to her and joined in watching the activities.  "What is so funny?" he asked

"Oh, it is Seņora Ramirez," Elizabeth said.  "Remember my silver dress?"

"I shall never forget it," Diego replied.  

"I did not realize she was coming all the way from Monterey to supervise the transfer," Elizabeth said, still smiling.

"Keep it covered, keep it covered up!" Clementia was exclaiming.  "My Sergeant cannot see it or we will have bad luck for our marriage!"

Sergeant Garcia, hearing that, shifted nervously in his seat.  Corporal Reyes, still on duty, shrugged.

"You don't believe all that, do you?" Reyes asked.

Garcia looked at him and gulped.

Reyes got up and walked to the gate to get a better view of the proceedings.

"Here," Diego said, offering to take Esperanza from his wife's arms.  "Let me take her, you can help with all of this better if you do not have an armload of little girl."  He took the baby.  "I suppose she wants to be certain that her handiwork befalls no ill between her shop and the precise hour of the wedding," he said.

"I think it is Doņa Leonora who orchestrated it," Elizabeth whispered.  She reached up to help with the unloading.  The dress appeared to have an elaborate train.

Diego stepped back, leaving the task to the women.  He went back into the courtyard and sat down next to Sergeant Garcia.  Plopping Esperanza on his knee, he pulled out a cigar and proceeded to light it.  "No, sweetheart," he said to the baby, who grabbed for it.  "This is Daddy's."  He held her by her waist, facing out and towards the gateway where all the activity was taking place.  "Watch Mommie and all your aunties," he told her, taking a puff from the cigar.  He looked over at the Sergeant, who was watching the women with a mix of fascination and terror.   

"Would you like a cigar, Sergeant?" Diego asked.

Garcia nodded, accepting the offer.  Diego lit it for him.  They sat there for a while in the sunshine, watching as the flurry by the carriage continued.  "It is an amazing thing, a tribe of women," Diego commented.

"Si, Don Diego, there is nothing more fearsome," Garcia replied.  "Except perhaps for one thing."

"What is that?"

"One woman."

"Ah, Sergeant, are you still concerned about your one?"

Garcia looked at him.  "I think I shall be concerned about her for the rest of my life.  At least, I hope I will be."

"That is a good attitude, Sergeant," Diego said.  

The men watched as the dress, wrapped in dark cloth, was carefully lifted out of the carriage and then taken through the courtyard and into the house.  All the women scurried along with it, their chatter floating across the patio and finally drifting up into the recesses of the back wing of the house.  Quiet descended again, except for a few birds, the occasional whicker of a horse from the stable, and Esperanza's giggling as her Daddy jiggled her on his knee.  

"Sergeant, I am going to offer you a piece of advice that my father gave me when I was about to be married," Diego volunteered.

"Si, Don Diego, what is that?" the Sergeant asked eagerly.

Diego looked at his friend.  "Pay attention to her," he said.

The Sergeant waited.  Diego raised his eyebrows, shrugged, and returned to bouncing the baby.

"That is all?"

"Si, that is what he told me.  It was very good advice."

Garcia considered that.  "But, it is...not very...detailed, Don Diego."

"No," Diego agreed.  "But I assure you it is to the point."

Benicio emerged from the house.  He spied Garcia and Diego and came to join them.

"Hello, muchacha," he said to Esperanza, teasing the baby with a light tap on the tip of her nose.  Diego offered him a cigar, which he accepted.  "I see my sister's dress arrived.  They were all...." he waved his hands wildly for a moment.

"You do that very well," Diego observed, puffing his cigar but being careful to blow the smoke in a direction away from his baby daughter's face.

Benicio smiled.  "They inspire it," he replied.

"I have the impression that Seņorita Martina is rather taken with you," Diego said.

Benicio shrugged.

"Mmmmm," Diego nodded.  

"Lupe will be very beautiful in a few years," Benicio said.

"Lupe is very beautiful now!" Sergeant Garcia stated.  Then he caught himself, startled.  "I mean, she will certainly be beautiful when she is old enough to be beautiful."

"She is sixteen," Diego laughed.  "I think that is old enough to be beautiful, just not quite old enough to be marriageable.  Give her two more years, Benicio. Then you can consider it."

Sergeant Garcia sighed, blowing the smoke out of his mouth.  He was still thinking about Don Diego's advice.  "Pay attention to her," he muttered to himself.  

Benicio caught Esperanza's eye and began to flirt with her, making her smile and wave her hands.  "I suppose I could wait seventeen years and marry the most beautiful girl who has ever been born in Los Angeles," he mused.

Diego looked at him and then at his daughter.  His eyebrows raised.  "That would be a very long wait," he said, returning his focus on Benicio.  

Benicio tilted his head slightly, continuing to play eye games with Esperanza.  "I daresay it would be worth it.  She will be a prize for someone, one day."  He looked at Diego.  "I wonder if, by the time she is marriageable, we will still have customs such as arranged weddings and dowries."

Diego lifted the baby onto his shoulder so she could no longer see Benicio.  Esperanza protested, trying to turn around and keep playing peek-a-boo with the handsome man across from her.  "Ohhh," Diego said to her, "do you have a mind of your own about this already?  Can you not give Daddy your full attention?"

Esperanza tugged at his ear and managed to squirm around so she could see Benicio again. She burst into a smile and reached for him. 

"You want to go see him?" Diego asked her.  				

She kept reaching.

Diego offered her to Benicio, who accepted her confidently.  She gave a short squeal of delight.

"Oh, now, that is not a sound to make to a new suitor!" Benicio said to her, making a circle and whirling her around in his arms.   

Diego watched with interest as Bocca wheeled his daughter around.  Despite the problems, the warnings, the poison, despite all of the things that made Benicio untrustworthy and even dangerous, Diego had always liked the Bocca son. "He would have made a good Zorro," he told his father once, when he was recovering from the first knife wound in the Tavern years ago.  "It is too bad he went to Mexico and fell in with the wrong people."

Watching him now, playing so flirtatiously and so smoothly with the baby, Diego wondered to himself if Benicio could be rehabilitated.  It was still questionable as to why he had returned to Alta California in the first place.  Diego highly doubted that it was truly due to any family loyalty.  Some other scheme was at work.

Esperanza was having a fabulous time being swept around in the air and was laughing accordingly.

"You handle her with such ease," Sergeant Garcia remarked.

"The Sergeant was very reluctant to hold her, and he is her godfather," Diego said.  "You, on the other hand, appear to have some practice."

"Si," Garcia laughed, "you would think he had a child of his own."

"I do," Benicio answered, swinging Esperanza up into the air again.

Sergeant Garcia spit out his cigar, his eyes popping wide.   

Esperanza squealed gleefully.

Diego sat up, taking his cigar out of his mouth.  "You are full of surprises, Benicio," he said.  

Benicio brought Esperanza down out of the air and handed her to Diego.  "A son," he said.  "He is a little older than she is.  Three."

"And where would this son be?" Diego asked, accepting his daughter back.

"In Mexico, with his mother."

"But...Don Benicio....no one here knows you are married," Sergeant Garcia said, keeping his voice low.

Benicio looked at the Sergeant.  "Who said I was married?" he asked.

Garcia's eyes widened in new astonishment.

"It would probably be better if you did not mention this, Sergeant," Benicio said.  "My parents would not understand why they have not met their first grandchild."

Diego raised his eyebrows in agreement.  Esperanza tried to grab for his cigar, but he put it on the table out of her reach.  "No, little one," he said to her, trying to adjust how she was sitting so that she was further from the table.  "Oh, Esperanza, why are you always so calm with Mommie and yet squirm around so much with me?" he asked her.  

"Does Clementia know this?" the Sergeant asked.

Benicio shook his head.  "She would tell everyone," he simply said.

"Si...." Garcia agreed, feeling the sudden burden of keeping a new secret from his bride-to-be. 

"Very true," Diego affirmed.  He looked at Benicio, puzzled.  "Why did you tell us?" he asked.

Benicio smiled his slow smile and shrugged his careless shrug.  "I felt I could trust both of you," he answered.  "And you, of course," he grinned down at Esperanza.  He caught Diego's eye and winked at him.  Then he said, "Sergeant, are you ready to face your last night as a bachelor?  And at Rancho Verbena, of all places?"

Garcia opened his mouth to answer but then stopped, frowning.  "What do you mean, 'at Rancho Verbena,' Don Benicio?"

Benicio shrugged.  "Well, given the legend and the ghost, I think you are very brave, to spend your wedding eve here."

Diego suppressed a smile.  Clearly Benicio was up to something and the poor, gullible groom-to-be was the victim.

"What legend? What....ghost?"

Benicio looked surprised.  "Clementia did not tell you about this?"  He shook his head sorrowfully.

"She said we had to be married here, that this was your mother's family home..." the Sergeant said.  

"Si, si, the women in the family always want to have their weddings here, but the men...." he shook his head.  

"The Sergeant has had experiences with ghosts before, Benicio," Diego said.  "Remember, several years ago, Sergeant, when you defeated the ghost of the mission at San Gabriel?"

"Oh, si, Don Diego, I remember.  Capitan Monastario...the ghost...." he shuddered, remembering the sound of the chains and the ghoulish howl of the ghost at midnight in the mission garden.  

"But that turned out to be El Zorro, didn't it?  I do not think you have anything to worry about here," Diego said.  "Once you have defeated one ghost, you know how to defeat them all."  

Benicio shook his head thoughtfully.  "This is not just any ghost.  This is my mother's great aunt, who was left at the altar by a bandito who called himself Chichanga."

"Chichanga," Diego repeated.  "Sounds Indian."

"No, he was a Spanish soldier who swept my ancestor off her feet in the old, golden days when California was wild and almost no settlers were here.  He deserted the King's army, you see, because of a dispute with the Indians on the coast that he did not want to settle.  He was was very skillful with the sword, this Chichanga.  No one wanted to make an enemy of him."

"Sounds like El Zorro," Sergeant Garcia said feebly.  

"Perhaps this is Zorro's great grandfather!" Diego suggested.

"It is possible, Diego," Benicio said thoughtfully.  "My mother's great aunt, you see, was kidnapped by him because he saw her one night in the moonlight and fell in love with her at first sight. Their passion was famous up and down the Camino Real.  He asked her to marry him, and he came to her on the wedding eve and stole her love once more, but then disappeared and was never seen again."

"And...it is her ghost that haunts the Rancho?" Sergeant Garcia asked.

"Si...it is said she looks for him on the wedding eve, to see if she can keep him from disappearing."

"Do they know what happened to him?" Diego asked.

Benicio snapped his fingers.  "Gone.  Like that."  He paused, then said, "But my mother's great aunt, Hortensia, will never rest until she finds him."  He looked down at the Sergeant. "Do you know how persistent Clementia can be?  In the family we say, 'she got that from Aunt Hortensia.'"

"But, what have I to worry about?" Garcia asked hopefully.  "I am not Chichanga.  I am only...Garcia."

"She haunted my father on the night before his wedding," Benicio said.  "So much so that he rode home in the middle of the night and would not return until an hour before the wedding."

"No!" Sergeant Garcia blurted.  "Don Francisco told me nothing of this!"

"Now, Sergeant, I think Benicio is having a little bit of fun with you," Diego said, trying to calm his friend.  "We are all in the house together, after all, how can Aunt Hortensia haunt you without stirring up the rest of us."

"If she appears, Don Diego, will you help me?" Garcia asked.

"Oh, si, of course."  Diego glanced at Benicio.  "I am sure Benicio will as well."

Benicio's lip curled in a half-smile.  "They say there is a way to ward her off," he told the Sergeant.  "You must walk three times around the hacienda right before you retire, promising her aloud that you will be at the altar at the appointed hour to say your vows to your bride."  He eyed Garcia.  "Three times," he repeated solemnly.

Sergeant Garcia nodded earnestly.  "Three times," he said.

******

It was shortly after Benicio's ghost story that Esperanza became cranky, leading Diego to excuse himself and take his daughter upstairs for her late afternoon nap.  He hoped Elizabeth would be there but knew she was probably still fluttering with the other women over Clementia's dress.  When he entered the room it was indeed empty.  Esperanza was crying fitfully so he paced the room with her for a while.  Outdoors he saw a dust trail in the distance and could see several men on horseback approaching.  He realized it was his father and a number of other dons.

"Ranzita look, your grandpapas are both here.  Go to sleep, muchacha, so you will be in a good mood when you see them tonight," he said, trying to soothe her.

After a little more whimpering the baby fell asleep.  He put her down on the bed and sat next to her, pulling his jacket off in the warm, still afternoon air.  He was not sleepy but he was hardly going to leave his child alone while he went in search of her mother.  It was siesta time and he imagined Elizabeth would appear soon, for the ladies would want their afternoon rest however enchanting the unveiled dress might be.  Diego watched his daughter, marveling at the sight of her long, dark eyelashes and her nose, so tiny and yet shaped exactly like Elizabeth's.  Her hair was getting longer and seemed to him even darker than when she was born. 

"You are going to be a great beauty," he said to her softly. He knew people thought Esperanza looked like him, but as she grew older he saw her mother in the baby more and more.  It was small things.  The way she lifted her eyebrows when something got her attention, the way she would break into a smile, the way she would sometimes squint as she was determining what was going on around her.  But she had a consistent inner calm that was not part of Elizabeth's complex emotional make-up.  That, he knew over and over, was from his mother.  "Your grandmama would be so delighted with you," he said softly to his daughter.   

The bedroom door opened and Elizabeth came in.  She saw him sitting there over the baby and joined him, sitting gently on the bed.  

"Is she asleep?"  

"Si, she fussed a little but she is down now."  He nodded at the window.  "Our fathers have arrived.  Along with the other dons."

"Ah, so we can proceed with the wedding. All of Los Angeles is here now."

Diego smiled. "Do you know one of the things I love most about you, seņora?" he asked.

"What is that, seņor?"

"Your irreverence."

Elizabeth rolled her eyes.  "Si, that makes me the perfect match for El Zorro," she said, sitting down in the large, heavy chair near the fireplace.  

"You are that," he agreed. He got up and followed her.  "Don't you want to take a siesta?" he asked.

"I fell asleep at noon," Elizabeth answered. "So I am not sleepy now."  She looked up at him.  "I suppose my early nap had to do with being kept awake for half the night.  It would seem that our commandante does not have a clear memory of his encounter with El Zorro.  Lolita said he is still dizzy."

Diego nodded.  "A lucky break for us."

"Si," Elizabeth agreed.  

"Would you...have room for another person in that chair?" Diego asked her.

She looked around herself.  "It is not that large a chair, can't you sit on the sofa?"

Diego looked at the sofa opposite her.  "No," he said.  "At least, not by myself."

Elizabeth eyed him.  "You want to sit in this chair with me."

"Si."

"It is hot, Diego. What if I move to the sofa and let you have the chair?"

"Then I will need to be on the sofa.  Take your dress off, darling, you will be cooler."  He got off the bed and pulled off his shirt, revealing his fine, broad chest.  He waved at her to get up, which she did.  He unbuttoned her dress and lifted it over her head, laying it on the bed.      

Elizabeth stood by the chair until he returned and sat down, reaching for her. She settled down in his lap. He held her quietly for a while.  Then he asked, "Did Seņora Ramirez bring any word from Monterey?"

"I don't know," Elizabeth sighed.  "She is so wrapped up in the dress she was not talking about anything else.  It has a lot of beads on it and she is very worried over something falling off before tomorrow.  'One bead is all it would take to unravel the entire gown!'" she intoned.

Diego chuckled. "Now, that would make this a more memorable wedding than I believe it already will be."

Elizabeth giggled. "Indeed," she affirmed.  She put her head onto his shoulder.  "Oh, Diego, I am so glad you are back," she sighed.  "And I am so glad you are all right.  It is very hard to face Benicio, knowing what he did."

"If he had wanted to kill Zorro, he could have, darling. He never really pushed the knife in, he slipped on the roof.  And the amount of poison, while it did its damage, was insufficient for a fatal result. He knew that.  I do not think death is what he intended.  I believe he was under instructions to get El Zorro crippled to the point where Vilaro could find him and hang him."  He stroked her hair with his hand.  "Fortunately El Zorro has allies who made sure that did not happen."  He paused and then added, "Benicio has always presented complications for El Zorro, but I have long imagined that he might prove to be a friend one day."

Elizabeth looked at him, surprised.  "A friend?!  When he has stabbed you twice and poisoned you?  Oh, Diego."

He shook his head.  "I am not saying he should be trusted.  Only that his motives are complicated."

"His motives are for himself."

"Perhaps." He debated with himself and then refrained from saying what he had said to his father once, about Benicio making a good Zorro.  He knew it wouldn't fly with his dearest at the moment. He also knew this was not the moment to mention that Benicio had a son, though he suspected that might cause Elizabeth to soften a little in her opinion of him.  

Elizabeth simply wanted the rest of the world out of the way for a while as she let herself relax in her husband's arms.  Benicio disturbed her greatly for reasons she could not entirely fathom.  She kept thinking about the way he looked at her in the pantry when she was nursing the baby.  It was knowing and tender and dangerous all at once.  She wanted to talk with Diego about it but feared it.  And some part of her wanted to keep it for herself.  

And so the couple sat there in the quiet while their daughter slept, both saying nothing of what they were thinking to the other.  To pass the time, Diego told Elizabeth the story of Aunt Hortensia and Chichanga. It made his dearest giggle and say, "I suppose that means Demetrio will be up all night walking around outside and staying vigilant in case Aunt Hortensia appears, rather than getting his sleep on the night before his wedding!"

**

Don Alejandro, Don Carlos, and the other dons who traveled together by horseback arrived with an announcement.  It was only after Capitan Vilaro finally emerged from his bedroom and his headache for the first course of supper that Don Carlos summoned everyone's attention.  The gathering of over 20 were all on the patio at a long table.

"Clementia," he said to the bride-to-be, "along with being happy for you and your Sergeant, we will also be grateful for your mother's decision to hold this wedding at Rancho Verbena.  I believe that had the six dons who rode down here together not spent this afternoon in conversation, I would not be making this announcement.  However, because we were thrust together in the hot sun all afternoon long, we made some important decisions!"

Everyone looked at each other.


"On behalf of all of us, I am pleased to tell you all, and especially you, Capitan Vilaro, that next month the pueblo of Los Angeles will open a private bank, backed by the six of us and also Don Francisco," he raised his glass in Francisco Bocca's direction, "as well as my son-in-law Diego, of course, and we will make this bank available to all persons who wish to do business with us, irregardless of class or economic station in life."  He held his glass in the air, indicating a toast.  "Here is to the First Bank of Los Angeles," he said.

Vilaro's face began to turn red.  Benicio's expression, Diego noted, was impassive.  A lancer approached Vilaro and whispered something in his ear.

Everyone who had a glass raised it and joined in the toast, "to the bank," and drank their red wine.  Diego left his place at the table, being seated between Consuelo and Lupe Cahuenga, to go to his father.  "This is a sudden decision," he said softly.  

Alejandro, seated between Elizabeth and Doņa Corinna, got up and stepped a few feet away from his son.  "It has been in the works for months but there were a few holdouts who finally decided to join us," he said.  "It is amazing what a long, hot ride will do."  He looked around.  "Is everything all right here? Bernardo showed up at dawn with Tornado and only stayed a short while, but I had the impression that Zorro had some kind of scuffle with Vilaro."

Diego nodded.  "Yes, you could call it that.  I shall have to explain later.  For the moment there seems to be no lasting effects, aside from the Capitan's headache, which I think you and Carlos have made much worse!"  He grinned.  "Well done, Father!'

Alejandro smiled and returned to his seat, to find Esperanza reaching for him.  "Oh, now you want to sit on my lap and eat my food?" he asked her.

Diego returned to his seat across from the rest of his family.  Before sitting he looked around, and noted that both Vilaro and Benicio were nowhere to be seen.   Then he lowered himself down and realized that Lupe, the lovely 16 year-old, was looking at him dreamily.

"Lupe?" he said. 

"I was thinking about your wedding," she answered, staring up into his eyes.

"Oh, that is right, I suppose you were there, everyone from the pueblo was there," he said.  He thought back to that wonderful, terrible July day when he stood at the end of the aisle watching his breathtaking bride walk towards him, knowing that it was the last place she wanted to be on earth, and dying inside because he so wanted her to be his forever.  He smiled to himself.  He had gotten his wish, in the end.

"Si...Doņa Elizabeth was so beautiful in her white gown..." she said.  She lowered her voice.  "Her dress was far more beautiful than Clementia's," she added.  "Clementia's is very fluttery and...."

Diego stopped her with a smile.  "My wife's dress was her mother's," he told her.  "It was made in Ireland by Elizabeth's grandmother a very long time ago. Elizabeth brought it with her from Boston, when she and Don Carlos moved here last year." He leaned over conspiratorially and added, "I think she hopes that one day Esperanza will wear it when she gets married."

Lupe giggled.  "That is a long time away!  Esperanza is still so little."


"She gets bigger every time I pick her up," Diego told the girl, looking across the table at his father feeding the baby some tiny bits of bread softened in water.  Elizabeth was in an animated conversation with Clementia over something.

"Don Alejandro loves Esperanza so much," Lupe said.

"Si, they are very special to one another," Diego agreed.

"It used to be so unusual to see him smile.  I was always afraid of him because he seemed so fierce.  But now all he does is laugh." She looked up at Diego.  "It is good for you, too, Don Diego, to have a wife and a baby.  You are not lonely anymore."

Diego looked at the girl, startled by her personal remarks.  "Did you believe I was lonely, before?"

"Oh, si," she nodded.  "You were always alone, or with your manservant.  You always tried to look bright, but under it....you were so alone.  It did not seem right.  I know I am young and I should not know these things, but...it is better for you now.  To have your family."  She looked across at Elizabeth.  "I like Doņa Elizabeth.  It think she is very strong and funny.  She can even make Rufino behave!  She is different from all of us, she seems so much like an Americana in some ways, and yet I cannot imagine you with anyone else.  It is almost as if the blessed Mother had to bring her all the way from America to you."

Diego shook his head gently, smiling.  "Si, Lupe, I think that is exactly what the blessed Mother did.  I cannot imagine myself with anyone else, either."

"Do you believe that the blessed Mother has the perfect person for each of us?" Lupe asked him earnestly.
"And that she will bring them to us, no matter how far they have to come?"

"Oh, I..." Diego started. He stopped because Bernardo had suddenly appeared in the doorway of the sala and was gesturing at him to come.  "Lupe," he said, "I am sorry to excuse myself but I need to check on something, might we continue our conversation later?"

"Si, Don Diego," the girl said.

Diego got up and went to Bernardo, who nudged him into the sala.  He pointed upstairs.  

"Upstairs? Is something upstairs?" Diego asked.

Bernardo took him by the arm and tried to lead him up.

"I do not want to leave everyone!" Diego protested. "All of the most important guests are right in front of our eyes!  What can possibly be the matter?" 

Bernardo kept pulling at him and waving him to follow, so Diego proceeded to follow his servant to the top of the stairs and to the end of the hallway and an open window.  He pointed outside.  Diego peered out and his eyes widened.  A large carriage was approaching the hacienda, surrounded by several lancers and Capitan Vilaro, all on horseback.  It was obviously an official visit of some kind.  Diego looked at Bernardo.  

"If I did not know better I would say that is Governor Peņa's carriage," he said.

Bernardo nodded earnestly.

Diego looked out again, with a sinking feeling.  "I suppose he is traveling with his wife," he said.

Bernardo nodded, agreeing it was likely.  

"Oh, joy," Diego muttered.  "I manage not to see her for nearly a year and now, twice in a month."  He shook his head, thinking of the evening he had spent at the Peņa hacienda in Monterey.  Marta had been gone most of the time he was in the capital. She was, he was told, visiting the convent in Soledad where she had lived in the year after her passionate and disastrous affair with El Zorro.  But she returned in time to host one dinner where Diego was present.  It had been awkward and, above all, exhausting.  Diego had said nothing of it to Elizabeth.  

"I suppose this will please the Boccas and Clementia to no end, attracting the Governor to the wedding," Diego said.  He looked at Bernardo. "I should warn Elizabeth and try to persuade her to be on good behavior."

Bernardo nodded again, indicating that was why he had summoned Diego in the first place.  Both men knew well the resentment that Elizabeth carried in her heart towards the Governor's wife.

*****

Diego hurried back downstairs and got Elizabeth's attention quickly, interrupting her in the middle of a conversation with Capitan Vilaro.  Excusing herself she followed him to a corner on the patio.  

"There is something I need to tell you," he said quickly.  

She frowned.

"I did not know that they were coming but..."

He was interrupted by the bell clanging at the gate and a flurry of voices as the gate opened.  Following two lancers, Marta made a grand entrance in a flaming red dress. She was followed by the Governor.  Diego watched the scene unfold and shut his eyes.  Elizabeth stared at them, watching Clementia rush over to Marta and hug her gleefully, while her parents greeted Governor Peņa.  She looked at Diego, whose hand was still half-covering his eyes. "You did not know they were coming," she repeated.

He shook his head.  "Really.  I did not."

"Clementia told me they were invited but it never occurred to me they would come all the way from Monterey."

Diego shrugged helplessly.  

Capitan Vilaro went to the Governor and presented himself with a crisp salute.  Peņa acknowledged him and then leaned over to say something private to him.  Vilaro answered quickly and then stepped back.  Marta, meanwhile, was looking over the guests at the tables and spied Benicio sitting in his seat looking highly amused.  She headed straight for him, her arms outstretched.


"Benicio!" she cried in her little-girl voice.  "Oh, you are back in California!  That Diego, he did not tell me you were here when he came to Monterey last month!"

Benicio kissed her cheeks affectionately, and then kissed her hand.

Elizabeth looked at Diego.  "You saw her?  You did not tell me you saw her!"

"It was at a dinner, she was gone most of the time I was there," he said.  He watched as Benicio lifted Marta off the ground in a warm hug.  He had no idea they knew one another.  

"They look rather familiar with one another," Elizabeth observed wryly.

"Si," Diego agreed. "But then, everyone is familiar with Benicio." He saw Marta's head turn and her eyes captured his.  Instinctively, he smiled at her. She was, in the moments before she opened her mouth, irresistible.   She came towards them, her eyes never leaving him.  

"Diego," she cried, coming across the patio to receive a kiss on each cheek from him.  "How handsome you look, far better than when you were in Monterey!" She looked at Elizabeth.  "And here you are, Doņa Elizabeth, I am so eager to meet your little girl.  Diego talked of nothing but her when I saw him last month.  Esperanza, do I remember that is what you named her, Diego?" she asked, returning her attention to Diego.  

"Si, she is right over there with my father," Diego said, nodding at the table.  Alejandro was on his feet, holding Esperanza with in one arm and shaking hands with the Governor with the other.  

"Ohhhh, look at her, what a beautiful baby," Marta cooed, taking Diego's arm and pulling him with her towards the baby.  "She looks just like you, Diego!"  She looked up at him, and for a moment the way she looked at him gave Diego a chill in his spine.  He shook it off as she headed for Alejandro and reached for Esperanza.  "Let me have this pretty little darling," she said, looking into Esperanza's face.  She stared for a moment, and then continued talking as Esperanza tried to reach for her heavy gold earrings. Clementia came up to them and an animated conversation about the wedding began, even as Marta played with the baby in her arms. 

Elizabeth stood in the shadows watching the sudden activity.  She could see that Diego was disturbed at Marta's arrival, and that he was unhappy to see his only child suddenly swept into his old paramour's arms.  Marta looked healthy and vibrant.  The dress, Elizabeth had to admit to herself, was spectacular.  The marriage seemed to agree with her. Even though it was Clementia's evening, Marta was momentarily stealing the show.  Elizabeth was not happy to see her, but she was surprised to find that she was not brimming with instant resentment, only a sense of annoyance.  Perhaps it was seeing Diego so clearly dismayed at this appearance.  

"Ow, ow," Marta was saying, as Esperanza managed to grab hold of one of her earrings.  

Diego reached for her.  "Let me have her, Marta, she loves jewelry of any kind.  She will pull them right out of your ear."

Elizabeth suppressed a giggle, silently rooting for Esperanza to hang on and give that earring a good yank.


Diego managed to retrieve the baby, who looked up at him and screwed up her face in preparation to cry.  Elizabeth hurried over and took her.  "I'll take her upstairs," she said.  "She is probably hungry and it is past her bedtime."  She looked at Marta.  "I have learned not to wear my good jewelry around her," she smiled.  Then without waiting for a reply she took the baby, who was now squalling, and disappeared into the hacienda.  

"What a night," Sergeant Garcia remarked to Corporal Reyes.  The two of them were sitting at the end of the table, a bottle of wine in front of them, watching as everyone else moved around and chattered over the Governor's arrival.  

"Si, I did not know that even the Governor would come to your wedding," Reyes agreed.

"I did not know he was invited!" the Sergeant commented.

"Well, Sergeant, it does not matter if he is here or not, as long as you and Clementia and Padre Dominic are here."  He looked at the Sergeant sideways.  "Are you nervous?"

Garcia looked at him, puzzled.  "No, I cannot say that I am," he answered.  "But then, I am doing what Don Diego did on the night before his wedding."

Reyes looked at the bottle of wine.  "I remember," he said.  "But I do not think that El Zorro will come to rescue Seņorita Clementia tonight, the way he rescued Doņa Elizabeth."

"I certainly hope not!" the Sergeant replied.  "I hope no one comes to kidnap her in the first place!"  He eyed the wine bottle as well.  "And I hope no one comes to kidnap me either," he added, pouring himself another glass.

Reyes frowned.  "Who would kidnap you?" he asked.

"Aunt Hortensia," Garcia replied, drinking his glass dry.  

*****

At half past eleven, Doņa Leonora instructed Benicio and her husband to escort Sergeant Garcia to his room.  Clementia was required to retire as well, accompanied by Elizabeth and the other younger women.  "We will take no chances on the groom seeing the bride before the wedding," Clementia's mother declared firmly. Thus the party broke up quite early, by wedding eve standards.  Diego went along with the men, but little attention was needed for the good Sergeant, who was so well-seasoned by his wine that he was more than happy to go to sleep as soon as he was pushed towards the bed.  "So many people...." he muttered just before his snoring began.  He fell asleep thinking there was something he should do, but he could not remember what.

Benicio looked down at him sprawled on the bed and dryly said to Diego, "My sister is going to have to listen to that snoring for a long time."

Diego chuckled. He could not help liking this man.  "At least he will sleep through any visits from Aunt Hortensia," Diego observed.

******			


In the opposite wing of the house, Clementia was in her nightgown, surrounded by Consuelo, Martina, Elizabeth and Marta. 

"Aren't you excited? Aren't you nervous?" Marta asked, holding Clementia's hand.

"Si, si," Clementia answered.  "But mostly I just want everything to go well tomorrow.  I think everything is ready.  Except for the trousseau," she added.

Elizabeth smiled.  "We have a surprise for you," she said.  With that she went to the wardrobe door and opened, it, to reveal all of the dresses in her trousseau hanging there, complete, perfect.

Clementia went over, looked at everything, and burst into tears.  "How did you do this?" she asked.

"We had a lot of help," Elizabeth said.  "Seņora Ramirez helped, Lupe has been up here most of the night, and Doņa Corinna, I worked on it after I nursed Esperanza..."

"And you kept sneaking away from supper," Clementia said, looking at her cousin.  "And so did you," she said to Martina.  She threw her arms around all of them in a spontaneous group hug.  "You are the most wonderful friends I could ever dream of!" she bawled.  "Now I can wear new dresses every day on my honeymoon with my Sergeant!"

Marta watched, envious, at the affection between all these young women of Los Angeles.  "You are so lucky to have one another," she sighed.  

They all came back to the bed and sat back down.  "What do you mean?" Consuelo asked.  

"I do not really have many friends in Monterey," she told them.  "I think it is because I am married to Pedro, and they are all afraid of doing anything that might hurt their husbands' chances for Pedro's favors."

Elizabeth refrained from pointing out that Marta's family background and sullied reputation before her marriage made her an unlikely friend of choice in Monterey's polite society.

"I know what you mean," Consuelo said.  "I do not have many friends here, really."

"Tell me, Marta, how you know Benicio," Elizabeth said, attempting to change the subject.  "You seemed very friendly with him at supper."

"Oh, Benicio," she said, her voice softening.

"He is so handsome," Martina sighed.

"Benicio and I took her on a horseback ride when she was ten years old!" Clementia volunteered.  "It was our first trip to Monterey.  We were teenagers.  Everyone knew everyone then, Elizabeth, all up and down the Camino Real."

"Diego did not know you then, did he?" Elizabeth asked.


"Oh, no, Diego did not travel the Camino after his mother died," Marta said.  "And then his father sent him to Spain.  I did not meet him until after he came back.  But I knew Clementia.  And Benicio."

Clementia suppressed a yawn.

"I can see that our bride needs her rest," Elizabeth said.  She looked at the others.  "We must tuck her in and let her sleep, and we can sleep too.  Tomorrow is the big day!"

Clementia sat back, looking around at her friends.  "I am so glad you are all here!" she said.

Elizabeth made her sit back and get under the covers.  Then she tucked her in, grinning.  "This is the last night you will have anyone to tuck you in besides Demetrio," she said.  

Clementia giggled.  "Si, tomorrow night we will visit paradise," she said.

"Visit paradise?" Marta echoed.  "What do you mean?"

Elizabeth gave Clementia a kiss on the cheek and then herded the others towards the door.  "We will have to let the Sergeant and his bride find that out, Marta," she said.

*****

When Elizabeth finally entered her room, Diego was already in bed.  He was awake, reading.  Esperanza was asleep at his elbow.  He watched, distracted from his reading, as Elizabeth undressed, put on her gown, and crawled in beside him, the baby between them.  Elizabeth bent over and kissed their daughter's cheek.  

"I was hoping she would throw up on Marta's red dress," she said softly.

Diego suppressed a laugh, not wanting to wake the baby.  "And I was crediting you with being charitable tonight," he replied.

She leaned against the headboard of the bed, causing it to creak.  "This bed is really very noisy," she remarked.  Then she looked over at him.

"Si," he said.  "Very noisy.  I was not paying much attention this morning, but now I can see...it is a very noisy bed."

"I am afraid it might fall apart, if it is pushed," Elizabeth said.

"It might."

"That would be even noisier."

"Si, it would."

"Do you know what Clementia said tonight, when I tucked her in?"

"You tucked in Clementia?"

"Si, and she said to me, 'tomorrow night I will visit paradise.'"

"We shall hope so!"

Elizabeth looked at him directly for a long moment.  "It made me glad I was coming back to you instead of an empty bed...or a bed with only her in it," she glanced at Esperanza and then back at him.  "You did promise to ravish me in your letter."

"Why, seņora, are you feeling amorous again tonight?" he asked, putting his book down. 

She lifted the baby carefully and nodded at her blanket, which Diego lifted and replaced at the foot of the large bed.  Elizabeth settled Esperanza into her new spot and then rejoined Diego, facing him.  She tilted her head slightly, her eyes squinting ever so slightly. 

"It is barely midnight," she said.  

"Still early," Diego said back, reaching for her.

It was some time later when they finally stilled themselves, thoroughly spent, and curled up in one another's arms. 

"Oh, Liz," he whispered to her, stroking her hair.  He was still a little breathless.  

"So good," she murmured, her hand resting on his strong chest, her head on his shoulder.  She lifted her head long enough to kiss him. "Let's go to sleep," she said softly.  She put her head back onto his shoulder, snuggled further into his arms and began to make her purring sound.

Diego sighed happily, giving her a squeeze.  He had not heard his beloved purr in far too long.