The Secret of Zorro
This Is Your Family
Chapter Five
by Ella Christian @1999-2002
Contact author at EllaChristian@aol.com

Chapter Five
Family Secrets


Juan Bottega and Rosaria wasted no time in finding their way out of the cuartel and into their small stable behind the posada.  Hurriedly Juan saddled their horses while Rosaria snuck into their quarters behind the Inn.  There she grabbed some clothing, two keepsakes, and the bag of pesos she kept hidden under their mattress.  She then returned to the stable, to find the horses ready.

"You have it all?" Juan asked.

"Everything except for whatever they made today after we were thrown into the jail," she answered, mounting her bay mare.

"Good, and the...."

"I have them, I have them."

"You are my angel, Rosa," he said, mounting his grey gelding.

"Si, si," she agreed.  She looked across the alley at the back of the Tavern.  "I shall miss it here," she said.  "It is the best home we have ever had."

"Do not give up," Juan told her.      

After they were both on their horses, Rosaria looked at her husband. "We are leaving Los Angeles in the same way we arrived.  In a great hurry."

He winked at her.  

******

"It is imperrrrrrative that we find them!" shouted the Commandante, pounding his fist on the hitching post outside his office.  The light was beginning to lower in the western sky.  Garcia, joined by Corporal Reyes, was standing in front of him looking terribly humiliated.

"Si, si, we shall start looking right away," Sergeant Garcia sighed.  

"Then get out of herrrrrre and starrrt looking!" Vilaro fumed.  "In fact, I shall go with you, as I despairrrrr of you, Garrrrrcia!  If you do not find them - and I do mean all of them, not just the innkeeperrrrr and his wife -- I shall make cerrrtain that the Mexican Arrrrmy does not need a fat Serrrrrrgeant!"

"Si, I suppose not," Garcia agreed.  Vilaro strode away towards the stable, snapping at a lancer to saddle his roan.  "The Spanish Army did not really know what to do with me either," Garcia added to himself.

"Not really," Reyes agreed quietly.

Garcia looked at him, rolled his eyes, and they headed for their horses.  Very shortly, Vilaro led them and a dozen additional lancers out of the pueblo on horseback.  Six he sent towards the east, led by Corporal Reyes, on the chance that some of the escaped peons had headed for the hills.  The rest of the party he led towards the west, following an instinct that told him that Juan and Rosaria were not yet finished with the pueblo de Los Angeles.

******

Padre Felipe, after hearing Esperanza's song, realized that Brother Anselm had disappeared.  He looked around for the young man, but it was in vain. After giving Esperanza a kiss on her soft little cheek, he watched as the children and adults headed for the patio for their refreshments and the breaking of the piņata.   He simply nodded at Diego, and then turned to stroll through the stableyard.  He paused in front of the stall of Blanca, Elizabeth's white mare.

"Ah, Blanca," he said, smiling.  

The horse lifted her head from the pile of hay on the floor and eyed him uncertainly.  

"How pretty you are.  And I understand that you are finally cooperating with your mistress in allowing her to ride you."  He reached to pat the mare's nose, only to receive an indignant snort.   She jerked her face back and stamped a front hoof.  "All right, I am only trying to be friendly," he assured her. 

He stepped away, continuing past the other stalls, and paused at Apache's stall.  "How faithful you have been," he said, looking at the dark palomino.   He patted the horse's neck, to be rewarded with a nuzzle.  "Yes, you are a gentle one," he chuckled.  "Good boy, Apache.  Diego is fortunate to have such a good horse to carry him about."  He patted the horse's neck again, and then moved on.  Ahead, he saw the arched gate that led into the new paddock yard, and beyond that the path that led to Elizabeth's garden.  He turned around and looked behind him, to see no one.  Feeling the need to contemplate for a little while, he walked towards the paddock, believing that perhaps he would stroll briefly among Elizabeth's flowers.  
"It is time for the early roses," he murmured to himself.  He held great admiration for Elizabeth's ability to grow things in the desert climate and took every chance he could to see whatever her latest plantings might be.  For some time he had been pondering inviting her to meet with the friars about improving the gardens at the Mission of San Gabriel as well as around the church in the pueblo.  It was no secret that the gardens of the Missions along the Camino Real were a source of great pride to the priests and brothers who maintained them.  It was safe to say that there was even some competition among the various missions as to whose gardens flourished the most beautifully.  It was generally agreed that the Mission of San Luis Rey, California's largest mission, was by far the most elaborate.  "But not necessarily the most beautiful," the good padre sometimes thought.  "At least, not if Doņa Elizabeth were to help us....."

The new paddock, he noted as he walked through, was without doubt an exceptional structure as well as, he knew, Diego's labor of love for his wife.  It was the first building that was truly Diego's contribution to the enhancement of Rancho de la Vega, for the main hacienda and the stables had been Alejandro's work when his family was young.  "Diego has come into his own at last," the padre said softly to himself, looking at the beams, overhanging roofs, and fences so carefully laid out before him.  

"Uhhhhhnnnnn," he heard a voice behind him.  It sounded unhappy.  He turned around and looked, to see two small, sheltered stalls.  One was empty.  In the other he saw the outline of Brother Anselm on the ground.  

"Uhhhhnnnnn," said Brother Anselm.  

Padre Felipe quickly stepped closer, out of the sunshine and into the shadowed darkness of the stall.  He immediately feared that the young man had taken ill.  

The French friar looked up on hearing the Padre's step.  "Uhhhnnn," he said again, truly undone.  "Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned," he muttered.

"What do you mean?" Padre Felipe asked. "Are you all right, Brother Anselm?" Then he saw several trays strewn around the young man.  They were all empty.  He did a double take.  "What have you done, my son?" he asked.

"I have eaten everything," the young man replied miserably.

******

On the balcony overlooking the patio, Elizabeth took Diego's elbow because, for the first time except during his recovery from being poisoned the previous summer, she actually believed he might faint.  "Diego," she said.  She led him back into their room and pulled the door shut.  He sat down heavily on their bed.  She sat next to him, taking his hand.  

"It is not so surprising," she said softly.  "He must have been terribly lonely after you left for Spain."

At first Diego said nothing.  This revelation left him utterly speechless, it was so stunning.  He looked at Elizabeth.  "It still could be a coincidence," he finally said.

Elizabeth paused.  "Perhaps," she said dubiously.  They both knew what they saw.

Diego took a deep breath.  "This is not exactly a minor family secret," he said.

"Si," she agreed.

"We must go back down there," he said.

"Si," she said again.   

He looked at her.  "This has such implications, for all of us," he said.

"Si," she nodded.  She started to get up, but he pulled her back.

"We can say nothing yet," he told her.  "In fact, perhaps it would be best to say nothing at all, ever."

"Oh, Diego, the boy is your brother!" Elizabeth exclaimed.  

Diego stared at her, swallowing.  "My brother..." he repeated. It was simply impossible to absorb.  

Then he frowned.  Elizabeth saw his eyes go to the dresser, and rest on the wooden box that held the precious letter from his mother, given to him only months ago.  "She would understand, Diego," she said gently.  "You know that she would."

"I do not think she would understand why he has lived so long at the mission, barefooted and wild," Diego answered, feeling a sudden mix of indignity and anger on his mother's behalf.

Elizabeth looked into his eyes.  "Do you realize that it is possible that Alejandro does not know?" she asked him.

This prospect stunned Diego all over again.  He looked out the window, trying to let some light enter his mind in a time of blinding shock.  "How could he not know he has another son?" he asked.

"You did not see it.  Neither did I, for two years," Elizabeth said.  "We do not know the story of how he came to be, only that his mother died when he was very little."  She squeezed his hand.  "We will ask your father about it when the time is right, darling.  And then he will do what is right, for Rufino and for all of us.  I know that he will."

"Maria...would have told me," he said softly.  "She was my mother's maid, she...would have told me when I returned, if my father....had become involved..."

"It is hard to know what the servants will say and what they will not say," Elizabeth said to him. She thought about it.  "And he may have concealed this relationship even from Maria.  He would not be the first don in Los Angeles to keep a woman in a little hideaway somewhere."

Diego opened his mouth to respond but was stopped when she raised her eyebrow sharply.  Having made her point without a word, she paused, and then added, "But I think I know someone who would know."

Diego was silent.  He took another deep breath and stood up.  "Si," he said again, gathering himself.  "It is going to take time, to adjust to this," he said.  He straightened his shoulders, fighting the impulse to sit back down and give in to his shock.  Elizabeth stood beside him, steady, waiting.  

He put his arms around her and held on. "I love you," he said.   

"I love you," she replied.  She squeezed him around the waist in reassurance.  Then she lifted her face and kissed his cheek.  "Now we must see to our little birthday girl," she said.

Diego smiled a little wanly.  "Our little birthday girl who has just gained a new uncle," he murmured.

Elizabeth's eyes widened, realizing that indeed, if their guesses were accurate, Rufino was Esperanza's half-uncle.  "Oh, my," she said.

******

Juan Bottega signaled Rosaria to slow down in their race away from the pueblo.  "We must let the horses get water," he said, waving towards the creek off the road to their right.  "This is a good watering hole."  They dismounted and led the horses to the pond.

"With any luck we can stop at Rancho de la Vega and leave again after the party, and no one will know we are fugitives," he said.

"They all know we were in jail!" she exclaimed.

"Si, but they do not know that we were not released," he said.  

"But Seņora Garcia will be there, she will know!  She knows everything!"

Juan considered that.  "Si," he agreed.  "And surely the Sergeant told her.  And he will be out looking for us."

"I do not see how we can risk going to Rancho de la Vega," Rosaria told him.  "He might even show up at the party."

Juan squinted into the sun, dropping lower and lower in the sky. "Vilaro will send a few soldiers to the east, thinking that some of the peons will go for the hills and their cousins.  But he will come with most of them on this very road, believing we will head for the Camino Real and Mexico." He glanced at his wife.  "Which is exactly what we are doing."

"Then we are playing into their hands," Rosaria said.

"That is what we want them to think," he smiled at her.  He nodded at the ground, and pointed as he began to draw in the dirt.  "We are here," he said, making an "X."  "And the hacienda of Rancho de la Vega is here...." he made another "X," "and the long ocean road to San Diego is here..." he drew a long line and then made another "X."  "But here," he made a small circle slightly to the southeast of Rancho de la Vega, "is where we will go for the night."

"But what is there?" she asked.

He smiled.  "You will see."  

******
 
Conchita was improvising madly in the kitchen when Elizabeth walked in.  Her two helpers, half-breed teenagers named Juanita and Estella, were assisting her in re-cutting the evening cakes in order to provide a few things for the children as the afternoon waned.  

"It is almost ready!" Conchita exclaimed when she saw her mistress entering.  She nodded at the girls.  "Put them on plates and take them out, they will disappear in no time."

Estella and Juanita cooperated, and soon were carrying the cakes out to the patio.  The cheer was audible in the kitchen.

"Thank you, Conchita," Elizabeth said.

"Why are you not out there with Esperanza and Don Diego and all of the others?" Conchita asked her, wiping some flour off her face.

"Esperanza has her father and her grandfathers and seven children to entertain her," Elizabeth answered.  "She will have me later on when she is sleepy and has all the adults making over her.  Is everything all ready for tonight?"

"We will have a little less than I had planned, but there will be enough," the cook replied.  "Is there anything else?"

Elizabeth smiled, realizing she was being dismissed.  "Conchita," she said.

"Si?" the cook asked, suddenly a little suspicious at the seņora's tone.

"I want to ask you something."

"Si?"

Elizabeth looked around, to be sure that no other servants were nearby.  "It is about Don Alejandro," she said.

"What about him?"

Elizabeth paused for a moment, and then said, "You were here when Diego left for Spain, weren't you?"

"Si," came the answer.  "I have been at Rancho de la Vega since before Doņa Matilde died," she crossed herself.  "Since I was the age of those girls," she added, nodding in the direction of Juanita and Estella.

"So you remember what it was like here after Don Diego left."

"Very well," she answered.

"I suppose Don Alejandro was quite lonely."

Conchita's eyes narrowed.  "Si, he was alone after Don Diego left."

Elizabeth looked at her, waiting.  Then she asked, "Did he stay alone?"

"You would need to ask Don Alejandro how he entertained himself," the cook replied stiffly.  

A silence ensued.  

"Very well," Elizabeth said.

"I must go on with my cooking now," Conchita responded, still stiff.

"Si, the adults will be here in a few hours, I will send Bernardo in soon to see how you want the patio set up," Elizabeth said. "We can start as soon as the children break the piņata and the last of the sweets and all the presents are handed out."  She turned to leave.

"Doņa Elizabeth," Conchita called after her.

"Si?"  Elizabeth turned around.

"It was a very sad time for Don Alejandro," she said.   

Elizabeth nodded.  "I am sure that it was."

She walked through down the hallway and cut through the sala, pausing at the window to look out at the patio.  The children were devouring their makeshift cakes; the piņata bat was on the ground awaiting the first taker.  She smiled.  Diego was holding the baby as Esperanza patted his face with cake.  He was grinning at her and trying to get her to put it into her mouth, but clearly she had had enough and was interested in sharing with her daddy.  Alejandro was beside them, also trying to persuade her to put the cake into her own mouth. Elizabeth laughed, for her father-in-law was quickly rewarded with smudge of cake on his nose.  Beyond them, Carlos was attempting to reason with Rufino about who should go first with the piņata.  

"If I did not know otherwise I would think you were my brother rather than his," she thought to herself, watching the two dicker back and forth.  Carlos had been attempting to teach English and formal Spanish to Rufino and the other children for over a year.  This effort had not resulted in much learning of languages on the boy's part but had greatly improved his skills at out-talking everyone in his presence.

Elizabeth looked again at her husband, who was handing Esperanza to her Papito. She watched Alejandro with the little girl.  The adoration between the two of them shimmered.  Diego's eyes were on his father as well.  Elizabeth wondered what was going on in his mind, if perhaps he were remembering his own childhood. Or simply marveling at discovering his father was capable of something that had never entered his imagination as a possibility. She looked again at Rufino, in his bare feet, gesturing vigorously at Carlos as he made his case over the piņata.  Tears welled up in her eyes.  The gestures, the deep dimples, the strong, square jaw, the way his hairline ran unevenly across his forehead, the dark, long, wavy hair.  His eyes suggested a mother who was at least partly Indian, but there was no mistaking his parentage, it was as clearly written on him as Esperanza had Diego written all over her. "Some secrets are impossible to keep," she thought to herself, wiping her eyes.  "Nature will not let us."

She took her own deep breath and then headed out the front door to join in the party.  Just as she clapped and said, "All right, it is time for the piņata!" everyone heard a group of horses galloping up on the other side of the wall.  They halted. The sounds of dismounting were followed immediately by the pounding on the door and ringing of the gate bell.  Bernardo hurried to the gate and opened it.  Lieutenant Vilaro strode in, his hand on his sword.  Several lancers followed.  

"What is the meaning of this?" Alejandro asked, stepping up to him.  Diego was right behind his father, his back stiff.  Alejandro was still holding Esperanza, who giggled and offered her cake-filled hands to Vilaro.

Vilaro ignored her and looked around.  He saw all the children standing about, two hiding behind Carlos, one standing behind Elizabeth.  "What is going on herrrrre?" he asked fiercely.  

"My granddaughter is having a birthday party," Alejandro replied.  "A private one, I might add!"

"Have any of you seen Juan Bottega or his wife?" he asked.

"They are in jail!" Diego said, stepping forward.  

"They have escaped from jail, along with all the other prrrrrisoners, thanks to the incompetence of that Serrrrrgeant!" Vilaro barked.   

"Hurray!" Rufino cried out, jumping up and down.

Vilaro spied him and turned on him, starting to draw his sword.  Diego grabbed his hand and held it still.  "Lieutenant!" he said firmly.  "He is only a boy."

"He is a boy who foiled my capture of El Zorro and cost me those gypsies!" Vilaro growled.

"Blame Zorro," Diego told him.  "Whoever he is, he is grown and can defend himself."

"Zorrrro!" Vilaro nearly spit the word.  

Rufino bolted forward and picked up the piņata bat again. Before anyone could stop him, he swatted the officer with it.  "I am going to be El Zorro one day!" he shouted, facing Vilaro and holding the bat up as if it were a sword.  "In fact, I will be Zorro today!"

Vilaro again attempted to draw his sword in reaction to the boy's attack. Carlos stepped forward and put himself between Rufino and the soldier.  Once again, with more force, Diego stopped him.  "Vilaro!" he said tightly.  "Mind yourself!  He is a child!"

"He is a child who needs to be disciplined!" Vilaro retorted.  He looked around at all the children.  "All of you!  What are you doing here, where is the padre?  Why aren't you at the mission where you belong?"

"We will take them home soon enough," came a gentle voice from behind him.

Everyone turned around to see Padre Felipe standing in the gate to the stable.  Beside him was Brother Anselm, who was looking none too well.

Now Elizabeth stepped forward, to retrieve her daughter from Alejandro's arms.  She stood firmly beside Diego.  "We will finish our party and then the children will be escorted home by the padres," she said to Vilaro.  "We have other guests coming this evening.  You are more than welcome to join us, as long as you agree to leave your weapons at the gate."

"Leave my...." Vilaro started.  Then he shut his mouth and waved at the lancers.  "Look arrrround to make sure the Bottegas are not herrre," he instructed.  "Surely, Don Alejandrrrro, you do not object if we look, since you have nothing to hide."

"This is a private home which you are invading!" Alejandro replied angrily.  

"Tell it to the Serrrrgeant who made this whole searrrch necessarrrry!" Vilaro snapped, striding away and into the sala.

"I hope he does not try to enter the kitchen," Elizabeth said softly to Diego.

Diego suppressed a chuckle.  Esperanza grinned up at him.  "Dah! Cake!" she exclaimed.

"Oh, Esperanza, you have learned a new word!" Alejandro said.

"I shall make sure he does not break anything," Diego said, giving a nod to Bernardo to follow him. "And that he survives crossing Conchita's threshold."

Elizabeth looked at the padre and his young, green associate.  "Padre, we have missed you, is everything all right?" she asked.

"I was attempting to admire your gardens, Elizabeth, but I came upon...Brother Anselm, who has something he would like to say to you and all of the children."

Elizabeth looked at the young man curiously.

"I am very sorry," he said, trying to suppress a belch.

They all looked at him and then at one another. 

"Sorry for what?" Moneta asked.

"I am very sorry about the sweets," he said.  He cleared his throat. "I regret...."

Rufino put two and two together.  "You ate our sweets!?" he exclaimed.  He began to charge, but Alejandro grabbed him, dodging the piņata bat as it waved furiously in the friar's direction.

"No, Rufino!" Alejandro said.

"He stole our food!" Rufino cried.

"And you must forgive him," Alejandro instructed.

"You are no better than Don Diego!" Rufino answered.  "'Be kind!'  'Forgive!'"

"For shame, Rufino!" Padre Felipe said.  "You must not talk to Don Alejandro this way!  Forgiveness is part of our Christian walk."

"Then I want to walk like someone else!" Rufino stated.  He looked at Carlos, remembering a geography lesson that had gone along with his latest Spanish lesson.  "I shall become a Moor or a Jew!" he said. 

"Rufino, we are Catholics here!" Elizabeth scolded him.  

"Indeed, and we do not take that lightly!" Alejandro added. "Moors and Jews!" he exclaimed indignantly, glaring at the boy. 

Elizabeth glanced at her father-in-law, but then looked at the priests.  "Brother, I hope you enjoyed the sweets, given that you seemed to need them so very much," she said.  She raised an eyebrow.  "More, even, than the children."

"I think he is experiencing the punishment our bodies inflict when we over-indulge," Padre Felipe said.

"Si," Brother Anselm moaned, holding his belly.

At this point, Sergeant Garcia came through the gate and walked up to the group.  He looked at everyone.

"Sergeant, your nephew ate all our food," Rufino told him.

Garcia sighed heavily. "He is not my..." he started.

"Rufino, I think it is time for the piņata now," Elizabeth interrupted.

All the children began to cheer.  Rufino picked up the bat and waved it in the air.

"Moneta, you will go first," Elizabeth continued, handing Esperanza to Carlos.  "Here, Frederico, help her put on the blindfold....Rufino, do not try to hit the piņata, we must do this in order and you must be wearing the blindfold!"

******

Inside the hacienda, Diego and Bernardo went first to the sala, then to the library, and finally to the kitchen, where they overheard Conchita dressing down the commandante for daring to set foot in her realm.  Diego nodded his head back towards the sala.  The two men hurried. On checking carefully to make sure they had no observers, Bernardo opened the secret door and they stepped through into the hidden passages beyond the hacienda's interior walls.  After pulling the door shut, they stood still for a moment, waiting.  Hearing something from further down the passage, Diego pointed and mouthed "library."  Bernardo nodded.  Once at the peephole hidden in the walls of books, Diego peered through.

"This is rrrrrrridiculous!"  Vilaro snorted to his aide.

"Si, commandante," the man agreed.  Diego did not recognize him and assumed he had come from Mexico with Vilaro.

"We must find Esposito quickly, and get them on the rrrroad to Tijuana rrrright away!"

"Si, commandante."

Diego frowned and looked at Bernardo.  "Did you hear that?" he whispered.

Bernardo nodded and shrugged.  

Diego looked back into the room.  

"The other prrrrrisonerrrs matter less," Vilaro continued, "but we cannot fail in this one matterrrr!"

"I do not think Esposito wants to go back into the army, Commandante," the aide remarked.

"He is a fool to think he can avoid it!" Vilaro growled.  "All these years in Los Angeles have made him soft, along with that wife of his!  I wish I had known who he was when I was herrrrre before!"

Diego started, and looked at Bernardo again.  "Esposito?  Juan Esposito?" he whispered, thinking hard.  Then it dawned on him.  "Come," he gestured to Bernardo.  "There is work here for Zorro."

Bernardo smiled, following his master.

******

The shadows were long as Juan Bottega cantered slightly ahead of his wife, leading her off the main road and onto a side trail to the west of the pueblo.  They continued for several miles, through open green fields of tall grasses and groves of live oaks.  They passed what was locally known as the "Twin Ponds," two small lakes separated by a narrow neck of land, and down a long arroyo.  Then they climbed back up and over a short hill.  They were at the back of a small eucalyptus grove.  Nestled in it was a shack, made of stone with a low roof of red clay tiles.  Juan stopped in front of it and dismounted.

"Here, we shall be safe for the night," he told Rosaria.  "They will never find us here, it will never occur to them that we are remaining in the area for the night."

He helped her off her horse.  They walked to the front door and pushed it open.  Inside they found one open room, with a large dusty bed, a table, and two chairs in front of the fireplace.

"This is very fine, or once was," Rosaria murmured.  She patted the bed and a heavy cloud of dust rose.  But under her hand was a once-beautiful cover of deep green satin.

"It is a little place abandoned by the de la Vegas," Juan told her.  

"Are we on their property?" Rosaria asked, suddenly nervous.

"Si, but this is not a place they will be visiting," he assured her.

"How do you know?"

"Because it has not been in use for many years," he said.  "Except for Diego's honeymoon night."

"This is where Don Diego and Doņa Elizabeth spent their wedding night?" Rosaria said. "I had heard they were somewhere in the country..."

"Si, I know this because Conchita told me, when I provided food for her to prepare for them."

"Why would she tell you that?"

"Because there was a time when I provided food for this house many years ago, which Conchita brought here.  She told me at Don Diego's wedding, it is good that the house was getting some use again."

Rosaria looked at her husband, blank.

"This was a special house for Don Alejandro," Juan explained.

"Ohhhhhhhh," said Rosaria, understanding.  "La casa chica."