The Secret of Zorro
King of the Gypsies
Chapters Four and Five
by Ella Christian @1999-2001
Contact author at EllaChristian@aol.com


Chapter Four
Rescue

"What can possibly be making you smile at a time like this?" Don Carlos asked El Zorro.	

"Little Feather," Zorro repeated.  "His father will take interest in this situation."

"How do you know?" Carlos asked.

Zorro shook his head slightly.  He was thinking.  He was piecing together what had happened as he'd entered the camp and the chaos began.  Then it hit him.  That's where Tornado had disappeared to.  He shook his head again, highly aggravated with his horse.  Windhawk, he was certain, started putting the boy on the back of horses from the time he was two.  He was around eight now, and probably a very determined rider.  One look at Tornado would be all it took.  Off they went. Tornado would have been in ecstasy, running like the wind with only a third of the weight he was accustomed to on his back.  

"Seņor!" Carlos interrupted his thought.  "Have you stopped talking?"

"No," Zorro sighed.  "I have only been realizing what happened to my horse."

"You know," Carlos said, continuing to make conversation, "I have only seen your horse once, the night before my daughter's wedding.  But I must say, my horse looks a great deal like your horse!"

Zorro made no reply, but shut his eyes and shook his head again.  What a situation, he thought to himself, feeling a sudden temptation to tell his father-in-law to take Sirocco's tail and gag himself with it. 

"Don't you think?" Carlos persisted. His goal was mainly to make conversation in the unpleasant surroundings, though he also felt a great curiosity about Zorro. When would he have another chance to talk with the Fox directly?

"They are both very tall and very black," Zorro agreed.  His desperation was rising.  To rely on Little Feather or Sergeant Garcia either one represented slim threads of hope.  He could not get the image of Elizabeth lying on the bed as he left their room that afternoon out of his mind.  He gripped the bars of his cage tightly in frustration.

The canvas back of one of the gypsy wagons flipped up and the younger woman, whom they called Carmen, peered out into the thin pre-dawn light.  She looked straight at Zorro. A half-smile formed on her lips.  He held her gaze.  It was enough to draw her out of the wagon and onto the ground.  She walked the several yards to his cage and sat down in front of him, looking into his face.  He continued looking at her.  It occurred to him that she might be a way out. 

"Are you going to let us out?" Carlos whispered down to her.

She shot a glance up to him sideways, and then looked back into the eyes of El Zorro.  "I will let you out," she said softly, "if you will take off your mask."

At first he said nothing, but kept holding her gaze.  He studied her face.  She had huge, gorgeous brown eyes and black hair falling around her shoulders, a straight, slender nose and a very long neck -- longer, even, than Elizabeth's.  She reminded him a great deal of his old flame Hermoine.   "I have no reason to trust you," he said to her.  "I am likely to be unmasked soon enough anyway."

Carlos leaned over and peered down as best he could, to see what was going on. "We would all like to see who you really are," he said, trying to be encouraging. 

Zorro ignored him, keeping his eyes on Carmen.  It was clear that she was the only immediate prospect for escape he had.  Another vision of Elizabeth lying on the bed crossed through him.  She was so vulnerable, and so far away.  His heart began to pound, another wave of desperation coming over him.  He had to get back to her somehow.  He could not let her go through delivering their child alone.  I'll get there, sweetheart, he thought, despite the sinking feeling in his heart.

Carmen's face came closer to the cage.  "Isn't a chance to escape worth the price of something that will happen no matter what?" she asked.

He looked into her face.  Instantly he saw the desire in her eyes.  Summoning every ounce of will he could muster, he concentrated on the moment and his goal.  "Somehow," he said, leaning slightly towards her, "I do not believe that what you are suggesting will lead to an escape. Only to a different trap."

She leaned even closer, her face almost touching the bars that confined him.  "What trap would that be?" she asked slowly, her voice low.

He came closer too, so that their faces were only a few inches apart.  "Bring the keys, Seņora," he said seductively, "and let us find out."  

Carlos strained further and finally managed to position himself to be able to observe Carmen's head below. It seemed to be right up against the bars of Zorro's cage.  He could hear only snippets of what they were saying softly to one another.

"Seņor," Carmen whispered to El Zorro, "my father would kill us both.  But then, sometimes the risk of death can have great rewards...."  

Zorro leaned towards her instinctively.  The moment of decision past, he knew he would stop at very nearly nothing to get himself out of this circumstance and on the way home to his beloved.  He reached between the bars to take her face in his gloved hands.  Moving his face as close to hers as he could, he whispered, "I will protect you, if you will free me."  

To his surprise, she pressed her face against the bars, her lips meeting his in a sudden kiss.  Faced with this he responded, not from desire but from his desperation to get his hands on the key to the lock that kept him trapped.

Carlos Matteo could not fully see what was happening below, but he could see their heads together and it took little deduction to ascertain what was happening.  It made him very glad his daughter had come to her senses about this complicated bandito who one minute seemed so devoted to her and the next was working on seducing the gypsy woman. From what he could tell, the bars were not preventing him from delivering a rousing kiss.

The gypsy's hands came between the bars, too, sliding up El Zorro's face and around the back of his head.  He could feel her reaching for the knot that tied his mask. He pulled back, breaking the kiss.  "Not here," he said, grabbing her hands.  She tried to yank them away, but he held on.  It stopped her. She stared at him even as he continued to hold her gaze.

Carlos sighed and slumped against the wall of his wagon.  After a minute he looked back down and through the window saw that Carmen had left.

"Where has she gone?" he whispered to El Zorro.

"To get the keys," came the reply.  "If you will kindly keep quiet, seņor, I believe I can get us out of this!"

"Both of us?" Carlos asked. 

Zorro's jaw tightened noticeably.  "Si, seņor," he replied curtly.

"It is of course none of my business, how you conduct your affairs," Carlos went on, "but under these..."

"Under these circumstances you will help most if you stay quiet!" El Zorro snapped.  

Beyond them a scuffle was underway.  Ishtar appeared, gripping the arm of Carmen firmly.  He had keys in his hand and looked at Zorro disdainfully.  

"Did you believe you could actually get manage to get out through charm?" he asked, dangling the keys.  He shoved Carmen away and she spit at him.

"I do not understand gypsy families," Carlos sighed, shaking his head.

"I will tell you what, Seņor Zorro," said Ishtar.  "Our duel last night was interrupted because of the horses.  But let us make a wager.  When the sun drops again below the hills tonight I will release you and return your sword, and we will finish our duel and see who is the better swordsman.  If you win, I will send you and this man..." he glanced at Carlos, "and even that horse you so fancy, on your way."  He looked at Carmen.  "I will even give you my daughter, if you want her!  But if you lose...we will unmask you. And claim the reward for turning in El Zorro."

"That could be a death sentence," Carlos observed.  The bounty on Zorro's head now stood at three thousand pesos, despite his good deed in ending the reign of terror Diablo had maintained on the Camino Real.  

Zorro considered his situation.  He was being left without food and probably without water for another twelve hours. He could not stand up in the cage and was already feeling cramped from being trapped on the ground.  Another twelve hours of this would leave him extremely stiff.   All in all he would be in a very weakened condition by the time he faced the gypsy.  On the other hand, it was possible that Windhawk or Sergeant Garcia would find their way to the camp before the sun went down.  Ishtar was fierce with the sword, he had learned the night before.   "I am curious," he said. "Why would you strike this bargain?  You can turn me in now and get the money.  Why wait until sunset?  Why a duel?" 

Ishtar laughed.  "Because I am a man of sport!" he exclaimed.  "I like a good foe!"

"Is not sunrise as good a time as any for a duel?" Zorro asked.

"What is the hurry?" Ishtar laughed, waving at Carmen to start cooking breakfast.  "We have wares to carry into town, things to do today.  I want to come back to some excitement.  Perhaps you can say I like the anticipation of a good fight.  Particularly one I shall win!"  

"But hardly a fair one," Carlos observed.  "At least not unless you decide to feed him and give him some water!"

"Fair?" Ishtar cracked bitterly.  "Live your life as a gypsy, seņor, and find out about fair!"

With that he turned away and returned to his wagon.  

Zorro looked up at Carlos.  

"Perhaps you could try the girl again?" Carlos asked.

Zorro slumped back in his cage.  He watched as Carmen and the older woman began preparing food over the open fire.  Then he heard a strange, but instantly familiar, sound.  A bird was calling from beyond the trees.  It was not just any bird.

*****

"Oh, no..." Elizabeth said.  

She had stood for a long while in the corral beyond Tornado's cave, hoping to hear the familiar thunder of hooves coming in from the road.  Finally as the sun's beams made their appearance she had turned around and started walking back.  The baby was strangely still inside her. It was in the cave on the way to the stairs that she stopped and gasped.  A wave of nausea came over her.  She grabbed the side of the cave.  This could not be happening, not now.  

"Bernardo!" she cried, hoping that the servant was somewhere within earshot.  "Oh, no..." she said again, trying to pull together.  A huge, tight cramp gripped her back, spreading pressure around her sides, into her belly, and down into her birth canal.  There was no mistaking this.  It was a contraction.  "Oh, please, no..." she said.  She made her way through the dark passage under the stable and to the stairs.  "Bernardo," she called again.  She sat down on the stairs and took several breaths, trying to tell herself this would pass. It had to.  Diego was nowhere to be found.

*****

The lancers were trotting belatedly into the hills that morning, thanks to Sergeant Garcia's not-so-nimble approach to searching for the missing don and his missing horse.  Always easily distracted and greatly attached to his appetites, Garcia decided that it was necessary to go up into the hills by way of the road to the Bocca hacienda, where his sweetheart Clementia lived.  The romance was progressing rather more slowly than Clementia liked, and rather more rapidly than Garcia liked.  Still, he loved a good meal and seeing her always cheered him, so with his dozen men he paused in the early sunlight to greet the Boccas, glare momentarily at the skulking Consuelo, and await the inevitable invitation to breakfast.  

"Sergeant, don't you think maybe we should go up into the hills and look for Don Carlos and his horse?" Corporal Reyes asked.

"No, baboso," Garcia had snapped, "they will be home before we get to wherever we would have found them if they weren't already on their way home!"  

Reyes was left trying to parse that sentence as Garcia, smiling broadly, dismounted and was ushered into the Bocca courtyard. It was an hour before he finally emerged and the lancers were at last on their way.

*****
  
Zorro looked around, his eyes scanning every inch of forest, rock and ground he could see from his vantage point.  Nothing around the camp was moving, but he knew who was nearby.  

"Seņor!" he whispered loudly to Don Carlos.

"Si?" Carlos answered.

"Stay alert," Zorro said.

"What for?" Carlos asked.

His question was answered when, from a still point in the trees beyond the fire, two Indian men charged silently into the camp.  One overturned the fire and grabbed the old woman who was cooking over it.  She yelped as he whipped a gag around her mouth, pulling her back into the trees.  The other captured Carmen, emerging from her wagon.  She started to shout but he was on her in a flash, gagging her and pulling her out of sight as well.  Her noise was enough to cause Ishtar to come out of his wagon.  Everything was again still, and it took him a moment to look around and see that the women had disappeared.

"Carmen!" he shouted.  The old man came out of his wagon. With him was the little boy.  "Where did they go?" Ishtar asked.

The old man shrugged, and pointed towards the trees.

"The food is turned over!" Ishtar said, looking at the knocked-over pot and the spoiled fire.  "Start the fire again," he instructed.  Then he went back into his wagon.

The old man, gesturing for the little boy to come with him, went over to the now-dead fire to examine what had happened.  Again the two Indians sprang into the camp and grabbed the boy and the old man, repeating their sudden capture of the women.  Again all was still.  

Zorro kept looking around, wondering who else was on hand.  Then he heard a noise behind him and saw Bernardo slowly creeping up from behind the rocks.  He shook his head furiously and pointed above at the wagon in which Carlos was held.  It would not do for Carlos to witness Diego's servant rescuing El Zorro.

Bernardo frowned, at first not understanding.  Again Zorro shook his head and pointed up.  Then he made a sign of talking with his hand.  It was the sign they used for Marta Verdugo in Monterey, and had since come to use for Carlos when he was at his most loquacious.  Again he shooed Bernardo back, and pointed in the direction of the Indians.  Then he pointed at his own lock, and gestured a key turning.  He pointed at Ishtar's wagon.

Bernardo nodded and backed away.

"Can you see anything?" Carlos asked from the wagon.

"The Indians are here," Zorro answered.  

"Is that good?" Carlos asked.

"Si," Zorro said.  

Ishtar emerged from his wagon again, and looked around to see that his camp had emptied out completely.  He turned back to the wagon and came out again immediately with his sword.  He realized something was amiss.  He looked around, his sharp eyes taking in everything.  The fire was still out, the stew pot overturned in the smoking remains of the flames.  He came across the campsite to where Zorro sat on the ground and Carlos stood in his wagon.  

"Where have they gone?" he growled.

Zorro raised his hands innocently in the air.  

"I must have dozed off," Carlos said with a shrug.

Out of nowhere a man crashed into Ishtar's body, knocking off his feet and blowing the sword out of his hand.  A scuffle ensued.  Zorro could see that the younger Indian was all over the gypsy.  He looked around.  Still nothing and no one came from the woods.  He saw Bernardo come from the grove where the horses were hobbled, and climb into Ishtar's tent.  As the scuffle between the Indian and the gypsy continued, he rustled around inside and emerged momentarily with a pair of keys in one hand and El Zorro's sword in the other.   

Then the other Indian appeared, striding over to Bernardo, taking the key, and also taking the sword.  Bernardo disappeared into the woods.  The tall Indian strode over to where the scuffle was underway.  He did nothing to intercede, but instead went straight to El Zorro's cage, opened it, and offered a hand as the bandito crawled out on his hands and knees.  Zorro looked at the outstretched hand, took it, and rose to his feet.  He found himself looking into the dark, bottomless eyes of Windhawk.

The two men stared at each other for a moment, wordless.  Then Windhawk let go El Zorro's hand, stepped back, and tossed him the sword.  Zorro caught it.  The Indian looked down at the scuffle still underway, and said something in Chumash to the other Indian.  The young brave heard it and pulled himself away, leaving Ishtar sitting on the ground looking furious and somewhat dazed.  

With that, the Indians retreated into the woods.  El Zorro faced Ishtar alone.

*****

"Elizabeth! Good Lord!" Alejandro knelt over his daughter-in-law where she sat leaning against the wall on the stairs in the secret passage behind the house.  He had decided to come down after breakfast, to see if Bernardo was there somewhere.  Instead he found Elizabeth half-conscious and moaning.

"I feel really sick," she said weakly.  "I don't know why I can't get up."

He put his arm under hers and helped her to a standing position.  "Are you in labor?" he asked.

"I think so," she said.  "The pains aren't very frequent, but Alejandro, it hurts.  Is Diego home, has he come in?"

"I haven't seen him," Alejandro said.  "Can you stand all right?  Can you make it up these stairs?"

"I think so," she said, holding on to him.  They made their way up the steps slowly.  

"We must send for help immediately," Alejandro said, once they reached the first floor.  "Wait here, I will make sure no one is in the sala."

"Oh, God," Elizabeth said, clutching her stomach.  Another pain was sweeping over her.  

Alejandro held her as it passed.  She groaned miserably and finally got her breath, resting her head on her father-in-law's shoulder.

"It's too early," she moaned.

"We cannot control it now, my dear," he told her.  "Lean here against the wall, I will open the door."  He peered through the peephole to make sure the room beyond was empty, and then opened the door and helped her through.  Shutting the secret door behind him, he led her to a chair and helped her sit down.  "Wait here, I will send a servant to get Rosita."

Elizabeth was all right for the moment, though she felt very, very strange, as if something massive were overtaking her and she could do nothing but go through it.  "Send someone to San Pedro," she said.  "I know Rosita is closer. But I want you to find Lolita, the curandera there."

Alejandro frowned.  "Lolita?  But how do you know she can deliver babies?" he asked.

"I don't, but I trust her," Elizabeth said.  "So does Diego.  If anything goes wrong, I want her here."

Alejandro looked into her face.  "Nothing is going to go wrong," he assured her.  "I will send for Rosita and Lolita.  How is that?"

Elizabeth nodded.  She watched as he exited, and placed her hand on her stomach.  Diego, Diego, she thought, longing for her husband.  I cannot go through this without you.

*****

In the gypsy camp, a terrible duel was underway.  Carlos watched in horror as the gypsy, who managed to retrieve his weapon in the moments after Long Lash let go of him, attacked viciously.  Zorro fended him off, trying to regain his sure-footedness and defeat his stiffness after sitting on the ground overnight.  Over and over the swords clashed, as the two men advanced and parried all over the campsite.  The gypsy was above no cruel trick, and threw every object he could get his hands on at Zorro along with attempting repeatedly to slash his head off with the sword.  The stew pot was thrown twice, both times dodged by the bandito.  

He can't keep this up, Carlos thought, watching Zorro bob and weave his way through the battle. He was fighting defensively, trying to reorient himself in the situation.  They are too well-matched, and Zorro is too disadvantaged.  

Across the campsite, from behind the trees, Bernardo was watching the same encounter and thinking the same things.  He felt desperation, for he could see that the fight was not going his master's way.  How could he help?  The Indians, he knew, were gone.  They had ridden away after Windhawk handed Zorro his sword, leaving Tornado behind.  

Tornado!  Bernardo rushed to the horse and led him to the edge of the grove, so that the stallion could see the fight underway.  Bernardo swatted him on the behind, and Tornado leaped into the campsite, trumpeting and raising up on his hind legs.   

The sound so startled Ishtar that for a moment he looked away.  El Zorro knocked the sword out of the gypsy's hand and then put his swordpoint to Ishtar's neck.  Coming very close, he leaned into the gypsy's face.  

"I believe you have lost your sword, Seņor," he said.  "Do you yield?"

"I have no use for such nobility!" Ishtar barked, seething.  He shoved Zorro back, and again they faced each other although Ishtar had no weapon.  

Zorro stepped back.  He looked at his sword, and considered tossing it aside to finish this abominable character off with his bare hands.

"Oh for goodness sake!" Carlos cried, his hands on the bars of the window in his wagon.  "End this!"

Hearing Elizabeth's father's shout brought Zorro back to his senses, and he regained control of his inner violence.  He aimed the sword at Ishtar.  "Do not make me do you more harm than is necessary," he said.  "I came for Seņor Matteo and the black horse."  He looked at Tornado.  "The other black horse."

The sound of horses' hooves came from the mouth of the canyon.  At that moment, in rode Sergeant Garcia and his several lancers.  

"Zorro!"  Garcia cried, finding the masked man holding his sword in the direction of the lone gypsy in the camp.  

Zorro looked up to see the Sergeant.  "The gypsy has Don Carlos hostage in there, Sergeant!" he said, pointing at Carlos's wagon.  "I suggest you release him.  You will find his horse in the grove beyond the treeline!"

With that he sheathed his sword and jumped onto Tornado.  With a wave, he bounded out of view into the trees.

Sergeant Garcia motioned for the lancers to take Ishtar into custody.  He dismounted and walked over to Carlos's wagon.  "Don Carlos, are you all right?" he asked.

"Of course I'm all right, but you are an idiot!  Where have you been?" Carlos demanded.  "Zorro and I were held hostage all night by these gypsies!"

Garcia fiddled with the lock on the wagon.  "I wonder where the key to this is?" he pondered.

"Break it open!" Carlos instructed.

"Ah, that is a good idea," Garcia said, pulling his sword from its sheath.  He banged the lock a few times, and soon thereafter Carlos Matteo stood in the bright sunshine.  Corporal Reyes led Sirocco out from where he was hobbled, and Carlos was reunited with his horse.

*****

In the tiny grove where he had hidden, El Zorro and Tornado greeted Bernardo as the masked man rode out of the gypsy camp.  He yanked Tornado to a halt and looked down at the servant.  "I am going home as quickly as I can," he said.  "Elizabeth is going to have the baby much sooner than we imagined."

Bernardo, instantly concerned, waved him to go on.

"Bernardo," said Zorro, "I want you to go back to Windhawk's camp.  That is how they found me, isn't it?  You went there?"

Bernardo nodded.

"Go back and get Soaring Bird.  Tell her that Elizabeth is going to have a baby and she will need a better midwife than the one we have in the pueblo."

Bernardo looked alarmed.  He gestured two children, Little Feather's height and the little girl whose name he did not know.  

Zorro nodded.  "I know, they have children.  But I believe she will come if you ask.  Tell her...." he paused for a moment.  "Tell her that Diego has asked for her."

Bernardo nodded, and again waved him on his way.  El Zorro kicked Tornado's sides and they disappeared into the trees.

*****

Elizabeth was better.  After being taken upstairs by Alejandro and one of the vaqueros, she rested for some time and the pains did not return.  

"It was just a scare," she told her father-in-law, who was alternately hovering at her bedside and watching outdoors for help to arrive.  

"I could tell it was not just a scare!" he exclaimed, taking her hand.  "I have been through this, you know!"

Elizabeth smiled.  "Si, so long ago that the little baby you awaited is now awaiting his own," she reminded him.  "Truly, you should go back to your business, Father.  I will stay here and wait for Diego.  I know he will be home soon."

They exchanged a look that was becoming all too familiar between them, the look that bore hope and worry over the absent young husband.  But they said nothing, having to believe that he would indeed appear before long.

"I have heard that Sergeant Garcia took a unit of lancers into the hills this morning," Alejandro volunteered.  "I am sure they will provide assistance if it is needed.  Elizabeth, you must stay in bed until Rosita or someone who knows about these things can examine you.  Promise me you will stay here."

"Si," Elizabeth said, "I promise."  She lay back down, signaling Alejandro to leave.  He gave her a long warning look and then excused himself.  She heard him, beyond the door, instruct Maria to stay close by.

*****

It was over an hour later that Diego bounded up the steps to the secret room to change clothes.  He knew immediately that something unusual was going on, for there were strange voices coming from his room.  He peered through the peephole.  To his alarm, his father and the curandera from San Pedro, Lolita, were standing beside the bed.  They appeared to be having a conversation with Elizabeth, who seemed to be lying down.  It struck fear in Diego's heart.  Since he did not know if others might be in the room, he had to go downstairs to the sala and come back up by way of the courtyard and the outer stairway.  He burst into the bedroom and rushed to Elizabeth's side.

"Are you all right?" he asked.

She sat up, reaching for him.  "Yes, I'm fine.  They are all making a very big fuss."

He hugged her, sitting beside her on the bed.  "Tell me what happened." He glanced briefly at his father and Lolita, both of whom looked rather grave.

"I just got a few pains and everyone thought I was in labor, including me, but I wasn't," Elizabeth said.

"Lie back down," Diego said to her.

"I'm fine!" she said.  

"Lie back down," he repeated.  

She obeyed.  He brushed some hair away from her face.  She didn't look right.  He looked at Lolita.  "What is going on?" he asked.

"The baby is ready to drop," the dark-eyed curandera said.  

"I know," Diego murmured, looking down into Elizabeth's face.  He looked back at Lolita.  "Is everything all right?"

"The baby is fine," she said carefully.

"Diego, where were you?" Elizabeth asked. "Is Daddy all right?"

Diego frowned at Lolita and then looked back at Elizabeth. "He's fine, sweetheart.  We had a little adventure with the gypsies up in the hills but Sergeant Garcia showed up and captured them."

"So he finally got there!" Alejandro snorted.  "He has been breakfasting and lunching at great length with the Boccas lately."

Diego looked back down at his wife. "We even got Sirocco back."

"Oh," she smiled, "that is good.  Daddy loves that horse."  She took his hand and held onto it. 

"Darling, let me talk with Lolita for a minute, will you?" he said.

"There's nothing she can say to you that she should not say to me," Elizabeth said, continuing to hold onto his hand.

"That is true," he said.  He looked at his father.

"I need to check on some things," Alejandro said, taking the hint.  "I shall be back to check on you later, my dear," he said to his daughter-in-law.

"Thank you, Father," she said to him.  

He smiled at her and departed.

Diego looked up at Lolita.

"The baby is positioned well," she said.  "Elizabeth is slightly dilated, which could mean that the labor may really start, or not."

"What else?" Diego asked.

Lolita frowned.  "I am not a midwife, Don Diego.  But I think that she is fragile in some way."

"In what way?" he asked, tightening his grip on Elizabeth's hand.

Lolita shook her head.  "I cannot pinpoint it."

Diego's heart began to pound, but he tried to ignore it.  "Someone else is coming who may be able to help," he said.

"I'm going to be fine," Elizabeth insisted.  After all her fears over the months, she actually felt quite calm now.  She knew it was mostly because her husband had finally appeared in one piece.  "Who is coming?" she asked.  "Besides that treasure Rosita."

Diego smiled, knowing Rosita was, while well-respected, not particularly well-liked for her midwivery.  "I sent Bernardo for Soaring Bird," he said.

"Soaring Bird?" Elizabeth said.  "But you haven't...." she trailed off.  More had happened in the mountains than he was telling her.  She looked at his hand, but saw no marks or bloodstains.  "Diego, take your shirt off," she said to him.

"What?" he asked.

"Take your shirt off, let me see you," she said.

"Darling, I'm all right.  No new scrapes or scars."

Lolita went to the door.  "I will leave the two of you for now," she said, excusing herself.

After the door was shut, Diego leaned over his wife gently.  "Tell me truly how you are," he said softly.

"I am glad to see you," she said, her hand coming to his face.  "Are you sure you aren't hurt?  I was very afraid when I woke up before dawn and you weren't here."

He rubbed his hand across her huge belly lightly.  "It was impossible to get away," he explained.  "They had me on the ground in a cage...under a wagon occupied by your father!"

"Oh, no!" she said, half-giggling.  "And did he talk until you wanted to strangle him?"

Diego rolled his eyes, and they both laughed.  He held her hand to his lips and kissed it.  "El Zorro has not had his patience tried quite so fully in a very long time," he said.   He kissed her hand again.  "The gypsy king, or whatever he is, is a superb swordsman.  I could not have defeated him without help."

"And where did the help come from?"

"Many places... including Tornado, Bernardo, and Windhawk, and a young brave whose name is Long Lash, if he is the boy I believe him to be."  

"So you have had a reunion with Windhawk."

"It was not much of one.  We never spoke.  He has not lost his speed nor his accuracy...nor his ability to appear and disappear in the breath of an eagle."

"I think I am glad of that," she sighed.  "Please let me get up now...."

"No," he said.  "Whatever is going on, you will stay here until Soaring Bird arrives and can examine you.  Don't even think about arguing!  I will tie you down if I must.  I have tied you down for less than this, you know."

She grinned.  "I remember," she said, her hand squeezing his.  Then she giggled.  "What I recall is that it probably led to this!"

He laughed too, giving her a kiss.

Chapter Five
The Posse

The gypsy incident might well have ended when Sergeant Garcia and his lancers rode into the camp and took Ishtar into custody.  Don Carlos had his horse, the Sergeant had the gypsy king, and all should have been well.  And so it was, at first, as the rather large party headed back to Los Angeles.  Determined to see what was in the gypsy wagons, Garcia commandeered his troops to take custody not only of the various people they discovered tied up in the trees, but of all the livestock and property that seemed to go with them.  Thus Carmen and her mother, the little boy, and the old man were bound and put in one wagon. Ishtar was bound up in another by himself. All of them were driven along with the horses and goats towards the pueblo.  

Carlos, enjoying the parade, decided to ride along.  Mounting Sirocco proudly, he rode first beside the wagon carrying the women.  "I trust you are not too warm in there," he called in to the wagon.

Carmen spit out the window.

Carlos made a face and kicked Sirocco's sides, cantering ahead to the next wagon, which held Ishtar.  "El Zorro was giving you quite a fight," he observed into the window.  "He is a fine swordsman!"

Ishtar spit at him. "I should have cut his head off last night," he said.

"All this spitting!" Carlos exclaimed, shaking his head.  He cantered ahead more, to join Sergeant Garcia at the front of the line. He rode on Garcia's right, Corporal Reyes was on his left. 

"Are you sure you are all right, Don Carlos?" Garcia asked, seeing Elizabeth's father appear beside him.

"Oh, very certainly," Carlos replied, patting Sirocco's neck.  "And my horse seems to be all right, too.  Thank you for finding us, Sergeant."

"I am glad we found you, and Zorro too!" the Sergeant replied.  "Although he never seems to stay around for very long."  He eyed Matteo.  "When did he get there?"

"Last night," Carlos replied.  "He was trying to rescue me when his horse disappeared and there we were, captured."

"El Zorro was captured all night?" Garcia said, amazed.

"Oh, si," Carlos said.  "They had him in that cage under my wagon."

Garcia was impressed.  "And did you talk with him?"

"Oh, si," Carlos nodded.  "Many times."

"What is he like?" Garcia asked.

"He is very....unforthcoming," Carlos replied.

"That is what I have always found," Corporal Reyes muttered.

"Unforthcoming...." the Sergeant nodded.  "I can see how he would be."

"But he is very smitten with my daughter," Carlos added.

Garcia nearly fell off his horse.  "Excuse me?" he blurted.

"Si, he is very smitten with my daughter, though it did not stop him from kissing that gypsy girl."

This startled the good sergeant even more.  "He what?" Garcia exclaimed.

"He kissed the gypsy girl!" Carlos said cheerfully.   "The one in the wagon back there.  The one who spits."

"They all spit," Reyes noted.

"I think they call her Carmen," Carlos went on.

"He....but how did he kiss her?" Garcia asked, incredulous.

"Through the bars of the cage!" Carlos said.  "It was quite a winning kiss, I must say.  He managed to persuade her to get the keys to the cage with it."

"Is that how he got out?" Reyes inquired.

"Oh, no, Ishtar caught her before she could get it open.  It was the Indians who rescued us."

"Indians?" Garcia repeated, further confused.

"Si, two Indians appeared out of nowhere and tied everyone to the trees and let El Zorro out of the cage and then disappeared.  It happened right before you arrived."

The Sergeant shook his head. "I thought El Zorro found you and tied everyone to the trees."

"No, no, he was captured with me last night.  After his horse disappeared."

"But his horse was here this morning."

"I think the Indians must have brought it with them.  The little Indian boy must have taken him away last night, when he escaped."

"What little Indian boy?" Garcia asked.

"The one who was captured before me!" Carlos answered.  

Garcia was now hopelessly confused, and trying to sort out the idea of El Zorro kissing the gypsy girl given his special relationship with Seņora de la Vega.  This was the kind of thing Clementia could figure out, but he had vowed he would never mention his witnessing of El Zorro and the Seņora's encounter in the de la Vega garden to anyone.  That did not mean, he reasoned, that he could not get Clementia to help him learn more about the gypsy girl's relationship to El Zorro.  

"Do you think they liked each other?" Corporal Reyes asked Don Carlos.

"Who?"

"El Zorro, and the gypsy girl."

Carlos shrugged.  "They certainly seemed to!" The truth was that he liked the idea of spreading rumors about a new romantic liaison for El Zorro.  It would help deflect the continuing whispers about the masked man and Elizabeth.  He knew no one was better for spreading rumors than Garcia and Seņorita Clementia.  His long diplomatic and political experience had taught him well the game of spreading rumors and controlling the flow of information.

They rode on, Garcia lost in his confusion, Reyes considering the prospect of El Zorro's new romance, and Don Carlos enjoying the rumor he had just set in motion.  Just as they were leaving the last of the hills behind them, a shot rang out ahead of them.  Looking up the road, there sat the missing member of Ishtar's party, the man with whom Carmen had so violently argued in the pueblo the day before.  He sat on his prancing horse with a loaded musket in his hand and half a dozen other gypsy men standing by, also armed.  Several rifles were aimed at Sergeant Garcia and Don Carlos.

"You will release your prisoners to me immediately," the man said to Garcia.

"But I cannot do that," Garcia explained.  "They must go to trial in Los Angeles for horse thievery and kidnapping."

"You will release them now," the fellow snarled, "or I shall shoot you twice in your fat stomach and then kill him altogether," he nodded at Carlos.

"Twice?" Garcia gulped.  All the lancers behind him, including those driving the wagons and those on horseback, were frozen for fear of setting off the threatened shooting.

"I think maybe we should just let the gypsies go, Sergeant," Corporal Reyes suggested.  "They have a lot of guns pointed at us."

"Si," Garcia agreed.  "But we are the King's soldiers. Releasing them would look very bad."

"It might look bad if someone finds us all lying here dead, too," Reyes proposed.

"Just don't let them have my horse!" Carlos whispered to him.

"We want our king, and the rest of our family, and we will be on our way!" the man shouted at Garcia.   

Garcia sighed, and then turned to shout at his lancers, "Stand down from the wagons and mount your horses.  Do not interfere with them!"  Then he waved at the gypsies to come and take their wagons, horses, and leader.

The man who stopped them rode up to Garcia.  "The keys, to the wagons," he said, holding out his hand.

Garcia handed over the set of keys he found on the ground.

With that the gypsies hurried among the wagons and let their compatriots out.  Several guns were still aimed at Garcia and Carlos.

Ishtar strode up to them.  "You will give me that horse," he said to Carlos.

It was then that Carlos Matteo did something out of character.  He stared at Ishtar for a moment and then in a sudden motion he gouged his heels into Sirocco's sides, wheeled the horse around, and began racing down the road towards Los Angeles in a dead gallop.  Several guns went off but it missed him widely. For the first time, those who witnessed it saw something they never knew before about Don Carlos.  He was a very aggressive and skilled horseman.

"Go after him!" Ishtar's self-proclaimed son shouted.

"Do not bother," Ishtar said.  "With that horse, no one will catch him."  He looked back at Garcia.  "You, on the other hand, are going nowhere."

Sergeant Garcia sighed, watching the trail of dust behind Carlos and Sirocco as they disappeared.

"He looks almost like El Zorro, on that horse," Corporal Reyes observed.


*****

Back at the de la Vega hacienda, the afternoon set in quietly.  Diego stayed with Elizabeth until she fell asleep at siesta time, and then went downstairs to see his father.  They discussed what happened in the gypsy camp, Diego reporting that Garcia had things under control.  It was while they were talking that Carlos came roaring up to the house on Sirocco and burst into the room with the news of the gypsies' latest intervention.

"When I rode away they had Garcia and all the lancers at gunpoint!" he explained.  

"But how did you get away?" Alejandro asked.

"I surprised them," Carlos answered.

Diego took that in.  "How?" he asked.

"I ran away!  When you do something unexpected it leaves a narrow but useful window of escape."

Diego raised his eyebrows and glanced at his father. "I cannot imagine having the wits to think of that," he said.  "Especially if guns were pointed at me."

"I know, son," Carlos said, patting Diego's shoulder.  

Alejandro suppressed a smile.  "But what can be done about Sergeant Garcia?" he asked.

"I suppose we will need to ride to town and send more lancers," Carlos said.  "But I had to stop on my way to see how Elizabeth is."

"She is asleep," Diego explained, nodding his head towards the ceiling and their room on the second floor.

"Ah," Carlos said.  

"We had a scare with her this morning but it seems to have passed," Alejandro said.  "The curandera from San Pedro came. They think it is just a false start."

"A scare?" Carlos repeated, alarmed.

"It seemed she went into labor," Diego said, "but she has not had a pain for several hours, so it is just a passing thing.  Lolita says this happens sometimes, in the month before a baby is born."

Carlos nodded.  "That happened to Catherine. Two weeks before Elizabeth arrived."

Hearing this gave Diego some relief from his worry.  Perhaps daughter would be like mother, and they yet had more time before the baby would arrive.  After Lolita's expression of concern he was extremely anxious to see Soaring Bird ride into the stable yard.  He was hopeful that the doctor might appear too.  The more help, as he saw it, the better, if something were to go wrong.

"I wish there were a way to reach El Zorro!" Carlos exclaimed.  

"What for?" Alejandro asked.

"He could help the Sergeant," Carlos said.  "He seemed to know something about those gypsies."

"The lancers can help the Sergeant," Diego said.  "If they are notified, of course."  His curiosity piqued, he asked, "Why do you think he knows something about the gypsies?"

"Because of the way he was dealing with them, that Carmen especially!" Carlos replied.  "I was with him all night, you see, he was in a cage under my wagon.  At one point he kissed the pretty gypsy."

"He what?" came a voice from behind them.  The three men turned around to see Elizabeth standing near the doorway of the sala.

Diego hurried over to her.  "You should not be up and around yet," he said to her hastily, trying to steer her back out the door.

"No, no, I want to hear what happened to my father!" she said, scowling at him and making her way to her father.  She hugged him.  "What happened to you last night, Daddy?" she asked.  "What is this about El Zorro?"

"Sweetheart are you certain you are all right?" Carlos asked, leading Elizabeth to a chair to help her sit down.  

Diego looked helplessly at his father, to whom he had not mentioned the incident with Carmen at dawn.  Alejandro glared at him.

"Oh, sweetheart, it was quite a night," Carlos said, sitting beside her and taking her hand.  "I was in a wagon, and El Zorro tried to rescue me and ended up in a cage under my wagon, and we could not think of any way to get ourselves out.  But Indians rescued us!  And I saw El Zorro fight two very fierce duels with the gypsy king!"

Elizabeth listened to all this and then shook her head.  "But you said something about someone named Carmen," she said.  

"Oh, the beautiful Carmen," Carlos said enthusiastically.  "She came over to visit us just at sunrise. El Zorro tried to seduce her!"

"Seduce her," Elizabeth repeated, staring at her father.

"But how could he possibly do that if he was on the ground in a cage!?" Diego interrupted desperately, coming over to them.

"He kissed her quite soundly," Carlos said, "in spite of the bars on the cage.  I believe he was trying to get her to unlock the cage, but I do not know what would have happened if she had managed to get the keys and let him out."  

"He kissed her," Elizabeth said flatly.

"Oh, he certainly did," Don Carlos said.  "I thought the bars on the cage would melt."

"Melt," Elizabeth said.

"I think it is a good sign, darling," her father went on. "We all know how smitten he was with you for so long.  In fact last night I felt he still was, for when we talked about you he seemed quite...tender about it."

"Did he?" Elizabeth said.  She looked up at Diego, who was standing, agitated and in misery, beside his father. 

"Elizabeth, please, let me take you back upstairs," he said to her.  "Please."

Carlos looked from his daughter to his son-in-law and back again, realizing something was wrong.  "Have I upset you?" he asked.

"No, no, of course not," Elizabeth said, standing up slowly.  "What is it to me now, who El Zorro kisses?  I am only surprised, for I thought he was still in Monterey."

"Oh, no, he has returned," Carlos said, also standing up.  "I must go on to the pueblo, and rouse the lancers for the Sergeant's sake." He kissed Elizabeth's cheek.  "No babies until I return," he warned her.

"No, of course not," she smiled at him.  Then she glanced at Diego and began walking to the door.  He joined her as Alejandro accompanied Don Carlos out into the courtyard and back to Sirocco.

"It isn't what you think," Diego said softly as they climbed the stairs slowly, his arm around her waist.

"How do you know what I am thinking?" she asked.  He could hear the tears in her voice.

"Elizabeth," he said, "I was trying everything I could to get away from there and back to you."

"Everything?" she said, the tears coming up into her eyes.  They reached the landing and walked towards their room.

"Sweetheart, I was on the ground in a cage!" he said, a little too loudly.  They both looked around and realized that fortunately no one was nearby to overhear.  They got into the room and shut the door.  

"I can't believe you kissed someone else!" Elizabeth cried, falling onto her side on the bed in tears.

Diego sat beside her, feeling a mix of fury with his father-in-law, misery over his desperate act that morning, and fear for Elizabeth's state.  He leaned over her and stroked her hair. "Sweetheart, I don't... I just wanted to get home to you.  If she had let me out I would have shoved her aside, run a sword through her father, and galloped home to you on the fastest horse I could find."

"You kissed another woman," she sobbed.  "A gypsy!"

"Please...." he said helplessly, rubbing her back.  "Elizabeth, turn over, look at me,"

"I can't," she sobbed.  "I never thought you would kiss anyone again, ever! For any reason!"

"I didn't kiss her because I wanted to!" he said.  "She was....she was being very....."

"What?" Elizabeth asked, turning over to look at him.  

"Seductive," he shrugged, still feeling terribly helpless.  "I saw a chance to get out.  And it nearly worked, but your father and her father both interfered...."

"Thank you, Daddy!" she wailed, throwing her face into the nearest pillow.  "Why ...don't...you.... just...go....rescue....the....Sergeant....and kiss...your gypsy...again...." she sobbed.

"She isn't my gypsy and I don't want to kiss her ever again or rescue the Sergeant," Diego said, leaning over her.  "I'm staying right here with you until little baby is here with us and you are planting new poppies in the garden."  He kissed the back of her neck.  "I don't want to kiss anyone except you.  Not ever, not for the rest of my life, whether I am El Zorro or Diego or Don Quixote."

She continued her crying for a while, but slowed down.  He continued to kiss the back of her neck and then her cheek.  "Please turn around and let me love you," he said softly.

She turned around and tried to wipe the tears off her face.  

"Here," he said, pulling out his handkerchief and carefully running it over her teary face.  "Do you know how it breaks my heart when you are hurt like this?" he asked.  

"You did it," she said, suppressing another sob.

He lay down beside her, on his side, so they faced one another.  He continued to clean off her face.  "Do you need to blow your nose?" he asked, already knowing the answer.

She took the handkerchief and blew her nose.  "Thank you," she said, handing it back, still trying to keep from crying again.  

"Do you believe me, when I tell you that I didn't want to kiss her?" he asked.  "It was all I could think of to do in the moment, I was so desperate, Elizabeth, I had to get out of the cage, I had to get home, here, to you. Do you believe me?"

"What kind of a kisser was she?" Elizabeth asked.

"Terrible," he told her.

"You're lying," she said, but she half-giggled as she said it.

He smiled, stroking her cheek with his finger. "Nobody kisses like you do," he said gently.  

"You never kiss me anymore," she said. "Except maybe on the cheek once in a while."

"Now, that is not true," he chided her.  "I kissed you many times just yesterday morning, when we were up in the live oaks grove."

She could make no argument on that point.

"And I would like to be kissing you just now...." he said.  "But I am afraid to, if you are mad at me."

She looked into his eyes.  "I don't feel kissable," she said.  "I should be dressed up and made up and alluring, not lying here in this old house dress with red eyes and a stuffy nose and a tummy the size of a trunk."

He ran his hand up and down her side gently.  "Do you think that is what I see, when I look at you?"

"That is what I am!" she said.

He shook his head.  "No, Seņora, I see the most beautiful woman in the world, at the moment right before she is to become a mother, and not just any mother, but the mother to my very first child... I see beautiful ocean eyes looking at me, I see the skin that makes me melt every time I touch it, I see the long, soft hair that makes me feel lost in magic fog, I hear the sweet voice that makes every other sound disappear..." he rubbed his nose against hers.  "And all I want is to kiss you and hold you and be here with you while we wait for our little baby..."

She touched his face with her hand.  "I almost believe you, Seņor," she said softly.

"You should believe me," he said. With that he covered her lips with his in a long, tender kiss.

Then came an urgent knock on their door.

Diego sat up, breaking away from her.  "Just stay here," he said to her, going to the door.  He opened it, and there stood Lolita, with Soaring Bird beside her.  Bernardo stood behind both of them.  Diego looked at Soaring Bird, not knowing at first what to say.  It was the first time he had seen her since they were seventeen.

"You wanted me to come," she said, breaking the silence.

"Thank you," he told her, standing aside so that she and Lolita could enter.  He led them over to the bed.  "This is Elizabeth, my wife," he said.  "Sweetheart, this is Soaring Bird."

Elizabeth sat up and looked at the small Indian woman.  "Thank you for coming," she said.  "I think they are making a great deal of fuss about nothing."

Soaring Bird smiled quietly, and then looked around at all of them.  "Let me see her for a little while," she said.

Everyone nodded and started to leave the room, but Soaring Bird gestured for Lolita to stay.

*****

Carlos arrived at the cuartel to find little stirring and only a few lancers on duty.  He finally tracked down the corporal in charge, a man named Cortez whose laziness made Corporal Reyes look like a ball of energy. The conversation that ensued made Carlos realize that the men remaining in the cuartel were hardly up to the job of rescuing the Sergeant and his compatriots from the gypsies.  After exclaiming "Must I go and rescue them myself?!" and being told, "Si, I think that is a good idea," Carlos saw that it was going to take a posse of civilians who knew what they were doing.  He headed for the Tavern, hoping to find a few other dons to confer with.

Entering, the first people he saw were Clementia Bocca, her father Francisco, and the errant Consuelo.  Clementia spied him and hurried over.  "I heard Demetrio was in search of you!" she exclaimed.

"Oh, he found me," Carlos answered, looking around to see who else was present.  The scene did not look hopeful.

"And is he back at the cuartel now?" she asked.

"No, he found me but then he lost me again," Carlos answered.  He looked at her.  "I am afraid that now I am free and he is captured, Seņorita.  Along with his better lancers."

"Oh, no!" Clementia cried.  Everyone looked over at them.  "But you have to do something!" she exclaimed.  "He... he is our commandante and we need him!"

"He is our acting commandante," her father reminded her from his seat at the table with Consuelo, who was slowly working off her 20,000 peso debt to her uncle. She was enjoying a rare afternoon out.

"I suppose I shall have to go and enlist Alejandro's help," Carlos sighed.  "Francisco, you must come with me.  Corporal Cortez is not proving cooperative in mounting another rescue party."

Don Francisco groaned, getting up.  He looked from Clementia to Consuelo and back.  "I expect both of you to go straight home before sundown," he said sternly.  "If I hear otherwise, you," he said to Clementia, "will be assigned to the same activities as your cousin around the house!"

Clementia gulped and nodded at her father.  This threat was his ongoing guarantee of cooperation from the two young women.  "Please find him and bring him home, Papa," she said to her father as the men exited.  

Francisco Bocca grunted on the way out.  Then he added, "Tell your mother I am in for a great adventure."

From there they stopped at the Cahuenga hacienda and lured Don Miguel out of his sala despite Dona Corinna's protests.  "Someone must retrieve the Sergeant!" he waved after her as the three men rode away.  

"But gypsies," she protested, to no avail.

They stopped at two more ranchos on the way, collecting Don Simeon Reyes and his son Don Ricardo, plus Don Lorenzo Clemente.

*****


Reaching Rancho de la Vega, the six dons found Alejandro in the courtyard with Diego.  They were awaiting the outcome of Soaring Bird's visit with Elizabeth.  Diego was anything but calm.

"We must go find the Sergeant and help him out, the remaining lancers are of no use," Carlos announced as the men strode in.  "Perhaps we can use a few of your vaqueros, too, Alejandro.  Do you think the crown will ever rise to any level of competency with the military here?"

"We will be Mexican before that happens," Diego said shortly.

"What is wrong with him?" Carlos asked.

Alejandro looked up to the doorway of Diego and Elizabeth's room.  "He's waiting," came the answer.

"Is she in labor?" Carlos exclaimed.

"No!" Diego snapped.

Alejandro rolled his eyes and shrugged at Carlos.

"She is going to be just fine, you know," Carlos said to Diego, who shrugged off his father-in-law's words.

"I think it may be best for Diego to stay here," Alejandro said.  "We can bring along Benito and a few of the vaqueros, for the sake of some extra hands.  I suppose we will have to bring guns as well, since the gypsies seem to have them."

"They are better shots than any of you," Diego said.

"They missed when they shot at me!" Carlos pointed out.  "But I suppose we will have to surprise them, to be on the safe side." 

Diego looked at his father.  "I need to speak with you for a moment," he said, waving his father into the sala.

Alejandro followed him.  "What is it?" he asked.  "I do not feel I have much choice, all things considered."

"And neither will I!" Diego exclaimed, keeping his voice low.  "If all of you go off in search of Sergeant Garcia, I will have to follow you as El Zorro and make sure nothing foolish happens!" 

Alejandro shrugged.  "What can I do?  Carlos has assembled this little band; I can hardly refuse to go along.  You have an excuse, but I do not."

"My excuse does El Zorro no good!" Diego said. "And I cannot leave her now!"

"Then don't leave her!" Alejandro said.  "We are better shots than you give us credit for, my son.  You must remember, these men are the ones who tamed this land thirty years ago.  We are not so helpless as you might imagine.  We are only a little older."

Diego shook his head in exasperation.  "I fought with Ishtar yesterday and this morning, Father.  I know what you are heading into.  They will kill you."

"No one is going to get killed," Alejandro said.  

Diego sighed.  "I will talk with Elizabeth after Soaring Bird is finished...and if she is all right, I will follow you."

"Do what you must, my son," Alejandro said.  "We will always welcome the help of El Zorro, but if he does not appear, we will manage."

Watching his father depart, Diego slammed his fist into the table.  Things kept going wrong.