The Secret of Zorro
King of the Gypsies
Chapters Six through Eight
by Ella Christian @1999-2001
Contact author at EllaChristian@aol.com


Chapter Six
Ladies in Waiting

Diego watched with frustration as the seven men went out into the courtyard and towards the stable.  Bernardo came into the room, pointing at them and making a questioning gesture.

"They are going after Garcia!" Diego said.  

Bernardo looked alarmed.

"I know!"  Diego said.

Bernardo made the sign of the "Z."  

"I know!" Diego said.  "But I can't!"  He raised his eyes towards the ceiling in the direction of his bedroom.

Bernardo pointed at him and then outside, and then shook his head.

"I can hardly let them go by themselves!" Diego exclaimed. 

Soaring Bird came into the room, followed by Lolita.  

"How is she?" he asked anxiously, hurrying to meet them.

"The baby is positioned to be born," Soaring Bird said.  "Elizabeth is resting.  She has had some pains but I think they are over for now.  It is hard to tell what will happen, with first babies."

"But is she all right?" he asked. 

"She is about to have a baby, Don Diego," Lolita said.  

"I know that!" he nearly shouted.

Bernardo waved at him to calm down.

"How can I be calm when my father and my wife's father are about to go chasing after a man who will kill them without a thought right at the moment when my wife is about to have my first child!" he shouted. "I cannot let them go without me and I cannot leave her to have this baby without me!"

Everyone waited for him to finish.  An awkward silence followed.

"I do not think she will have the baby immediately," Soaring Bird told him.

"What does that mean?" Diego asked.  "In two hours? Two days?"

"I cannot know for sure, but two days is far more likely than two hours," she said.  "Her water has not broken. It could be two weeks.  You know that." She paused and then added, "It will be better if she stays in bed until the baby is born."

"Oh, she will love hearing that!" he exclaimed.  He leaned against the table for a moment, trying to regain his wits. Bed rest was a precaution Soaring Bird would not prescribe lightly. He felt nothing but panic.  Once again, the presence of Elizabeth in his life was throwing him into emotional terrain for which he was wholly unprepared. He hated this sense of helplessness.  From the stable yard there was the sound of laughter as all the men mounted up. They were, he feared, headed into terrible danger.  He took a deep breath.  "I need to help those men," he said.  "Do you truly believe I have time to get up there and back, before she has the baby?" he asked Soaring Bird.

"I cannot say for sure," she said.  "But it is possible."

"Will Windhawk help me?" he asked.

"Only Windhawk can answer that question," she said.

Diego looked at his manservant.  "Can you remember how to get there?" he asked.

Bernardo nodded.  

"Will you both stay with her, if I go?" he asked Soaring Bird and Lolita.  

Lolita nodded immediately.  

"My daughter is here with me," Soaring Bird said.  

This stopped Diego.  He knew there was another child.  He did not know it was a girl.  "A daughter?" he said softly.  So Windhawk had both a son and a little girl.

"Her name is Willow," Soaring Bird said.  "She is outside in the courtyard."

"I would like to meet her," Diego said.

Soaring Bird nodded.  They all walked outside, to find the little Indian girl sitting on a bench playing with two kittens.  She looked up shyly and reached for her mother as the adults approached. Diego saw both of her parents in her features and expression immediately.  It filled him with a sense of wonder.  What will our baby look like? he thought.

"Willow, this is Don Diego," Soaring Bird said to her daughter, picking her up. 

Diego judged her to be barely four.  "Hello, Willow," he said to her gently.  "Your father and I used to play right here at this very bench, when we were young boys."  He touched the little girl's hand lightly.

Willow put her head into her mother's shoulder, moving her hand away.

"I did not expect to stay," Soaring Bird said.  "He expects me back before nightfall."

"Please," Diego begged.  "At least stay until I get back.  If you and Lolita are both here I will not worry about her, I will know she is in good hands.  Bernardo and I will go to visit Windhawk, I will tell him where you are myself."

Soaring Bird considered it, and said something to her daughter in Chumash.  Bernardo saw a look of amusement go across Diego's face.  The little girl replied, and Diego smiled even more, before looking at the ground and shaking his head.  Soaring Bird looked over at him.  "It seems that Willow would like to stay.  So we shall remain overnight, if you have a place for us."

Diego nodded, summoning Maria to show the Indians and Lolita to guest rooms near his and Elizabeth's room.  Maria was visibly taken aback by the instruction to prepare a room in the hacienda for Indians, but Diego gave her a look of such sternness that she took a step backwards and simply nodded, "Si, Don Diego."  Then she led the visitors up the stairs.

Bernardo looked at Diego quizzically.  

"I will go part of the way with my father and then break off to get Windhawk," he said.  "You will have to meet me up there, bring Tornado and Zorro's clothing."

Bernardo shook his head and pointed at the women going up the stairs, bending his ear.  

"Oh," Diego laughed.  "She asked Willow if she thought it would be all right for them to remain here for a day rather than going home.  She said it would mean being here among all of the white people.  Willow told her she did not like all the white people but she would like to stay here with the kittens."

Bernardo grinned, shaking his head.  

Diego patted his shoulder.  "All right, then, my friend, we must ride. Go and tell my father I will join them shortly.  I must go up and tell Elizabeth first."  

Bernardo nodded, and then pointed at the hills.  

"Meet me at the second ridge," Diego said.  "I will be there within an hour."

Bernardo nodded, and went after Alejandro and the other dons.

Diego hurried back upstairs to their room.  Elizabeth was lying on her side, trying to read.  He pulled the shutter open more widely.  "You need more light, sweetheart," he said.  "Are you feeling all right?"

She shoved the book away.  "I am feeling stuck in this bed!" she said, sitting up with some effort.  He helped her gently.  

"I am afraid you are pretty seriously stuck there," he told her.  In the afternoon light she looked soft and golden and extremely ripe.  He wanted to put his arms around her and never let go of her until after it was all over.  He sat down next to her.

"What does that mean?" she asked suspiciously.

"Soaring Bird feels you should stay in bed until the baby comes," he said.  "It could be soon, it could be two weeks."

"In bed," she repeated.  She groaned, lying back down.  "I am doomed," she said.

"Darling, if it is best for you and the baby it is what you must do.  Soaring Bird is the best midwife in all of California. "

"How do we know that?" she asked, her voice very flat.

"I know it," he said.  "That will have to do."

She sighed, and leaned over across his lap. "At least you are here with me," she sighed.  "We can play chess in bed until the baby is born, you can read to me." She brightened.  "You can tell me if you have decided on a name for her!"  They had finally, after extended argument, agreed that if it was a boy, Elizabeth would name him, and if it was a girl, which Elizabeth continued to insist it would be, the name choice would be Diego's.  If he had made a decision he was thus far withholding it.

He stroked her hair.  "Sweetheart," he started reluctantly.  He felt her stiffen.

"You have to leave again, don't you," she said.

"Your father has organized a posse to fetch Sergeant Garcia and the lancers from the gypsies," he said. "If you will allow it I should go with them...it is mostly the older dons, darling.  The lancers at the cuartel are refusing to leave, and meanwhile I fear that Ishtar may be torturing our good sergeant.  I cannot let our fathers and these other men go after him in the absence of..."

"...Zorro," Elizabeth finished for him, burying her face in his thigh.  Her fingers sank into his leg.  "I am so afraid you won't be here when she comes."

"I will be here," he said, running his hand over her hair lightly. 

She turned over slowly and settled on her back.  Then she took his hand and put it on her belly.  "Please be here," she said.  "We need you, both of us need you.  I want you to be the first person to see her, I want you to see her even before I do.  I want you to be here when I hold her to my breast and feed her for the first time.  I want us to hear her first cry together, I want the three of us to cuddle together as soon as she is born...oh Diego, please, please be here."

"I will, querida," he said gently, his voice nearly breaking.  He stroked her gently. "Soon," he said to her.  Then he kissed her lips.  "I will be back very soon," he promised.

"Don't let yourself be caught again," she pleaded.

"Never," he told her, kissing her again. 

"And don't kiss that gypsy again," she added.

He laughed softly, rubbing his nose against hers. He bit her ear gently.  "No one gets kissed except you....and our little baby. Elizabeth, promise me you will stay here in bed and do what Soaring Bird and Lolita tell you, and eat what they give you, and do not be irritable with them."  

"I cannot promise not to be irritable!"

He smiled.  "Perhaps a little bit," he allowed.  "But remember they are your allies, they will help you when the time comes, so be kind."  He kissed her one last time and then got up from where he sat, looking down at her again.  "I will be here," he promised again, squeezing her hand.

"You will be in so much trouble if you aren't," she replied, squeezing his back. "Now, go and save our fat sergeant.  I will do my best to behave."

*****



As he had planned with Bernardo, Diego rode out on Apache with his father and the other dons.  At first they joked about old times, but it was not long before they all had to concentrate mainly on riding.  The men galloped for close to an hour, passing the place where the gypsies had absconded with Garcia and the other lancers.  The trail was not entirely clear, but appeared to indicate they had gone deeper into the hills. As they reached the first ridge , Diego made them slow down. 

"Father," he said, "I have an idea."

"What is that?" Alejandro asked, glad for the chance to rest for a moment.  Don Miguel was wheezing a bit and two of the other men were badly in need of a drink from their canteens.  

"Let me see if I can find the Indians who helped Zorro," he said.  "It was Windhawk who helped Carlos and El Zorro, I am certain."

"He was very helpful," Carlos concurred, giving Sirocco a pat on the neck.  "If you can find him and get him to help again, we will be far better off."

"So you will turn to your old friend for help now?" Alejandro asked.

"Si," Diego said.  "He has helped once, perhaps he will have it in himself to help again.  I can only know by asking.  Go no further than the entrance to the canyon where the gypsies have gone. I suspect they are in the box canyon just to the east of the one where they kept Carlos and El Zorro.  I will arrive there as soon as I can."

"Very well, my son," Alejandro said, feeling certainty that whoever met them would be led not by Diego but by El Zorro himself.  But of this nothing needed be said with the other men standing about on their horses.  

"See if you can find El Zorro as well," Don Miguel said, with a final wheeze.  "He seems to know how to get people out of trouble!"

"Si, I would trust him further than I would trust the Indians!" said Don Francisco.

Diego looked at Clementia's father sharply.  "The Indians owe us nothing," he stated.  "If they agree to help it will be a kindness we can only be grateful to receive."

Alejandro smiled at his son.  "Be careful, Diego," he said. "You have two very good reasons for wanting to return home intact, as soon as you can!"

"Si," Diego agreed heartily.  With that he bid the men farewell and turned Apache towards the higher ridges, where he knew that Bernardo and Tornado awaited.

*****

"Windhawk," El Zorro said, standing alone in the empty circle of rounded huts where the Indians lived.  

At first nothing moved.  The plain seemed utterly still in the evening light.  It was as though the tiny village were abandoned.  

Zorro waited, his stance firm. "Windhawk," he said again.  "I am here in part to deliver a message from Soaring Bird."

One of the hut entrances darkened for a moment, and the tall Indian emerged alone.  Zorro could see a young boy's face peering after him from the recesses of the hut.

Windhawk walked up to the Fox and stopped before him.  They surveyed one another in silence.  Then Zorro said, "She will stay with Senora de la Vega for the night.  Willow is with her.  They are guests at the hacienda, no harm will come to them."

"How can I know that?" the Indian asked.  "You are here."

Zorro shook his head.  "They are safe," he said.  "I would not entrust...." he paused, and then said, "I would not entrust the Senora's life to her if I did not believe it is secure there."

"It is not secure," Windhawk said, heading for his horse.

Zorro frowned.  "What do you mean?" he asked, following.

"They have led you on what you would call a wild goose chase," Windhawk answered, bridling his stallion.  "They are not here in the hills, they have gone back down to the basin.  They are on their way to meet another band of gypsies."

"With the lancers, with Garcia?" El Zorro asked.  

"Yes," Windhawk said, pulling himself onto his horse.  "I believed that Soaring Bird would be well on her way home by the time they doubled back."  He glared at Zorro.  "Now I know that is not the case."  He called out, and the young brave Long Lash emerged from another hut.  Zorro heard him tell the brave to come, that they would have to find Soaring Bird and Willow before the gypsies did them harm.

Zorro's heart began to pound.  He knew that Windhawk did not lie.  It meant that Ishtar and his thugs were on their way to Rancho de la Vega, which was peopled by a handful of servants and unsuspecting caballeros, Lolita, Soaring Bird, Willow, and his beloved.  

He looked into the forest where Bernardo was hidden with Apache and his own horse.  Running to Bernardo he said, "Go find my father. They are all going to be waiting for me at the mouth of the canyon beyond the one where the gypsies were yesterday.  Tell him to get back to the hacienda immediately.  The gypsies are on their way back towards the pueblo!"



*****


It was around two hours after Diego and the other men had departed that Elizabeth heard a light knock on her door.  

"Come in," she said, pulling herself to a seated position.  She had read for awhile longer and then fallen asleep.  Fortunately no more pains plagued her, everything seemed calm inside and out.  As she awoke she immediately thought of Diego, Alejandro and her father, wondering if they were all right.

The door opened and Lolita entered, followed by Maria.  The servant was carrying a spectacular and obviously heavy silver tray full of dinner for Elizabeth  

"It is time for you to eat something," Lolita said, coming over to sit beside her.  Maria set the tray on the bed and departed quietly.  

Elizabeth looked down at the meal. A short-stemmed white rose in a matching silver vase was set carefully on the tray.  It made her smile.  Maria always thought of details, and this one brought her garden to her.   "I'm not really hungry," she said.    

"Try anyway," Lolita said.

"I don't like being confined to the bed," Elizabeth said. "Can't I at least go over and sit in the chair by the fireplace?"

Lolita shook her head.  "Try not to, Senora.  There are of course times when you will have to get up, but it will be better if you stay here unless you absolutely must.  You do not want the pains to start again."

Elizabeth sighed, sitting back against the headboard.  She had been bedridden for all of five hours and was already entirely bored.  "All right," she said, "you will have to tell me a story, Lolita.  I cannot just sit here."

Lolita smiled.  "I suspect you are the one with all of the good stories, Senora."

"No, no, my life is very dull," Elizabeth said.  

Lolita folded her arms, eyeing the young woman skeptically.  

"It is my husband who has all the stories!" Elizabeth exclaimed.  "And where is he?  Off in the middle of what will become another story, while I lie here in this bed by myself!"

Lolita picked up the fork from the tray and handed it to Elizabeth.  "If you will eat this, I will try to think of a story that will amuse you," she said.

"So you will be Scheherezade for me," Elizabeth said, accepting the fork.  "Keeping me amused so I do not cut off your head."


"I expect to keep my head, and I do not think I will be here for 1,001 nights," Lolita said, pouring Elizabeth a cup of water to go with her meal.  She paused to light two candles and the lantern beside the bed.

Elizabeth took a bite of her steaming piece of beef, followed by the greens on the side of the plate.  "You know something of the Arabian Nights," she observed.  "'Open, Sesame!'"

"Yes, I know of Ali Baba and his thieves," Lolita said.  "My father was a sea captain, he had many stories from Arabia and other exotic places."

"Ah," said Elizabeth.  "A sea captain.  No wonder you so love San Pedro."

"We were his second family, my mother and I."

Elizabeth considered that for a moment, and her eyes widened.  "You mean, he had one somewhere else, too?"

"Si, in Spain," came the reply. "I did not meet him more than once a year, but he usually stayed for a few months, waiting for the weather to change.  He told many stories on rainy nights."

Elizabeth chewed on her tortilla thoughtfully, wondering if Lolita and Felipe were now repeating the family history.  "I was always hearing stories on snowy nights," she said, thinking back to her girlhood in Boston.  "When the weather was nice we were out all the time...but when it was cold and snowy, we would sit by the fire and my parents would take turns trying to best each other with a good tale."

At that moment another knock came on the door.  

"Si?" Elizabeth said.

The door opened and a dark head peered around.  "Are you here?"

"Clementia!" Elizabeth cried, seeing her friend.  "Come in!"

Clementia entered, followed by her cousin Consuelo.  "We got away from the house because Papa is gone and Mama is in the pueblo," Clementia said.  "Maria told us you were up here, Elizabeth, are you all right!  Do you know the gypsies have my poor Demetrio?!"

Elizabeth patted the side of the bed, for Clementia to come to her.  "Si," she said, "but our fathers and Diego and all gone to save him, I am sure they will be back with him and the Corporal and the others soon."  She eyed Consuelo.  "You have nerve, stepping into my house, after what you did to my husband," she said flatly.

Consuelo hesitated at the door.  The girl's misdeed four months earlier when she had knocked out Diego on the San Pedro road and then caused 20,000 pesos of her uncle's fortune to go flying into the sea was still a black mark on her reputation in the community.  It was said that she would have to work for her uncle for 20 years even to begin to repay him the financial loss.  It was the first time she had darkened the door of the de la Vega hacienda since the night Elizabeth's special punch had set the entire cascade of events leading to the loss of the pesos in motion.  Consuelo secretly blamed Elizabeth for the whole thing.


"I told you I should not have come up here," Consuelo said to her cousin, feeling humiliated.  Despite having whacked him hard enough with a log to give him a concussion, she remained deeply infatuated with Don Diego. She was thus mortified over having to visit his wife in her extremely pregnant condition and thus being reminded so vividly that he was not available.  She clung, of course, to the hope that the rumor that this was El Zorro's child was true.  Elizabeth never made it sound that way.

"I cannot let you out of my sight!" Clementia reminded her. "Just sit down...." she gestured at one of the chairs in front of the fireplace, "and be quiet."  She sat down beside Elizabeth, taking her friend's hand. "I am so afraid for Demetrio, I am afraid those gypsies will kill him!"

"I prefer to wait out on the balcony," Consuelo said.

"Very well, but leave the door open!" Clementia said, exasperated.  

Consuelo went out, leaving the door ajar.

"She is like a stone around my neck!" she exclaimed in a whisper to Elizabeth.  Then she saw Lolita.

"Who is this?" she asked.

"This is Senora Lolita, the curandera from San Pedro," Elizabeth said.  "She was about to tell me a good story."

"A curandera from San Pedro?" Clementia repeated.  "What is she doing here?"

Lolita stood up.  "I think I shall leave you two to your visit," she said.  

"Oh, no, I was beginning to think we would have a little party," Elizabeth said.  "If only Dona Corinna and Dona Martina were here..."

Consuelo rushed back into the room, her eyes wide.  "Something is wrong downstairs!" she said.  

Soaring Bird rushed into the room behind her, holding Willow.  "The gypsies!" she exclaimed.  "They are here!"

All the women looked at each other.  

"Here?" Elizabeth said, moving to put her feet on the floor and looking outside.  

"No, no!" Lolita said, pushing her back into the bed.

Elizabeth shoved her aside and got up, going to the door and peering out.  She could see nothing, and ventured out the door slowly.  She could hear a scuffle underway in the courtyard.  She took another step, and could see that Benito and another vaquero were being subdued by two gypsy men.  Her eyes widened and she stepped back. Two rooms down, she saw Maria hovering in the recess of the doorway.  She waved for Maria to come.   Maria slipped quickly towards her and the two of them went back into the bedroom.  Elizabeth closed the door.  "It is the gypsies!" she exclaimed.  "And they have tied up our vaqueros!" She looked around at them all.  "Perhaps they will not come up here..."

"They will come, looking for jewelry," Lolita said. She looked down at the bed, noticing the silver tray.


"If they are here, that means Demetrio is here!" Clementia said hopefully.

"If they are here, it means Diego and my father and Alejandro and the others are...." Elizabeth stopped.  Then she finished, "...very far away."  She took a breath, looking at the other women standing there.  "I believe we may be on our own." She looked at Soaring Bird.

"Oh, no," Consuelo said, sitting down weakly. 

"Don't start sniveling," Elizabeth snapped, detesting the fact that she had to deal with this woman's presence, and in a crisis at that.  "We have to keep our heads clear if we are to get out of this without being hurt."  They all heard a crash downstairs, which Elizabeth recognized as Alejandro's cabinet of silver in the sala, being knocked over.  "Oh, no," she said.  "They are going to steal everything."  She looked across the room at her dresser, where she kept all of her mother's and Matilde de la Vega's jewelry in a locked box.

"Windhawk will know where the gypsies are," Soaring Bird said.  

"But will he tell the others?" Elizabeth asked.

"That I cannot know," she said.  "He stays away from the affairs of the white men."

"But there is some hope, that he will come...for you, if for no other reason."

"If he believes it is needed, he will come," Soaring Bird agreed.  

"Then we just have to think of a way to stall, until he and perhaps the others arrive," Elizabeth said.  She sat back down on the edge of the bed.  Her eyes fell on the secret door to Zorro's passage in the hidden chambers of the house.  They could go in there and almost certainly be safe.  But it would betray Zorro to these women.  She sighed.  Lolita and probably Soaring Bird knew.  If only Clementia and Consuelo had not appeared! she thought.  But they were here, as was Maria.  They had to think of something else.  She felt a hard twinge in her belly and ignored it.  "First of all, they do not know we are  here," she said.  "It may take them a while to work their way up to this room, they will search downstairs first, and then the rooms closer to the stairs on this level.  That gives us some time."

"Not much," Lolita said, listening at the window. Night was beginning to fall.

Elizabeth came over and listened.  Soaring Bird handed the silent Willow to Lolita, and joined them.  There were shouts coming from the courtyard below, both men and women.  They were speaking a language none of the women in the bedroom recognized.

"Romany..." Elizabeth guessed.  "How many of them are there?" she asked, growing more alarmed.

"At least seven," Soaring Bird answered.  "Windhawk told me the one who leads them is a very fierce swordsman."

Elizabeth gulped.  It had to be the man her father talked about, the one who claimed to be king of the gypsies.  "Si," she said.  "My father saw him fight El Zorro...he said the man is ruthless."

"Zorro?" Consuelo said.  "El Zorro is involved with this?"

Elizabeth eyed the girl.  "He rescued my father from the gypsies this morning, with Windhawk's help," she said, looking briefly at Soaring Bird.

"Then perhaps he will rescue us!" Consuelo exclaimed hopefully.

Elizabeth looked at Lolita now, where she stood across the room holding little Willow.  Then she turned to Soaring Bird.  "Can you think of anything?" she asked.

"Is there any way to escape?" Soaring Bird asked. 

"What about climbing out here?" Clementia asked, looking out the window at the side balcony.  

Everyone looked at Clementia, and then at Elizabeth.

"No, I guess not," Clementia said.  Then she gasped.  "Oh!  I see their wagons, and Demetrio's horse! And Corporal Reyes's horse, too!"  

Elizabeth looked out as well.  "The rest of you can get out," she said.  "If you can free the Sergeant and the other lancers, perhaps they can defend us.  It does not look as though anyone is guarding the wagons at the moment."  

"We are not leaving you here!" Clementia said.  

"I can get out," Soaring Bird said.  But she looked across the room at Lolita and her daughter.  

Then Elizabeth moaned, leaning against the bedrail and grabbing her stomach.  Soaring Bird grabbed her immediately.  "Tell me what it feels like," she said.

"It is another contraction," Elizabeth said.  "It starts deep and wraps around my back...a lot of pressure...ohhhh," she groaned.

Clementia's eyes widened.  "She's going into labor? Now?" she asked.

"It may pass," Soaring Bird said.

Consuelo took a step backwards, horrified.  Downstairs, another crashing sound and shouts rose up and through the shutters.  Several people were in the courtyard.

"Let's get you back into the bed for a while," Soaring Bird told her.  "That may ease things."  

Elizabeth felt a strange sensation between her legs and looked down with a gasp. She felt warm fluid running down the insides of her thighs.  

Soaring Bird looked down too, and saw the puddle forming on the floor. She looked back at Elizabeth.

"It isn't going to pass this time, is it?" Elizabeth asked weakly.   

Chapter Seven
Hope

El Zorro, Windhawk and Long Lash rode as they had never ridden in their lives, back down the dusty trails in the hills and into the basin towards the pueblo.  The shadows grew long as they rode, evening was setting in.  At each crossroads they stopped,  inspecting the ground to see if they could pick up the markings of the gypsies and their entourage.  Indeed they found what they were looking for, though it nearly cost El Zorro his lunch.  For at the crossroad where they could have turned to the pueblo, they instead had headed west, towards Rancho de la Vega.  They all knew instantly that the gypsies would not pass on an opportunity to plunder so fine a hacienda.

Windhawk looked at his friend.  Though not a word had been spoken between them about it, they both knew that Windhawk knew the secret.  Now, realizing what was at stake, he said, "how do you want to do this?"

Zorro leaned against Tornado for a brief moment.  Then he said, "Follow me."  

With that they remounted and headed towards the rancho, until they reached a fork.  El Zorro led them down the obscure road that would take the three of them to Tornado's cave.

*****

Ishtar howled with delight.  The accident of coming onto the de la Vega hacienda on the way to meeting his cousins near the village by the sea, known locally as Santa Monica, put him into a wickedly festive mood.  The house was nearly empty except for a few servants. The vaqueros in the stableyard had been subdued quickly enough.  The silver in the sala alone would keep him pedaling treasures for months.  He roared through the downstairs of the house, pulling antique swords off the walls, yanking up rugs, and staring at the books in the library for anything that had a hint of rarity.  When he reached the sala and found the cupboard of silver, he pulled things out of it and knocked over the furniture with glee.  Carmen was in and out collecting things and organizing them in the courtyard, along with her "brother" and her mother.  The little boy they travelled with, along with the old man, were sitting near the gate to the stables.  They had helped themselves to cooked chicken legs they found in the kitchen, and were now watching it all and playing with several kittens in search of table scraps.

Ishtar bounded into the courtyard carrying a pair of perfectly-sharpened sabers he found hanging on the wall in the library.  They gleamed with ancient fight and wisdom.  "Look at this!" he cried, waving them in Carmen's direction.  "Do you know what these are worth!  We will never have to sell a horse again, once we unload these!" He examined one more carefully.  "Though perhaps I do not want to part with them...."He glanced at Carmen.  "I can use this one to cut off the head of that fat soldier and all his men.  Perhaps I shall leave their heads lined up in a row in this courtyard when we leave." He laughed wickedly at this idea, finding it quite charming.  "At dawn!" he added.

Carmen looked up at the long balcony and doorways on the second floor.  "Don't you want to look up there?" she asked.  "Perhaps there is jewelry. The people who live here and have such treasures on the first floor must have more on the second in the rooms where they sleep."

"So you want some new baubles?" Ishtar said, smiling at her.  "And should I give you any, since you were so ready this morning to set the man in black free?  Perhaps I shall dangle them in front of you before I sell them, or give them to her!" He nodded at the older woman, who was sorting shiny silver knives from shiny silver forks and shiny silver spoons on the ledge surrounding the fig tree.

"I need light, get some lanterns!" the older woman said.  She turned around and looked at the little boy, waving at him.  He ignored her in favor of the kittens.

Carmen sat down to pout.  Ishtar grabbed her by the hair, yanking her across the courtyard to the stairs.  "Go up and see if there's anything to be had!" he instructed, giving her a shove.

True to her usual charms, Carmen spat at him and began climbing the stairs, leaving him to wave his saber at the air.

*****

Upstairs, the women were still debating what to do while Elizabeth lay on the bed, alternately participating in the conversation and battling with the pains that were setting in around ten minutes apart.  Privately, she continued to resist doing the obvious, which was opening the door to the secret passage and hiding everyone there.  They were all in agreement that someone needed to go try to free the Sergeant and his men, as that was undoubtedly their best hope for help. Clementia volunteered, but Elizabeth objected, knowing full well that even if she survived climbing down the slate roof without falling and breaking her ankles, Clementia was not one to steal her way swiftly and silently to the wagons, find the Sergeant and speedily loose him from his bonds.  Consuelo was an unacceptable choice as well, Elizabeth stating that she did not trust Consuelo any further than she could throw her.  Another labor pain set in. Feeling it, Elizabeth began to moan, trying to get her breath.

"Oh, no," Clementia said.  

"Get her to be quiet!" Consuelo said desperately.

Soaring Bird leaned over Elizabeth, and then grabbed the napkin from the silver tray still lying on the bed.  "Open your mouth," she said.  Elizabeth cooperated, and she shoved the folded napkin between her teeth.  "Bite harder, the more it hurts," Soaring Bird instructed. 

Elizabeth nodded.  Then her eyes widened as the strength of the contraction increased.  She moaned, biting the napkin vigorously.

Watching all of this, the servant Maria, her heart in her throat, headed resolutely for the balcony door.  Before anyone could say a word, she stepped out, looked around, and then climbed over the railing and onto the slanted roof.  Clementia and Consuelo followed, peering over the balcony into the deepening darkness as she inched her way down to the eave and slowly lowered herself to the edge of the hacienda's outer wall.  Her foot did not find its mark immediately, but finally, as the two women watching held their breath, she touched the wall and let herself down onto it.  It was still a seven foot drop to the ground.  She looked up at them, then looked down, crossed herself, and jumped.

"Oh!" Clementia said. "She has done it!  She is on the ground!"  

Elizabeth's contraction passed and she spit the napkin away.  "Is she all right?" she asked. Soaring Bird put her hand to Elizabeth's forehead, to make sure no fever was setting in.

After a moment, Clementia answered, "I think she hurt her foot, but she is making her way to the wagons anyway," she said. "It is very hard to see, in the dusk."

Then they heard the sound of a door slamming nearby.  It was definitely on the second floor.

"That is Alejandro's door!" Elizabeth exclaimed.  "They are up here!"

"We are going to need towels," Soaring Bird said to Lolita.  "And water." She looked at Elizabeth. "Is there a way to get water without going out?"

Another door slammed.  Closer.

"Oh, Lord save us," Clementia said.

Elizabeth looked about, realizing that they now had no choice, they were going to have to hide in Zorro's secret room.  She began to feel faint.  "Oh, no..." she said, and with that she lost consciousness.

Soaring Bird saw what was happening and looked at Lolita.  "Hide Willow under the bed," she said.  "Stay there with her."  She reached for a candle and a match, lighting it and setting it as far from the window as possible.  A pale, eery light exerted itself in the room.

Lolita looked about, and then nodded at Soaring Bird.  Putting the little girl down, they got to the floor and crawled under the bed, the heavy velvet drapings covering any hint of their hiding place.

"Is there more room under there?" Consuelo asked, looking down.

Clementia stared at her unconscious friend on the bed.  Her eyes wandered down Elizabeth's still form and rested on the silver tray at her feet.  In a surge of resourcefulness, she began removing the things from it, placing them all on the table next to the bed.  

"Anyone who comes in here," she said, lifting the heavy tray and carrying it to the door.  "Will have to get past me," she said.  With that she positioned herself so that she would be behind the door when it opened.  

Soaring Bird gave her a half-smile and nodded.  Then she looked at Consuelo.  "See if you can hide under the bed too," she said, knowing that having this one on hand would not be an asset in a struggle.  

Consuelo dropped to the floor and quickly disappeared under the bed. They all waited for several minutes.  They could hear rummaging going on in the room next door.

Elizabeth moaned, coming out of her faint.  She looked around, momentarily disoriented.  Soaring Bird stroked her head lightly, trying to comfort her.

"We have to move," Elizabeth said weakly, looking towards the panel beside the fireplace.  "We have to...." she began to get woozy again, and then she felt it, another contraction setting in.  They were coming more often now.  She grabbed at the napkin and put it in her mouth, just in time for the pain to set in furiously.  

Soaring Bird held her by the shoulders as the pain swept over her.  Clementia stood by, holding the silver tray firmly in her hands.  She watched as the agony went over Elizabeth's face.  It made her begin to wonder how much she really wanted to marry the good Sergeant if this was what it led to.

Elizabeth's contraction finally ended.  She looked up at Soaring Bird, exhausted.  Then they heard a rattle at the door.  It slowly opened, and a figure stepped in.  

Elizabeth's eyes narrowed as she made out the face of the person entering. "You!" she hissed.  Then she saw a flash of silver as the tray rose brilliantly in the air and then dropped forcefully, hitting its mark.


*****

The three riders yanked their horses to a stop in the corral outside Tornado's cave.  Zorro lept off his horse and waved at the other two men to follow him.  All three, leading their horses, went beyond the brush and into the cave.  

"Leave them here," Zorro said, lighting the lantern beside Tornado's stall.  He dropped his cape from his shoulders.  "Follow me."

With that the three of them walked through the passage under the stable, and up the curving stairwell to the first floor of the hacienda.  Zorro stopped at the passage behind the sala. He pulled the peephole open and looked in.  What greeted him was chaos.  Furniture was overturned, tapestries were missing from the walls, the silver cabinet was on the floor in shambles.  He looked at Windhawk.  "They are taking everything."

"Soaring Bird and Elizabeth?"  Windhawk asked.

Zorro jerked his head, and lead them back to the stairs to go up another flight.

They reached the entrance to Zorro's secret room and entered quietly.  At that very moment they heard the sound of hard metal hitting something beyond the wall.  Then there was a thud, and the sound of low female voices.  Zorro looked through the peephole into the room.  He could see Elizabeth sitting on the bed, propped up by several pillows.  She was looking across the room at something he could not see.  She was saying something, so he knew she was not alone. She seemed quite in control of herself, which gave him a great wave of relief. 

"They are in here," he said to Windhawk.  "They seem to be all right."  He looked back at the Indians. 

"Is Willow there?" Windhawk asked.  

"I cannot see her," Zorro answered.  "I can only see Elizabeth, but there are others in the room."  They fell silent, and began to hear the whispers of the women.

"What are we going to do with her?" one said.  Zorro recognized this voice as Clementia's. What was Clementia doing there?  She sounded horrified.  What was she talking about?

"Throw her out the window," Elizabeth suggested.

"She is very knocked out," another soft voice said.  Zorro recognized this voice as Soaring Bird's.  He looked back at Windhawk.  "Soaring Bird is definitely there," he said softly. He looked back into the peephole.

"Did someone get killed?" another female voice came from what seemed like the floor.  El Zorro did a double take.  How many of them were in there?

"Just stay there and be quiet!" Elizabeth snapped, looking down at the bed. "Nobody is dead!" 

Zorro frowned.  Someone under the bed?

A little voice came from the floor.  Zorro recognized it as the Chumash word for "Mama."  Windhawk heard it too. He shoved Zorro aside to look into the room himself.  

Soaring Bird gave an answer in Chumash, which made a soft smile form briefly on Windhawk's lips.  Then he turned and looked at Zorro.  "They are all right," he said.  "We must go back down and stop the plundering, and free the women."

Zorro nodded.  

Windhawk looked at Long Lash.  "Stay here and make sure no one comes in on them," he said.  Then he and El Zorro turned to go back downstairs.  Long Lash, looking through the peephole, heard as Elizabeth again groaned, feeling another contraction setting in.  Then he saw Soaring Bird bending over de la Vega's wife.  He turned to tell the others what he was seeing, but the two men were already gone.

** ** ** ** 

Opening the door into the sala, Zorro stepped into the de la Vega hacienda and picked his way over the tumbled furniture and broken objects all over the floor.  Windhawk following, the two men made their way to the window and looked out into the courtyard.  

Ishtar was still inspecting the saber, while his wife, or whoever she was, sorted silverware.  She turned to scold him about the broken china on the ground.  They were interrupted by the younger man, who said something to Ishtar and pointed back towards the wagons.  Ishtar considered whatever he was saying for a moment and then gestured, as if to tell the man to bring whatever he was talking about back.  The man left.

"I will get him," Windhawk said.

Zorro nodded, as his friend disappeared back into the passages. Zorro watched as Ishtar returned to admiring his treasures.  Then he saw the man frown and look up at the upper balcony. 

"Carmen!" he shouted, adding something in Romany.  No reply came.  Ishtar snarled something at his wife and then headed for the stairs, still clutching the saber.  

Stepping back in order to give himself speed and force, Zorro burst through the window, landed on the ground in the shattered glass, and grabbed the second saber where it lay at the woman's feet.  Pulling  himself to his feet he shouted, "Ishtar!" 

The gypsy stopped at the foot of the stairs, and whirled around to see the man in black.  "You again!" he cried, raising the saber.  The two men squared off, as the gypsy woman threw as many pieces of silverware into her skirt as she could and scurried to the hacienda wall near the old man and the little boy, to watch what was sure to be a terrible duel.

Zorro felt the heavy weight of the saber, trying to calculate how it would handle differently from his sword.  He had played with these sabers from time to time, but not for over a year.  He was out of practice.  He sized up Ishtar's grip.  The gypsy was familiar with the weapon.  

Lifting the saber, Zorro swung it at his opponent.  Ishtar ducked and then lunged, only to miss as Zorro tilted to the side and whirled around, swinging his saber again.  He barely missed lopping off the gypsy's head, managing to force the man briefly to his knees.  The near-miss caused the woman watching the duel to scream.  

Glancing up, Zorro saw two figures tumble out of Elizabeth's room, first Consuelo, and then Clementia. 

They appeared to be dragging something on the floor. He could hear more commotion coming from the room, but could not make anything out.  Then he ducked, for Ishtar's saber was headed again in his direction.  Zorro dove onto the ground and rolled away, jumping immediately to his feet, turning like lightning, and again swinging his weapon with such strength and fury that Ishtar had to dive to avoid it.

Ishtar hauled his sabre up and got to his feet, facing Zorro again.  The two stalked each other for a moment, making a slow circle in the middle of the courtyard.  

"You will not win this, Seņor," Zorro said to him.  "There is not a chance of it. Give yourself up and let us save ourselves from bloodshed."

Ishtar laughed at him.  The sound of numerous horses' hooves was approaching from the distance.  "Do you hear that, seņor?" he asked.  "That is another branch of my family!  We will see whose blood is shed here!"  

Zorro stepped back for a moment, again glancing in the direction of the balcony.  Clementia and Consuelo were now standing at the railing watching. At their feet was the gypsy woman Carmen.  "Seņoritas," Zorro shouted up to them, "are you all right?"

"Si, Seņor Zorro," Clementia answered, "but Seņora de la Vega...." she stopped herself, suddenly realizing that reporting Elizabeth was in labor probably was not in El Zorro's best interest, not to mention that it would be considered altogether in bad taste.

Ishtar's saber flew at El Zorro's head again.  The masked man jumped backwards, ducking.  He was upright again in an instant, swinging back.  Over and over the two sets of shining silver collided, making a sound that rang across the courtyard as the two men viciously engaged. Then a long, loud, terrible moan came from upstairs in the hacienda.   Recognizing his beloved's voice, El Zorro lost his concentration for a moment, looking up.  Ishtar swung his sword hard at the masked man's torso, aiming to cut him in half.  At that moment, a shot rang out.  

The saber already had such force behind it that it grazed Zorro's side before clunking to the ground in the hand of the fallen gypsy, who had taken a bullet in the ribs.  Everyone looked around, to see Sergeant Garcia standing in the gateway to the stableyard, a long pistol in his hand still aimed in the direction of the duelers.  Just behind him stood Corporal Reyes and the servant Maria.  Ishtar writhed in the dirt.  Several lancers rushed past Garcia to subdue the gypsy.

Zorro dropped his saber.  "Thank you, Sergeant!" he cried.  "Are you all right?"

"Si, Seņor Zorro," came the reply. "You have Maria here to thank for releasing me!"

"Demetrio!" Clementia called from the balcony, waving.

"Clementia!" the Sergeant cried, seeing his sweetheart.  "What are you doing here?"  He looked at the pistol in his hand and then dropped it to the ground.

The missing dons, led by Don Alejandro, poured through the open gateway to the road.  Bernardo was with them.  El Zorro turned to see them and then heard the sound of a loud groan followed by weeping upstairs.  Looking around him at the entire scene, he made a sudden decision and bounded up the stairs.  He raced to Seņora de la Vega's door, where Clementia and Consuelo stood.  The two women stared at him in utter astonishment.  Consuelo had to grip the balcony railing to keep from losing herself altogether.  Zorro put his hand on the door and his foot ran into something on the floor.  He looked down, frowned, and then did a double take.  At his feet was the unconscious form of the gypsy, Carmen.  He looked back at the two women, smiled, and tipped his hand from his hat in a salute.  Then, before they could follow him, he disappeared into Seņora de la Vega's room and yanked the door shut.  They heard the lock drop into place and looked at each other, wide-eyed.  

Elizabeth lay on the bed looking exhausted, weeping.  He looked around quickly to see Soaring Bird on one side of her, Lolita on the other.  Willow sat in one of the chairs beside the fireplace.  

"Is she all right?" he asked, coming over to them.  Lolita stepped aside so that he could get to Elizabeth, who was sobbing into her pillow.  She turned and looked up at him.

"This hurts," she sobbed. "Make it stop."

He leaned over her.  "I'm here, I'm here," he said to her, stroking her face with his black-gloved hand, his heart pounding. 

She calmed down momentarily, taking a deep breath.  "I am so glad to see you," she said, taking hold of his hand. Then she frowned. "Where is your cape?" she asked.  

"I'll be back," he said, kissing her cheek.  He looked at the two women again.  Soaring Bird noticed the blood coming from his side through his black shirt, where the gypsy's saber had sliced him. She moved towards him, but he ignored her, going to the balcony leading to the side of the house. Stepping through the doorway he climbed over the railing and onto the tiled roof.

At that moment, Sergeant Garcia burst into the room.  "Where is Zorro?!" he exclaimed. "We saw him come in here!" 

 Bernardo was right behind him. He took one look at Elizabeth, and then saw Lolita. It lifted his spirits immediately, though his eyes went quickly to the side balcony door.

"He went out there!" Lolita said to the Sergeant, pointing at the balcony door.  Garcia followed and saw Zorro dropping off the roof and onto the wall, and from there to the ground.  The masked man's black horse cantered up to him, as if on cue.  Garcia shook his head, wondering how does he do it?  Then he saw a most unexpected sight.  Two Indians, sitting bareback on their horses, were watching El Zorro mount his horse from some yards away.  The Indians turned and rode away in one direction, El Zorro raced away in another.  He did not pause for his customary wave, but disappeared around a rocky bend beyond the house.

"We shall not catch him," Garcia sighed, hardly interested in a night chase after his ordeal with the gypsies.  He turned to see Elizabeth and it took him a moment to realize what he had walked in on.  "Oh!" he said.  "Oh!"  With that he hurried to the door and exited.  Bernardo followed, and hurried downstairs to go through the sala to Tornado's cave.  

*****


Fifteen minutes later Diego de la Vega rode up to the hacienda on his palomino.  He raced into the courtyard to see the chaos of broken glass and household items scattered about.  All of the gypsies were completely subdued and sitting in a row on a bench, tied up.  Ishtar was lying on the ground, also tied, Maria bandaging his wounds.  All of the lancers and the Sergeant were gone, he noted, except for Corporal Reyes, who was watching over the gypsies with his musket.  He assumed that Garcia had departed to see Consuelo and Clementia home.  He approached his father, but stopped in his tracks as he heard another moan rise into a near-scream coming from upstairs.  

"Go, go," his father said, waving Diego in the direction of the stairs.  

Diego ran up and into their room, to find Elizabeth changed into a gown and half-sitting in the bed, drenched in sweat.  She was between pains when she saw him, and burst into tears.  "Diego," she cried, reaching for him.  

He sat down by her side, holding her.  Lolita and Soaring Bird were still there.  He stroked her wet hair, and kissed her cheek. "Sweetheart," he said softly.  "I'm here, I'm right here." 

"This is horrible," she wept.  Then her tears turned into another groan as another pain overcame her and she fell away from him and back onto the pillows.  He held her hand helplessly as the contraction overwhelmed her.  

He looked at Soaring Bird.  "How much longer?" he asked.  "She.. she can't stand this!"

"You have seen babies born, you know what it takes," the Indian woman said to him softly. She lifted Elizabeth's gown to check between her legs.

"Not my own!" he cried, trying to comfort Elizabeth, who fell back in misery as the contraction subsided.

Elizabeth looked over at him and her eyes widened.  "Diego!" she said, her eyes on his side.

He looked down to see a smear of blood on his shirt beneath his jacket. "It's nothing," he told her.  
"Let me see it," Lolita said, pulling at his coat.

He reluctantly complied, allowing the curandera to pull the jacket away.  A great deal of blood had seeped into his shirt.

"Oh," Elizabeth said, horrified. "Help him," she said to Lolita. 

Diego submitted to Lolita's tending to his injury while Elizabeth groaned and Soaring Bird told her over and over not to push.  Elizabeth kept insisting on pushing, and so the two argued until another contraction set in and all of Elizabeth's energy became bound up in enduring it.  Meanwhile Lolita washed his wound, medicated it as best she could, and wrapped a bandage around him.  

"I want to have it!" Elizabeth kept shouting over her pain.  

"You're not ready yet," came Soaring Bird's measured reply.  "You will hurt yourself, the baby is not where it needs to be, do not push yet."

"Please," Elizabeth sobbed, as the pain passed.  "Please...."  She lay there for a moment, trying to get her breath.  She calmed a little.  The pain was gone for the moment.

Diego returned to her side and she looked at him. "Are you all right? Where were you, what happened?" she asked, trying to concentrate.

"I can tell you later," he said gently, brushing her sweat-drenched hair away from her face.  "Lolita has patched me up nicely.  Your father is here, and mine..."

"And half the pueblo, from what I could tell!" she said. She reached for his side.  "What did you do?"

"It is just a little scratch," he told her.

"You are a bad liar," she replied, touching him to make sure the bandage was on tightly. He winced, and she let her hand fall away, trying to contain her tears over his injury and her own misery.  "Now you will have a new scar," she said, trying to make a joke.

"Another one for you to kiss," he said to her softly.  "I think you are the one who has had the adventure tonight." 

"You should have seen Clementia whack the gypsy girl on the head!" Elizabeth told him. "With the serving tray! I wish I had done it!"

"Perhaps Clementia has been taking lessons from her cousin," Diego said wryly.

They laughed together.  Diego stroked her face.  "It will be all right, very soon," he assured her.  

"That is easy for you to say!" she said, giving in to her exhaustion and lying back.  

"Just take some good breaths," he told her.  He watched her face change as another contraction started to come over her.  He held her hand as she struggled through it, moaning.  Then he looked to Soaring Bird. "How soon?" he asked.

"She is almost fully dilated," came the answer.  

Diego looked at Elizabeth again. "See, just a little longer darling," he said.  

"I don't think I can do this," she muttered, miserable.  "If it hurts this much now..." she grimaced.

"It will be easier once you are trying to push the baby out," he told her, trying to be encouraging. Through her exhaustion, she glared at him.  

Soaring Bird checked her again.  "Now, the next time you feel the pain start, you can push," she said.

"How long is it going to take?" Elizabeth asked, as Diego helped her get into a better position, sitting up with her knees bent.  Lolita was distributing many towels on the bed, and gestured as Maria arrived with a large porcelain bowl of steaming water.

"Every woman is different," Soaring Bird answered.

Another contraction set in.  Elizabeth clinched her teeth and gave a hard push as it peaked.  Nothing happened.

"Oh, God," she panted, as the pain eased.  It took some time for her to get her breath.  She looked at Diego.  "Can't you do something?" she asked weakly.

It was the moment he had dreaded for over eight months.  "I can only be here with you," he said gently.  

"You have it," she said miserably.  Another pain clinched her insides.  She took another hard breath and then began to push.  Again, it peaked and again nothing happened.

"How long does this go on?" she asked Soaring Bird again.

"Take it one contraction at a time, sweetheart," Diego suggested, reaching down to try to rub her lower back.

"That doesn't answer my question!" she exclaimed, falling further into the pillows.  

Another hour passed.  Lolita continued to change the water on hand as they wiped Elizabeth's face, cleaned between her legs, kept her warm and as comfortable as possible given the task at hand.  With each pain, Elizabeth took as deep a breath as she could and pushed as hard as she could, to no avail.  Diego stayed with her and tried to comfort her, taking the occasional accusations about blame in stride. Elizabeth began to look more and more pale and exhausted. 

"Sweetheart, you have to push harder," he said to her gently after yet another failed effort.  

"I'm pushing as hard as I can!" she said tightly, trying to get her breath.

"You have to help the baby get out," he told her.  

"I'm doing all I can!" she exclaimed.

Diego looked at Soaring Bird.

"Seņora," Soaring Bird said to her.  "The pains will stay like this unless you push the baby out."

"Stay like this? For how long?" Elizabeth asked.

Soaring Bird stared at her.  "I have known women who were in labor like this for two days," she said.

Elizabeth's eyes widened.  "I will die first," she stated.

Another pain started.  She took a deep breath, grabbed Diego's hand, and pushed with all her might, groaning miserably as she did.  Diego could sense that her defeat was being replaced with some anger.  He was also trying not to yank away his hand, for she was clutching it so fiercely that he genuinely thought she might break it.

Soaring Bird checked her after the contraction, looked at Diego, and smiled.  "I think you made some progress with that one," she said.

Diego leaned over to look between Elizabeth's legs.  To his wonder, he could see the top of a little, dark-haired head just inside her opening.  "Oh, Elizabeth, I can see the baby's head," he said.

"You can?" she asked, feeling another contraction starting. She groaned again, took a deep breath, and gave another hard, furious push.  Diego looked again between her legs.  The baby's head was even more visible now, crowning. 

"Almost, Elizabeth," he said encouragingly. "The baby has a lot of hair!"

"What color?" she asked.  She looked terrible, haggard, half-dead.  

"Dark," he answered.  He was so excited and at the same time felt so much agony that he thought he would not survive whatever happened next.  But their baby was nearly in their arms.  "You're almost there, sweetheart," he told her.

"Another hard push, as hard as you can make it," Soaring Bird said. 

The next pain started.  Elizabeth gave one more long, desperate push.  

Looking again between her legs, Diego gasped softly.  For suddenly there in Soaring Bird's hands was a messy, surprised, out of sorts, perfectly formed, tiny baby girl.  She opened her mouth and after a moment of silence, her eyes fluttering, she began to squall.  Diego burst into a laugh.

"Oh, Elizabeth," he said, "we have a little girl."

Soaring Bird held the baby up for Elizabeth to see, as Lolita tended to cutting the umbilical cord.

Elizabeth looked at her daughter and, despite her utter exhaustion, smiled.  "I told you," she said to Diego.  

He reached for the baby and laid her on Elizabeth's chest.  He couldn't believe his eyes.  

"Oh, hello," Elizabeth whispered, looking down at the tiny child as she squalled in her little mashed kitten voice.  "Hello, my sweet darling, welcome to the big world, oh look at you, how we have......." her voice trailed off and her eyes met Diego's in alarm.

He frowned.  "What?" he asked.  Then he realized that Soaring Bird was bent over Elizabeth's legs.  He looked down to see a bright crimson stain spreading across the towels under his wife.  He looked at Lolita, horrified.  Then he looked at Elizabeth, and saw that she knew something was terribly wrong.  

Her eyes went from Diego to the baby.  "She's all right, isn't she?" Elizabeth asked.

"She's perfect," Diego said.  He looked again at Soaring Bird, who was working frantically to try to stop the blood from gushing.

"Oh, Diego," Elizabeth said, touching the baby's face.  She looked at him.  Her skin was growing even more pale.  "She's so beautiful.  Give her a beautiful name...." Then her eyes rolled up and she lost consciousness.

Diego lifted the baby from Elizabeth's chest carefully and handed her to Lolita.  "Do something!" he said desperately to Soaring Bird.  He took Elizabeth's hand.  It was clammy.  "Elizabeth," he said to his wife.

"What is happening?!" he asked Soaring Bird.

The Indian woman said nothing, but her hands were moving swiftly, attempting to find and stop the disaster in progress.  Elizabeth slowly turned more white as the blood continued to pour out of her.  Diego watched helplessly as her breathing became more shallow.

"Get a priest!" he said to Lolita.  He leaned over Elizabeth.  "Sweetheart, no," he said softly.  He could see that she was going into shock.  He looked at Soaring Bird again.   "What is happening?" he asked again.

Still the Indian woman said nothing, though with her eyes she summoned Lolita for help.  The unnamed baby girl was placed in the hands of Maria, who stood in silent terror by the door.  She went out, carrying the baby with her.

"Get Carlos!" Diego said tightly.  He bent over Elizabeth again.  "Sweetheart, can you hear me?  Elizabeth, please..." he squeezed her hand.  It remained limp in his.

Carlos Matteo rushed into the room.  "I just saw the ba..." he started excitedly, but as he saw his daughter his heart nearly stopped.  "Oh, no..." he whispered. He came to the bedside next to Diego.  "Elizabeth, no..."  He looked at the bedclothes and saw all the bright red blood.  "Oh, my God," he said softly.  He leaned over to her, next to Diego.  "I love you, sweetheart," he said to her.  "Your little girl, she is beautiful, she's just perfect, Elizabeth," his voice broke.  Everyone in the room knew what was happening.

"Can you stop it?" Diego asked Soaring Bird.

"I don't know," came the quiet answer.  "It may be too late."

"Oh, sweet Jesus," Diego whispered, looking down at his ashen beloved.  "Oh blessed Maria and all the saints," he prayed, "oh, don't go, Elizabeth..."

Carlos stood back slightly, tears streaming down his face, his hand over his mouth as he watched his daughter's breathing slow.

Then it stopped.

"No!" Diego cried, taking her shoulders.  "No! Oh, Elizabeth, no, you can't, you have to stay here with us...kitten, kitten," he pleaded, "you have to stay here with us..."

For a moment everything in the room was still and silent.  The agony in the room was so heavy that it nearly caused the boards in the floor to creak.  Beyond the door, the newborn baby girl was continuing to squall, exhausting herself.  Elizabeth lay there motionless.

Diego took her by the shoulders.  "You can't do this," he said to her.  "Elizabeth!  Elizabeth!" he nearly shook her, causing Lolita to put her hand on his arm in a motion of restraint.  He shrugged her away, putting his hand on his wife's chest.  "Elizabeth!" he said loudly.  "Come back!" His voice softened and he leaned into her face.  "Please come back, sweetheart, we need you.  Esperanza and I need you..." tears were pouring down his cheeks, falling onto her still face. "We are just now a family...." he whispered to her, stroking her cheek.  "Oh, no..." he murmured. "No...."

Another silence overtook the room.  It was broken by a desperate gasp as Elizabeth suddenly sucked air back into her lungs.  She was deathly pale, and still unconscious, but she was breathing again.

"Oh, sweetheart, yes," Diego whispered.  "Breath.  You can't leave us.  Stay here with us.  Oh, Elizabeth, I can't live without you, Esperanza needs you...she is so tiny, she needs her mother....breathe....please breathe...oh Jesus please...." he put his head against her shoulder, overcome.

"The bleeding is nearly stopped," Soaring Bird said.  "But this is not over...." she looked at the devastation before her.

"Breathe," Diego kept telling his wife.

Chapter Eight
A Family At Last

From the moment Elizabeth sucked air back into her lungs, Diego barely left her side.  For over an hour after the baby's birth, he remained glued to the chair beside the bed while Lolita and Soaring Bird continued their work.  Though they mostly tended Elizabeth, they did bring the baby back in to clean her up and allow Diego to hold his little daughter. He kept begging Elizabeth, as he held the baby close by her, to hold on.  Esperanza whimpered and Elizabeth groaned softly, almost in response to hearing her child.  But she did not regain consciousness fully despite Diego's attempts to reach her.

The first decision, forced on the family, was to whether or not find a wet nurse for Esperanza.  Standing on the balcony outside the room where Elizabeth lay, barely conscious, Soaring Bird and Lolita both advised against it, insisting that her recovery would be aided rather than slowed by keeping the baby near her and suckling her from the start.  Alejandro opposed it. Carlos only wanted what would help Elizabeth heal. The two women, after expressing their opinions, retreated back into the bedroom where Maria stood by with Elizabeth. It fell to Diego to determine what to do. Hours had gone by since the baby's arrival. The decision had to be made quickly, for little Esperanza was hungry.  After standing, agitated, on the balcony outside their bedroom door listening to his father press for the nurse, Diego went back into the room.    

"Tomorrow we must try to help her into warm water, to help her heal," she told them. "I will have to send for Felipe, to bring herbs."

Soaring Bird nodded.

Elizabeth was still and pale in the bed. Diego thought he would collapse just looking at her.  He  knew how much she wanted the baby to nurse at her own breast, how clear she had been about it. They had joked and bickered over it, but she was unwavering. "You said you would share!" she kept reminding him.  Now, he looked at the two women, making up his mind.  He reached for his whimpering, hungry daughter.  

"What do we have to do?" he asked, taking Esperanza from Lolita. The baby had fallen asleep briefly and was beginning to squall again, she was so hungry.  He looked down at Esperanza.  "Soon, my little one," he said, rocking her gently. He could not believe how small she was, and yet how fully herself.   She was Elizabeth's, and his.  He felt his heart would burst in joy and pain, holding this tiny life in his arms. 

"We will need to prop Elizabeth up at least some," Lolita said, "and one of us will have to hold the baby up against her since she doesn't have the strength to hold her yet."

"But will the bleeding start again, if she sits up?" Diego asked.

"We cannot know for sure," Soaring Bird said.  "She does not have to sit up fully, she only needs to be supported and the baby  needs to be held against her."

"How long will she nurse?" Diego asked.

Lolita smiled at him.  "That depends on Esperanza.  I think she is very hungry right now."

Diego looked at his wife, and at the crying baby in his arms, and then back at the two women.  "I will do this," he said.  "I can hold both of them."

Thus it was that he returned his daughter to Lolita, stepped out of his shoes, and went over to the bed.  Sliding over beside Elizabeth where she lay, he gently lifted her partway up into his arms, her back against his chest. The two women helped, keeping her as still as they possibly could.  She stirred slightly, and moaned.  

"Sweetheart," Diego said, "We don't want to hurt you, we are going to help you feed Esperanza.  I know that is what you want."

Elizabeth moaned again, her head falling sideways against his shoulder.  Diego nodded at Soaring Bird to check, and she looked between Elizabeth's legs.

"It is all right," she said.

Lolita reached down and untied the ribbons on Elizabeth's gown.  

Diego tried to help Elizabeth settle more against him.  She seemed half-awake, but unable to focus.  To Diego, she felt very tense despite her incapacitation. 

"All right, let's try this, give me the baby," he said, once Elizabeth was still again.  Lolita handed Esperanza over, and Diego slowly introduced her to her mother's chest.  Through her squalling, Esperanza's lips began to shake and pucker.  He put her mouth up to Elizabeth  "Suck, my little one," Diego said. "You know how to do that. It is the third thing for you to do in your life, after breathing air and crying."  He moved her head slightly.  

The baby's mouth shook again and her lips wrapped over the nipple.  Then her mouth puckered and she sucked.  She sputtered for a moment, and then sucked again tentatively.  Milk dribbled heavily over her lips.  She gurgled a few times and then swallowed.  It made her blink and move her hands, her mouth falling away.  Diego helped her again.

"You can do this, Esperanza," he said softly.  

Elizabeth moaned, leaning more heavily into his chest.  Her hand fell onto his thigh lightly, and tried to reach up.  Then it fell away again to her side.

"See, even your Mommie is encouraging you," he said, fighting his own impulse to start sobbing.  He moved the baby's mouth again.  "You are hungry, and here is what you want, muchacha," he said to her.  

Once again Esperanza's lips trembled and then formed a pucker pressed against her mother. 

"That's right, my little sweetheart," Diego whispered to her. "You have to swallow it, too."

Finally the baby succeeded.  The milk began to flow into her.  In spite of the gravity of the situation, Diego smiled softly.  Elizabeth's head sank deeper into Diego's shoulder. She seemed to relax. He looked down at the baby, whose little mouth was working hard, pulling the life-giving milk from her mother.  Then he looked back up at Lolita and softly said, "I think we have managed it."  

Holding his baby as she nursed for the first time, Diego's anxiety over Elizabeth became suddenly mixed with the wonder of holding them both as Esperanza ate hungrily.  The tenderness and oneness he felt with the two of them was unlike anything he had ever experienced before.  Soaring Bird and Lolita left the room so that the little family could have this time alone.  No one knew if Elizabeth would live or die.  Once they were gone, Diego put his lips into Elizabeth's hair, and kept his eyes on the tiny face at her mother's breast.  "Oh, Elizabeth,"' he said softly, "She is so beautiful.  She is perfect.  You have given us a perfect little girl.  Please, please don't leave us now."      

From then on, Elizabeth awoke, hazily, only when the baby was about to be fed.  Esperanza's urgent mewing sounds would bring her into brief consciousness. She would cooperate as the others helped position her in Diego's arms to feed the child.  As soon as Esperanza was pressed against her and gulping, Elizabeth would usually doze off again.  She could not see Diego because he was behind her. She didn't have the strength to turn her head and look up at him.  But she could feel him holding her and their daughter, and she understood what was happening.  She could barely talk, but managed to whisper "it's little baby," to him late one night as he held them.  It was then that he told her for the first time that he had named their daughter "Esperanza Matilde." It made Elizabeth nod weakly and smile, whispering, "a very good name."  They were blessed in that their firstborn was a good sleeper, who would go down for a few hours at a time before awakening and crying for more.  Soaring Bird later told Diego that had the baby been more wakeful, further exhausting Elizabeth, the young mother would certainly have died in those first few days.

Lolita stayed on with them, much to Bernardo's happiness and Diego's relief.  Young Felipe, whose relationship to Lolita was still entirely unclear, was summoned from San Pedro and joined the household.  Soaring Bird returned nearly every day as well, sometimes bringing little Willow along.  The child played very happily in the stable yard with Felipe, while Soaring Bird tended Elizabeth.  Both children formed a fast friendship with Bernardo and several of the barnyard cats.  Soaring Bird, watching the curandera in action, continued to approve of Lolita's talents. This reassured Diego greatly.   

Still, the tension in the household remained high. No one really knew what would happen with Elizabeth after so narrow an escape from death in childbirth.  Diego refused to leave the room no matter what was happening or how Elizabeth was being tended to.  This left everyone except the two women caring for Elizabeth unsettled because it was so uncharacteristic for a man of his class.  

As the week progressed, Elizabeth slowly began to regain color.  On the third day they began carrying her to the tub for soaks in warm water.  She managed, on the fourth day, to get briefly out of bed with a great deal of help from Diego and Lolita.  She sat on one of the great overstuffed chairs before the fireplace and tried to hold the baby while Diego hovered over them, still terrified that something would go wrong. She did not have the strength to do it. When they helped her up they discovered that she was bleeding again, which caused Diego to carry her back to bed and summon Soaring Bird.  Again Lolita declared that what was happening was normal, but the panic in the household temporarily rose.  Alejandro sent out yet another servant to see if they could find the doctor on his circuit tour. 

Once Elizabeth returned to bed after her failed attempt at getting up, she fell into deep slumber.  Diego sat in the chair, holding his baby daughter, staring into the fire and fighting an overwhelming sense of doom.  He felt as if he were living ahead of himself, and that sitting in that chair and looking at the fire, he was completely alone in the world even though he knew Elizabeth slept only a few feet away.

On their sixth night after the birth, Elizabeth was more alert, though she still had little to say.  She could now help hold the baby when she nursed.  She put what little energy she had into bonding with her daughter.  Diego asked nothing of her, though he was always attentive. Nearly all their communication was physical as they dealt with the activities of feeding and transferring the baby back and forth in the bed.  That night, the baby was wakeful after eating, looking up into her parents' faces.  "Sing to us," Elizabeth whispered to her husband.  And so he sang a short lullabye, and they watched Esperanza's eyes close and fall into her blissful sleep as he sang.  He sang it again, and realized that Elizabeth, too, had fallen asleep.  It was a moment of feeling that they were indeed a family at last.       

The steadying presence in the household during this period was Soaring Bird, who after being such a skilled midwife proved to be equally adept at supervising the young couple's traumatic initiation into parenting.  She taught Diego what to watch for in knowing when Esperanza was hungry and what to do when she was finished eating.  Much to Alejandro's horror, she taught Diego how to change a diaper.  To the surprise of neither Lolita nor Soaring Bird, Diego proved to be open and instantly adept with reading his baby's needs.  He held her often, and took the advice of the two women to let her sleep beside her mother rather than in the little cradle beside the bed.  He slept very little himself, but would lie every night beside Elizabeth and the baby, instantly ready to take Elizabeth into his arms and hold Esperanza to her for feeding.  His sleep deprivation mounted, but he was unshakeable in his determination and would listen to no one when they tried to persuade him to let others take over occasionally so that he could rest.  

Finally the doctor arrived, coming from his circuit trip down to San Diego.   He checked Elizabeth daily, and brought stories to the household about the gypsies in the cuartel jail.

"I think Sergeant Garcia will be paying them to leave," he joked.  "They are hounding him all night long with their songs and shouts.  He has threatened to box them up and ship them to the Mojave."

After two weeks he took Diego aside to say he expected Elizabeth to make a full recovery.  He cautioned Diego to keep her from too much activity and said he would return in a week unless summoned earlier.  

Diego watched him depart and felt overwhelming gratitude that Lolita and Soaring Bird had been on hand.  He knew they had saved Elizabeth's life.  Now the baby was almost three weeks old, and at last the light seemed to be shining more surely on them all.

After the doctor left, Diego stood on the balcony for a moment, staring out across the hacienda walls at the western hills in the distance.  Elizabeth was in their room, asleep again. Esperanza was in the bed beside her, also asleep.  He took a deep breath, feeling that the bullet dodged in this experience had spared his own heart as well as Elizabeth's life.  He had never been more frightened than in the hour after Esperanza's birth, and until now he had been unable to shake the sense of doom that haunted him.  It was not his own life that he feared losing, it was not  fear for his own soul that finally forced this confrontation with mortality.  He had lost his mother, learning too early the terrible emptiness of someone he loved deeply leaving him forever.  But Elizabeth, he saw now at a profound level, was truly his light and his song. The world was an unacceptable place without her.  And he had nearly lost her.
  
His exhaustion finally took over, and every defense he had kept up for the last three weeks collapsed.  He put his hand over his mouth, trying to hold back the sob welling up.  It escaped, and another after it, as his tears of suppressed dread and relief finally pushed out with nowhere else to go.  He leaned against the balcony rail for several minutes, unable to contain his weeping.  

Then he felt a light hand on his arm, and turned to see Soaring Bird beside him.

"She will live," the Chumash woman said in her soft, low, slowly-spoken Spanish.

"I know," he nodded.  

"Give her your tears."

Diego looked into Soaring Bird's eyes, remembering what Windhawk had said when, at 16, he had told Diego he was going to marry Soaring Bird and that their days of racing on the Camino Real were over.  "I cannot live without her," he had said, simply.  At the time Diego thought it was nonsense, and was furious with his friend for abandoning their boyhood pranks and adventures for a young girl who said little and seemed so remote.

"Go, Diego," she said to him as they  stood on the balcony.  "I will take Willow and go home now.  The curandera will stay a little longer.  She is very good."

There was a silence between them. Then Diego said, "Tell Windhawk that I finally understand."

She nodded.

"Thank you, Soaring Bird."

She nodded again.  Diego turned and opened his door, to hear Esperanza starting her mewing sounds.  He went to the bed and bent over to pick her up.  "Are you hungry again, muchacha?" he asked.  He looked  at Elizabeth, who was lying on her side.  "Can we wake your Mommie long enough to feed you?"

"I'm awake," Elizabeth said softly.  "Help me get up, Diego.  Let me feed her from the chair."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I think I'll start to feel better if I try to move around a little more."

"All right," he said, placing Esperanza back on the bed, thus causing the baby to start crying.

He leaned over Elizabeth to pick her up, but she said, "No, help me up and help me walk over there."

"Sweetheart..." he said, but she interrupted with,

"Do you want both of us crying like that?" she asked, nodding in Esperanza's direction.	

This made Diego laugh for the first time since he'd first seen his daughter's tiny body as she entered the world.  He scooped his arm under Elizabeth's shoulder and lifted her to her feet, saying, "You sound just like my wife!"

"Don't make me laugh," she groaned, holding onto him with one hand and holding her stomach with the other.  They made their way slowly across the room while Esperanza's cries escalated.  A knock came on the door.

"Don Diego, it's Maria," came a voice.  "Do you need help? Is Senora all right? Shall I find Lolita?"

"It's all right, Maria, we're fine," Diego called to her.

"Where is Soaring Bird?" Elizabeth asked, as he helped her ease down into the chair.

"She went home," Diego answered, reaching down again to lift Esperanza from the bed set her in Elizabeth's arms.  "Lolita is still here."  He smiled.  "I think she is with Bernardo at the moment." He watched for a moment.  "Do you need help?"

Elizabeth shook her head. It took a few moments for mother and daughter to find their position, but at last Esperanza's crying ceased. A look of bliss passed over Elizabeth's face as the baby nursed.   Diego sat in the chair opposite them.  The sight of Elizabeth actually holding the baby completely on her own brought tears back into his throat and eyes.

"Oh, little girl," Elizabeth was cooing down at the baby.  "You are so pretty, you are such a sweet little girl, with hazel eyes like your Daddy, and you have your Daddy's hair...he gave you such a pretty name, Esperanza...oh, Diego, she is such a miracle," she said, and looked over at him.  She saw what was happening and said, "Oh, sweetheart," and he slid onto the floor and put his head in her lap, suddenly unable to contain himself.	

"I was so afraid you were going to die," he said, through his tears.  

"I think perhaps I did," she said, stroking his hair with her hand.  "But you made me come back.  I was tumbling in darkness, as if I were falling through the night sky, nothing above me, nothing below...it was so strange, Diego, I really was somewhere else, I wasn't here...but then I heard you saying my name over and over, and it pulled me back into the pain and into the light.  And back to you, and to her.  It was the strangest thing that has ever happened to me, to go away like that, and come back."

Diego was calmer, but stayed beside her on the floor.  "You were on your way to a better place, I imagine," he said.  "But..." he took a deep breath, trying not to break down again.  "I am glad you stayed here with us."

She smiled, and ran her fingers through his hair.  "I always do what you tell me," she said.

He smiled, too, at the mere thought of such a thing.  He was so filled with relief, that she was at last fully awake and sounding like herself again, that he nearly resumed crying.  Esperanza, however, put a stop to that by sputtering in a half-sneeze that made Elizabeth laugh softly and say, "oh, have you emptied that one out already?" It caused Diego to be lost instantly in the wonder of watching the tiny mouth quiver and find its new target.  For all the days and nights he had held them against him while the baby nursed, he still found the sight both astonishing and heart-rending. 

They waited for some time, while Esperanza continued and finally finished.  After a good burp she fell asleep. They looked down at the baby where she slept on her mother's arm.

"Let's go lie in bed with her," he said.

Elizabeth shook her head.  "It feels good to be out of bed, darling.  Let me just sit here with her. I couldn't hold her at all, at first." She looked down at her daughter.  "Now we can snuggle up together all we want, can't we muchacha?"  She looked at Diego, smiling slyly.  "Do you want to know what I would have named her, if it had been a boy?"

He frowned, knowing full well she had never given this a thought.  "What?" he asked.

"Ishtar," she said.

Diego de la Vega threw back his head and laughed fully for the first time in weeks.  What a woman, he thought.  Then, overwhelmed with tenderness, he stroked Elizabeth's cheek with the back of his fingers.  "How blessed I am," he said.  

"How blessed we are," she said back to him.  She looked down at Esperanza, who slept through her father's laughter.  "I knew you weren't a little Ishtar," she whispered.  

Now it was Diego's turn to grin slyly. He looked down at the baby, too.  "I suppose I could have named her Carmen," he observed.
  
It made them both laugh, this time waking the baby.  And then they shushed each other, and kissed sweetly. 
    				
*****


Afterward, they looked back on that day as their turning point.  Diego began to sleep more, often stealing an hour in the morning or afternoon while Elizabeth and Esperanza rested.  He continued to stay with them all night and would let no one else help with the nursing once the sun went down.  But the deeply haggard and broken look on his face lifted. Esperanza was growing, and Elizabeth was getting well.

To Bernardo's disappointment, Lolita decided that it was time to return to San Pedro and continue her work as a healer there.  Her month at Rancho de la Vega had given them wonderful time together despite her many duties in tending to Elizabeth and the baby.  They had stolen walks together by the river, and sometimes when Soaring Bird was on hand they took Willow to the pond near the hacienda to chase the ducks.

As he put her into her carriage, Bernardo signed that he would come to visit her very soon.  Felipe sat behind the carriage on his mule.  

"Yes," she told Bernardo, "I will expect you on your first day off."

He smiled and shrugged, indicating he did not know the meaning of such a thing.

"Then you shall learn it," she told him.  "Don Diego will give it to you, if you ask."  She smiled at him.  "He might even give you two days in a row."

Bernardo looked shocked at such a notion.

She leaned over and kissed his cheek.  "You only need ask," she said.

Diego appeared at the gate at that very moment.  "Ah, Lolita!" he said, seeming to have missed the exchange, "Maria told me you were leaving.  I know you have already bid Elizabeth goodbye but I did not want you to leave without giving you my thanks.  For everything.  We could not have survived this month without you."

"I am glad you sent for me," Lolita replied.  "And if I had a hand in helping Esperanza come to this planet, and keeping Elizabeth here, I am only glad, Seņor."

Diego took her hand and kissed it.  "Truly you have given us a great gift with your healing.  This is the second time that I feel I owe you my life or that of my family."

She shook her head gently.  "It is what I am here to do," she said.  

Diego let go of her hand and looked sternly at Bernardo.  "What are you doing here?" he asked.

Bernardo looked puzzled.

"Why aren't you in the carriage with her, to see her home?" Diego nearly barked.

Lolita smiled.  Sheepishly, so did Bernardo.

"What, you think you can't take a day to see her back to San Pedro?" Diego asked.  "We will be fine here.  Go.  Return tomorrow.  Or even the day after."

Bernardo smiled more broadly, and held his finger in the air to Lolita.

"Si, get some clothing and your horse," she said to him.  

They watched him leave, and Diego looked her in the eye.  "It will not do for him to move to San Pedro permanently," he said to her with a smile.

"I understand," she answered.  "But surely you do not mind if he makes the journey from time to time."

"No," Diego said, "I do not mind at all."

So it was that as Diego returned to the courtyard to go upstairs and see to his beloved and their baby, and Bernardo and Lolita drove away in her carriage, followed by Felipe on his long-eared, bony mount.  Everyone was exactly where they wished to be.  

Except, of course, for the King of the Gypsies and his strange entourage.