Chapter Six - Darkness
The plan, such as it was, called for a summons to Zorro that was irresistible. What better, Alejandro asked, as he and Bernardo began their ride south, than a damsel in distress?
"He has always responded to helping people in need," the don went on. "He will not refuse this. I know Diego. His resolve about retiring Zorro will waver when we tell him she has run off in desperation because she is afraid she is married to the Sergeant. Plus, Bernardo, we know how much he loves to ride Tornado...and how little of it he has done for the last four months! Perhaps it will all stimulate him to rethink his decision."
And so they made their way to the west and south, riding towards the sinking sun. As agreed, they rode some 100 yards apart from one another, so that Bernardo was well behind Alejandro. Since the manservant was leading the saddled Tornado, they had to keep a plan in place that would protect them should they run into lancers or other curious souls. Alejandro, seemingly riding alone, would be oblivious to the fact that Bernardo had Tornado. Should someone spy them, the story would be that they heard hooves and Bernardo disappeared, only to return with, of all things, El Zorro’s horse.
As it turned out, their plan went un-deployed, for they passed no one on the remote roads they took. It began to worry Alejandro that they had not encountered Diego yet, though he knew that something might have come up which caused his son to delay his departure from San Pedro. When it was time to head more due south, Alejandro instructed Bernardo to join him. It was not long after they had made their change of heading, the light almost gone, that they saw, ahead of them, a man lying unconscious on the road. Tornado became quite agitated as they approached. When Bernardo dismounted and approached, he realized to his horror that the still body on the cold ground was Diego. He waved furiously at Alejandro.
"What?" Alejandro said, coming up to them.
Bernardo pointed, even as he got to his knees to try to revive his young master. Tornado whinnied and gave a little buck, which upset Bernardo’s horse.
Alejandro dismounted and came over to where Bernardo was kneeling.
"Diego!" he cried, falling to his knees beside his son. "What has happened?" He looked around. "Get the canteen, let’s see if we can wake him up with some water. Diego!" He leaned over into Diego’s face. "Son! Wake up! Diego!"
Bernardo retrieved the water and re-joined Alejandro on the ground. He sprinkled water on Diego’s face. It caused Diego to start and open his eyes.
"Diego," Alejandro said, "wake up."
"I’m...." Diego started, opening his eyes. He could see his father’s face looking worriedly down into his. "Father..." he said. He groaned. "She knocked me out."
"Who knocked you out?" Alejandro asked, as he and Bernardo helped Diego sit up and prop himself against a boulder.
Diego put his hand over his eyes, and then opened them again. The double vision was far diminished, but not completely gone. "I’m having some trouble...." he said.
"What is the matter?" Alejandro asked.
"My eyesight...." Diego said.
Alejandro held up two fingers. "How many?" he asked.
Diego looked at his hand, concentrating. "Two," he said.
"Good," his father said.
"Please tell me it is getting dark," Diego said, trying to get his bearings.
"It is...." Alejandro smiled. "Bernardo, bring a blanket, he’s cold. Diego, what happened here?"
Diego sighed, his head still pounding. "It would seem that Consuelo Perez is trying to retreat to Mexico."
"You found her!" Alejandro said. "That is the reason we are out here in the first place."
"Oh, I found her all right," Diego said, grateful to put the blanket Bernardo handed him around his shoulders. "Or perhaps I should say, she found me. I was reduced to walking up the road because Apache threw a shoe. When she rode up in her little buggy I thought I had found my ride home. Little did I know...." he trailed off, wincing, as he ran his hand over the back of his head.
"She hit you with something?" Alejandro said. "Where is Apache?"
"Si," Diego answered, "something very hard, I might add." He looked around. "And she seems to have taken Apache with her."
"Why did she do this?"
"I was not cooperating with her plan to take her to San Pedro and put her on the Maria Cruz bound for Mexico. And father, she had a rather strange thing in the carriage...." He stopped, for beyond Bernardo and Alejandro, he saw Tornado standing in the shadows. "What is Tornado doing here?" he asked.
Alejandro looked over at the horse and back at his son. "We thought you might want to ride him," he said. "To find Consuelo."
"But Diego does not ride Tornado!" Diego protested.
"Si...." Alejandro said. "That is why we brought El Zorro’s clothing."
Diego stared at his father, and then at Bernardo. He tried to sit up more straight, and groaned. "You are asking a lot of El Zorro tonight," he said.
"We felt that, all things considered, it might be best of this job were to be done by the fox," Alejandro told his son.
"The only job the fox wants is to go home to his wife," Diego stated. He put his hand to the back of his head again. The pain was searing. He withdrew his hand and saw a smear of partially-dried blood. "That little...." he started, and then caught himself. "She drew blood!" He looked at his father again. "She had a large sack of pesos hidden on the floorboards of that buggy," he said.
"Pesos!?" Alejandro exclaimed. "Elizabeth and Clementia said nothing about that!"
"Oh, is that who has sent you on this mission?" Diego asked.
"They did not want us to send for Sergeant Garcia, for obvious reasons," Alejandro answered. "A bag of pesos! I wonder where she got that?"
"From Don Francisco, I would imagine," Diego said. "And probably not with his blessing."
Alejandro groaned. "That helps explain how especially agitated Clementia was this afternoon. I wonder if Elizabeth knew. Well, this is all the more reason for El Zorro to find her, Diego, if you are up to it."
"Let me see if I can stand up. That would help," Diego said. With his father on one side and Bernardo on the other, he slowly pulled himself to his feet. He steadied himself for a moment. His eyesight seemed to be fine now. He took a deep breath.
"How do you feel?" his father asked.
"All right, I think," Diego said. He took a couple of steps. His head still hurt, but he was not woozy nor did he think his knees were going to buckle. He walked slowly over to Tornado, and the horse nickered softly. "Are you ready to take a little chase down to San Pedro?" Diego asked him.
Tornado snorted.
"Looks like he is ready, if you are," Alejandro said.
Bernardo, having retrieved El Zorro’s things from his saddlebag, offered them to Diego. Diego looked down at them for a long moment.
"I was not expecting to do this anymore," he said quietly.
"We know that," Alejandro said.
Diego looked at them. There was a long pause. "Perhaps we should simply go after Consuelo together, the three of us," he said.
"But we have Tornado here!" Alejandro said. "This is a job for El Zorro."
Diego sighed, accepting the things from Bernardo. "Where is my sword?" he asked.
Bernardo pointed at Tornado. The long sword, in its sheath, was tied to his saddle.
"Very well," Diego said. "But this does not change my mind. I will do this one thing, because the two of you have conspired successfully to trick me into it." His eyes went from his father to Bernardo and back. "Do you think I can’t figure out that is what you are up to? Was Elizabeth in on it?"
"No!" Alejandro said, Bernardo shaking his head emphatically in agreement.
Diego looked down at the clothing again. Bernardo was still holding his hat. "All right," he said. Let me change, and be on my way. You will go back to Los Angeles and tell Don Francisco that you could not find Consuelo, and notify Sergeant Garcia. He will get the lancers on their way, and in the mean time I will find her and make sure she is under house arrest when they reach San Pedro. And Father, tell our poor Sergeant he is not married."
"Well that is a relief," Alejandro said. "Though I will be sorry to be the one to break that news to him."
Within a few minutes, El Zorro was once again astride his tall black stallion and ready to pursue the naughty señorita. The sight made Alejandro’s heart soar. Bernardo smiled proudly.
"Are you sure your head is all right?" Alejandro asked.
"Si," answered Zorro, though it hurt where his hatband ran tightly over the bump on his head. "You know what to do." He paused, and then said, "Father, tell Elizabeth...tell her why I will not be home tonight. And you might want to add I was tricked into this!"
Alejandro sighed, as his son made a wave and said, "Adios!" With that, Tornado reared up briefly on his hind legs, and then wheeled around and headed down the road in a canter.
Alejandro looked at Bernardo. "Well, at least we got him back into the clothes and onto the horse. Now we have to hope that he will find himself more at home there than he realizes."
Bernardo nodded. Neither of them felt great triumph over the success of their scheme, for they both saw the reluctance in Diego’s face as he accepted the clothes. They returned to their own horses, and began the journey back to Los Angeles.
Clementia remained highly agitated after Don Carlos and Elizabeth bid her farewell at the gates of Rancho Bocca. She knew her father was going to have her hide for telling Consuelo where the money was. He had literally chased her out of the hacienda in fury, which in turn led to her fleeing to Elizabeth for help. And her mother was going to have her hide if it turned out that Consuelo was returning into the household after this escapade. Leonora had been more than glad at the prospect of her niece being handed off to Sergeant Garcia, or anyone else for that matter. As Elizabeth and Carlos rode away, Clementia sat on her horse for a moment trying to think if there was anything else she could do. She knew Elizabeth was trying to help, but also that her friend was justifiably quite angry with her. The business about Zorro’s glove had been unfair and Clementia knew it. She inwardly kicked herself for her own inability to resist accumulating and passing on good gossip. Whatever did or did not go on between Elizabeth and El Zorro was none of her business, given that Elizabeth and Diego were making a public go of it with their marriage. And they were having a baby, which Diego had seemed quite proud of during the toast the night before. Whoever was the real father, Diego was obviously claiming the parental role and Elizabeth was publicly supporting it.
It all made Clementia feel terribly alone. Everyone was mad at her -- her parents, Elizabeth, Consuelo, Don Alejandro....the list seemed to be endless. Then she thought of someone who always had a kind word and could be very funny, even in a crisis. Demetrio Lopez Garcia. She imagined he was as downcast as she was, given the uncertainty of his state of matrimony and his great appreciation of her vain cousin. He had danced with such elegance last night, the kind of light-footed elegance that belongs, mysteriously, only to the over-sized. Now that Don Alejandro was safely dispatched to find Consuelo, she need not worry about the Sergeant going in pursuit. She knew where to find him, for comfort and to offer some comfort in his state of limbo. So, rather than dismounting and going in to face her parents, Clementia kicked her horse in the ribs and headed for the pueblo.
"Daddy, I am quite worried that Diego has not come back," Elizabeth said to her father. They were sitting in the courtyard of his hacienda, the evening meal just served.
"I am sure Alejandro and Bernardo have found him by now," Carlos said, cutting into his steak and taking a bite. "He has probably gone with them to find Consuelo and bring her back."
"Perhaps...." Elizabeth mused. She began eating too, though she did not feel hungry.
"Elizabeth...." her father said.
"Si?"
"Do you know that there are still many rumors about you and El Zorro?"
Elizabeth looked at him, startled. They had never discussed this. "Are there?" she asked.
"Si....it is even whispered that he is the father of your child."
She stared at him in astonishment for a moment. "Diego is the father of my child," she said firmly.
Her father paused and then said, "You have no doubt of that?"
"Daddy!" she cried. "If I say I know something like that, I know it!"
"Very well, don’t be upset."
"How can I not be upset?! You have just suggested that I am having some kind of ....relationship with a man other than my husband!"
"You must admit there was a time when you were very taken by that bandito, sweetheart. And he was clearly enamoured of you. I wish you could have seen the look on his face when he watched Diablo carry you off. It was as if someone were tearing his heart out. You could see it despite his mask. People haven’t forgotten. And everyone knows you rode away with him after what happened in Monterey. I cannot help but be sensitive to the talk. I do a lot of business in the pueblo, the family honor is..."
"They say that El Zorro has moved to Monterey," Elizabeth interrupted him.
"Yes, I heard that last night," Carlos said. "But it is also said that he has not been seen since the night he killed Diablo and carried you off on his horse."
Elizabeth dropped her fork onto her plate. "I am so tired of this!" she cried. "El Zorro has rescued me or saved my life four times! He has done nothing to deserve these accusations! Nor have I! And from my own father!"
Carlos sighed, realizing he had set his feisty daughter off in a way he had not wished to. It was just that the rumors were so persistent, despite El Zorro’s long absence from events in the community. Falling back on his long diplomatic experience, he decided to re-direct the conversation. "You and Diego...seem very happy together now," he observed.
"We are very happy together," she stated. "Which is why I wish he would walk through those gates right now," she nodded at the front gate of the courtyard. "Once El Zorro ridded the world of Diablo, Diego and I had a wonderful time in Monterey. It was very quiet and...." her voice trembled slightly, "...very sweet, for both of us. He takes far better care of me than you realize, Daddy."
"Then I shall never ask you about this matter again," Carlos vowed.
"Good," Elizabeth said fiercely, picking up her fork. Taking a bite of her dinner she eyed him. "Mommie would dress you up one side and down the other for even asking me about that, you know."
He sighed. "Si, I know," he said. "I only wish she were here to do it. I never imagined I would miss being dressed down."
Elizabeth sighed, too, thinking of her beautiful mother, now dead these two years. "I think she would have liked California," she said.
"She loved Boston, so...." Carlos said. "I don’t know that she would have wanted to leave. But Elizabeth, she surely would have loved and approved of Diego, and your marriage into the de la Vega family."
Elizabeth smiled. "Si, I think she and Diego would have enjoyed one another." She let herself yearn for a moment, imagining the merriment that would have characterized the relationship between her dry-humored mother and her equally dry, quick-witted husband.
They continued their meal quietly, the introduction of Catherine Sullivan Matteo’s memory bringing peace between them. They spoke together of the sorrow they felt that she would never know her grandchild, nor would this baby have the pleasure of hearing a grandmother singing Irish and English lullabies over the crib.
"You will have to do that," Carlos told Elizabeth. "In honor of your mother."
Elizabeth laughed. "I plan to sing only silly songs to this baby," she said. "I am going to leave the lullabies to her daddy."
"It is a good thing he can carry a tune, then!" Carlos said. "That is more than I can say for either grandpapa!" He winked at her. "It might be a boy, you know!"
"It’s a little girl," Elizabeth said confidently, taking another bite of her dinner.
On the long road to San Pedro, El Zorro was fighting his blinding headache while searching for the buggy that held the wily Consuelo and her bag of golden pesos. Tornado, having been mostly stuck in the box canyon for several months, was wild with delight and running to his heart’s content, his familiar rider again on his back. Zorro calculated that Consuelo would probably be very near to San Pedro by the time he over took her. Unless she had been slowed by something unexpected, she might even have reached her goal. Finally, as he crossed over a pass and stopped to look out across the harbor spread before him, he conceded that indeed she had made it ahead of him. This would complicate things.
San Pedro, a very tiny community devoted entirely to supporting the shipping traffic that came up and down the Pacific coast, was home to perhaps 60 people plus the coming-and-going sailors, soldiers, longshoremen and merchants using this harbor. Only slightly closer to Los Angeles than to San Juan Capistrano, the harbor had "a certain stinking charm," in Don Alejandro’s words. The "stinking" referred to the near-constant smell of fish that lingered in the air. Buoy bells clanged in the distance, and Zorro could see the lights flickering in the two taverns, both with inns, at the edge of the docks. It was quite likely that Consuelo had sought a room in one of the inns. She might no doubt be entertaining some of the men in the Taverns, as well.
He kicked Tornado’s sides, making his way slowly down the dark hill towards the town. Halfway down, he decided to hide his mount and continue on foot, so he led Tornado behind a boulder and said, "Stay here until you hear me whistle for you," to which his unusual steed snorted, shaking his head up and down. "Good boy!" Zorro said. "You have not forgotten!"
Despite his splitting headache, Zorro felt at home making his way down the path in darkness. With characteristic stealth, he slipped behind the first Tavern and made his way up a back stairwell to enter in the upstairs rear of the building. Finding a door, he opened it to discover he was in the hallway of the guestrooms. Fortunately no one was about, so he walked silently to the end of the hall to peer around the corner and down into the Tavern. It was fairly quiet on this evening, a few people were still sitting about or standing at the bar, but there was no music playing. He looked around carefully, to see no one resembling Consuelo in the room. In fact excepting the barmaid there were no women at all. He backed away and retraced his steps, out the door and back down to the ground.
He then made his way across the street, avoiding being spied by a somewhat drunken sailor who was stumbling back towards the docks. Out of nowhere he felt woozy, but he fought it back. He was beginning to admit to himself that he probably had a concussion from the hard whack on the head Consuelo had given him. At least he wasn’t seeing double. Approaching the second tavern, he peered into the side window and was rewarded with the sight of Consuelo sitting at a table with Capitan Solano himself. Judging from the look on her face, Solano had already advised her that she was free of any obligation to Sergeant Garcia. As Zorro watched, he saw, not to his surprise, that Consuelo was in her fetching mode, and what she was fetching was the sea captain. Zorro considered this. Part of him wanted to leave it at that, and head back up the hillside to his horse, and as soon thereafter as possible, the woman he loved. But there was the matter of all that money, almost certainly stolen from Don Francisco Bocca.
Excepting Solano, Consuelo, and a few sailors at the bar, the Tavern was relatively quiet. Zorro decided to scope things out further, and went several doors down the short street to see what was in the stable. Entering quietly, he saw Apache and Consuelo’s buggy horses in stalls. Consuelo’s buggy was standing idle in the paddock. He strode over to it and checked the floorboards, hoping that perhaps the money was still there. He came up empty-handed. She had taken it with her.
Getting the girl home in darkness seemed foolish to him. He wasn’t feeling up to battling with her for the long 25 miles back up to Los Angeles. He looked above him to see a hayloft, and climbed up the ladder to check it. It was thickly piled with loose hay. He was tempted to lie down and rest, but suspected that would be unwise. All he needed was for Zorro to be discovered sleeping in a hayloft in San Pedro. He climbed back down and returned to the tavern window, to find Consuelo and the Capitan continuing to flirt grandly with one another. His head started hurting again, and suddenly there were two Consuelos and two Capitans. He blinked and shook his head. There were still two of each, and El Zorro suddenly felt nauseous. He put his hand to his head, to try to steady himself, and made his way dizzily across the street and behind the buildings, up towards the hill. He saw someone coming towards him, and realized it was a boy of around 12.
"Zorro!" the boy cried, seeing who was half-stumbling towards him. It was his hero. He could not believe his eyes. He had dreamed of the day when he might see El Zorro.
Zorro stopped, and dropped to his knees in front of the boy. He took the child by the arms. "What is your name?" he asked.
"Felipe," the boy said in wonder. "Are you really Zorro?"
"Si, I am really Zorro," came the answer. "But I am Zorro in need of help, do you think you can help me?"
"Si, Senor Zorro!" the boy said.
"Then first you must be very quiet, all right?"
"Si, Senor Zorro," the boy whispered. He frowned, for his hero seemed somehow weak. "What is wrong?"
"Tell me, is there a curandera here, a woman who cares for the sick?"
"Si, up the hill, she is a half-breed woman with many herbs. She cares for the sailors if they are injured."
"Can you take me to her?" he asked, pulling himself back to his feet, and keeping his hand on the boy’s shoulder to steady himself. The world was whirling all around him and he was fighting to keep from throwing up.
"Si," the boy said, accepting some of the masked man’s weight. They made their way up the rocky hill slowly, until they reached a small, isolated shack with lanterns glowing in the window. Felipe knocked heartily.
"Who is there?" came a woman’s voice from within.
"It is Felipe, Señora! I have someone who needs your help!"
El Zorro was having great difficulty staying conscious, but he waited as the woman made her way to the door and opened it. Although still seeing double, he could tell she was quite handsome, in her early forties, with a no-nonsense look about her. She sized up what stood in her door and squinted, staring first at Zorro, then to Felipe, than back to Zorro.
"You look as if you have been hit in the head, Señor Zorro," she observed flatly.
He nodded. "Si, and I am trying not to...." with that he passed out, sliding to the ground on the woman’s doorstep.
"Señor Zorro!" Felipe cried, bending down over the bandit.
"Drag him in here," the woman said. "We will see if we can bring him back."
"Is he dead?" Felipe blurted, trying to pull El Zorro into the room.
"No, but he is probably more badly injured than he realizes," the woman said. "Come, Felipe, we will need to lift him onto this table. You take his feet, I will pull up his shoulders and head..."
With an "ooof!" they managed to lay him across her table. She leaned over him, and pulled his eyelids open under the mask. "Hmmmm," she said. "He has had quite a hit on the head."
"Are you going to take his mask off, curandera?" Felipe asked.
"Not if I can help it," the woman said. "I have no wish to know the true identity of El Zorro. I might not like what I find. It is a great burden, Felipe, to be handed the secrets of others. Now, I want you to go outside and watch out for me, in case anyone else comes up the path. No one must know who is here. Go!"
Felipe took one more look at his unconscious hero, and then nodded, going outside into the darkness.
The curandera looked down into the masked face again, and then turned around and reached for several bottles on her shelf. Mixing several herbs, she poured some water over them and made a paste. Then she returned to him with it. Touching his cheeks lightly with her fingers, she could see that he was over-warm. "You have too much on, for this," she said. She reached down and removed his gloves, first the right and then the left. On seeing the left, her eyes widened slightly.
He moaned, feeling her touch. "Elizabeth...." he said hoarsely, not coming out of his haze.
"Ah, Señor Zorro," she said. "I did not wish to know who you are, but you tell me more than I wanted." For in her hands his limp hand lay, revealing the gold wedding band on his third left finger. She replaced his hand at his side. "A great mystery is solved. You have borne your secret with great dignity, Don Diego," she said. "And your Señora..." she said. "I fear she will be greatly worried when you do not arrive home tonight."
In the darkness beyond the shack, Felipe sat on a barrel looking out over the harbor and watching for any signs of approaching visitors. He knew well that he had been entrusted with a great charge, to help keep El Zorro’s presence hidden from the rest of the community. He heard a footstep behind him and jumped. Turning around, he saw a huge black horse staring at him. The horse shook his bridle and snorted.
"You...you are El Zorro’s horse!" the boy exclaimed, looking at the black stallion. "He is in there," the boy pointed at the curandera’s house. "She is helping him."
Tornado snorted again, and shook his head. The boy approached him slowly and patted his soft nose when the horse lowered his head slightly. "It will be all right, I am sure. They say this curandera can bring back the dead. And he is not dead!"
Tornado stamped his foot twice.
"You are a fine horse," Felipe said. "I do not want anyone to know you are here." He took the bridle and began leading Tornado behind the shack. "The shed back here, it will be a good place for you to wait for him, black horse."
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