Chapter Five - Crossroads
Part One
Everything about this picture was off and worrisome. As Zorro charged south on the Camino Real, he turned it over and over in his mind. Leaving Elizabeth alone in Monterey felt all wrong. Despite his departing instructions to Bernardo, to keep near her at all times, it weighed on him that she was so vulnerable in the isolated house by the sea. He wished he had taken her into town to stay with Dona Estrada or some other of the ladies whom she’d befriended, or even to have Elena stay overnight to keep her company.
Then there was Apache. While a fine horse, he lacked Tornado’s speed and intelligence. It would not do for this horse to be recognized as the one de la Vega rode. And then there was Marta, who complicated the picture in more ways than El Zorro wanted to think about. He cursed the day he met her, and double-cursed the reckless liaison that was now haunting him in the worst of ways. It was compromising the safety of the woman he truly and deeply loved.
Last but hardly least, there was Diablo. The bandit was proving meaner, wilier, and more elusive than Zorro had bargained for when this enmity began. He had not anticipated Diablo’s move north, and Zorro knew this was an enemy who would not go down easily. Why, Zorro kept asking, was he coming north? Was it because he so fancied Elizabeth? Was it simply to close in on stages and shipping in the capital? Was he in league with someone here?
Ten miles into his ride, Zorro paused to let his horse breath. If Marta’s information was correct, Diablo was somewhere in the hills around San Lucas. That was another 15 miles south. It did not make sense that such a bandit would let his whereabouts slip so specifically. Then Zorro cursed yet again, realizing he had been sent on a wild goose chase. Diablo was already further north, he suddenly realized. He turned heel to race back to Monterey and the house by the sea.
In that very house, as Zorro was starting his return ride, a commotion was ensuing. Bernardo had dutifully posted himself in the hallway near the door of Elizabeth’s room, taking his master’s parting admonition to stand watch over her literally. She had retired as soon as Diego left, knowing Bernardo was at her door. An hour later, Bernardo heard a peculiar sound from outside, near the front door. Picking up his sword, he went to the door and stood there listening. Another wound came through, of what sounded like a muffled female voice trying to cry out. Alarmed, Bernardo opened the door and looked down to see Marta Verdugo lying on the doorstep, bound and gagged. She looked up at him and shut her eyes in exasperation, having expected Diego. Then from nowhere two pairs of rough hands grabbed Bernardo and yanked him through the doorway. Two men shoved him to the ground and tied him up while Marta resumed squealing through her gag.
Diablo, with a third bandit, walked up out of the shadows and surveyed the situation. Bernardo’s eyes widened. The man with Diablo was the stockyard manager who had represented Joaquin Verdugo on the sale of Blanca.
"Miguel, go get the little Senora," he said to the man next to him. He strolled over to Marta and, grabbing one of her arms, yanked her to her feet. "Looks like your message to de la Vega worked, senorita," he said. Marta’s eyes widened, and then narrowed. "Yes!" he said. "You were both set up! And so was El Zorro, if his sources in Monterey were as good as they are in Los Angeles. They’re both down there in San Lucas thinking they’re going to spring something on me. Ha ha ha!"
Marta tried to say something through her gag and he rolled his eyes and shoved her aside, saying, "you are far less promising bait than the girl inside."
No one was emerging from the front door, despite Diablo’s expectations of seeing Elizabeth dragged into the starlight in her nightgown.
"Go in and see what’s going on," he said to his second bandit.
The man nodded and disappeared indoors. Going down the hallway and into the bedroom, he found his amigo on the floor unconscious, a heavy candlestick on the floor next to his head. The bedroom was otherwise empty.
Cursing and then shouting out, he ran to Diablo. "She got out the back door!" he cried. "Miguel is knocked out!"
"Mother of God!" Diablo cried. "Bumbling fools!" He ran into the house, and in the kitchen found the back door open. His banditos followed. "She’s gone to the stable," he said, pointing. "Bring the Verdugo girl, I’ll get the pretty senora."
"What about Miguel?" one of them asked, thinking of his unconscious compatriot.
"To hell with Miguel!" Diablo shouted. "He let that little slip of a thing best him, leave him here for the lancers!" He strode out the back door and across the small courtyard to the stable. As he approached the door he was nearly knocked over by Cloud Dancer, racing out with Elizabeth on her back.
Diablo shouted, cursed, and yelled at his remaining men. "Get the horses! She’s gotten away!" Running back around the house, he joined the others. Marta was shoved onto one bandit’s horse. "Meet me at the Perdita crossroad," Diablo ordered the rider. To the other he said, "Come with me!"
With that, they rode out after Elizabeth.
Half a mile ahead of them, Elizabeth was urging her galloping mare towards the Camino Real. She knew she could not stay ahead of the bandits forever, given Cloud Dancer’s ponderous gait, but perhaps with her lead she would find Zorro before they caught up with her. "Please, oh please, Diego," she whispered. "Please realize they’ve tricked you and turn around. Please don’t take any shortcuts."
Several miles to the south, El Zorro was riding northward, his heart pounding for fear of what could be happening in the house by the Bay. Approaching a crossroad, he remembered a shortcut that bypassed a section of the Camino which veered deeper inland for several miles. He swerved left and took the shorter road, thus assuring that he and Elizabeth would pass each other four miles apart, riding in opposite directions.
Elizabeth continued her southward run, grateful that what Cloud Dancer lacked in speed she surely made up for in stamina. How far, Elizabeth tried to remember, was the first mission? Surely the padres would take her in and protect her, if she did not run into Zorro first. Then she heard hooves behind her and , looking around, saw Diablo coming up behind her in a hard gallop. He was gaining.
What to do? What to do? she thought. There was no sign or sound of anyone ahead. She knew Diablo was above nothing, including jumping off his own horse to knock her off Cloud Dancer in a tumble to the ground. How might that hurt the new life inside her?
Elizabeth yanked Cloud Dancer’s bit, starting to slow the horse down. She knew she was in danger no matter what she did, but the idea of falling off a running horse seemed too great a risk to take given that she already knew she was about to be captured.
Diablo came up beside her as she slowed. "A wise choice, senora!" he exclaimed. "You have saved us both a hard fall! Pull up and get off!"
Elizabeth did as she was told, sliding off the bare back of the mare in the darkness. The second bandit rode up, and soon after, the third, with Marta still gagged and bound at her wrists riding behind him.
"Well, well, well," said Diablo, walking around Elizabeth where she stood. "All dressed up and nowhere to go." He pulled her to him and gave her a long, wet, disgusting kiss on the lips. Marta’s eyes widened in horror, afraid of what would come next.
Elizabeth fought to get her face away from Diablo’s, shoving him away despite his grip. She felt utterly violated.
"Oh, you are so rude, senora!" he said. He looked around. "We’ll make a camp, but not here," he told his men. "Tie her hands and gag her," he said, pushing Elizabeth aside. "Then get her back on her horse. We’ll ride inland."
Zorro galloped into the courtyard of the house by the sea, and immediately saw the stable door open and Cloud Dancer’s stall empty. Blanca was still in her stall, pacing nervously. "Bridle gone, but saddle here," he observed, his upset increasing. It meant that Elizabeth had left in a great hurry. But for where?
He went through the open kitchen door and to the bedroom. "Bernardo!" he shouted. "Then, entering the bedroom he saw the bandit Miguel lying motionless on the floor. Recognizing him as the stockyard manager, he cursed. It meant that Verdugo was almost certainly in league with Diablo. He picked up the candlestick, and bent over the man.
"Sweetheart, you did some damage," Zorro said quietly, dropping the candlestick back to the floor. It grieved him to think that it had come to this. But where was she now? He went back out and through the open front door, to find Bernardo lying on his side on the ground. He untied the gag and bonds. "Where is Elizabeth!?" he asked.
With a look of terrible worry, Bernardo waved three fingers and then motioned riding out on horses. He pointed in the direction they’d gone.
"Three bandits?" Zorro said. "Riding south? Did they have Elizabeth, or were they chasing her?"
Bernardo nodded at the latter.
"Chasing her south?"
He nodded again.
"Was Diablo there?"
Bernardo nodded again.
"All right," said Zorro, "I’ll go after them. You go to the garrison and get the lancers to come. I may need help."
Bernardo nodded, and it was only after Zorro turned to leave that he grabbed him by the cape.
"What?!" Zorro cried, angry to be slowed down further.
Bernardo made the sign of a woman, followed by fingers indicating a quacking duck, and again pointed south and nodded.
Zorro frowned, and then shut his eyes in realization. "They have Marta, too?" he asked.
Bernardo nodded.
"I’ll find them both," Zorro said. "Now, hurry! Get the lancers!"
Leaping back onto Apache, Zorro rode back into the night.
To the south, Diablo had Elizabeth in tow on her mare, as the party of three banditos and the two captive women headed inland. They reached an abandoned shack above a hill on the dark road, and Diablo made them all dismount. Elizabeth was shaking, from cold and fear. After the horrible kiss, she knew what Diablo intended and the thought made her want to die.
"Make a fire in there," Diablo instructed one man. To the other he said, "Tie the horses in the back." As the activity proceeded, he rode around the house twice and concluded the isolation was sufficient. The girl had tasted like honey to him. He wanted more, the others could do what they wanted with Verdugo’s tiresome daughter. But de la Vega’s wife, the Zorro girl, was his alone. He smiled to himself, anticipating the satisfactions that lay ahead.
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