Chapter Six - Habenum et Tenendum
At dawn, Diego slipped into the house through a rear window to retrieve his mask, hat, cloak and sword. Elizabeth was lying on the bed asleep, still fully clothed. He took his cape and spread it over her gently. Then he went back out the window, and sufficiently far from the house, whistled for Tornado. Tossing on the bridle but foregoing the saddle, he mounted his horse and rode some distance to find food in a lakeside house. He silently took bread and eggs while the occupants slept upstairs. Though tempted, he left no mark to indicate who had helped himself to their produce. Better to let them wonder, and better not to give any clues to Diablo.
The sun was rising when he returned to the cabin, where he saw the door open and Elizabeth sitting on the porch, still wrapped in his cloak.
"I thought you’d abandoned me," she said. Her eyes were red and swollen.
"No," he said, sliding off Tornado and holding up the bread and eggs. "I went to get you some food." He walked past her and into the cabin, thinking, this is going well.
She followed him in, and sat glumly at the table. He removed his hat and the mask, looking at her.
"Elizabeth..." he said.
"Don’t!" she said, holding up her hand. "Don’t speak!"
He put his hands in the air in a gesture of surrender, and turned to the task of starting the fire in the woodstove. She sat there watching as he moved lightly around the stove, stoking the fire, stirring the eggs in the skillet, slicing the bread. Finally he put two full plates on the table, and sat down across from her.
"You haven’t eaten since yesterday morning," he said, gesturing at her plate. She didn’t move. He took a bite and said, "Good!"
She stood up and dumped her plate of eggs in his lap, and walked back out the door, leaving the cape in a heap on the floor.
Not going so well, he thought. He picked the eggs off his pants, scooped two more mouthfuls of eggs down, took a bite of bread, and went out after her. She was standing at the edge of the creek, her arms folded, staring at the water. As he came closer he could see that she was again crying.
"Oh, Elizabeth," he said, coming close but afraid to try to touch her. He reached for his handkerchief and offered it, but she shoved it away.
"I feel so stupid!" she sobbed. "I don’t know who you are! Look at you!" She kicked the stones in front of her, shooting them into the stream. "We’ve been together nearly every day for two months!" she cried. "You liar! You deceiver!"
He started to take her by the arms and she yanked away. "Don’t!" she cried. "Don’t!"
He backed away again, and said, "Don’t you understand how dangerous it is, for you to know this? Don’t you think I wanted to tell you?"
"I married Diego de la Vega," she wept, "and I’ve spent weeks trying to put Zorro out of my mind..." she looked at his face for the first time since she slapped him. "And it was you all along, but...you never let me know..." She broke down sobbing, "...who I was with..."
He came towards her again, and again she recoiled. "You’re not the person who can comfort me!" she exclaimed.
"Well what do you want me to do?" he snapped. "Change clothes?"
This only made her cry harder, and made him feel worse and more helpless. She turned her back on him, they stood there several feet apart. He took a step closer.
"Listen to me," he said. "I..." he stopped. In the end, what could he say? He had held back the full truth of who he was from the beginning, and had continued to withhold it even as their marriage began to find its footing. All he could do now was admit it to her and throw himself at her mercy. "Elizabeth," he said, "I have loved you from the moment I first saw you," he started. "And I have tried to love you with all of who I am, I do love you with all of who I am. Do you remember the first night I came into your room? As Zorro?"
She nodded, her back still to him. At least she was listening.
"Do you remember when I was about to leave, and you came after me?"
She nodded, sniffling, remembering their brief embrace and their first kiss.
"My heart stopped when I kissed you," he said softly. " I knew at that moment that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you. And, do you remember the night I came into your room, in your new hacienda? The night I told you we could never see one another again?"
"Yes," she said, "I couldn’t bear it."
"Neither could I," he said, his voice nearly breaking. "I wanted to die." It caused her to turn around and look at him, standing before her in the bright morning sun. "But that night," he said, "I believed that the only way we could be together was if Zorro went out of your life. Our fathers had already agreed on the marriage. I had to win you, as Diego. I couldn’t tell you about Zorro, I couldn’t run the risk..."
"But you let me marry a man who kept his life a secret," she said bitterly.
"Part of his life," Diego said. "But these weeks with you..." He took her hand, and she let him. "I did deceive you," he said. "For your protection, and because my father exacted a promise from me, but I did it. I hope someday that you can forgive me. But now, you know." He pulled her hand to his chest. "Now there’s nothing between us." He dropped to one knee. "Marry me, Elizabeth de la Vega," he said. "Marry all of me."
It finally struck her as funny, to see him in broad daylight in his black shirt and trousers, half-Diego and half-Zorro, on his knee and begging her. A laugh bolted out of her even as she suppressed it. "Look at the great Zorro now," she said.
"Humbled," he admitted. "But desperate for your love, if you will still have him."
"Get up, Diego," she said, "or Zorro, or whoever you are."
He stood up, still holding her hand, his eyes not leaving hers. "I am sorry," he said sincerely.
She pulled her hand away, shook her head, and wiped her tear-streaked face. "I don’t know what to think," she said. "The one man I love has just proposed to me, and if I accept him I don’t know if I will have one husband or two."
He reached over and touched her tear streaks. "One husband," he said softly. "One husband who needs you more than he can ever say."
She stood in silence, waiting to see which way her heart would turn. He waited for the answer as well.
She bowed her head and leaned into him, and they embraced at last, standing by the rippling creek. Then Diego lifted her up in his arms and carried her to the cabin, laid her on the rumpled bed, and kissed her deeply. The fire that had been so suppressed and smoldering for many weeks rose up in him and he seemed to pour across her like molten lava. As Elizabeth’s arms came around him, her hands running across the black shirt, she felt the change in him. He was open, demanding, it was as if he were starving for her and holding nothing back inside himself. His hands were everywhere, and he was saying "I love you" over and over, his mouth on her eyes, her lips, her cheeks, her neck. They lay there kissing for some time as the sun rose higher, light pouring in from the side window.
Finally she said what she had never said. "I love you, Diego, I love you," she whispered into his ear.
It caused him to stop kissing her and pull her tightly into his arms. "Say it again," he said softly.
"I love you, Diego," she said, hugging him back.
"Oh, Lord," he said, tears in his voice, "I was so afraid I would never hear you say those words to me."
She hugged him tighter, kissing his cheek. "Diego, I love you," she said. "I love you."
He kissed her again, he could not get enough of her mouth, her lips, her tongue. He reached behind him and loosed the black sash around his waist. She pulled it away with him..
"I think I especially hate all your buttons this morning," he said to her, his fingers at her back.
"And we can’t just rip it off, I have no other dress here!" she laughed.
"Turn around, let me get this done," he said, and she rolled onto her side and lay there while he unhooked the tiny loops. He paused to kiss the back of her neck every few hooks. "Get up," he said, when he was finished. She sat up and he pulled her to her feet and yanked the dress over her head in one motion, then pulled her slip over her head as well. He looked her up and down. In a sudden moment of recognition, Elizabeth thought of the first night they’d encountered one another on the dark de la Vega road, and the way his dark eyes looked her up and down behind the mask.
"That was what you were doing," she said, smiling.
He frowned. "What? When?" he asked as he pulled his shirt off.
"The night you and Tornado knocked me down. I remember you looking at me from head to toe once I was back on my feet. I remember feeling like you were trying to see through my clothes."
"Oh yes," he said, taking her into his arms. "Definitely."
"What we’ve been missing," he said, lifting her off her feet and carrying her the few steps to the bed. Then he stopped and looked to his left, at the door. "Wait a minute," he said. He put her back down.
"What?"
"Put your dress back on," he told her, reaching for it where it lay on the floor.
"Why?" she asked. "I take my clothes off and you’re always telling me to put them back on!"
"Just do it, sweetheart," he said. She could hear some mischief in his voice.
"What are you up to?" she asked, putting her slip on and stepping into her dress.
He said nothing, and to her amazement put his shirt back on as well. "Go out onto the porch," he told her. "Don’t worry about your buttons, just go on out." He waved her to the door.
Completely baffled, she did as he instructed. The morning was warming up and a breeze met her face as she exited. Everything outside shimmered, and she could hear the wind whispering in the pine trees surrounding the house. She heard him moving about inside, even to the point where she could hear his footsteps and knew he had put his boots on. Mystified, she waited, for several more minutes, and finally sat on the porch steps to let the sun warm her face. She could hear nothing at all from inside the cabin.
Then from behind the house, she heard a whistle, and after that the sound of a horse’s hooves. Another few minutes passed, and then she heard the hooves again. Coming up the path beside the creek cantered Tornado, with Zorro sitting on his bare back. He was fully dressed, his sword at his side and his cape flowing off his shoulders. He rode up to the cabin.
"Senora," he greeted her.
"Senor Zorro!" she exclaimed, standing up.
He slid off the horse, pulled off the bridle, and said, "Go, Tornado," and the horse cantered away. Then he went to where she stood. "There is something we must do, Senora de la Vega," he said, standing very close to her.
"I don’t understand..."she began, but her put a black-gloved finger to her lips. Then he pulled his gloves off and brushed her face with the back of his left hand, and she saw on it his gold wedding band. She kissed it, and looked up into his face, his dark eyes sparkling at her behind the mask.
"Senor," she said, "you wear a wedding ring!"
"Si," he answered softly. "I have taken a beautiful bride."
"And I a handsome, dear husband," she told him.
He lowered his head and kissed her. "There are not enough words to tell you how much I adore you," he said, his voice still low, his lips near hers. "The people must never learn that El Zorro has found the love of his life, but Senora, you are the sunlight that guides his path and the moonlight under which he does his good deeds."
Tears came into her eyes and she put her hand on his cheek, touching the mask. "I am yours," she said through her tears. "Yours forever."
He kissed her hand, and said, "And I am yours, Senora, until the end of time." With that, he swept her off her feet and carried her up the steps, across the porch, and to the doorway of the cabin. She looked at the doorway and back up at him, to find him smiling at her. "It isn’t a marriage until a man has carried his bride across the threshold," he laughed, pure merriment in his voice.
She laughed too, realizing at last what he was up to. Her arms coming around his neck, they kissed. As they kissed, he carried her through the doorway and lay her on their bed. And in that day, and through the night that followed, El Zorro ravished the very willing Elizabeth de la Vega. At long last they were fully united, in heart, soul and body.
The next morning they lay together as light seeped through the window.
"I should have known," she said, stroking the great strong arm that held her close. " I don’t know how I didn’t know. I think at times I did. The way you moved, the sound of your voice...but I couldn’t see it. Not even after we were married. Not even after..." she trailed off, looking up at him. His eyes were a deep fire of flickering green and brown.
"You knew, once," he said. "The night you were hit in the head with the rock, and I took you to a pond to clean the wound. You recognized me that night."
"I did?"
"Yes."
"I don’t remember much from that night, except that you told me the horse is called Tornado."
"Yes, and you forgot that for a while, too."
"What would you have done, if I had remembered any of it?"
"I don’t know," he said. "Zorro has always been a gambler. It was one more gamble."
"So much holding back," she said, touching his face. "How hard that must be. Even holding back as a lover."
He ran a finger down her cheek. "No longer."
"It was different," she said softly.
"I wasn’t the only one holding back," he laughed.
She snuggled closer to him. "If I could, I would be purring right now."
"Purring!" he laughed. "Are you my little kitten?"
She nodded, making a whirring sound with her tongue.
"Oh, kitten," he said. He kissed her head lightly. "Zorro’s price has been high for both of us. But that’s over now. " His voice changed, and he spoke earnestly. "Elizabeth, hear me when I tell you that protecting Zorro’s secret is a heavy burden. No one knows, except Bernardo, and my father, and now you."
Then it hit her, and she looked at him. "You’re in danger all the time," she said. She leaned back and looked at his right shoulder, touching the scar from the bullet hole. "This was a bullet you took as Zorro, wasn’t it?"
"Actually, that really was a barroom brawl in Spain. But the others..." he nodded. "It’s part of what you must accept and live with now," he answered. He pulled her back into his arms.
"I’ll never know when you leave if another bullet awaits you," she murmured.
"Actually, I have long believed I would die by the sword," he said. "But Zorro’s luck has held so far, and now he has more reason than ever to return home safely." He cuddled her a moment longer, and then said, "And we must return home safely today, much as I would like to prolong this. Right now everyone is looking for you, including Sgt Garcia and the lancers, and certainly Diablo. He can’t be happy that his ransom escaped."
"Nor that it was Zorro who rescued me," she said.
"Yes, he will find that out, if he hasn’t already." Diego agreed. He kissed her bare shoulder lightly and got out of bed, reaching for his clothes. "And so will the lancers, somewhere along the line. At that point, the question will become, what has Zorro been doing with you these last two days?" He pulled on the black trousers and shirt, and began buttoning the shirt. "Bernardo is looking for us, too, and he will eventually make his way here, he knows this place."
"Is it yours?"
"Like everything else, it belongs to my father. This is where he and my mother spent their honeymoon."
Elizabeth looked around the tiny cabin. She knew that Diego was born less than a year after his parents were married. "This is probably where you were conceived," she said, with wonder.
"It is," he replied with certainty. He wrapped his sash around his waist, looking at her. "The lancers may get here before Bernardo, in which case they will get you home."
"But I want to stay with you," she said, also getting out of bed and reaching for her slip.
"That isn’t possible," he said. "Zorro is the way I came, and Zorro is how I must leave. We can’t be seen together if we can help it. It will only complicate things more."
She took a step towards the chair where her dress lay and wobbled. He grabbed her before she fell, and, wrapping a blanket around her, seated her in the chair. "Elizabeth?" he asked.
"I don’t know," she said, lightheaded. "I’m all right, I think I just need some food."
He reached for the remaining bread, most of which they’d eaten the night before. She took a bite, and made herself swallow it.
"Better?" he asked. She nodded, but he could see it was her lying nod. He continued to dress, keeping an eye on her.
"I need to make sure you get home quickly," he said. She nodded and stood up again.
"See, I’m fine," she said. "I’ll get dressed."
He watched her pull her slip on, and she seemed steady. "I’ll search the woods to see if I can find Bernardo," he said. "I know the route he uses to come here. If I can’t find him, I’ll see if I can get soldiers to chase me in this direction, and they will take you home. And when you get there, Diego will be waiting anxiously."
He donned the mask and the hat, placed his sword in its sheath, and opened the door. Then, whistling for Tornado, he looked back at her standing in the sunlight in her long slip. "You are a vision," he told her. Then he stepped out and saddled the horse, while she put on her dress. He mounted Tornado, when she called him back from the porch.
"Diego," she said, half-laughing, "Wait. I need some help." She turned around and pointed at the back of her dress, which hung open with all the tiny buttons and loops sagging away from each other.
He laughed, dismounted, and came back to the porch, pulling off his gloves. One at a time, he slowly closed the tiny buttons into their loops. Laughing more, he said, "Getting them open is easier than closing them. Oh, wait, I missed one." He undid several of them, backtracking, and Elizabeth began to laugh, too.
"If they could see us now!" she exclaimed.
Their laughter crackled through the forest, as El Zorro finished buttoning his lover’s dress. Then he spun her around, took her in his arms, and kissed her.
At exactly that moment, the sound of horses rose on the creek path, and Sgt Garcia shouted "Zorro! After him, lancers!" Zorro released Elizabeth, pulled on his gloves, and leapt onto Tornado.
"I love you," she said.
With the flash of a smile he tipped his finger off his hat, then turned and gave the lancers chase.
Garcia cantered up to the cabin and said, "Senora Elizabeth, are you all right? We have been searching for you for two days!"
"Ah, Sergeant," she said, "once again you have rescued me from Zorro."
Garcia dismounted and came up to the porch. She looked fully dressed but somehow disheveled. He thought he had seen Zorro embrace her before riding off, and on peering into the cabin he could see the rumpled bed. "Senora!" he cried. "Zorro did not..." he gulped, "take advantage of you, did he?"
"He rescued me from Diablo’s men," she answered. "But Sergeant, where is Diego? Have you seen him?"
"Don Alejandro says he has been in the woods searching for you along with Bernardo, though we have not seen either of them," the Sergeant replied, momentarily forgetting that she had not answered his question. Then he remembered. "But what happened here? I thought I heard laughter. I thought I saw...well, forgive me Senora, but I thought I saw Zorro kissing..."
"Oh," she interrupted, putting her hand to her head. "I’m feeling faint." He helped her to a chair, and two more lancers rode up, followed by Bernardo.
"The others are still following Zorro," Cpl Reyes reported, but then he shrugged. "His horse is very fast, Sergeant."
"Si," said Garcia. He noticed Bernardo. "Little One, where is Don Diego? His wife has been found!"
Bernardo pointed further up into the hills, indicating that Diego was riding somewhere in search of Elizabeth.
"You should find him and tell him she is being escorted home by the lancers," Sgt Garcia said. "Tell him to meet us at the cuartel, as I will need to question her about what has happened." He looked at her. "If that is all right, Senora."
She nodded, knowing that really she would have no choice. As Garcia went to get on his horse, she nodded to Bernardo to let him know she was all right. He then nodded back and left, following the trail Zorro was blazing far ahead.
The return trip to Los Angeles went rather slowly, thanks to Garcia’s famously turtle-like pace and Elizabeth’s occasional lightheadedness. Most of this was feigned, as a way of keeping Garcia from bringing up too many questions about her disappearance and what happened with Zorro. However, by the time they got to the cuartel in the pueblo, Elizabeth was truly exhausted and immensely relieved to see Diego standing at the door of Sgt Garcia’s headquarters, looking anxious. A number of other townspeople had gathered as well, for the word had spread that the lancers were returning with Elizabeth. Diego took one look at her sitting rather pale on her horse and acted on impulse. Going to her, he pulled her off the horse and carried her in his arms to the carriage he had brought from the hacienda to take her home. He placed her in it, and immediately stepped in himself. Taking up the reins, he looked at the people standing around and realized what he had done.
Senora Corinna Cahuenga’s mouth was open. Beside her, Senorita Clementia Bocca was also staring. The proprietor of the general store, Senor Estavez, was standing there with his arms folded, a look of astonishment on his face. No one said a word. But Diego realized he had just done a very un-Diego-like thing with his action. The truth was, he avoided ever doing anything in public besides riding, drinking, and talking. He never displayed any physical strength or ability whatsoever, except to do something deliberately clumsy on occasion. Yet in front of half the pueblo he had, with great ease and assurance, lifted his wife off a horse, effortlessly carried her twenty yards, and placed her in their carriage without so much as a grunt or groan. He could see the shock on the faces in front of him.
"But Don Diego, we haven’t had a chance to question your wife," Sgt Garcia protested, oblivious to the moment that had just occurred.
Elizabeth leaned on Diego, laying her head on his shoulder. He sensed her weariness by the sheer weight she was giving him. "I think she is much too tired now, Sergeant," he said, his arm coming around her protectively. "We’ll come back into town once she has had a chance to rest."
Garcia knew when he had lost. "All right, Don Diego, but we really must be able to talk with her soon."
"We’ll see to it," Diego said. "And Sergeant, thank you. For finding her."
Garcia smiled, though he had a sinking feeling. "Si, Don Diego, we are glad she is all right. Adios, Senora Elizabeth."
Elizabeth waved at him weakly, but kept her head on Diego’s shoulder. As they rode away, Garcia and Corporal Reyes watched.
"Poor Don Diego," Sgt Garcia said.
"Si," Reyes said. Then he looked at the Sergeant curiously. "What do you mean, Sergeant?"
Garcia shrugged. "I think it would be hard to share your wife with Zorro."
Reyes stared at the Sergeant. "Excuse me?"
"Think about it," Garcia said, and with that he went into his room, leaving the Corporal standing on the porch, thinking about it.
Corporal Reyes turned to see his fellow townspeople still standing there, watching as the de la Vega carriage disappeared up the road. "What are you all looking at?" he asked.
"I think perhaps marriage is turning Don Diego into a better man," said Senor Estavez thoughtfully.
"Oh, si, and a more romantic one!" said Senorita Clementia.
Reyes frowned. "Isn’t that what marriage is supposed to do?" he asked.
"Si," said Dona Corinna, "but how often does it really work?"
At last they retired to their room. Diego and Elizabeth had made the drive home mostly in silence, but not the stony silence that so often prevailed in the early days of their marriage. Instead, Elizabeth was nestled beside him, her head on his shoulder, her eyes closed, dropping in and out of sleep while he guided the horses and watched the horizon, anxious simply to get her home without further interruption or incident. He also spent a good deal of mental time worrying over his blunder, though he had no regrets about following his heart when it came to taking care of his beloved. Bernardo joined them midway, and rode along behind them. Once they got to the hacienda, they’d had to deal with both Don Alejandro and Don Carlos, who clucked about and made them eat supper. Finished, Elizabeth pled exhaustion and Diego accompanied her upstairs.
Once he shut the door, Elizabeth fell across the bed, still fully clothed. He lay down beside her.
"I can’t move," she said.
"Neither can I," he said. There was a pause. "The Sergeant got you back without too much hounding?"
"I kept ‘fainting,’" she said. He looked at her, alarmed. "No, not really," she said, "although I still feel a little funny. But this was all to keep him from asking a lot of questions. He saw you kiss me, Diego. It’s probably going to be all over town."
"Did you deny it?"
"I avoided the question, changed the subject, and fainted at least three times."
He laughed. "How long can you keep that up?"
"As long as it takes, I guess," she said, shifting to put her head on his shoulder. "That’s better."
His hand stroked her hair. "So they think El Zorro had his way with you, do they?"
"They do."
"Well, they’d be right," he laughed softly.
"They would," she laughed too, but then sobered. "But at Don Diego’s expense."
"Not the first time," Diego said. He thought about it. "If we keep together and ignore the gossip, most of it will die down," he said. "Do they think you cooperated?"
"That’s what they’re trying to find out."
He smiled. "They need to ask me about that."
"Yes," she said, her voice drifting. She dozed off again, and he lay there next to her with relief, reflecting on the latest turn of events. It was better this way, far better. She had to know. Yet a true test of their union lay just ahead. It would particularly test Elizabeth’s strength, for the night would soon come when he would have to leave as Zorro. Diablo had to be dealt with.
And so the young de la Vegas took up their lives together, fully united at last, and together facing the complexities of protecting the secret of Zorro.
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