Chapter 6

        A month later, Diego sat at his desk in his sitting room, carefully copying a row of figures from one column to another in The Guardian’s budget.  A timid knock on his bedroom door interrupted him in mid thought.  “Come in!”

Victoria hesitantly entered.  “Diego, can I... talk to you for... a minute?”

        Diego looked up to cheerfully say, “Victoria!  What’s on your mind?”

        Victoria gave a nervous swallow, but firmly closed the door behind her.  “Um…”  She glanced around the room, and Diego wondered if she was falling prey to distraction again, as she often did.  “I need your help.”

        “I thought I was already helping you.”

        “I know you are… helping me.  You’ve been amazing… with all this.”  She indicated her disease with a wave of her hand.  “But… I need help with… something else.”

        “Something else?  Again, I can’t help unless you--”

        “I think I’m pregnant.”

        Diego’s heart froze.  “You’re what?”

        She flushed a profuse shade of red, but hiked the trousers she wore more firmly about her hips.  “I think I’m… pregnant.”

        “That’s… what I thought… you said.”  His halting voice sounded broken.  This isn’t happening!  Diego screamed to himself in disbelief.  I haven’t… Zorro never..!

Unless, his brain relentlessly whispered, she was attacked at night by someone at this very hacienda… only twelve steps from my bedroom.

        But I haven’t… Zorro never..!

        Unless… someone dressed up like Zorro and subsequently tricked Victoria into…  He gave his head a vigorous shake.  Stop it!  Victoria would know if it wasn’t really Zorro.

        Distressed by dark thoughts in spite of himself, Diego croaked, “What makes you think… you’re pregnant?”

        “Because of…”  She licked her dry lips.  “Señora Innesto said that… and I haven’t…”  Her eyes narrowed in a nervous grimace.  “My... bleeding… hasn’t come… this month.  It should have come… two weeks ago.  No bleeding… is a sign of…being pregnant.”  But she sounded unsure.

        Diego understood even less of this situation the more she spoke.  “You haven’t been attacked?”

        “Attacked?  N...o!”

        The relief that flooded through Diego was significant.  “Good!”

        Victoria didn’t look like this was particularly good news.  “But my… bleeding.”

        Diego couldn’t help but give a tolerant smile at her lack of knowledge.  Though he understood it was tradition to keep women innocent and chaste until their wedding, he had to wonder about what their lack of knowledge might do when they were suddenly faced with the facts of life.

        As Victoria was right now.  Diego had to close his eyes in order to shut out the beseeching look on her face, and only belatedly thought that closed eyes must make him look disappointed in her rather than disappointed in the societal customs of the day.  He opened his eyes at the same time he gestured for her to come to his side, where he wrapped his arm around her waist to give her an affectionate squeeze.

        Relief washed over her face at his gesture.

It wasn’t until then that Diego understood how worried she was about this.  He couldn’t let her stay so uninformed, though he’d never anticipated giving this talk to Victoria.  “There’s a certain… act… you must commit before… a woman gets… pregnant.”

        Victoria’s confusion returned.  “What sort of… act?”

        Diego knew that being discreet about this topic would do nothing but cause her more confusion.  “You have to make love with someone.  Someone like your husband, or in your case, with Zorro.  Someone you love… hopefully.”

        “Love’s not necessary… though?  Any man will... do?”

        Any man?  The thought stopped Diego’s heart for a painful beat, but he was jumping to conclusions again.  He made his hesitation seem like he was giving serious consideration to her question instead.  “Well, yes… I suppose any man would do.  But it’s usually a man you’re in love with.  That’s why it’s called making love… I guess.”

        Victoria’s brow creased, reminding Diego of a curious child.  “How do I know… that I haven’t… made love?”

        This conversation was definitely moving into the more intimate realms his father had warned him about.  Diego hastily said, “It’s a fairly obvious thing to…”  No good.  He’d have to try again.  “I mean, your emotions would…”  His sense of embarrassment exploded.  “You would know!”

        “I would know.”  She gave an exasperated groan.  “I’m so tired… of that kind of… response!”

        “What do you mean?”

        She huffed as much of a breath as she could.  “It’s a response that… doesn’t say a… thing.  It’s useless!”

        “Um... “  What could Diego say to that?  He desperately asked, “Didn’t you learn about pregnancy from your mother?”

        The look she gave him could have curdled milk.  “Of course… not!”

        “Oh, right, of course not.”   Everyone in Los Angeles knew Victoria’s mother had been killed when Victoria was still a young teenager.  She likely hadn’t had time to inform her daughter about certain facts of life.  “But you know about bleeding and pregnancy... who besides your mother could you have learned from?  Padre Benites, maybe?”

Now Victoria looked scandalized.  “A padre would... never speak... about this!”

“Yes,” Diego belatedly realized.  “It is a rather delicate topic for a priest.”  Then his eyes lit up with an idea.  “What about Father?”  He shot down this idea almost before it could coalesce.  “No, Father would probably die of embarrassment before he mentioned… this, even to you.  Tavern patrons?”

Victoria considered.  “I did hear… a few things… I think… but I was… never sure.”

Diego nodded.  “I suppose your patrons did talk about things like this… though they would probably have been more crude than informative.  Dr. Hernandez?”

        Victoria shook her head.  “He never had… time.”

“And as you’ve never been pregnant…”  Then Diego realized something else.  “All these examples are men.”

“So?”

“Well, think about it.  Why would a man know anything specific about what we’re discussing unless he’d parented a child?”

“Maybe not even… then.”  Victoria was clearly recalling certain times spent in the tavern.

“Anyway, they aren’t women,” Diego noted.  “How would any man really know about things like what was normal during a woman’s bleeding time?  They’d probably be ridiculed if they did.”

“You know,” she said right away. “Don’t you.. expect… to be…ridiculed?”

        Diego looked taken aback.  “There’s no use arguing I know all about women… er, that didn’t come out right.”  He tried again.  “I know all about the more intimate aspects of women.”  That didn’t sound much better, but he ignored the pull to try a third time in order to continue, “At least, not when I publicly announced that I took the time to read up on the subject just a few months ago.”  He tried to remember what he’d thought at the time.  “I didn’t expect to be ridiculed.  Mostly, I thought nobody would care.”

        “I care.  I wish… you would tell… me… about what really… happens,” Victoria said.

        Diego couldn’t stand such a pleading expression.  “I vaguely remember reading that lack of bleeding can be caused by any number of things, not just pregnancy.”

        “It can?”

Victoria’s continued confusion tore at Diego.  “Yes.  Now I remember… it can be because you’ve been depressed lately.  Or the way you’re so tired all the time.  Or it might have something to do with the way you’ve been sick in general.”

She still looked confused.  “So then… I’m not pregnant?”

Diego gave an affectionate smile.  “If you haven’t been making love with someone without knowing you have, then no.”

Victoria practically wilted in relief against Diego’s arm.  “Good!  The thought of… having a baby….  But this does… show me… how much I… don’t know… about…”  She blushed furiously.

Diego rescued her from voicing it, acknowledging how good it felt to rescue someone as himself rather than as a bandit dressed in black.  “If you want to read up on the subject, I have several books that might be useful.  You might find them more open about this subject than you’re used to, though.”  He blushed himself.  “But at least your questions would get answered.”

Victoria cocked her head to the side as she considered.  “Would it… tell me about… making love?”

Diego had to force himself to think, as part of him was still amazed she didn’t already know all of this.  After all, he did.  “Well, these books were written by men.  And men…”  This was embarrassing!  “Men are often told by their fathers what happens, and taken to… somewhere you shouldn’t know about, but probably do, given you run a tavern… and initiated into manhood, whether they’re ready for it or not.”

Victoria looked pained, but no longer confused.  “Did Don Alejandro..?”

“Erm.”  Diego’s lips twitched.  “No.  I was in Madrid… at the time.”  Talking about this, even in vague references, was much harder than Diego anticipated… probably because he had never thought he would be talking about this in the first place.

Suddenly Diego blanched as a completely new idea assaulted him: was it possible that he’d misunderstood her when she’d asked if just any man would do?  Could she possibly have been referring to her husband?

That thought caused blood to surge into Diego’s face right before quickly falling to his toes.  Then his heart began to pound in a painful, frenzied glee.  Just the idea of Victoria voluntarily making love to him made Diego want to dig Zorro’s grave all by himself.