Categories > Original > Romance > Fruta de la pasión
Unbeknownst to the other customers, a young man slipped out of the tavern through the kitchen backdoor. Felipe, the de la Vegas' young mute servant, had come there to deliver some goods to Victoria; he hadn't entered the tavern's main room, quietly waiting for her to come back with the bottle of tequila she had promised to Don Alejandro in exchange for his wine.
But even though he didn't see the little girl's lips move, he perfectly heard her words and felt absolutely thunderstruck at what she innocently implied.
He peeped through the curtain to have a quick look at the scene taking place inside the tavern: he managed to catch a glimpse of a five or six years-old girl heading to the stairs. All he could see before she turned her back to climb it was a rather round childish face with even features and twinkling eyes, framed by thick raven hair. Above a slightly too square jaw, small dimples were punctuating her cheeks, as though to draw quotation marks around her smile.
And this last detail felt disturbingly familiar to Felipe. He thought he recognised the author of that 'quote'.
He noticed that the whole tavern seemed dumbstruck as the two women and the child hurriedly disappeared inside their bedrooms, but he knew this silence wouldn't last long. In a few seconds the room would be buzzing with the sound of conversations — or rather /gossips/, after this scene — and Victoria would finally remember his presence in the kitchen.
Victoria Escalante being Victoria Escalante, she would bombard him with questions. And aside from the fact that he didn't know the first thing about this situation, he suddenly really didn't want to 'talk' right now.
Of course he could play dumb — quite literally, in fact — and pretend he didn't understand people's questions, but he didn't feel like pretending and acting right now. He needed to be alone for some time, to let this puzzling scene sink in and then begin to think about it...
But before he had time to slip through the backdoor he heard a man's voice coming from the other side of the curtain that separated the main room from the kitchen. It was saying:
"At least, since the girl bears his name, it seems he took responsibility for his misconduct and recognised the child."
The alcade's voice retorted:
"Unless de la Vega is so naive that he unknowingly covered for another one's doings!"
Some customers burst out laughing after the alcade's statement, while others didn't think that even de la Vega could be that naive. And after all, if he indeed acknowledged the child, it meant that enough had happened for him to think she could be his offspring.
"Well, I certainly don't blame him, the lucky devil!" another man's voice stated. "I mean, have you seen the mother? I sure wouldn't say no to some quality time with such a shapely lil' bird either..."
"That's quite enough!" Victoria's voice furiously interjected. "I won't allow such vulgar speech in my tavern!" she warned him, although in more than ten years running such a business she certainly had heard far worse without even blinking an eye.
"Oh, seems that Senorita Escalante doesn't take well the unexpected discovery that de la Vega finally had a life..." de Soto said. "Or else, are you just miffed at seeing that you're not on top of his ladies' list?" he added.
Felipe had heard enough of it. He discreetly left the pueblo without bothering waiting for Victoria's bottle of tequila. He wasn't particularly eager to be back home either, even though it was almost dinnertime, so he made his way to the hills for some quiet time alone...
z ~ z ~ z ~ z ~ z ~ z ~ z ~ z ~ z
Riding back from the pueblo in the middle of the night, Zorro was extremely puzzled.
The whole evening had been full of interrogations, but it culminated with his impromptu meeting with Victoria.
It had started with Felipe's absence at dinner. The young man hadn't advised anyone he'd come home late and, when he finally did, it was well past dinnertime. By way of explanation he pretended he had gone fishing in the hills and just lost track of time.
Except that he couldn't not have noticed the decrease in daylight... But before Diego could further question him, the young man announced that he felt very tired and went straight to bed, pretending not to notice that Diego was trying to catch his attention and to talk to him. And he didn't even have dinner!
There was something the boy wasn't telling them. He didn't bring back the bottle Victoria had promised to give them; and where did he really spend the last hours? At least, Diego noted with some relief, Felipe didn't smell of tequila. But what was he hiding? Was there a girl behind this poorly explained absence?
Anyway, Diego didn't have time to go see him and have him confess since Zorro had a mission scheduled for that same night: he had to retrieve some deed of property and its associated bill of sale for a land near San Diego that Don Alejandro had just sold to an old acquaintance. The alcalde had confiscated the papers before Alejandro had time to post them and he was planning on using them as a proof that the bill of sale was a forgery and that the de la Vegas were therefore trying to evade taxes; Diego feared the alcalde might counterfeit the paper himself to make sure that the bill finally appeared to be a fake...
But of course, once the burglary was accomplished things didn't go as well as expected and Zorro ended up hiding successively in a well, under a balcony, in a manger under some hay and finally in a barrel, as and when the soldiers were searching the pueblo for him, waking up some of its inhabitants by doing so. They particularly searched the tavern, going into each room without any consideration for the customers' sleep. From his hiding place in the street, Zorro could even hear that they woke up a young child who called for his or her mother in a terrified little voice. Sure enough, seeing armed soldiers invade their bedroom in the middle of the night was certainly very distressing for a child.
Once Mendoza left the tavern and led his men to another part of the pueblo, Zorro waited one more quarter of an hour before getting out of his hiding place and looking up at Victoria's bedroom: it wasn't lit, but the window which was previously closed was now slightly ajar...
Soon, Zorro was inside. Victoria closed the window again and didn’t light the candle in order to avoid attracting attention. Here in the dark, they stood in each other's arms, waiting for the soldiers to renounce and go back to the cuartel and to their beds.
Suddenly, between the murmured words of love they were tenderly exchanging and in the middle of a quiet silence, Victoria asked him completely out of the blue:
"Zorro, do you think Diego de la Vega could be leading a double life?"
But even though he didn't see the little girl's lips move, he perfectly heard her words and felt absolutely thunderstruck at what she innocently implied.
He peeped through the curtain to have a quick look at the scene taking place inside the tavern: he managed to catch a glimpse of a five or six years-old girl heading to the stairs. All he could see before she turned her back to climb it was a rather round childish face with even features and twinkling eyes, framed by thick raven hair. Above a slightly too square jaw, small dimples were punctuating her cheeks, as though to draw quotation marks around her smile.
And this last detail felt disturbingly familiar to Felipe. He thought he recognised the author of that 'quote'.
He noticed that the whole tavern seemed dumbstruck as the two women and the child hurriedly disappeared inside their bedrooms, but he knew this silence wouldn't last long. In a few seconds the room would be buzzing with the sound of conversations — or rather /gossips/, after this scene — and Victoria would finally remember his presence in the kitchen.
Victoria Escalante being Victoria Escalante, she would bombard him with questions. And aside from the fact that he didn't know the first thing about this situation, he suddenly really didn't want to 'talk' right now.
Of course he could play dumb — quite literally, in fact — and pretend he didn't understand people's questions, but he didn't feel like pretending and acting right now. He needed to be alone for some time, to let this puzzling scene sink in and then begin to think about it...
But before he had time to slip through the backdoor he heard a man's voice coming from the other side of the curtain that separated the main room from the kitchen. It was saying:
"At least, since the girl bears his name, it seems he took responsibility for his misconduct and recognised the child."
The alcade's voice retorted:
"Unless de la Vega is so naive that he unknowingly covered for another one's doings!"
Some customers burst out laughing after the alcade's statement, while others didn't think that even de la Vega could be that naive. And after all, if he indeed acknowledged the child, it meant that enough had happened for him to think she could be his offspring.
"Well, I certainly don't blame him, the lucky devil!" another man's voice stated. "I mean, have you seen the mother? I sure wouldn't say no to some quality time with such a shapely lil' bird either..."
"That's quite enough!" Victoria's voice furiously interjected. "I won't allow such vulgar speech in my tavern!" she warned him, although in more than ten years running such a business she certainly had heard far worse without even blinking an eye.
"Oh, seems that Senorita Escalante doesn't take well the unexpected discovery that de la Vega finally had a life..." de Soto said. "Or else, are you just miffed at seeing that you're not on top of his ladies' list?" he added.
Felipe had heard enough of it. He discreetly left the pueblo without bothering waiting for Victoria's bottle of tequila. He wasn't particularly eager to be back home either, even though it was almost dinnertime, so he made his way to the hills for some quiet time alone...
z ~ z ~ z ~ z ~ z ~ z ~ z ~ z ~ z
Riding back from the pueblo in the middle of the night, Zorro was extremely puzzled.
The whole evening had been full of interrogations, but it culminated with his impromptu meeting with Victoria.
It had started with Felipe's absence at dinner. The young man hadn't advised anyone he'd come home late and, when he finally did, it was well past dinnertime. By way of explanation he pretended he had gone fishing in the hills and just lost track of time.
Except that he couldn't not have noticed the decrease in daylight... But before Diego could further question him, the young man announced that he felt very tired and went straight to bed, pretending not to notice that Diego was trying to catch his attention and to talk to him. And he didn't even have dinner!
There was something the boy wasn't telling them. He didn't bring back the bottle Victoria had promised to give them; and where did he really spend the last hours? At least, Diego noted with some relief, Felipe didn't smell of tequila. But what was he hiding? Was there a girl behind this poorly explained absence?
Anyway, Diego didn't have time to go see him and have him confess since Zorro had a mission scheduled for that same night: he had to retrieve some deed of property and its associated bill of sale for a land near San Diego that Don Alejandro had just sold to an old acquaintance. The alcalde had confiscated the papers before Alejandro had time to post them and he was planning on using them as a proof that the bill of sale was a forgery and that the de la Vegas were therefore trying to evade taxes; Diego feared the alcalde might counterfeit the paper himself to make sure that the bill finally appeared to be a fake...
But of course, once the burglary was accomplished things didn't go as well as expected and Zorro ended up hiding successively in a well, under a balcony, in a manger under some hay and finally in a barrel, as and when the soldiers were searching the pueblo for him, waking up some of its inhabitants by doing so. They particularly searched the tavern, going into each room without any consideration for the customers' sleep. From his hiding place in the street, Zorro could even hear that they woke up a young child who called for his or her mother in a terrified little voice. Sure enough, seeing armed soldiers invade their bedroom in the middle of the night was certainly very distressing for a child.
Once Mendoza left the tavern and led his men to another part of the pueblo, Zorro waited one more quarter of an hour before getting out of his hiding place and looking up at Victoria's bedroom: it wasn't lit, but the window which was previously closed was now slightly ajar...
Soon, Zorro was inside. Victoria closed the window again and didn’t light the candle in order to avoid attracting attention. Here in the dark, they stood in each other's arms, waiting for the soldiers to renounce and go back to the cuartel and to their beds.
Suddenly, between the murmured words of love they were tenderly exchanging and in the middle of a quiet silence, Victoria asked him completely out of the blue:
"Zorro, do you think Diego de la Vega could be leading a double life?"
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