FicWad

"By the way Señora, where do you and your daughter come from?" Victoria asked Araceli in the course of the conversation.

"San Diego."

Far enough for no one to ever find out, Victoria reflected, but close enough for Don Alejandro to go there once every two or three month. Under the pretence of business trips. Of all traits she would have attributed to the de la Vegas, deception wasn't part of it. And yet Risendo came here under a fallacious pretext and hid his lineage and true motives, and now Victoria learned that Don Alejandro had lied to everyone and especially to his own son for years to go visit his second family in San Diego!

Yes, that was quite disappointing. And even a bit hurtful, Victoria reflected. And if she felt hurt, what of Don Diego! Thankfully, he didn't seem to have inherited this deceptive trait apparently running in his family!

She watched the mother and her child, trying to figure what was their life like back there in San Diego.

"It must be hard for you..." she finally ventured. "In San Diego, I mean. Alone with a child..."

Araceli looked at her, surprised.

"Hard?"

Then she seemed to get what Victoria meant.

"Oh," she said, "no, that's alright. We're good." She kissed Leonor's head. The girl was now sound asleep.

Victoria couldn't totally believe her. Having a child out of wedlock... She must have been shunned and ostracised!

"Well," she then told the woman, "people in San Diego must be quite broad-minded, then!"

Victoria realised she unintentionally put a note of slight disapproval in her comment. She couldn't help but judge her. It was hard to cut loose from ingrained system of values...

Señora Valdès stifled a throaty giggle.

"Not much, no... At least not more than anywhere else, I guess."

She gave a pointed look around them. So she had noticed the stares, Victoria reflected. Apparently she didn't care, then. Well, why would she? After all she didn't know anyone in Los Angeles, Victoria reflected.

Still, how was she faring back home in San Diego with this situation?

"People are... illogical," Araceli explained. "And predictably so, as strange as this may sound: they are prone to have an opinion on anything or everything, but thankfully most of them are also pragmatic."

Victoria gave her a curious look, sitting down at her table to better talk with her.

"Money," Araceli simply provided by way of further explanation. "Money is the key."

Victoria's eyebrows rose to her mid-forehead.

"Well, no, not really money, but power. Power is the key. If you can be the one in power, then people will pander to you. If you have power, they will abide to you and your ways, whatever they think of you. If they need you, they'll adapt to you. If their interests require that they bear with you, then they'll seem to forget how much they disapprove of your way of life, they'll just turn a blind eye on it... And in the kind of world we're living in, this sort of power comes with money. However unmoral it can be, it's how things work here below; whether we like it or not, we have to make do with that. Plain and simple. As sad as it sounds..."

"I disagree," Victoria retorted. Was this woman just plainly venal? A gold digger? Was it the reason behind her affair with Don Alejandro? "You can't buy people," Victoria went on. "At least not everyone. People aren't up for sale."

"I agree, you can't buy people. You certainly can never buy their feelings or their inner thoughts; you can't buy minds or hearts. But you can absolutely buy people's behaviour..."

Victoria still seemed unconvinced.

"If they have something to sell," Señora Valdès started to explain, "and you're the one who could offer them either the best price, the best guarantees or the best outlet for their goods or services, they won't turn the nose up at your money. Not if they really need it or if you're a good customer, as long as you don't make trouble. I mean, have you ever thrown a customer out of you tavern just because you didn't like him, unless he harassed your other customers or your employees, or started a bar fight?"

Hmm, Victoria reflected, indeed she tolerated the alcalde in her establishment even though he was far from being her favourite person.

"And it also works the other way round," Señora Valdès further explained. "Let's take your tavern, for instance. It's the only one in Los Angeles so if someone wants to have a drink or a meal outside his own home, if he is thirsty or hungry, he has to come here. Even if he doesn't like you or disapproves of you – for whatever reason that would be none of my business. The only other solution would be for him to do without the drink or the meal he wants so much."

Inwardly, Victoria thought again about de Soto: he certainly disapproved of her admiration and repeated support to Zorro, yet he still patronised her tavern; mainly because the garrison's cantina tasted awfully bland. Hmmm yes, perhaps Señora Valdès's hypothesis made some sense, after all...

"Now," Araceli went on, "let's imagine that there were two other taverns in Los Angeles... One that tastes bad, and one that tastes as good as yours but is more expensive. Perhaps among your patrons you would lose some customers: a few of those who strongly disapprove of you might go to your first competitor, even if it meant eating tasteless cooking and drinking plonk. A few others might go to your second competitor, but only the richest ones could afford that in the long run. So all in all, as long as your business is a good and affordable one, as long as you keep up the good work, your tavern will probably still be the most successful one around here... You might have a bit less customers and lose those whose disapproval of you is stronger than the care for their own interest, but eventually, since most people will still need the good service you provide for a decent price, I'm confident they will carry on with patronising your tavern..."

Victoria remained quiet for a long time, pondering what the woman had just expounded to her.

"But," she finally asked, "what if there is another tavern as good and affordable as mine, run by someone everyone approves of?"

"Then you'll lose most of your customers," Señorita Valdès answered matter-of-factly. "Hence the need to simply be the best in your business."

Simply. Easier said than done!

"Just make sure to always have the best price-quality ratio in the area, and to make it known!" Araceli added.

Victoria was mulling this over. Perhaps... perhaps, if it was true... then perhaps...

...would it really be the solution for her to have the children she had been wanting for so long...? Even without getting married to Zorro first? To have children with Zorro? But would he even agree to it?

And most importantly, could she really have a child out of wedlock and not lose her business? Not see herself be shunned and her tavern decline and then collapse for lack of patronage?

After years and years of waiting, she was beginning not to care that much anymore about her reputation and good name if it meant having at least part of the family life she longed for... But could she afford for this? Money, that's what Señora Valdès said: it was the key to this kind of freedom. But Victoria knew she would still need her tavern to earn a living. All the more so with a fatherless child. And the question was: could her business survive such a scandal?

She was far from being as well-off as Señora Valdès seemed to be. And suddenly another question came to her mind: the woman had spoken as though herself owned a business back there in San Diego. What kind of customers wouldn't be too fussy about the scandal of an illegitimate child? What kind of business wouldn't be too much affected by that matter?

What sort of business house, what kind of trade could make do with ill repute?

z ~ z ~ z ~ z ~ z ~ z ~ z ~ z ~ z

"Diego, for Heaven's sake, we were both widowed at the time! We didn't betray anyone!"

Yes, yes, of course... technically, at least. Still, Diego couldn't help but feel a though his father had trampled on his mother's grave.

"Diego," Alejandro told him in a calmer and gentler voice, "I loved your mother immensely; and I still do, in fact. Only perhaps a bit differently... She's been and will remain the great love of my life... But she is dead, Diego. She's been for a very long time. It took me long enough to truly accept it, and I thought I did my best to help you... to help you deal with that and with her absence. To have you accept it as well. I didn't know it was still that raw for you... I'm sorry. But neither Araceli nor Leonor have anything to do with that."

Diego put his elbows on the table and buried his face in his hands, sighing deeply:

"I know, I know... of course I know that."

"Diego, my son, look at me..."

Diego raised his head at his father.

"I need you to promise me you won't utter one ill word at Leonor or Araceli. You're troubled and angry, and I can understand that, but don't take it out on Leonor. She's done nothing wrong..."

"Of course, Father, I didn't even think of that. You have my word. It's just that... I don't know what to tell her. I have nothing to tell her."

"You're siblings, Diego... you'll manage, I trust you."

"Perhaps... after all, considering the situation she's the easiest to talk to. As you stated, she didn't do anything."

"I know I've disappointed you, Die–"

"You've betrayed me! You didn't even tell me I had a half-sister! I'm not talking about you to confess to the whole pueblo, but– but– I'm your son! And I assure you I can keep a secret." Diego paused to let out a sigh. "Didn't it occur to you that I had the right to know I had more family than I thought? That I might want to know her? To see her grow up?"

"Well, I know I made you miss her first years and I'm also sorry for that; but now you know, and you two will be able to make up for these years!"

"Only because you've been cornered into telling me!" Diego shouted. "Without these men's blackmail I still wouldn't know anything!"

Diego calmed down and went on in a softer voice:

"Understand me, Father... I need to know. Where do you know this wom– Doña Araceli from? Who is she? How did you two meet? How did it all happen? And why haven't you told me anything? For God's sake, I certainly wouldn't have killed anyone! What bad things do you think could have happened if you told me? Except for me to feel disappointed, that is, but we both know I'll eventually get over it... Please Father tell me more... I need to know... to understand..."

Don Alejandro sighed.

"Alright. I should have told you so long ago... I'm certainly not going to give you all the details, but–"

"I certainly don't want the details, Father! But I need to understand why you... how you could..."

Another deep sigh came out of Don Alejandro's chest.

"It was long ago... You... you were in Spain. You had been gone for more than one year, and the hacienda felt so empty!"

"Empty but full of servants and with a little deaf boy to care for..." Diego pointedly commented.

"It's not the same," his father retorted. "Of course I also often met the other haciendados in the pueblo, but still... And I felt...uh..."

"What...? Lonely?" Diego asked a bit too aggressively.

"Diego...," Don Alejandro growled, "if you keep on interrupting, it will take even longer!"

"Sorry Father, excuse me. Please, go on."

Don Alejandro wondered where to begin. He recalled this time of his life. Yes, after one year of Diego's absence he had felt... lonely. Was he to begin with that? Or with the several business trips he did to San Diego at that same time?

Was he rather to first tell him about Araceli, her family, her history, who she was, tell him about her business there in San Diego?

Unless he simply started with the sweet fragrance of flowers in Araceli's garden at dusk?

Inwardly, he suddenly travelled back in time and in his memory...