FicWad

Oops... Caught...!

After a split second of stunned and transfixed immobility, Zorro bolted out of the confessional to sheepishly explain himself to the padre.

But at the very same moment a completely confused and dumbfounded Doña Araceli yanked the worn and threadbare velvet curtain aside, stepping out of her side of the box; and then, all hell broke loose.

When Señora Valdès saw who had been confessing her, abusing her trust and good faith, deceiving her by impersonating the padre and letting her believe she was confessing to a priest, she became outraged.

"I don't know who you are, Señor, but if you were a man you would show your face instead of hiding behind a mask, you COWARD! Take it off! TAKE IT OFF, IF YOU'RE A MAN!"

If not for Padre Benitez to hold her back, doing his best to restrain her, she would have pounced on Zorro to try to rip off his black mask while giving him a piece of her mind. Except that of course the man could certainly overpower her with one arm tied behind his back, but still; and he didn't want to wrestle with a woman or to fight inside a church.

The two days old bruise on her cheek was bluer than ever and now visible even through the layer of powdery makeup she had applied on it, and it reminded Zorro of how much of a fighter she could be if she had a good reason to be enraged; half-lioness and half-tigress.

It brought back the memory of his own bruise, the one he owed to her punch to his face, but truth be told that one was far more discreet and he fortunately had managed to hide it, using on himself some of the makeup powder he took from in his theatrical accessories. Thank God no one had seemed to notice it, or he would have had a hard time explaining this bruise to her. To his father or to Victoria, he could ever tell he had hit his head on something – a door, the mantelpiece, a wooden beam in the stables, anything – but to Doña Araceli who wasn't aware of his reputation as a hopeless klutz but knew perfectly well that the masked outlaw known as Zorro got hit in the face precisely on this same spot, it might very well seem highly suspicious. He still didn't know her, but had already noted that she wasn't a fool. Far from it!

And currently, she was absolutely outraged. And rather vocal about her opinion of him. Padre Benitez was still keeping her from jumping at his throat, but the look he settled on Zorro wasn't too affable, for once. He didn't totally side with the black outlaw this time, and Diego couldn't resent him for that; granted, he could understand the padre's point of view on what he just did...

Zorro flinched a bit under this disapproving and disappointed gaze, but he didn't have time to dwell on it: alerted by the rumpus, a few people had come inside, and looked to see where the commotion was coming from and what it was about. Among those people was the soldier Zorro precisely wanted to avoid. The man turned his back and ran to the porch of the church to grab his sword, and Padre Benitez took advantage of this short reprieve to explain to Araceli that Zorro was a friend of the people, of the oppressed, that despite being an outlaw he fought injustice, and he reminded her that Zorro was the one who saved her daughter and brought her back.

This finally convinced her to stop yelling at the masked man and to give him the benefice of the doubt, even very reluctantly so.

"I assure you Señora," the padre was insisting, "he has to get out before the soldiers arrest him, I'll explain later, but please just trust my word and let him escape! I'll explain, I swear, but for now time is of the essence..."

She had stopped struggling, so the padre released her.

"All right," she said grudgingly. Then to Zorro: "Leave, before I change my mind. I'll ease your escape, but I'm warning you: you'd better forget everything you've heard in there, you sneaky, cheating, deceitful, conniving fox!"

"Now leave, Zorro," the padre advised him, "time is short before this soldier warns his fellows..."

Then Araceli ran to the soldier who was approaching them with his sword in his hand and she all but threw herself into his arms, begging for his protection against the masked and terrifying bandit dressed in black from head to toe. In doing so she impeded his progress and clung to the man, almost hugging him, and of course preventing him from running after Zorro or even using his sword.

"Please, please Señor, help! A bandit! Here! In a consecrated house! A masked bandit! Señor, I put myself under your protection!"

The man was almost pinned to the spot – physically speaking – by Doña Araceli and he was very reluctant to roughly manhandle a woman, especially inside a church, and least of all a woman who had a... uh... privileged relationship with Don Alejandro de la Vega, one of the most prominent, respected and influential men around.

"Si Señora, si, but please, let go of–"

"Oh Señor, Señor, I beg you...!" Araceli pleaded, holding him back as best and as unsuspiciously as she could.

"Si si Señora, but por favor, just let me–"

"Please, please, be careful, he has a sword! Oh, Dios mio, Dios mio...!"

While Araceli was brilliantly acting her part, the padre had discreetly led Zorro to the sacristy and opened the back door leading outside. But before he let the man go, though, he took him by the elbow and threw him a stern glance.

"Don't think this is over, Son," he warned him. "You've just committed a grave offense if you've actually done what I suspect you've done. We don't have time now, but fortunately for you, confession can be anonymous. So I'm strongly expecting you at a more convenient moment of your choice for a good and thorough admission of you sins, Son."

Diego knew an order when he heard one. Suddenly, he was eight years old again, impressed and sheepish in front of the stern glare of an authority figure scolding him after he made mischief. He could easily see that Padre Benitez wasn't happy with him, at all, and he felt rather ill-at-ease, rubbing Zorro's black boots on the stony floor.

"Now, go before they catch you! May the Lord be with you."

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

Meanwhile, the pious soldier had finally managed to politely but firmly get rid of Doña Araceli's grip and rushed after Zorro through the side door of the church, thinking that was the exit Zorro had used to flee. That, or this lancer wasn't that eager to catch Zorro, after all. After all, the outlaw was the people's defender, and many a soldier didn't disagree of everything the man did. Or didn't agree with all the orders they had to obey. So perhaps that soldier was inwardly not too unhappy with Araceli's interference. Who knows...

Anyway, once the church was back to being the haven of peace it shouldn't have ceased to be, Araceli went to Padre Benitez:

"Who is that man, Padre?" she asked with anguish in her voice and all over her face. "Please, who is he? Where does he live? What's his name? I must... I must go and talk to him. I've told him... I must tell him–"

"He has always been hiding and protecting his identity, daughter," the padre replied, "no one has ever seen him without his mask, so that no one in Los Angeles could know who he is. I'm sorry, I can't answer your questions."

"But– but... you don't understand! I've told him... I've told him things... things that he wasn't meant to hear! Things that weren't for his ears but for yours only!"

"No daughter," he corrected her, "for God!"

"Yes, yes of course, for God... but I very much doubt he's God, Padre!"

"Well, whoever he is, I'm sure he won't make any wrong use of what he's just learned about you. Especially as you just protected his escape."

"But I don't want him to make any use at all of what he heard! No, in fact, I just want him to forget what he heard. To... to unhear it..."

Padre Benitez looked at her: she seemed really distressed. What sin had she just admitted to Zorro which made her so fearful of a man she hadn't known of only two days earlier and whom she would probably never see or hear about ever again once she's quietly back home in San Diego?

"Well, I'm all yours now, ready to hear your confession."

"I... I... uh..." Araceli stammered.

She sighed heavily.

"Not right now, Padre," she went on. "Not twice in the same day, in the same hour. I'll come back, I swear, I'll confess, I really want to... I feel the need to. But not now, please Padre. Not after..."

She made a vague gesture to the confessional first, then to where Zorro escape through, and she sighed again.

"It was hard enough to say it once, so not now, Padre. Please forgive me for the delay, and for the bother..."

And with these words, she all but ran out of the church.