PART NINE:
-KEEP YOUR ENEMIES CLOSER TO YOU
THAN YOUR FRIENDS
Capitan Guiterrez’s gaze closely followed Doña Carmen's movements as she did her twice monthly shopping for toiletry items. Her maid, Maria, accompanied her, in addition too an Indian servant who helped the maid place the remainder of Señora Rodriguez’s purchases in their carreta.
He sighed audibly. ‘Ah. A true red Spanish red rose. If only I could make myself more attractive to her, turn her head in my direction. And the fortune that she inherited from her deceased but extremely rich husband! Well, now is as good as time as any to approach her. After all, what elegant hidalgo lady did not like a man in uniform?’
The Commandante of the Pueblo La Reina de Los Angeles self-consciously straightened his pencil thin black moustache. Then he sheathed his sabre that he had been examining and hastily strode over to one of the Indian stalls where he’d spotted Carmen shopping earlier that morning.
Doña Carmen’s maid Maria heard footsteps behind them. She turned around to see who was coming and her face darkened. 'Oh, no! It is that rat faced Commandante Guiterrez! And he is heading straight for us!’ She gently poked her mistress in her side and whispered to Doña Carmen that the Capitan was approaching them.
“Now, Maria,” Doña Carmen replied sotto voce, “remember we are civilized and must be kind to the Commandante as the poor man is, well, he is just uncouth!”
“Señora Rodriguez? One moment, please.” Doña Carmen sighed inwardly but when she looked up at him, she flashed her most brilliant smile.
“Commandante Guiterrez. How nice to see you again.”
“Buenos tardes, Señora Rodriguez. Ah, you look exceedingly lovely today! Con permiso,” He said as he none too lightly kissed her gloved right hand. The capitan glared at Maria, who, wisely taking the hint, left for their carreta.
“Capitan Guiterrez,” Carmen said through gritted teeth. “I apologize for my behavior the other day. “I was so frightened in seeing that bloodthirsty villain, El Zorro that I scarcely remembered what day it was! Can not something be done regarding this rogue?“
“Ha!” His face brightened immediately. We are scouring the countryside interrogating everyone regarding El Zorro’s activities in that area." He reached down and firmly closed his left hand over her arm. “I promise you that I will publicly flog the devil upon his capture. Then I will have the pleasure of watching the Fox twitch for hours upon end while his neck is trapped in a special noose that Corporal Hernando is preparing!”
He rather roughly linked his arm through her own, and Carmen was pinned against him. “Ah Señora Rodriguez ----I prefer to address you as Doña Carmen! You are a sweet rose amid the wildflowers that grow in La Reina de Los Angeles.”
She smiled slightly “to what honor do I owe the Capitan’s presence?”
The Capitan bowed to her. “Please may I offer you some refreshment in the tavern?“
Carmen started to object but then she remembered Zorro’s plea to find any information regarding the stage of completion regarding the Capitan’s gold mining operations.
“Why, Capitan Guiterrez, you surprise me!”
He was nonplussed by her outburst and spread his hands, wondering her meaning.
“Como?”
She giggled like a nervous señorita that was meeting her betrothed for the first time. “You have obviously listened to the mindless chatter of these pathetic little Angelinos!”
He pulled at his dark mustache. “Señora, please speak plainly.“ Guiterrez fiddled with his saber again. “I’m a busy man, and--”
“Why, Capitan Guiterrez, as far as I am concerned, you and your lieutenant--now what is his name, I am sure that it is insignificant compared to your lineage--- are the only real men in Los Angeles.”
Guiterrez preened himself by smoothing his hair back and grinning broadly, revealed two large rows of unsightly yellow teeth.
Her instincts had been correct. ‘Such a vain little prig! If Don Diego could see me now, he would say that I am acting like a rich, pampered woman ... she peered into Guiterrez’s green-gray eyes, which reminded her of a winged predator...so like a falcon‘s.’
“Why, Capitan, I have been expecting just such an invitation to break the awful monotony of my miserable life in Los Angeles.”
He swaggered into the inn and she felt as she were being displayed as a trophy that Guiterrez had finally won only after considerable effort.
“Innkeeper! You’re finest jerez and wine cakes for Señora Carmen Alcazar Sanchez Roberto y Rodriguez! Impedimenta!’
“Sí, commandante! Please here is the best table and would you like the noon aperitif or the larger dinner selection? The commandante glared at the innkeeper when he dared to mention charging Guiterrez for the refreshments!
“Señor innkeeper, do you remember our earlier conversations regarding that very same subject?” The tavern owner blanched at the Capitan’s insinuation. “Of course, for you, mi Capitan, everything is on the house!” He hastily added.
“Doña Carmen,” he went on, ignoring both the nasty sneers of the tavern’s patrons but also her elevated eyebrow at the not yet granted informal use of her first name.
“Your earlier judgment regarding me was correct! I did avoid you. I have not been very popular in this pueblo,” he droned in his best wheedling voice; “you are the only one who understands what I am really trying to accomplish here.”
She did her best to feign interest in what the pompous ass was saying. ‘Oh, I am insulting the ass!’ Carmen giggled to herself.
Carmen covered his hands with one of her gloved ones. “Of course, I do mi capitan. It is my understanding before you arrived in Los Angeles that you were to govern these people sternly but also with humility. The peons must not forget their status in our society and as for those dons whom--“
He gleefully clapped his hands. “Doña Carmen, from the first time I saw you I believed that you were a highly intelligent woman, as well as so beautiful!” he droned on.
She flinched a little at his incessant flattery.
“Doña Carmen, may I place my trust in you?”
“Of course,” she muttered sotto voce as she leaned closer to him although it made her want to bathe as soon as possible after even this brief time in his presence.
Capitan Guiterrez looked warily around him. “They say that El Zorro is everywhere and that he has a number of hired assassins waiting to kill me.”
“Surely not, mi Capitan! Then you must redouble your efforts to eliminate this criminal!” Carmen said indignantly. “Madre de Dios!”
The capitan was secretly delighted that at last, Doña Carmen was sympathetic to his problems. ‘What a woman.... and an extremely wealthy woman at that!’ He chuckled to himself.
Carmen smiled slyly as he proceeded to outline a few particulars regarding his grand plan to acquire wealth...
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
“Maria, call Jorge and have him take this letter to Don Alejandro immediamente, por favor. She then gave Maria ten pesos for the young Indian outside her hacienda window. Señora Rodriguez had instructed Maria to write the note because the de la Vegas would have recognized her penmanship. She knew that keeping the de la Vegas unaware that she learned Zorro’s true identity was the best course of action.
Carmen quickly changed into her black disguise and instructed her vaqueros to use their full-face masks, and for each to take different routes upon leaving and returning to the hacienda’s underground passage way in different directions.
She pushed a pair of Italian made pistols into her cape pockets, grabbed several more that she would place in her banda. Then she finally sheathed her Toledo saber into her silver inlaid scabbard. Carmen was prepared for a violent confrontation with the Commandante and his foul crew of criminals, or least she thought she was.
“La Dona Negra” as Maria told her that the peons of Los Angeles were calling her -- gave final orders to the vaqueros to mount their horses. “Andalante, muchachos!”
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
Alejandro de la Vega finished a letter to his shipping agent in Santa Barbara. “Diego, I do not know who is behind all of this nonsense in Los Angeles, but I certainly intend to find out! And yesterday I received a letter from the Governor of Alta California. He has been conducting an investigation for quite some time.” Alejandro sighed. “But he further stated that this “Senor D’oro has bribed many officials. The Governor has had some difficulty in notifying the proper authorities in Mexico City, but he feels that there will be military intervention soon.“
“That ‘intervention‘ may come too late, father.” Diego looked thoughtful for several long moments and Alejandro could see that his son had made some important decisions. “Father, since we both agree that this ‘Senor D’oro’ has many influential men on his payroll, and Zorro has a lot of work to do, I believe that Diego de la Vega should ‘take a little vacation,’ oh, say, in Monterrey! We could say that my trip is regarding some irregularities with Senora Rodriguez’s entry papers for Alta California.”
Alejandro shook his head. “I do not understand my son.”
“It is very simple, father. Bernardo has been hearing rumors in Los Angeles that the Commandante is telling the peons and the shopkeepers that he will soon reveal Zorro’s’ real identity. He also heard our own servants gossiping that are fearful that Guiterrez will expose Fox’s identity.”
“But, Diego, can you, of all people, put any faith in innuendo or gossip?”
“This time I must, father. Not only does Guitterez have access to all of Monastario’s notes regarding his suspicion that I was really Zorro, remember? If one can imagine such a thing, this Capitan is far more dangerous then even Monasterio!“
Diego continued their conversation as they entered into the secret passageway through the library bookcase. “I was going to ask that you let our friends know that I have taken a couple of weeks off to travel to oh, let us say, Monterrey, possibly even San Francisco. This will give me more time to help stop the Commandante and his mysterious benefactor, ‘Senor D‘oro.’ And Diego de la Vega’s absence, together with more appearances by Zorro should help to quash the speculation!“
“My son,“ Alejandro said as he placed his arm on his son’s shoulder, “please be extremely careful! After all, you almost lost your vision!”
Diego sighed deeply. ”Father, I must discover who helped me after that last encounter with Capitan Guiterrez’s men. Dios! Whoever it was, that person or persons might have followed Tornado back to the hidden cave. And Diego/Zorro would be exposed and hanged.”
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
Tornado and Zorro raced toward the San Juan road that ran through Coalinga Pass, hoping that the capitan’s thugs would be encamped at the steam that bordered Senora Rodriguez's land. “Fly, Tornado fly! Run as if El Diablo himself were chasing you !” Zorro’s informant had told him that the gold-mining workers would only be there for a short time as the vein of gold ore was almost tapped out. He wondered at the authenticity of the note that an Indian had earlier delivered to his hacienda.
“Perhaps whoever aided me to get home wrote it! “ He said to Tornado as they raced to their destination. When he and his father read the anonymous note that was addressed to El Zorro, he ignored Alejandro’s protests that he should not trust the authenticity of the message and that he needed more rest.
Zorro shivered in the night air despite the fact it was another hot summer in Los Angeles. He tried to shrug away his worries and attend to this night’s mission. The Fox sighed wearily. “So much to do and so little time to do everything that Zorro must do!”
“Run, Tornado, my swift steed! We have a debt to repay!”
‘But you assumed the risks of being Zorro when you first wore the mask, Diego. Don’t look back because the future of California lies with what you do in the upcoming days ahead. And perhaps I could also discover that lady’s identity everyone’s servants call the female Zorro - La Doña Negra!’
Chapter Ten
Previous Chapter
Table of Contents
