Deceptive Heart
This episode was written by Bruce Lansbury and directed by Ron Satlof.
(The hacienda. Diego is working on a sculpture of a man’s head. Alejandro is pacing the floor.)
Alejandro: Diego, tell me how I look.
Diego: Just as you did ten minutes ago.
Alejandro: Well, tell me again.
Diego: And five minutes before that. You look splendid.
Alejandro: Good, good. First impressions are everything.
Diego: I still can’t believe you’d consider marriage to a woman you’ve never even met.
Alejandro: Hm, marriage is a
definite prospect, but the purpose of the señora’s visit is to confirm feelings
we already know are mutual. (Alejandro takes a small painted picture cameo of
a middle aged woman from his pocket and looks at it as he speaks.) For five
years now, the widow de la Pena, Francisca, and I have corresponded sharing our
deepest thoughts. First our pens, then our hearts found each other. (Felipe
enters motioning towards the front drive.)
Diego: Ah, Felipe’s sighted the coach.
Alejandro: The coach, why it’s an hour early! (Diego begins to clean his hands on a cloth and Alejandro goes back to the mirror.) Quick! How do I look?
Diego: You will dazzle her.
Alejandro: Good. Good. (Diego pats his father on the back and the two go out the door.)
(Outside the hacienda. Diego, Alejandro and Felipe join a servant in waiting for the coach. It arrives and a young lady steps out. She is Diego’s age, not Alejandro’s and they are both surprised. Alejandro checks the picture.)
Alejandro: Hmm. Doesn’t quite look like her. (He turns to her and smiles.) You are Señora de la Pena?
Francisca: I am Francisca. And you’re Don Alejandro?
Alejandro: The same. (She runs to him and throws her arms around him.)
(Back inside the
hacienda.)
Alejandro: You’d follow a lady into her chambers?
Diego: You should have asked her earlier.
Alejandro: Well, she was
tired from the journey. (Francisca enters.)
Diego: (whispering.) Ask her now.
Alejandro: All right. Ah! I trust your rooms are to your liking, Señora?
Francisca: Quite beyond my expectations, Don Alejandro. (Alejandro smiles. Diego rolls his eyes and elbows him.)
Alejandro: Uh…the north window frames the San Gabriel mountains. (He leads her into the front room.) Whereas to the west, on a clear day you will see the ocean.
Diego: Excuse me, Señora, my father would love to give you a lesson on the local geography, buy he refuses to ask a simple question which plagues us both.
Francisca: It’s about the cameo, isn’t it?
Diego: Yes.
Alejandro: Yes, yes, of course, the cameo. You were good enough to send me this, Señora. (He hands her the cameo.)
Francisca: I did. (She takes the cameo and turns away.)
Diego: You are not that lady.
Alejandro: I cannot say I’m disappointed.
Francisca: I confess to the deception, gentlemen. Don Alejandro, try to understand. Five years ago, I was a young widow, lost in grief and, despite the attention of others who sought my hand, lonely. I joined our correspondence society and found there a man of honor, integrity, romantic imagination, you Señor. The warmth of our letters grew. We reached out and met each other at a level of intellect, reason, even affection that I had never experienced.
Alejandro: So true, dear lady. (Diego watches the girl suspiciously and his father with concern.)
Francisca: But our letters could not tell me what you expected in me. I am many years younger than you, Señor.
Alejandro: And so very
beautiful. (They all sit down.)
Francisco: I wanted you to desire me for what we shared in our letters.
Alejandro: You were testing my sincerity?
Francisco: The cameo
is of my distant aunt, Consuela. She is happily married and a grandmother.
(Alejandro smiles, enchanted with the girl.) Can you forgive me?
Alejandro: Oh, of course, of course. (He rises to go pour them all some
drinks.) My deepest respect to your Aunt Conseula. (He hands a glass to
Diego and looks at him meaningfully.) And her grandchildren. (He turns back
to the girl.)After all, a man is promised silver, will her refuse gold?
(Diego winces.) A toast Diego. (Diego and the girl rise.) To a noble
lady. Señora, to the ties that bind sympathetic souls.
(They all drink and Diego looks at the girl with great suspicion.)
(The plaza. Men on horseback ride into town, knocking over food stalls, and generally causing mayhem. Mendoza and some lancers come out of the quartel and see what’s happening.)
Mendoza: Ay, yi yi yi yi, Gomez and his vaqueros always causing trouble. Why now? (Gomez rides up to the sergeant.)
Gomez: Hola, Mendoza!
Mendoza: Your men are disturbing the peace. Please, tell them to calm down.
Gomez: We’ve been on a long cattle drive. They need to have some fun. You tell them! (He laughs. The lancers behind Mendoza leave. Gomez rides off to join his men.)
Mendoza: Men, seize him! (He turns to find no one to back him. He straightens his uniform.) Lunch first. Then I will personally knock some heads together. (He heads for the tavern.)
(The hacienda. Diego is sitting in the garden with Francisco.)
Francisco: Your concern is all over your face, Don Diego, and only natural. Don Alejandro and I have come together under unusual circumstances.
Diego: To say the least.
Francisca: As a good son, you fear for his happiness.
Diego: Letters are one thing, Señora, marriage quite another.
Francisca: He is everything I could desire in a man and a husband.
Diego: Thank you for your
candor and your understanding, Señora. (Felipe appears and makes some signs.)
Please excuse me. Felipe tells me our prize bull is loose in the cow pasture
again. (He rises to follow Felipe.)
(The cave.)
Diego: Gomez and his vaqueros are up to their old tricks at the tavern. Well,
let’s see if Zorro can’t teach Gomez a lesson in courtesy. (Diego pulls off
his jacket.)
(Inside the tavern. A woman is dancing before a large group of men. One plays the guitar. Mendoza is seated, eating his dinner. Victoria goes over to Gomez.)
Victoria: Gomez, get your face out of my tavern, and, as much as it pains me, your drinks will be free. (Gomez grabs Victoria and starts to kiss her.)
Zorro: One moment! (Zorro appears on the stairs of the tavern. He holds a large jug.) Forgotten your manners, Señor?
Gomez: Zorro. (He releases Victoria.)
Zorro: On your knees
before a lady. (Zorro tosses the jug and it lands on Gomez’s head, knocking
him senseless. Another vaquero comes at Zorro and he backhands him, knocking the
man to the ground. The crowd cheers.) Please, continue. (Zorro smiles as
more vaqueros attack him. Zorro fences with one. Gomez rises from the floor.)
Victoria: Zorro! Watch out for Gomez! (Zorro throws
a heavy plate at Gomez, carves a “Z” on his jacket and punches him.)
Mendoza: (Still seated at his table.) You might have at least let me finish my supper, Zorro. Now it is my duty to arrest you.
Zorro: But hasn’t the alcalde always said that “a well-fed soldier is a good soldier.”
Mendoza: Very true.
Zorro: Well, then your duty, Sergeant, is to your supper. (Mendoza smiles. Zorro sheathes his sword. As Mendoza returns to his plate of food, Zorro goes into the kitchen to join Victoria.)
(The kitchen)
Zorro: Anger brings a very pretty blush to your cheeks.
Victoria: Oh, anger never makes me blush. (There is more noise from the outer room.)
Zorro: The alcalde’s men. I must go before the sergeant finds courage in his meal. (Zorro kisses her hand and escapes through the back window.)
.
(The rooftops. As Zorro climbs across the roof to escape, he sees a lone rider approach the back of the tavern. The rider climbs up to a second story window and goes inside. Zorro follows quietly and watches as Francesca sheds her disguise and embraces a man inside the room.)
(The hacienda. Diego and Felipe are fencing one another.)
Diego: Right, Felipe, let’s see what you have learned. (Diego pauses.) Excellent. What a dilemma. How do I tell my father that the woman he’s involved with is in love with another man? Parry. (They raise their swords and do a few more moves, then Diego pauses again.) It will break his heart, but I have to tell him.
Alejandro: (Entering) Tell me what, Diego? (As Diego sees his father, he immediately quits fencing and lets Felipe point his sword at his throat.)
Alejandro: (Laughing) Give it up, son. Try as you will, you’ll never be a swordsman. Now, you had something important to tell me.
Diego: Yes..uh…the exertion has driven it right out of my head.
Alejandro: (Turning to go) Just don’t hurt yourself with that sword, Diego.
(The tavern. Several men including Gomez are playing cards with the stranger Zorro saw kissing Francisca and he is winning. All but Gomez throw down their cards and leave in disgust.)
Victoria: Alicia, warn the customers. We can’t let this card sharp rob our regulars. (The stranger shows his hand to Gomez – four aces.)
Gomez: Aces again?
Man: I’ve had a run of luck.
Gomez: But you cheated. (The man puts a small derringer to Gomez’s chin.)
Man: I can kill you here and now. If you swear to cooperate with me, you live. And maybe you and your men will get your money back.
(Outside the hacienda. Diego and Alejandro are coming out of the door.)
Diego: An Easter wedding? Isn’t that being a trifle hasty?
Alejandro: How ironic. It’s always the young who are so impetuous and they have all the time in the world.
Diego: But what if she’s not the woman you think she is.
Alejandro: Diego. Your tone disturbs me. Do you know something I don’t?
Diego: Father, this is very difficult for me to say —
Francisca: (Coming up to them quickly.) Alejandro, dearest, I’ve been looking for you.
Alejandro: Ah, Señora, we were just discussing the wedding.
Francisca: Oh, we have so much to prepare.
Alejandro: Precisely. Now, you’ll both have to excuse me. I have an appointment with my lawyer. Francisca has suggested a contract and I have agreed. (Alejandro leaves.)
Francisca: You don’t trust me, do you, Don Diego?
Diego: A good friend of mine, someone I trust, saw you with your lover last evening.
Francisca: Can I convince you that what your friend saw was not what it appeared to be between Ramirez and me?
Diego: Ramirez? Your lover.
Francisca: Once. I was younger without parents, easily seduced. Later I realized what a monster he was, but by then, I was virtually his slave.
Diego: My friend did not see a master and slave at the tavern. The truth? (She begins to cry.)
Francisca: Two months ago, we were on a boat out of San Carlos. Ramirez’s luck was out. He was desperate. I regret to my dying day for having introduced him to a kind, open-hearted woman who told us of her correspondence with your father.
Diego: Señora de la Pena.
Francisca: Her last letters with the suggestion of marriage were written by Ramirez in her hand.
Diego: So you would marry my father and this scoundrel would take over his estates? And the real Señora de la Pena?
Francisca: Ramirez drowned her off the boat.
Diego: So he’s truly a murderer.
Francisca: He will be at the tavern later. Have him arrested. I will testify to his crime.
Diego: You will be on the
next coach out. You will leave a gentle but firm message to my father,
explaining a change of heart.
Francisca: Everything. I swear!
Diego: And surely I will be at the tavern. And surely Ramirez will hang.
(Inside the hacienda. Francisca attaches a note to the leg of a homing pigeon and releases it from the window of her room.)
(The hacienda garden. Diego approaches Felipe.)
Diego: Bring the carriage, Felipe. We must go to the pueblo immediately. Wait! (Diego spots the bird.) Ring-necked doves, grouse and quail all abound in California, but not homing pigeons. (He looks at Felipe and motions him to head back into the house.)
(The plaza. Ramirez is waiting in the plaza, watching the de la Vega carriage approach the gates. He has two pistols in his belt and he looks around to check that all of Gomez’s men are in place with muskets ready along the rooftops. As the carriage comes closer and he sees the driver, he yells to the men.)
Ramirez: That’s him! Fire! (They all fire. The figure atop the carriage falls to the ground and the head rolls away. The head is the sculpture Diego was working on earlier made to look like himself. Ramirez kneels to pick up the head.) A dummy?
Zorro: (Appearing nearby.) Excellent shooting, gentlemen. But who are the real dummies? Now let’s see how fast you can reload?
The men: It’s Zorro! Run! Zorro! (They all climb down from the roof and ride away.)
Ramirez: (Drawing his sword) En guarde! (Zorro salutes with his own sword and they begin to fence. After a minute, the lancers come out of the quartel and stand watching.)
Mendoza: Zorro may have met
his match, but if he wins, we still have our job to do. So stand ready. (The
fencing continues until Zorro disarms the man. Cornered, the man pulls the
derringer. Zorro knocks it from his hand and into his own with his sword.)
Zorro: I think I’ll save you the hangman.
Mendoza: All right, men! Zorro is ours. Arrest him! (Zorro whistles for Toronado who comes from around a corner and holds the lancers back. Zorro shoves Ramirez into the group of lancers, throws the gun to Mendoza and mounts Tornado.)
Zorro: Sorry to disappoint you, Sergeant. Keep your eyes on that one. The name is Ramirez, and he’s a murderer. You’ll have evidence soon enough to hang him. (Zorro looks over at Victoria, standing in front of the tavern. He salutes her with his sword.) Señorita! Until we meet again. (Zorro rides away.)
Victoria: “Until we meet again, Señorita.” “Buenas dias, Señorita.” “Adios, Señorita.” If we were able to meet for more than just a few moments, you would not always depart in such a hurry.
(In front of the hacienda. Diego, Francisca and Alejandro come out of the door.)
Francisca: (To Alejandro) Señor, the real señora showed me some of your letters. You made her very happy. And I only wanted to say if I had met a man like you instead of Ramirez, I think I would have been a better woman. (A jailer’s cart, driven by lancers, approaches the house. Ramirez is inside the barred cart. The cart stops. A lancer gets down and grabs the girl roughly and imprisons her.)
Diego: You’ll be over it soon enough. (Alejandro sighs.)
Alejandro: (Watching the cart being driven away.) In the meantime, there’s a widow in the next valley, Morena Gonzales. She has a very pretty and very marriageable daughter and I thought perhaps you and I could take over there —
Diego: Father, surely you’re not thinking —
Alejandro: Oh, not for me, Diego. For you, my boy. (Diego laughs, embarrassed.) Babies, Diego! I want babies. Right away. Whatever happened to that fine bust you did of yourself?
Diego: Oh, I started another.
Alejandro: Why? I thought it was very good.
Diego: I’m afraid it received a rather critical public reception.
Alejandro: Hm.
The End