The captain looked at her sharply. “Perhaps there may be a way,” he said.
“What mean you?”
“I can have speech with this fiend of a Barbados and coax him to delay the torture until he has accounted for the troopers from San Diego de Alcála. The troopers will account for him and his men instead, of course, and then Señor Zorro and the caballeros will be released.”
“And you will do this?” she cried. “Ah, señor, if only you would!”
“I can do it, señorita—at a price!”
“And what—is the price?” she asked.
“You are the price yourself, señorita.”
“Beast!”
“Is that a way to save Señor Zorro by calling me a beast?” the captain asked. “All that I ask is an immediate marriage. Would it be an ill thing to wed with one of his excellency’s officers?”
“I cannot! My heart is not my own!”