Ruthless and Deadly

by ML BINELLI

  Barbara knew that her father was capable of anything to uphold his interests. And she did remember the poor soul who was unlucky enough to fall for her and ask for her hand in marriage. The poor boy disappeared without a trace. Leonardo had certainly killed him with Jonas' help. His bones were probably buried somewhere on their land without so much as a dignified burial to send him off. Her father was a monster, she was sure of that. He was even now thinking of betraying the friend who was helping him.

  "I don't like your plan, particularly because I am the one who has to get married and I don't even know to whom! Are you sure there is no other way?"

  "No Barbara, there is no other way, unless we kill Torres but now that he has surrounded himself with guards, it is an impossible option. He knows that I would feel no remorse in putting him in his grave. I should have done it long ago. Damn procrastination." he slammed his fist loudly on the table.

  Barbara turned her back to him. Based on the arguments, there was nothing she could say or do. There had yet to be an argument that could change Leonardo's mind when he was set on something. He was his own master and never listened to anyone. A rock with no soul, no feelings.

  "So be it, I am going to try to get some sleep and not think about this cross that you are making me bear."

  "Not yet, come and see me in my room later. I need to relax."

  "As you wish. I am going to get ready."

  Barbara left Leonardo alone and went to her room. By now, her hunger had vanished.

  Disgusting old man, he has no idea that his grave is being dug, thought Barbara unable to keep her mouth from curling into a smile of contentment. With the situation that was taking shape, she would be able to free herself of both at the same time. The vision of the old man sweating and drooling over her naked body made her stomach turn, but for now, she would have to subject herself to the wishes of this hellish demon.

  While she climbed the stairs to the rooms, her memories of her as a twelve-year-old child began forming in her mind. His orders to touch him. Later, when her breasts began to form, the memory of his lips over them made Barbara raise her arms at shoulder height to push away the imaginary body. In her room, she recalled her thoughts at that age - was it normal? Did all parents do these things to their children? She was afraid of exposing herself and asking her friends.

  Later, when she became aware of the abuse, she was covered in shame. When she went to church, she'd blush before the images of the saints and Our Lady, as if the sinner were her. She'd lower her eyes when she saw them, the guilt weighed heavily on her young shoulders. She began tormenting herself with thoughts that she was to blame for this situation, for the torture she was being subjected to. She resented her beauty and her body every time she looked in a mirror because that was what had caused the abuse to occur in the first place.

  Violent and disgusting man. She was very careful to do everything he asked of her sexually for fear of being beaten or worse. He was a man born with a dark soul, if he had any at all.

  "But he will pay in this life for all his evil deeds and all the torture he has made me endure," she whispered to herself.

  But for now she had to subject herself to the fiend. Her plan, despite depending on details that were out of her control, was being hatched.

  A plan she had created and put into action a few years back. After Mario's disappearance, the neighbor to whom she had revealed her plight and with whom she was planning to run away with, she discovered that no one could help her unless she found a person who had the support and the power of the church. Only the men of the High Church could stand up against the brotherhood and the financial and political influence of her father. She had tried through her confessions to move the older priests. Some blamed her for her situation since she was a woman and, therefore, an instrument of the Devil. Others advised her to speak to the authorities but she could not do that. This would involve exposing herself to the entire city.

  The solution she found was to use her body to seduce a priest who was close to her, a professor or a confessor. Once this person was in her hands, bound by desire and passion, she would be able to manipulate him into denouncing her father for some other misfeasance, a less serious crime that did not involve her. She would then be free once and for all and at the same time would be able to bury this sordid part of her life deep in the past so he could no longer torment her.

  Torres was the first that came to mind and she seduced him easily. She had revealed to him that her father was a mason, but the priest was too much of a coward to make any move against Leonardo at the time. Only now did he have the incontestable power to do whatever he wished, as archbishop, but even so he was hesitant. He said he needed support when he confronted him since he had to make sure no other person in the city would stand in his way. He was afraid that her situation would be discovered and her father would use it as a weapon. If so, her reputation would be damaged and Leonardo might just be able to free himself from the accusations since his accusers had sins that were the same or greater than his. He believed it to be dangerous so he was taking very small steps. If he were a lion on a hunt, he would have long died of starvation.

  But the escape plan hatched by Leonardo offered other possibilities. When she was gone and the archbishop was certain he would never see her again, he would go mad and his madness would make him seek revenge from the man who stole away his love. All she had to do was provide evidence of Leonardo's connection with masonry and Torres would do the rest. But she had to be sure she was far away from the archbishop's grasp. If he managed to reach her before she set sail, she would simply have replaced one pig for another. Barbara, now naked, lay down on Leonardo's bed and allowed him to exhaust himself on her. Her thoughts though were far away as she went over the details of her plan to free her from her captor. She didn't even feel his drool dribbling down her face and moistening her hair, nor his hands roughly squeezing her pink nipples until they almost bled.

  8. Birth

  In the morning, Barbara rose as quietly as possible so as not to wake Leonardo. But he was already awake. In the mirror of the dresser he saw her slink away and she suddenly turned toward him with a look of hate that he had seen many times on her face and said nothing. If only he could tell her that they were not actually father and daughter. He would do so in America when they met again. His mind drifted to the past remembering everything he had done and his motivation at the time. The death of his pregnant wife, while they lay asleep. Him waking up in a pool of her and the baby's blood, poor child, expelled from the womb of its mother, dead also, for some unknown reason.

  He heard no scream, no call for help, not even a sigh. Nothing.

  At the time, he was having financial difficulties and was thinking of asking his mother-in-law for help, knowing she would certainly help her daughter, despite abhorring her son-in-law. With the death of his wife and child, he no longer had a connection to her. He would not be able to get the help he needed and he would be ruined. His mother-in-law had not even paid them a visit when she was told of her daughter's pregnancy because she could not tolerate him. She had always been against the marriage, on the contrary of her deceased husband who had a certain affinity with him. She was English, like her daughter. Her husband was the buyer of the port wine produced by Leonardo's family and their distributor in England.

  Leonardo met his wife-to-be on a trip at the time when his father was transferring his commercial contacts to him. He stayed with her family, taking care of his father's interests in London. After his father's death, it had been difficult, but necessary, to convince her to move to Portugal so they could continue managing the vineyards. In the second year of work in Portugal, however, a blight destroyed the vines. He needed money to recover them and he had no funds. The sudden death of his wife and son, however, had sealed his fate.

  He locked the door to make sure no one saw the bodies. In desperation, he sought out Jonas and they discussed what to do next.

  Jonas mentioned that one of the work
ers in the vineyard had recently given birth, about twenty days prior, and was being kept from doing any heavy labor.

  She was very beautiful, had arrived with child and was taken in by a family that worked for Leonardo. He knew nothing of the girl's background because she refused to talk about it. If they offered her money, she might give them the girl and disappear into the world. The child to her would be more of a burden than a gift. It was worth a try.

  That is what they did. Leonardo gave Jonas a sum of money that he kept in his house and went back to the bedroom. After a few hours, Jonas returned with the girl. Despite being almost a month old, she was tiny and looked newborn.

  Jonas wrapped the baby girl in a blanket and placed her inside a trunk when he neared Leonardo's house. He managed to enter without being noticed and the girl's cries could not be heard. When they opened the trunk in the room, the poor child was blue from lack of oxygen but she had survived the ordeal. Leonardo then exchanged the bodies, placing the body of his real son in the trunk, which was taken away for burial.

  After everything was ready, Leonardo called the servants in and showed them the live child and the dead wife. If they believed his story or not, he never knew. He replaced the servants one by one over time and when he dismissed them he gave them a good sum of money with the intention of banishing any suspicions they may have had.

  He sent a letter to Catherine informing her of the death of her daughter and the arrival of her granddaughter. It was through this sly deception that he managed to get the funds from his mother-in-law. She paid him a visit to meet her granddaughter and returned a short time later to her home in England. She suspected nothing because the girl was blond like his wife. By that time, Catherine had become a bit blind and mad.

  As for Barbara, she grew into a beautiful and mischievous child. One night, Leonardo, slightly drunk and longing for a woman, decided to find solace in the girl who he had never considered his daughter. Next day he was ashamed of his actions but since it had been done once and nothing came of it, he continued to abuse the poor girl without her even noticing what was going on.

  Her beauty continued to grow and her body became fuller. Leonardo fell in love with the girl and his love for her as a woman only increased. When she reached her teenage years, he realized she hated him. He uncovered a plan of hers to escape by marrying a young boy from the neighboring family. He summoned the lad and gave him a large sum of money to disappear.

  Mario, who wasn't of very good character himself, complied with Leonardo's wishes and simply disappeared. He said he wished to see other places and the money given to him was sufficient to keep him going for quite a while so he left. He abandoned his family and set off to see the world.

  Leonardo could feel Barbara's hate and rancor burning his skin but he could do nothing about it for the time being. They needed to leave Portugal. By going to the continent and telling her the truth, he hoped that with time she would pardon him and the atrocities he committed and, who knows, she may even agree to be his wife.

  Who knew what could happen? He also planned to pay an exorbitant sum of money to Barbara's future husband so he would leave them alone in America. And they would both live in this new land, away from the malign influence of Archbishop Torres.

  Leonardo feared that she may have revealed to him in a confession that they had a carnal relationship, despite being to all those who knew them father and daughter.

  He also feared that the Archbishop would accuse him of incest and was plotting against him. Everything was conspiring against him and Barbara moving to another place, another country, another land far away from these problems.

  He got up, dressed himself and went in search of Jonas. It was time to start preparing for the trip. Jonas would take her to Lisbon and return later for his own escape. He wanted Jonas to accompany him to America because he could not afford to lose his henchman. They would go together to Lisbon and from there embark to New Orleans where they would meet up with Barbara and her husband.

  9. Thoughts

  After her bath, Barbara brushed her hair in front of her dresser mirror and thought about how Leonardo's newly-hatched plan changed her own plans.

  She could use this escape to free herself from the despicable situation she found herself in and get rid of her father. Father. Someone she never actually had. The bastard was simply a dirty old man who violated her body whenever he wanted since she was a child.

  She had thought so many times of killing him when they were alone together but the thought of going to trial and being imprisoned for life kept her from going ahead with the deed. As a father killer, a death sentence was not at all improbable, and very well possible. She could not hire anyone to do the job because she was watched constantly by Jonas and by Leonardo himself. She also did not frequent the dens of iniquity where hired killers could be found nor did she want to be in the hands of this person for the rest of her life. The killer would probably take advantage of her himself and strip her of her inheritance. She, therefore, had given up on this idea long ago. The vision of her dead father at her feet, the pleasure of spitting in his face, sometimes made her think it was worth losing her freedom for but it was not worth dying for.

  So she spent her days waiting for another opportunity to arise. An outstretched hand she could reach out to without getting directly involved. She had seemingly given the impression that she did not agree with the idea of escape but, inside, she knew that the opportunity had come. An opportunity that she had to grasp with both hands. She had already lost hope that the archbishop would do something against Leonardo, like placing him in a dark cell for the rest of his days. Torres was too slow, too cowardly. He could have sent someone to kill Leonardo. From his declarations of undying love, one would have thought he would have killed him himself with his own bare hands. What kind of impassioned man would allow his love to lie with another every night and do nothing about it? He either liked to suffer or simply saw her as a body to make use of like her father. He was another creature whose soul would descend to the seven hells while his body lay rotting. In the least that is what she hoped would happen.

  But when should she make her move? Before or after the marriage? Jonas would only leave her alone after the marriage. She could not act before because it could raise suspicion. She had to marry and run away later.

  Well, it would be easier if her future husband would do her bidding. In this matter, Barbara was confident. She had never met a man who did not lose his composure in her presence, from the oldest to the youngest, they all threw themselves at her feet. At least this ability she knew she had. She would sometimes for fun make her suitors fall desperately in love with her and watch as they worshipped the ground she walked on. But after what had happened to Mario, she decided not to involve anyone else in her plans. Her future husband, however, would have to be made aware of them at some point. She hoped her female charms would be enough. If her guile failed her, however, she had the inheritance. She would be rich when she reached Lisbon. And a person who agreed to marry a stranger must be desperate indeed, as desperate as she was. She needed to get to know him first, discover his motivations and desires, so she could find a way to use him and then get rid of him.

  As soon as she arrived in Lisbon, she would have to find a way to send a letter to the archbishop. She needed to find the time and opportunity, amid her wedding preparations, to find someone who she could trust to serve as her messenger. If not, she would use the church itself. If she were to ask a priest to send a message to the archbishop of Braga, they would certainly accede. It would be preferable, however, to find a person who was not a priest. She did not trust religious men because they liked to enforce limits on everyone's lives except their own. If these were men appointed by God then there was something wrong in heaven.

  As for the letter, by the time it reached the archbishop, she would have left the city, or who knows, she might already be half way to the new continent. She planned in the letter to reveal where he could find the pro
of that would incriminate Leonardo and she would ask him to save her from the terrible fate that would befall her father.

  She would make an impassioned plea about how she tried to take her own life so she wouldn't have to give her body to a man other than Torres and how her father prevented her by whipping her like a slave, leaving deep wounds on her back.

  The archbishop would certainly fly into a rage and this would hopefully cause him to make the decision to finally confront Leonardo. If he managed to get to Leonardo before he escaped, his life would be worth nothing more than a street dog's. The archbishop would probably try to find her but she believed that his commitments would prevent him from leaving Portugal. In any case, she would be very far away from him. With his inability to get to her, she hoped that her absence would drive him mad or that he would rot in a dark bilge of a ship. But this would only happen if he were truly in love. If she was not able to make things happen with Torres' intervention, she would herself kill her evil father in the New World. Since they would be strangers in those parts, it would be easier. The possibility of plunging a dagger in her father's black heart almost changed her mind about sending the letter to the archbishop. But one way or another she would make him pay for everything he had done to her either with his life or with the loss of his freedom. She knew that Leonardo was in love with her. If he were not, she would already have been married to someone else. Maybe prison was a harsher sentence. Her absence in his life would torture him until he fell into the burning pits of hell because she was sure his soul weighed more than a thousand tons of lead.

  In the new world, she would no longer be haunted by her sordid past. She finished brushing her hair, put on her slippers and walked contentedly down the stairs towards the dining room with a smile on her lips. Her plan was coming together. She now had to be ready for any eventualities that might arise. But she had plenty of time to plan every step carefully. Right now, she was hungry. The pleasure of having an opportunity for revenge had opened her appetite.