Page 30 of His Unexpected Heir

“I agree,” Matteo announced. “You’re going to be a great father. Just like I am.”

Eldora’s fingernails bit into her palms. When she heard footsteps coming down the stone stairs, she retreated, her mind reeling with the news. She had to tell her cohorts about this latest development. Maybe they should call off the plan?

They’d have to get this information to Ricardo. He’d know how to move forward. The man was a brilliant strategist. He’d often referred to himself as Machiavellian in his machinations. Eldora had no idea who that was, but he must have been a great man.

Untying her apron, she hung it on the hook, then grabbed her keys. It took her only ten minutes to drive down to the village, texting everyone along the way that they needed to meet.

As she parked behind the old barn beside three other cars, she knew everyone had gotten her message.

“What’s up?” Manuel asked, leaning against two hay bales, obviously unconcerned. “I thought you said that we shouldn’t meet up like this until the deed was done.”

Eldora sighed heavily as she trudged through the rotting straw that littered the dirt floor of the barn. She didn’t speak until she was in the center of their foursome, enjoying the moment of power.

“We have to stop,” Eldora finally announced.

The three others in their group straightened up. “Not a chance!” Maria gasped. “Antonio is mine! You promised me! I have the wedding all planned! If I don’t marry him, I’ll be humiliated in the village!”

“She’s pregnant,” Eldora blurted out.

There was a long silence. Finally, Manuel stepped forward. “I thought you told us that she wasn’t sleeping with him! How can she be pregnant if she isn’t sleeping with him?”

Eldora grimaced and crossed her arms over her chest as she glared at her co-conspirators. “Apparently, she’s about five months along. She got pregnant at a wedding a while back. It was some high society thing and…” she shrugged, exasperated. “Well, we can’t get rid of her now.”

Maria jumped up and stomped her foot. “Yes we can!” She looked around, pushing her dark, glossy curls out of her face. “This changes nothing! You know it doesn’t! When Ricardo comes back, he’ll want everything exactly right. And I’ve been promised to be Antonio’s wife! I will become the Marquesa!”

Eldora rolled her eyes. “I’m not killing a pregnant woman, no matter how badly you want a title!”

Jeb sighed heavily. “I don’t think we should stop either,” he said, the most logical of the foursome. He looked at each of them one by one. “You know what Ricardo is like when things aren’t the way he wants. He’s…”

Manuel nodded, clasping his hands behind his back as he stared down at the mottled dirt. “Evil.”

Everyone nodded, silently agreeing. “We have to do it,” Jeb said.

Eldora chewed on the inside of her lip, contemplating his words. Then she shook her head. “It isn’t right,” she asserted firmly. “Not with a babe on the way.”

Manuel looked into Eldora’s tired eyes. “Are you willing to take the chance that Ricardo will be released and come home without everything exactly the way he wants?” he asked, his voice barely above a whisper.

Eldora considered for a moment, then shrugged. “It’s a babe.”

Maria flipped her hair again, then made a show of pretending to examine her nails. “I promised Ricardo that I’d give him grandchildren.” She looked at the others, obviously not overly excited about the prospect. Her hand smoothed over her flat stomach and she shuddered with revulsion. “He promised me a title if I agreed to give him a handsome heir.”

Eldora thought about it for another moment, then shook her head. “I’m not helping kill her. Not with a babe.”

And then she turned, leaving the barn. She drove silently back to the castle, preoccupied with anxiety. She’d have to leave, find a place to hide, she thought as she parked in her normal spot behind the castle. She couldn’t be around when Ricardo is released. He would whip her until there was no skin left. Absently, she rubbed her arm, remembering the time he’d hit her so hard that she’d fallen down on the stone floor of the kitchen. She’d hit the floor so hard, she’d broken her arm. He hadn’t allowed her to see a doctor for four days. By that time, the bones had started to heal, so they’d had to rebreak the bones all over again to set them properly.

No, she didn’t ever want to go through that kind of pain again.

She could retire. She could ask Antonio to pension her off. Resentment that he hadn’t already done so burned like acid inside of her. Everyone else had been allowed to retire but she’d been forced to stay on. She hated her job. She’d hated it since she’d been a young girl and had been sent to the castle to cook and clean for the previous housekeeper. There’d been so many parties back then, and much more work.

Maybe she should be grateful that it was a small household now.

And yet, if the new master married the bitch, the extravagant parties would start up all over again. That’s what this woman did for a living. The Astra woman threw parties for folks. Rumor had it that she traveled all over the world throwing parties. So if the bitch stuck around, if she married Antonio, there would be a hell of a lot more work to do.

Eldora trudged into the kitchen and started to prepare dinner. She made simple foods for the evening meal, but seasoned them properly tonight. With just the two, or three, of them eating dinner, Eldora hadn’t given a whit if they hadn’t enjoyed the meal. In fact, it had been her intention that the three of them would head on down to the pub for their meals. That way, Jeb, Manuel, or Maria would have to kill them off.

But with a house full of guests, Eldora ignored the master’s orders about the food preparations. Tonight’s dinner would be simple, hearty fare instead of the inedible stuff she’d been serving. And no poisons!

There had already been three attempts so far. Three failed attempts. The bitch hadn’t drunk the tea or lemonade, and Antonio had been driving too fast that one day for Manuel to set the trap that would have injured or killed both of them on the drive from the castle to the village.

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