All Cole's systems went on full alert. The old scoundrel's meaning couldn't be clearer. Had he recognized Cole from the first? More importantly, had Daniel figured out who had made the offer on the house?
Laughter shook Daniel's frail body again. "Maybe it's for the best. The strongest always rise to the top."
Elinor leaned forward in her chair, obviously trying to make sense of his words.
"I always was a stubborn bastard," Daniel commented without regret. "A hard man. But I had to be. There were people all around us—the best families—who were selling out in the twenties."
His wrinkled face sneered. "They called it the Great Depression. Said we were all done in, that no one could make the land pay anymore. But I showed them. I stuck it out." He clutched the arms of his chair with clawlike fingers, his voice rising. "I had to be tough to keep it all going. Everyone was counting on me."
"It's all right, Grandfather." Elinor reached to put a soothing hand on his. "I'm sure they understood you were only doing what you had to do."
Her tender heart was clearly touched by his words. Elinor had lived with the results of Daniel's mistakes. But she didn't seem to have any difficulty extending forgiveness to the grandfather she'd never really known.
"No, they didn't," Daniel disagreed unexpectedly. "They never understood. But I had to do what I did. Even with your daddy." His fingers worried the frayed upholstery fabric.
Cole watched the play of emotion over Elinor's face. This was probably the closest Daniel would ever come to an apology for disowning his son. From everything he'd heard, Cole didn't doubt that Elinor's father got what he deserved. But she had suffered, too, from the divided family and she'd been blameless.
"Jeffrey gave me more grief than ten sons had a right to," Daniel declared, bitterness reverberating in his voice, "with his gambling and wasting money like it was water. My money, of course. He didn't earn an honest penny in his life. And he never could hold his whiskey."
The anger smoothed out of Daniel's face as he sighed deeply. "Still, he was trying to do right by your mama when he found out you were on the way. I shouldn't have kicked them out then. And I should have been nicer to your mama. She was a sourpuss of a woman, but she had her reasons, married to Jeffrey and trying to raise you." He shook his head, his eyes staring sightlessly again. "Even she couldn't save Jeffrey."
"No," Elinor agreed softly. "And she couldn't seem to let go of him, either."
Had she known her mother was pregnant with her when her parents married? Cole wondered. She didn't seem shocked.
Daniel turned to look at her. "I heard your mother died a few years ago. I'm sorry."
Elinor nodded, blinking suddenly moist eyes. "So was I. I miss her a lot."
The old man reached out then, his unsteady hand resting a moment on hers.
The silence in the room seemed deafening as she smiled waveringly at her grandfather. Cole sat silently observing their interaction. Elinor seemed to have forgotten his presence in the moment of reunion with Daniel, but the old man kept shooting him glances. What the heck was he up to?
"Grandfather," Elinor ventured when he let go of her hand and slumped back in his chair. "What do you want me to do about selling Oakleigh? The buyer has set a deadline for your answer."
"I don't give a damn about deadlines," Daniel said irascibly, his gaze stopping on Cole. "I'm too old to scare easy."
Cole stared at him. That message was loud and clear. The old man had put the clues together. He knew Cole was the buyer and he hadn't blocked the sale. The realization stunned Cole. Was Daniel just leading him on, dangling the bait before drawing it back?
"But what do you want me to do about the offer?" Elinor leaned forward. "This is your home."
"You don't know Oakleigh, do you, Elinor?" His eyes glazed over in reminiscence. "I grew up here. Played Civil War in the orchard and hide-and-seek in the attic."
"I'd have liked to grow up here," Elinor admitted.
"You could have grown up near here if your daddy would have settled down." Daniel's bitterness was back. "That boy was born looking for a pot of gold."
"Grandfather," Elinor said, "I really need to know. What do you want me to do about the house? Have you decided?"
"I'm not going to decide," the old man said abruptly. "I'm leaving it up to you. Do what you want with it. I won't be around long enough for it to matter. And I can see that both you and Oakleigh will be in good hands."
Cole frowned. Elinor and the house would be in good hands? What the hell did he mean by that?
Daniel sank back into his chair then, seeming to shrink, his thin eyelids drifting down as Elinor watched him in confusion.
Charlie came back into the room then, as if on cue. "I'll show you both to the door now, Miss Elinor."
Elinor stood on the gallery with Cole, minutes later, feeling confused and frustrated.
A sense of constraint fell on her now that they were alone. Their last meeting had been too angry, too unresolved, for her to slip again into a comfortable conversation with Cole.
You know me better than you think, he'd said at the end of their argument. She'd thought about that statement many times in the last two days The words rang like a confession, even if his manner hadn't. Had he been romancing her to get what he wanted?
"I have no idea why he asked you to come," she said finally as they crossed the wide gallery.
"He wanted to see the millionaire." Cole laughed as if he knew some secret joke.
"You could have left," she said waspishly. "The conversation had nothing to do with you."
"You think so?" He slanted her a glance. "It seemed terribly relevant to me."
Elinor shot him an irritated glance, annoyed at his flippant attitude. "How do you figure that?"
Cole smiled at her lovingly. "I'm interested in anything that has to do with you."
Acute breathlessness attacked her, increasing her irritation. She hated herself for wanting to take him seriously.
The visit with Daniel left her feeling shaken, both sad and tender. For the first time, he'd responded to her as a grandfather.
His disclosures left her with a sense of connection that she hadn't had since her mother died. But the problem of what to do with Oakleigh loomed ever larger. The buyer's deadline was the day after tomorrow.