"You don't expect to find strange men lurking in the woods when you're on your way to grandfather's house?" he teased.
"Not usually," she admitted with the barest hint of a smile.
"And you're wondering what on earth I'm doing here," he concluded, once more taking the initiative.
"Well . . . yes."
"I came by hoping to call on your grandfather," Cole lied, regretting the necessity.
"You did?" Her face looked skeptical as he skirted an overgrown rosebush to join her on the path.
"Yes. And as I walked up the drive, I felt like I'd stumbled into a lost world." He gestured toward the huge house, looming pale and ghostly at the end of the path.
Elinor's eyes glanced briefly at the house. "It is otherworldly, isn't it?" She glanced back at him. "You came to see my grandfather?"
"He's always been a significant member of the community," Cole offered in explanation, his senses distracted by her soft scent. "And I thought it would be polite to come by and let him know what my plans are for the manufacturing plant."
A faint sadness settled in Elinor's eyes. "That's very sweet of you, Cole, but I'm afraid my grandfather isn't able to take much part in the community these days. Even if he'd want to, which I doubt."
"He wouldn't?" Cole murmured, battling an insane urge to reach out and stroke her fair skin. She would be soft, he knew, like a pale rose. Would her scent drift up to him, heady and overpowering, if he crushed her in his arms?
She shook her head. "My grandfather is an irascible old coot and has been most of his life, apparently." She paused, her face puzzled. "You lived here as a boy; surely you knew him."
"Why, Miss Elinor," Cole chuckled. "You have a mistaken idea of my social status. Everyone in town knew who your grandfather was, but I certainly wasn't one of his privileged inner circle." Technically, it was the truth.
"I don't suppose he had time for children," Elinor mused as they slowly walked together toward the big house.
Again, Cole wondered at her relationship with the old man. Hadn't he had time for her as a child?
"Age has taken a hard toll on my grandfather," she confided. "His eyesight isn't good now, and he's frequently forgetful. It's very difficult for him, and I'm tempted to blame his unhappy personality on his poor health, but, Charlie, the man who takes care of him, says he's always been that way."
"You didn't see your grandfather much when you were growing up, did you?" Cole asked, his mind busily digesting everything she'd said as they left the path and walked on to the ragged green lawn. He'd forgotten about Charlie, and that was a mistake, because Charlie had never been anyone's fool.
"No, we never visited," she answered candidly. "My father and grandfather had a huge fight when I was small and they never made it up. Actually, I think my father would have liked to before he died, but my mother was always bitterly angry toward grandfather."
"Parents leave a tremendous legacy, don't they?" Cole said softly, the memory of his own father as tangible as the great columns of Oakleigh.
"Yes, they do," Elinor agreed, pausing on the low front step to meet his eyes.
"Will you introduce me to your grandfather?" he entreated, his tone low. God only knew why he was pushing this. Being recognized by Charlie or the old man would jeopardize all his plans, but he had a sudden urge to see just what Elinor had taken on in coming back to get to know her grandfather. There was no one else but her and old Charlie to care for Daniel Prescott.
"Of course. If you like," she acquiesced, turning to cross the wide lower gallery to the front door. "But, I warn you, he's sometimes very testy."
The main entrance doorway, surrounded by heavy, leaded glass, opened onto a wide hallway from which a magnificent spiral staircase rose to the third floor. Cole followed Elinor as she passed through the entry without a second glance at its tarnished beauty.
"Grandfather!" she called out as she went through to a large room to the right. "It's Elinor. I've brought a guest for you."
The shrunken frame of Daniel Prescott occupied a chair in a darkened corner. As he followed Elinor into the room, Cole's nostrils recoiled. The room stank of age, the medicated decay of a human life. A hospital bed occupied a far corner, giving testimony to just how small Daniel Prescott's world had become.
"I don't want to see you." Prescott's quavering voice was a far cry from the irritated boom Cole remembered. "I told you when I let you rent that cottage from me. I don't want you hanging over me. I don't need no woman hanging over me."
He made her pay to live in that tumble-down cottage? From what Cole had seen, she had to have spent a fortune just to make it livable.
"I know, Grandfather," Elinor soothed. "I won't stay long, but Charlie had to go out for a while and I promised to stop in and make sure you have everything."
Cole relaxed. With Daniel's attendant absent, the threat of recognition diminished considerably.
"Where is Charlie? I should have fired him twenty years ago," the old man swore viciously." He's never around when he's needed. Always out drinkin' and whorin'."
Hanging back by the doorway, Cole felt his lips twitch at the image of the upstanding Charlie engaged in either activity.
"There's no need for you to get upset," Elinor said bracingly. "He'll be back soon. And there's someone here who wants to meet you. Do you feel up to it?"
"I'm fine," Daniel Prescott spat out. "There's nothing wrong with me."
"Good." Elinor held her hand out to Cole in a gesture so sweetly eloquent of invitation that he longed to kiss her then and there. Instead, he moved forward, knowing she was unaware of the impact she had on him.
As he stepped farther into the darkness surrounding Daniel, Cole felt the hairs prickle on his neck as his pulse picked up its tempo. Risk always did that to him. Surely it was more that than any real anxiety over facing the nemesis from his youth. He was a man now, successful and powerful, and Daniel Prescott had withered into a shell of his former self, unable to harm anyone but himself.
"Who's that?" Daniel quavered venomously. "Some man come sniffin' round your skirts?"