This is the second part of my next installment.
***
Their drive to the plantation not far from Adams Run, South Carolina, was lighthearted and relaxed. When they turned off the road into a wooded area, however, Tori’s dream flashed to the front of her mind. Immediately, she tensed. Her throat constricted with fear. She didn’t like this. It was too close to what she’d already seen. They rounded a curve, and the dream became even more vivid. Large live oak trees, their wide branches dripping with Spanish moss, loomed ominously ahead. All of a sudden, she panicked.
“Stop the car!” she ordered.
Cole slammed the brakes on so hard that he and Tori nearly hit the windshield despite their fastened seat belts. The moment the Rogue ground to a stop, Tori unhooked her belt, threw open the door, and raced back down the road.
Stunned, he sat immobile behind the steering wheel and watched her run away in his rearview mirror. What in the world had caused her terror? How would he ever bypass it to get her to continue with the project?
In only seconds, he recovered from his shock. He scrambled out of the car and sprinted after her. “Tori! Tori, come back!”
But she kept running as if she didn’t hear. Lengthening his strides, he closed the gap between them. Seconds later he caught her and grabbed her upper arm firmly. She screamed in fear. But he spun her into his arms and held her close.
Cole’s touch brought back the memory of the faceless man in her dream, and Tori struggled against him, desperately trying to free herself. She had to prove that she could turn back, but he wouldn’t let her. Instead, he held her tightly.
Despite her mental warning that she was risking her emotional stability, she felt safe in his strong arms. And his soothing words helped relieve her panic as no other man had ever done. Then again, she’d never been that terrified before, so it was possible that any man would send these sensations of security through her.
“It’s okay, Tori,” he said softly.
“No, it’s not.” Although reluctant to stay where she was, she couldn’t break away. The sound of his soothing, masculine voice caused tears to erupt in her eyes as she clung to him. “You don’t understand.”
“Yes, I do. I know the driveway can be spooky.” Tightening his embrace, he rubbed her shoulder tenderly. “I had a very vivid imagination when I was a child. Sometimes I would imagine that the branches of these live oaks were arms reaching out for me.”
Tori sighed at length. It felt good in his strong embrace, comforting and reassuring. His steady heartbeat and even breathing helped allay her fears almost as much as his gentle caress and understanding words. If only she hadn’t accepted this job. If only Paul hadn’t left her at the altar!
This attraction to Cole was dangerous to her sanity. She wanted to keep their relationship professional, but it was already becoming harder every minute she was with him. And she really didn’t want an attachment. Paul had wooed her with flowers and charm. Then he’d asked her to marry him. When she’d agreed, it had been one of the happiest periods of her life—until all the wedding plans had come crashing down on top of her three weeks before the date they’d chosen. He’d come to her one night and told her he was sorry but he couldn’t do it. Then he’d walked out the door—just like her father had walked out on her mother. She’d tried to tell herself it was better this way, but it had taken several months to convince herself.
She was over that now, though—at least she’d thought she was. Now that Cole had walked into her life, it all came flooding back. Losing a man she loved twice in her life was enough. She had to be extra careful to protect herself from Cole’s charm so she didn’t hurt like that again, she reminded herself sternly. This moment of pleasure was wrong, because she couldn’t, she wouldn’t, get involved.
Pushing against his muscular chest with her forearms, she tried to free herself again, but his hold was too secure.
“Let go of me,” she demanded.
“Not until I’m sure you’re all right.”
“I’m fine. Now let go,” she repeated, enunciating each word.
Slackening his grasp, he gazed down at her. Tori had never seen so much concern in a man’s eyes before, and it confused her. Cole hardly knew her, yet the brightness that normally lit up his green eyes had clouded over in worry.
After drawing in a deep breath, he questioned her anxiously. “You won’t run away from me, will you?”
So that was it, she thought as a half-smile came to her lips. He was afraid that she was fleeing from him. Was it because of her overreaction the night before?
“Tori?” His deep voice dragged her from her thoughts. “You won’t, will you?”
“No.” When he released her, she gazed up at him. “I wasn’t running from you. I went to Boone Plantation yesterday, and the entrance road was amazingly similar to this. Then last night I dreamed that I was walking down a lane just like this one and the trees were whispering to me. They said, Our lives are entangled. You cannot turn back.”
“Oh, my God,” he groaned as he combed his fingers through his hair. “Tori, I’m sorry. I didn’t think that would give you nightmares.”
Now that she’d started recounting her dream, she needed to finish it. “And the trees kept laughing at me because I tried to run away but couldn’t. Then I saw a man without a face. Actually, it was the shadow of a man. He was laughing at me. Then he started toward me. I screamed, and that’s when I woke up.”
“I was that man, wasn’t I? That’s why you were running away from me.”
“I really wasn’t running away from you, Mr. Marshall. I was just running away. I had this deep-seeded need to prove that I could turn back.”
“I’m glad you did.”
“But I didn’t. Don’t you see that?” Unable to control her actions, she grabbed his hand in both of hers. “You stopped me. You were right, and so was the man in my dream. I can’t turn back. It’s just not possible. Something’s pulling me forward, dragging me to the mansion. I have to restore that house, Mr. Marshall, even if I have to do it free of charge.”
As his gaze met hers, his boyish, crooked grin returned to his lips. “Don’t worry, Tori. I have every intention of paying you. But there’s one thing that I have to insist on. Make that two things. No more banging phones in my ear.”
Blushing deeply at her folly the previous night, Tori smiled. “Sorry about that, but I was mad at you.”
“I noticed. The other thing is no more calling me Mr. Marshall. I’m old enough to be your big brother—not your father. You have to call me Cole.”
“If there’s nothing else, let’s go check out the mansion so I can give you a quote. That’s the last detail on the contract.”
Cole drove toward the mansion slowly this time. In only moments, the house loomed before them. Its driveway ended in a cul-de-sac before a porch that was nearly a third the length of the building. In the middle was a portico with four Grecian columns; above the portico was a room with a window.
While Cole parked the Rogue, Tori opened her door and got out as she admired the building. Many of the bricks were in obvious need of repair. The white trim and porch were in dire need of scraping and a fresh coat of paint. The classic multi-paned windows had some broken glass that needed replacing, but for the most part, they were intact. Two stories above, there was a bell tower at each end of the long mansion.
“Wow!” she breathed as Cole strode up beside her and shut her door.
“Pretty magnificent, isn’t it,” he observed, taking her hand in his. “I’ll show you around tell you all about this place’s history while we take measurements. Be careful on the porch, though. Some of the boards are rotted through.”
Cole opened both of the massive oak double doors to give her the best view of the main hallway. Directly ahead was another pair of double doors, apparently identical to the ones she’d just stepped through. The hallway was about ten feet wide and over twice as long. On each side were two arched doorways. Unfortunately, she couldn’t tell what shape the oak floors were in, because the hall was cluttered with long-unused furniture.
Wandering slowly forward, she examined a low-back Windsor settee that was approximately six feet long. A couple of the back spindles were broken, but otherwise, it was in good repair—except for the sanding and staining it needed. She looked underneath it. All eight legs were intact. Apparently, not one had been replaced. Even the bobbin-turned stretchers attached to the legs were well preserved.
Standing up, she gazed at Cole in disbelief. “This is an antique, isn’t it? Made somewhere between 1730 and 1760, right?”
He stared down at her, his amazement vividly showing in his expression. “You know antiques, too?”
“I have to. I couldn’t go around the country restoring old buildings without a good background in the area. Are there many other antiques in the house?”
“Everything that Dad left is an antique—except in the apartment where you’ll be staying. That’s all pretty modern stuff, because my aunt and uncle used to live there. Are you ready for the grand tour?”
“I’ll never be more ready. Lead the way.”
The kitchen had been enlarged early during the Civil War and a servant’s hall added. A buttery, which was presently a laundry, and a servant’s stairway to the second floor were also added at that time. A billiard room addition made up the L at one end of the house. The Coleman clan had been Union sympathizers and had built a lookout tower above the kitchen and servants’ hall when it looked like civil war was about to break out.
There were also a breakfast room, storage room, and butler’s pantry toward that end of the house. Another set of stairs led to the second floor. The middle of the first floor contained a dining room and a music room. Across the main hall were more stairs, elaborately decorated with acorn and leaf filigree on the risers. In addition, there were a formal parlor, and a library. What Cole called the extended parlor, adjacent to the formal parlor, had once been a bed chamber.
Then they came to another set of stairs leading to the second floor. Mounting them, Cole explained that the upstairs was the original floor plan but that he had ideas if making it into a bed-and-breakfast was feasible.
“You can’t do that!” she exclaimed, grabbing his wrist tightly. Now that she’d seen the house, she couldn’t let him take that route with his grandfather’s money. “All of this wonderful antique furniture could be ruined by customers, Cole. You would have to store all the furniture you have and replace everything with simulated furniture if you want a period motif. That would be far too costly.”
“I suppose you’re right.” He grinned at her. “Good thing I hired you, isn’t it. I’d probably be spending a bundle otherwise.”
“You’re still going to be spending a bundle, Cole,” she admitted with a slow shake of her head. “I can already see a lot of repairs to make, and that’s just a surface perusal. Let’s finish measuring the main house then go check out the apartment.”
The mansion was much bigger than the others she’d worked on since she was in graduate school. It had a total of nine bedrooms, four bathrooms, four staircases, and sixteen fireplaces. There was only one stipulation that Cole asked her to keep in mind. Since all of the bathrooms were upstairs, he wanted to convert the storage area off the breakfast room into a half-bath. Everything else, he insisted, was completely up to her discretion.
Tori halted as they entered her apartment. The ceilings were at least twenty-feet high, with large fans hanging from the ceiling in each of the five rooms. The furniture was old and needed re-covering, but at least the bed had a new mattress.
“What was this apartment originally used for?” she asked.
“My ancestors put this up during the Civil War, too. It used to be a rectory.” He pointed to the far corner of the living room. “That door over there isn’t a closet. It’s stairs leading to the real bell tower.”
Determined to get the fullest exploration of the house that she could before they left, she said, “I should check out the roof. Come on.”
As they crossed the room, he stopped short and grabbed her elbow. “Wait a minute. Something’s weird about this room.”
“What?” she asked as she glanced around.
“I’m not sure. I don’t remember it looking like this the last time I was here, but that was twenty years ago. My memory is probably faulty.”
“Probably. Come on now. Let’s go up on the roof,” she suggested, eager to see more. “You can figure it out later.”
Once he’d opened the trap door, Cole glanced around the roof to make sure it was safe to walk on. Deciding that it was, he climbed the last few steps and helped Tori from the stairs. “Be careful up here. I haven’t checked it out yet.”
The octagonal bell tower sat near the front of the house. A third of the roof was surrounded by a three-foot high railing, four feet back from the front of the building. It was set two feet back on the side and flush against the back. There it blocked access to the L where the apartment kitchen and dining room were located.
Curious, Tori strode to the railing at the front of the house and swung one leg over it. Instantly, Cole’s arms wrapped around her waist, and he lifted her back.
“Damn it, Tori,” he said angrily. “I told you to be careful.”
Tori pried his arms from around her. “I was being careful. You’re just a nervous Nelly.”
“I’m nervous all right,” he admitted, “but it sure as hell isn’t because you’re a woman. Now stay on this side of the railing.”
Realizing the truth, she laughed. “Why, Cole Marshall. You’re afraid of heights. That’s why you haven’t already checked the roof.”
He blushed. “So what if I am? Just stay on this side.”
“All right, all right. I wouldn’t want to make you nervous.”
Carefully taking each step, she went to the corner of the railings. Once there, she turned around and paced off to the opposite corner. It was approximately sixty-five feet long. That was odd. According to their measurements, the apartment below was a little short of fifty-seven feet long.
“I was hoping that eight feet would show up,” she mumbled.
“What are you talking about?” he asked.
“The measurements you sent me in one of your letters showed a discrepancy of about eight feet. I didn’t give the discrepancy much credence because sometimes it can be hard to measure large buildings alone. That’s one reason I wanted us to do this together today. But in my business, you need a good memory for numbers and measurements. The ones we came up with today and the ones you sent me are still off by seven feet. As far as I’m concerned, we didn’t find an inch.”
“Do you have any idea why it would be so far off?”
“Not a clue.”
Without thinking, she leaned over the far edge of the roof and gazed down at the ground. Again Cole lifted her back.
“Stop doing that,” she said irritably. “I can’t work.”
He glared down at her. “You said you’d stay on this side.”
“Geez, you’re jumpy.” Tori complained as she turned her gaze back to the edge of the roof. “Even taking the two-foot walls into consideration, this railing is quite a bit longer than the apartment. Are you sure you didn’t forget about some hidden passage or something? Old houses like these have them at times.”
“Wait a minute!” he exclaimed. “There used to be an alcove in the apartment. I remember playing in it. I’ll bet that’s the discrepancy.”
“How big was this alcove?” she asked as he steered her to the trap door.
“I don’t know for sure. Let’s go back downstairs and see if I can figure it out.”
“You just want to get off the roof,” she taunted as they started back down the bell tower steps.
“You’re damned right I do. We don’t know how safe it is yet.” When they were back downstairs, Cole studied the end wall as he said, “I was kind of a shrimp until about tenth grade. That’s when I had my growing spurt. Five feet seemed big to me when I was ten.”
“I’d guess that it’s closer to seven feet.” Tori tapped on the wall with her knuckles. Keeping her ear close to the wood, she continued from one corner to the other then turned back toward him. “It doesn’t sound like it’s a supportive wall. We can break it down.”
“Why? I want to leave the apartment alone in case I have a caretaker someday—or a live-in maid. Whatever, I sure don’t want it to be a rectory, not that I have anything against religion. I just don’t have a need for a chapel if I’m just going to be living here.”
Tori stared at him in stunned disbelief. “Aren’t you even curious as to why the alcove was closed off?”
“Not really. It was, and that’s that.”
“But, Cole,” she started to protest.
“I mean it, Tori,” he insisted as he took her hand and led her out of the building. “Leave it alone. Besides, we should get out of here. You’re not even officially on duty until after we fill in your prospective charges at dinner tonight.”
“Come on, Cole. I want to see what’s wrong with that alcove. It might be important.”
“You’re just being nosy, and you know what they say. Curiosity killed the cat.” He gazed at her irritably. “And I won’t let you become a cat.”
Tori stared at him in shock. This was the second time he’d given her an ominous warning. Was it possible that he knew something about the alcove? Was it possible that he was involved in something sinister?