Emperor's New Quilt: A Taylor Quinn Quilt Shop Mystery (The Taylor Quinn Quilt Shop Mysteries Book 5) by Tess Rothery

Author:Tess Rothery [Rothery, Tess]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: P31H
Published: 2020-10-30T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

They went to the museum despite the possibility of running into Ramona and fairly sure that Gus would follow them. They were not disappointed when they arrived and found they had the museum and Lorraine to themselves.

Graham had an impressively deferential attitude towards Lorraine, and whether it was that or the disarming smile that had sucked Taylor in so quickly, Lorraine responded warmly to his questions.

She took them back to the outbuilding and let them examine the quilt again. It was spread over the table where Shawna had died, as though it wanted to comfort the space somehow.

Taylor felt a warmth toward the old quilt, though she knew it was just fabric, and didn’t have any feelings.

Lorraine passed out the white cotton gloves. Graham donned his as though examining historical textiles was a regular thing in his gig for the newspaper.

Taylor did the same.

Lorraine presented them with tiny magnifying glasses. “We ought to examine this closely,” she said, almost purring. “I've had a report back from my friend, the expert, Erika. The backing and field fabric are a linen and cotton blend. Without a laboratory, we can't be sure that it's old enough to have been an English Regency era sail, but from the content of the fiber, we know it is an era-appropriate possibility. They did not use that blend for a significant amount of time, so the window for the age of fabric has been narrowed.”

Taylor ran her cotton-covered finger across the rough surface. It was sturdy, even after all these years, or at least you could tell it had been sturdy. Not something a lady would usually choose to do decorative work on. The pieces of fabric that had been turned into appliqué were a much softer material, as though someone had repurposed clothing that had been worn for a long time.

Lorraine also traced one of the feathers with a finger. “This material was easily identifiable as wool, but more than that, Erika didn’t say. The call had been primarily about the linen. She was extremely excited.”

“Were you able to contact the Chachalu Museum at the Confederated Tribes of Grande Ronde?” Taylor found herself using the formal name for the reservation, almost like she wanted to catch Graham up on their previous conversations.

“Based on the design alone,” Lorraine said, “it could easily have tribal roots, however, if that’s the case, it would be much newer than we hope.”

Graham scratched his head with his cotton-gloved hand.

Lorraine tsk’d.

He looked sheepish and apologized as he pulled the glove off.

“It might look as though there isn't much more we could do to destroy this,” she said, “but that is all the more reason to be careful going forward. If a Native American woman from a local tribe did this beautiful work, then it should be honored, even if it's only a hundred years old. I’ve spoken with the curator at their museum. She’s very interested.” Lorraine’s wistful tone suggested she really did hope it was European in origin. If it was native, it ought to be repatriated.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.