Quilt As You Go (2 page)

"Well, good,” he said. He clapped her on the back, causing the tea in the cup she'd just picked up to spill onto the table. “Seems like you have the sutler's area taken care of.” He turned to his wife. “Bebe and I were just heading over to the country club. We figured people in Civil War times probably spent more time outdoors then we do. After spending all that money to make sure we have realistic costumes, we figured we better make sure our tans are up to snuff."

Harriet looked at Bebe, whose given name was actually Barbara. If she got any more tan her well-oiled skin was going to look like a piece of burnt toast.

"We wouldn't want that,” she said.

His job for the day done, Carlton took Bebe by the arm and left.

Connie Escorcia got up and went to the bathroom, returning a moment later with a handful of paper towels. She glanced toward the door to make sure Carlton and Bebe were gone.

"Dios mio!” she exclaimed. “How dare he come in here with that ... that...” She broke into rapid-fire Spanish even Harriet couldn't follow, but which apparently referred to Bebe, and not in a good way, either. Connie was a retired teacher and, at five foot even, made up for her diminutive size with her larger-than-life Latina personality. “He dumped all his jobs on you so he can go sit at the pool with her?"

Harriet picked up her quilt, a scrappy design made up of eight-pointed stars and rail-fence blocks, which were squares made from three equal-sized fabric strips of different colors or patterns. Like Lauren, she was hand-stitching the binding onto the edge.

"Somehow, when I agreed to take over Aunt Beth's quilting business, I didn't realize I was also agreeing to this whole business association hoo-ha."

"You're really good at it, though,” Jenny offered. She was a slender, fiftyish woman whose sleek, shoulder-length hair was never out of place. Her taste in quilting normally ran to large pastel floral designs with a blended, low-contrast look. To her credit, for the re-enactment she was making a coverlet with roses and plumes cut from red, pink, yellow and green solids and appliquéd onto an off-white background. A ribbon of green stems with stylized rosebuds circled the rose blocks, forming a border. Jenny was still appliquéing the rosebuds and had arranged with Harriet to machine-quilt it as soon as it was done.

"You're definitely more competent than Carlton,” DeAnn said. “If he was actually doing the job, he'd be making a mess of it, so we're better off with him sitting by the pool with the bimbo."

"DeAnn's right,” Robin added. “The extra work he would have created would have been much worse to deal with.” Robin taught yoga, and believed most problems could be solved with a few cleansing breaths and a stretch. If
she
condemned Carlton's management skill, Harriet had to believe it was bad.

One by one, the women around the table pulled their finished quilts from bags, or fetched them from their cars and stacked them in front of Robin and DeAnn for pricing and labeling. For their part, the two women had made three quilts together, sharing cut strips in shades of blue to make several variations of the Irish Chain Pattern.

Harriet was pleased to see the growing stack of quilts. Going into this event, she'd been concerned about asking the group for such a large commitment of time and resources. She was once again impressed by the willingness of the people in her new home town to pull together no matter what the cause. It didn't seem to matter that the current economy was tough—everyone in the group had donated at least one quilt, and most of them had contributed more than one.

"Honey, could you give me a ride home?” Mavis asked Harriet as she snapped her cell phone closed. “I dropped my car off for an oil change, but of course, Henry found a cracked hose and that worried him, so he wants to change all the hoses and he doesn't have time to finish it tonight."

"Sure, no problem,” Harriet said. “I'll be done in a minute. I want to total up the asking prices DeAnn and Robin came up with for what we have here. We need to earn back five hundred dollars to pay for our share of the tent rentals for the sutler's area."

"That should be easy,” Robin said. “All of the full-sized quilts are priced at least that high."

"You aren't serious, are you?” Lauren asked. “We'll have five hundred after the first hour."

"Of course, I'm not serious,” Harriet said. She nervously tapped her pen on the page she was holding. “I just want to know what to expect profit-wise."

Robin put a garish purple-and-green quilt Sarah had made on the top of the stack.

"That's the last one for now,” she said.

"Let me know if you two need anything,” Harriet said. She finished adding up the figures on their list, wrote them in a small notebook and dropped the book into her bag. “You ready?” she asked Mavis, and when the older woman nodded, they left.

"Do you need to stop at the store or anything while we're in town?” Harriet asked.

Mavis declined, and Harriet pointed her car toward Mavis’ cottage on the wooded shores of the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

Foggy Point is a peninsula on the northwest edge of Washington State. It resembles the head and small front claw of a tyrannosaurus, jutting into the inland waters that form the border between the United States and Canada. In earlier times, the jagged outline of the peninsula made a perfect hiding place for pirates and their sailing ships between forays. Eventually, one of the more successful among them, Cornelius Fogg, had settled down and founded the town of Foggy Point.

The downtown area of Foggy Point was situated on what would be the back of the T-rex's neck and spanned an area of six square blocks, with most of the activity centered within two blocks on either side of Main Street.

Harriet drove down the lane leading to the little house in the woods Mavis called home. Wild roses covered the fence that protected the yard of the fairytale-like cottage.

"Can you come in for a cup of tea?"

"Sure,” Harriet replied. “Here, let me carry your bag.” She got out of the car and grabbed Mavis’ canvas quilting bag from the back seat.

Mavis led the way to the arbored gate and held it for her.

"Did you leave your door open?"

"No, I haven't left it unlocked since Bertie came calling.” Mavis referred to an incident earlier that year when Avanell Jalbert had been murdered by her own brother Bertie, who had then come after Harriet, who was staying with Mavis at the time.

"I don't mean unlocked. It's standing
open
.” Harriet started backing up, pulling her cell phone from her pocket as she went. “I don't have a signal."

"Let's not jump to conclusions. My boys all have keys to the house and some of their kids do, too."

"They
all
have keys? I don't even know where my parents live, much less have a key."

"You have weird parents,” Mavis replied, being all too familiar with Harriet's history.

"Would your kids leave the door standing open?” Harriet asked.

"Not on purpose, but they might have forgotten you have to lift the knob when you shut the door or it doesn't catch."

Mavis brushed past her and went up to the porch. “We didn't see any cars along the road or in my driveway. I'm telling you, it was one of my boys.” She pushed the door open. “Hello,” she called as she went inside.

Harriet grabbed at her to slow her down but Mavis wasn't having it, so she followed her. The house was small; it only took a few moments to check the two bedrooms, bathroom, living room and kitchen. No one was there.

"There's no note, but that's not unusual.” Mavis picked up her teakettle from the stove and added water before setting it back on its burner and turning on the power. “Sit down and put your feet up for a few minutes,” she said and pointed to the living room. “Your aunt Beth told me you've been working late trying to finish the Civil War quilts as quickly as you can. You know that's why her shoulder went bad, don't you?"

"Yes, ma'am,” Harriet said, even though she was pretty sure her aunt had damaged her shoulder long before she'd taken up long-arm quilting. Granted, running the quilting machine for hours on end hadn't helped.

"Have I shown you the new grandmother's flower garden quilt I'm working on?” Mavis was an old-school quilter who sewed the pieces of her quilt top together by hand. She quilted most of her projects by hand, too, although in the interest of time she'd let Harriet machine-quilt one of her Civil War offerings.

"No, but I'd love to see it."

"Katrina's pregnant again, and they just found out it's a girl.” Mavis went into the spare bedroom that doubled as her sewing room. “I'm using..."

"Mavis?” Harriet called when her friend remained silent. Receiving no response, she jumped up and hurried down the short hallway that led to the bedroom.

Mavis stood clutching a worn quilt Harriet had never seen before. Tears streamed down her face.

[Back to Table of Contents]

"Mavis, what's wrong?"
Harriet asked as she eased her normally unshakable friend into a seat on the bed. She grabbed several tissues from a box on the fabric cutting table and handed them to her.

After a few moments, Mavis regained her composure. She stood up and, with a final swipe of her tissue, went into the kitchen, turned the kettle off and started making their tea. She gave one cup to Harriet then picked up the old quilt from the chair back she'd set it on and headed into the living room.

"Come, sit. I owe you an explanation.” She spread the worn lap-sized quilt on the sofa between them. “I haven't seen this quilt in almost twenty years,” she began. “I made this for my husband Gerald. The predominant plaid fabric is from one of his flannel shirts. He wore a brand-new shirt out in the garage to sharpen the blade on the lawn mower, and he caught the sleeve on a nail and tore it from elbow to cuff. Instead of trying to repair such a big tear, I cut the whole shirt up and used it in this quilt."

Harriet studied the plaid pattern, giving her friend time. Green, brown and blue shirtings had been used, giving the quilt its scrappy look.

"Gerald traveled some with his job, but after I made this, he never went on a trip without it. He said it made him feel like he had a little bit of home with him. He died on a trip to Malaysia, but when they returned his personal effects this wasn't with them. I thought it had been lost."

Harriet put her hand on Mavis's arm. “I'm so sorry."

Mavis just shook her head. She leaned back and stared into space as she silently sipped her tea.

Harriet wished Aunt Beth hadn't driven to Seattle for the day. She would know the right thing to say to her oldest friend.

"Do you want me to call the police?” she finally asked, knowing it probably wasn't the comfort Mavis needed, but she couldn't think of anything else.

"What for?” Mavis asked, a little more sharply than usual. “What am I supposed to say—'Oh, officer, a crime's been committed. Someone broke into my house to return a lost quilt to me?’ I'm sure they'd rush right over to solve that one."

Harriet laughed softly, “I guess that's probably not a crime we need to dial nine-one-one over. But someone did come in here uninvited."

"We don't know that. Maybe Gerald left it with one of the boys, and they just now realized what they had. Things were pretty chaotic when Gerald died, him being overseas and all."

"It just seems like your sons would have left a note or called you or something."

"You'd think so, but the two unmarried ones are a little more scattered than the other three. Harry or Ben would have intended to leave a note, but I can easily imagine either one of them going out the door without doing it."

"Maybe we could call Darcy,” Harriet suggested. Darcy Lewis was a quilter and sometimes Loose Thread, but she was also a criminalist based at the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office.

"You know better than anyone she can't do anything unless the sheriff's office or the Foggy Point Police Department sends her, and I'm not involving them."

Harriet heaved a weary sigh and finished her now cold tea in two large gulps.

"I better hit the road,” she said. “I've got quilts waiting on me.” She carried her cup to the kitchen sink, rinsing it before she set it on the counter. “Call me tomorrow if you want a ride back to the car dealer,” she called before slipping out the front door.

Mavis didn't reply. Harriet could see through the front window that the older woman was sitting in her recliner, clutching Gerald's quilt to her chest.

She had almost reached her car when a strange-looking little dog with a too-round head and ears set at an odd angle ran up and started dancing around her feet. She bent down and patted her.

"Hi, Randy.” She picked her up. “Where's your daddy?” she managed to ask as Randy licked her face.

"He's right behind you,” a male voice said, in a falsetto, pretend-dog tone, from over her shoulder.

She turned to face Aiden Jalbert, Foggy Point's newest veterinarian, his arms already closing around her. She leaned into his solid chest—at six-foot-three, he was comfortably tall.

"I'll just stay here till after the re-enactment,” she said.

She'd never thought of herself as one of those shallow women who judged men by their physical attributes, but Aiden's white-blue eyes, set at an angle like a cat's, and his blue-black hair, worn longer than was stylish unless you were a European model, made her heart flutter. The baggy running shorts that exposed his muscular legs only added to his physical appeal. Perhaps there were benefits to dating a man ten years her junior.

"Sounds good to me, as long as Mavis stays gone, that is."

"Mavis is inside in her chair. I brought her home—her car had to stay at the shop. It was good that I was here. Something weird happened.” She told him about the open door, the quilt and Mavis's reaction to it.

Aiden thought for a moment. “I was pretty little when Gerald died.” He looked up at the sky, thinking. “I don't remember anything other than Mom having to spend a lot of time with Mavis for a while."

"Maybe Mavis is right, and one of her sons dropped it off. It seems kind of insensitive to leave it in her house without a note or anything and then to leave the door open on top of that."