by Olivia Swift
“That is exactly what I had in mind,” she said. “Do you know what it would cost?”
“In fact, I do.” He grinned and told her that he knew the firm that had installed it. He calls me when he needs any groundwork done. His name is Clay Craven, and he emailed me this.” He gave her the phone, and her eyes widened.
“I can afford that,” she said. “And maybe get the coffee shop as well.” She thought for a second. “What is the catch? He can’t do it until next year?” Rob took his phone back and laughed at her serious face.
“He can start as soon as we have the structure up, and since it is all modular, will take about a week. Relax Kim. Let Uncle Rob set it up for you.” The smile that spread over her face was the one he wanted to see, and she leaned across and kissed him on the cheek.
“You are the best friend in the whole world—the whole universe,” she said. Rob took her hand and told her she was very welcome to all the help he could give. Then he finished his steak.
“Let’s go and see this weird shop,” Rob said, “and if you like, I can introduce you to Clay Craven.”
“Really?” Kim answered. “What a great day this is turning out to be.” Rob thought that any day was great if Kim Summers was happy, but he held out a hand and she took it to walk out of the restaurant. They found a place to park near the alley they were trying to find and after a block of walking, found a turn and then another turn into the alley.
“Thank heaven for GPS,” Kim said as she tucked her smartphone away. “Would we have found it just wandering around?” He didn’t need to answer because the place in question was in front of them. They peered in the rather dusty window which had a selection of goods of all sorts. “Doesn’t look wonderful. What on earth made your mom come and see it?”
“Let’s be brave and go inside,” he answered, and she held the edge of his sleeve as he opened the door. It felt like stepping into another world. Kim expected it to be dark and none too clean, but in fact, the room was large, airy, and smelled of some sort of pleasant perfume. A woman was sitting doing some needlework behind the counter and smiled at them.
“Hello,” she welcomed. “Are you searching for something in particular, or would you like to look around?”
“Quilts,” Kim said and stepped forward. “A friend said that she had seen some here.” The shopkeeper held out a hand.
“I’m Miranda,” she said. “These quilts are waiting for you.” It was an odd thing to say, but Miranda took them to another room through an archway, and on some shelves at the back were several quilts. They were all neatly folded and laid on top of each other. There was a table in the room, and she took the quilts on to the table. “Feel free to open them out and inspect them.” She invited. “Call if you have any questions.” The woman went back to her needlework, and Kim looked at Rob.
“It’s not what I expected,” she whispered, and he nodded in agreement. They opened out the first quilt and then the rest. They were an assortment of patchwork and stitched items. One of them was badly torn, but the other five were in reasonable repair, and Kim could see that if carefully washed and repaired, they would be attractive to collectors. There were no prices on any of them. She went back to one, in particular, several times and could not quite reason why. Miranda came back into the room.
“What do you think?” she asked. “One of them speaks to you more than the others, I would say.” Kim nodded and picked up the quilt in question.
“This is a most unusual design. I think it was intended to be a Celtic knot pattern, but it has had a lot of wear.” Miranda smiled. “I knew that you were destined to be the one who took it away.” Rob and Kim both looked at her in surprise and with some disbelief. The woman laughed. “I know that sounds crazy but you can just tell sometimes. I believe in fate stepping in, and the right person comes along at the right time.”
“Why is this one special?” Kim asked, and Miranda told her stories from the previous owner who claimed the quilt had originally come from Scotland with someone who came to make a new life in the new world.
“It must be at least one hundred and fifty years old,” she went on. “Everywhere the quilt has lived, it has brought pleasure and good things to the owner, but it needs someone to save it now. It needs a home where it can be restored to a thing of beauty.”
“That is a great piece of sales talk,” Rob interjected. “How much is this thing of beauty going to cost?” Miranda laid her hand on his arm and he felt a sort of shiver as she did.
“A good question, and this lady will need you to help her with this undertaking, but for the right owner this quilt is a gift.” She turned to Kim and named a price for the other quilts but offered the Celtic one free.
Kim looked at Rob. “What do you think, Rob? The price for the others is reasonable.” Rob was a practical guy, but the atmosphere in this light and airy room had him spooked just a little bit. He drew out his wallet and handed the woman the price of all the quilts. Kim opened her holdall, and they folded the quilts inside. Kim asked about salt and pepper sets, and Miranda showed them what was on the shelf.
“She hasn’t got this one, has she?” Kim pointed to one with lavender violets as a design. Rob was not sure, but Kim bought it anyway.
“You must be related to the lady who bought two sets last week,” Miranda suggested, and Rob said that it was his mom. “She told us about the quilts.”
“Thank you, and thank your mother,” Miranda said. “Have a lovely life.”
“You too,” Kim replied as she closed the door behind her. They had walked to the end of the alleyway when Rob held her arm and pulled her to a halt.
“Was it just me, or did that seem really—spooky?” he asked, and was a bit embarrassed about it. Kim put down the satchel and put her arms around his waist.
“I didn’t want to say anything in case you thought I was imagining things, but yes, it was spooky.”
“Thank goodness.” He laughed. “I thought I was losing it. Let’s grab coffee and get back to normal.”
In the nearest coffee shop, they went over what had happened. The satchel sat on the floor under the table, and Kim opened the top and looked at the shabby piece of sewing. The colors were mostly green, blue, and gold but very faded. Some of it was torn away, and there were a lot of thin and worn-through patches. In parts, someone had attempted repair, and completely different pieces of cloth were attached to the original. She ran her hand over it and started to plan how she would bring it back to life.
“Now that things are normal, it sounds a bit crazy,” Rob said, and bit into a piece of millionaire’s cake.
“Even spooky doesn’t stop you liking cake.” She smiled. “The story that it could have come from Scotland is reasonable, and it is not an American pattern. It probably is very old. I wonder what is inside as the filling. They used to fold sheets of plain material inside at one time. Nowadays, we have a zillion different sorts of foam.”
“What will you do with them?” he asked, and she explained that they would be very gently washed by hand, and then laid out to dry.
“Eventually, I will go over them in detail and see where they need to be mended. The other four look as if they will come up quite well, and when they are restored and pressed, they can go into the new shop—and sold at a profit, I hope.” She suddenly remembered who had paid for them. “I owe you the cash,” she said, and started to find her purse, but he stopped her.
“I’ll pay for them, and if you sell them, we can share the profit. Okay?” She grinned and slipped an arm through his. He carried the satchel as they walked back to the car. “I feel that I have an interest in this new place as I am doing the building work.”
“I think we should give Jazz a call and see if they want to hear about the magic shop.”
“Good idea,” he agreed. “Evan might cook something.” Still smiling she called her sister who was delighted that they wanted to come and tell the story.
“When Molly Kim is in bed, it’s lovely to have some grow
n-up company. Can you bring the plan you told me about?” Kim said that she would, and they drove back to the nursery.
Cherie was locking up, and Jamie had left already. Kim thanked Cherie and told her to go home. She and Rob walked around the shop and made sure it was secure.
“I’m gonna put boots on and see what Jimbo got done,” he said. Kim found boots and went along as well. It was a surprisingly big space when you were outside, and they stood and gazed back at the present nursery and shop.
“The buildings look small. I guess it will be a huge change,” Kim remarked, and Rob pointed out what had been done while they were away.
“Tomorrow,” he told her, “we will lay the asphalt and then it can be the new parking lot.”
“Ooooh!” Kim shouted, and swung around in the space. “I cannot wait.” Rob picked her up and carried her back to the house.
“It will be fantastic. I promise,” he said, and dropped her in the kitchen.
4
“I’ll find the plan to show them,” she called. While he waited, he opened the bag of quilts. He was fingering the Scottish one when she came back; they looked at it carefully. The quilt was still in good condition at the corners and edges, and Kim remarked that they could get a good idea of what the original was like from that.
“I wish we knew when it came to this country,” she said. “I can almost hear the bagpipes play.” Rob gave her a strange look. “What?” she asked. “What?”
“You’ll think I’m going soft in the head but when I opened the bag . . . ” He paused. “I thought I heard a snippet of bagpipe music.”
“That shop has really gotten to both of us. Let’s go to Chestnut Hall and tell them about it.”
True to form, and to Rob’s delight, Evan was wielding utensils at the huge range and delicious smells wafted everywhere. He wandered over to the stove; Evan gave him the job of cutting the rolls for the burgers.
“Oh boy,” Rob said, taking the knife. “Burgers with homemade chutney.” Kim shook her head and showed her sister the plan that Rob had given her the day before. They rolled it out on the table and weighted it down. Evan left the stove and came to look over their shoulders.
“Man, that is a work of art,” he called to Rob. “Is it all your own work?” When Rob said that it was, Evan went back over and slapped him on the back. “Fancy Rob the Wrecker being an artist.”
“You never said why he was called Rob the Wrecker,” Jazz said, and Rob moaned out loud. Evan laughed.
“If you needed anything demolished, Rob was your man. Trouble is, he demolished things like tents that had just been erected.”
“Well he went into heavy machinery, so I guess demolition was his thing,” Jazz answered, and Rob protested that you had to be very careful with heavy machines. Evan went to the door separating his half of the house from his brother’s, and called that there were burgers if anyone wanted one. Dex and Carly appeared as if by magic, along with the bundle of long, brown hair and slobber that was Mungo the rescue dog. Carly shrieked when she saw Kim and came to give her a hug.
The group settled comfortably into finishing the homemade burgers, and Kim said that they had been to the shop that Jenny had found.
“And was it weird?” Jazz asked. Both Rob and Kim nodded.
“In the window, it looked ancient and dusty, but inside it was modern and light. The woman inside was called Miranda, and seemed to think that fate had brought me to find this particular quilt." Kim opened the holdall and drew out the quilts. “Four of these are normal, patchwork quilts from this era. They need a bit of work but will make up okay. But this one—” She took out the Celtic knot quilt and told them what Miranda had said. “It could easily be two or three hundred years old and it is a Celtic knot pattern.”
“It must have taken literally hundreds of hours to make by hand,” Carly remarked. “It must have been beautiful when the material was new.”
“Thing is, the woman said that it was free to the right person, and that Rob would have to help me,” said Kim.
Rob joined in to say that he was not normally spooked by anything, but he was glad to get outside, and then it seemed a bit silly to think there was anything odd. “But Kim felt the same, so I was glad it wasn’t just me.”
“Why would Rob have to help to restore an old quilt?” Dex wondered. The dog was put outside so that they could spread the quilt out properly, and Kim said that she could see the pattern at the edges. She gently lifted a torn piece, and saw that there were three layers of material forming the lining.
“I’ll have to take the top and the bottom off, and then make a new lining, and find out what the original looked like. These odd bits of repair can be removed.” She looked at her friends. “It will take as many hours as it did to originally make.” She laughed. “I won’t be able to part with it after all of that.”
“If we photograph the best bit of pattern, we might be able to find something similar online,” Evan suggested.
“That’s a great idea,” Kim answered. “Thanks. Thing is, with the building work, I cannot do much until we get to Christmas. There is so much to do.”
“You know we’ll help if we can,” Jazz told her.
“And I can deal with all of the building work. We know where we are getting the internal structures. Kim will have to deal with stock and staff though,” Rob added.
“We decided, after talking to customers, that we need a coffee shop.” She looked at Evan. “When the structure is in place, will you tell me what food and drink to bring in, please?” Evan said he would be delighted.
“And when the building is finished, we can all come and help put things in place,” Dex offered.
“I have one new assistant who loves quilting, and she is starting next week to help Cherie.” She told them about Corby Santana. “Her husband left her and apparently she was thinking about a job. She seems like a nice person, so I offered her the job. I’ll see what she says about this quilt next week.”
“What a huge lot of excitement ahead,” Carly said. “Hard work but great to look forward.”
“Rob is taking all the weight of the building work,” Kim answered. “I am not even thinking about it. Just letting him get on with it.” She smiled across at him. “Don’t think I could tackle it with somebody I didn’t know.”
“Rob the Wrecker,” Evan joked. “Perhaps he is Rob the renovator.” That drew a laugh from everyone, and Kim packed away the quilts. Before she did, Evan took out his phone and took a picture of the pattern. “We can all search for the pattern,” he added. “I’ll mention it to Jules because he has the best equipment and lots of internet ideas that are well beyond me.”
“How is the barn coming along?” Kim asked. “I have been so busy myself that I haven’t been down there.” Jazz answered that it was looking good, and they were working on advertising to get people to drive out to the edge of town.
“Jules’s name as a photographer should bring people out to see what he is doing,” Dex added. “Perhaps they will be organized, and so will the garden center, by Christmas.”
“And we can have a big get-together,” Evan finished as Kim stood up, and Rob took the satchel.
The next three days flew by as Rob made the new parking lot usable, and they redirected customers. The existing parking lot was barricaded off for safety reasons, and he marked out the foundations. On the third day, Rob, and his three employees were on-site to pour the concrete. Kim walked over a few times to see how they were making progress, and it looked very messy and very large. The foundation did not quite meet the existing building, but a narrow one was laid so that a wide corridor could join the two sections. When Rob came over at the end of the working day, Kim offered him food as usual, but then asked him if it was more sensible to make the existing building the coffee shop and toilets. He consulted his plans and nodded.
Rob said, “It’s a good idea. The plumbing is already in place. We will only need water to the houseplant area. Makes it easier and cheaper.”
“Oh, I like that,” Kim said. “So that’s decided, is it?”
“Yes, it is,” Rob answered. “Have you had time to look at the quilt, or find out anything yet?”
“I’ve picked it up a few times and then not done anything. I think I’m frightened to start in case I spoil it completely.” She reached for a piece of paper printed from the internet. “I think it’s like this.”
Rob gazed at the picture and nodded. “It is so complicated. How could anyone have done that?”
She went and picked up the quilt. “I have discovered one thing. The decoration is sewed onto separate squares and then the squares are stitched together. That would make it more manageable—and easier—to repair, thank goodness.”
“You’ve made progress,” said Rob. “I’ve laid all of the foundations and will leave it for the weekend to go off. Clay Craven is closed normally on a Sunday, but says he will meet us at the factory if you would like to see the sections.”
“Oh, I would love to,” Kim said with a look of pure excitement, which did something to Rob’s insides that he hoped she couldn’t sense.
“So, what about a bite of lunch and we’ll meet him at two o’clock in the afternoon?” Kim nodded and then said that she would pay this time. He let her have that rider and said he would pick her up at eleven. “Might have a long lie in bed tomorrow. The walls arrive on Monday,” Rob finished.
Kim came to the door with him and stood on tiptoe to kiss his cheek. “Thanks for all the hard work, Rob. Don’t know what I would do without you.”
“You know you don’t need to do without me,” he replied with a smile and rubbed his cheek where her lips had touched. “See you Sunday.” As she watched him go, he walked to his truck with that easy stride. Somewhere inside her head there was a message tapping to get out, but she left it there and went back inside.
