families. And for the first time the not-so-rich were able to have lace. But the work was so beautiful that royalty and the very wealthy wanted some of it, too. Queen Victoria owned some, and Queen Mary’s coronation dress was rumored to have been made of it.”
I asked him if he had any idea of the value.
“I saw something like it in a shop for six hundred dollars.”
“For a hanky?” I exclaimed and he nodded.
CeeCee shook her head, and her feathered bangs flipped up and down in the resulting breeze. She reached up to push them out of her eyes but then reconsidered and let them be. “That was all very interesting, but nobody’s hook is moving. We made a commitment, remember?”
I took back the hanky and we all got to work. Adele looked at my shawl and let out a “tsk-tsk.” “Pink, you really need to work on your speed.”
I just rolled my eyes.
THE MORE I FOUND OUT ABOUT THE HANDKERCHIEF, the more I believed it was the key to everything. But I still didn’t know how it had landed in Kevin’s office. When I took a break in the afternoon, I headed down the street to the Cottage Shoppe to see if I could find out.
The inside of the store was more in flux than the last time I’d seen it. The for-sale items had even less space.
Dorothy finished a phone call and walked over to me.
“Things look different around here,” I said, gesturing toward the entranceway and the dining room.
“You don’t have to tell me.” She shook her head with dismay. “Mr. Kevin has gone nuts with the restaurant idea. Want some soup? Even with all this upheaval, he’s making it every day.” She shrugged and put up her hands. “People say it’s good.”
“I guess the important question is, is it selling?”
“Surprisingly yes, though it’s almost all a to-go business. Who’d want to eat in there now?”
I nodded in agreement. Tables had been set up next to the heavy plastic sheet hanging where a wall used to be.
“I know you looked at this before,” she said, pointing to the basket of yarn supplies. She took out the yarn swift and opened it. She set it on the floor, picked up one of the hanks of yarn and then showed me how the swift worked. She was quite the saleswoman, though she almost got her arm caught in it. “It works better when it’s attached to a table or something,” she said, indicating the clamp on the bottom. “We’re offering a deal on the swift and the yarn,” she added in her best sales voice. “It’s likely to go fast.”
I wasn’t there to go shopping, but I was tempted. I thought of all the yarn I had already, but the swift was intriguing. Finally, she offered to put them on hold for me. It was an offer I couldn’t resist, and she said she’d stick them in the storage container with a note on it.
I asked her where Trina was.
“She quit. She said she couldn’t get past the trauma of finding Drew,” Dorothy said. “It’s been better for me, more hours, and Mr. Kevin has been taking up the slack.”
I picked up some tea towels with a layer of crocheted trim on the bottom. Now that I had the name of what I was looking for, I thought it might make a difference.
“You mentioned having some heirlooms a while back. I wondered if any of them were Irish crochet,” I said.
She thought for a moment and her face brightened. “Yes, that’s what the stuff was called.” She thought some more. “I don’t know if you ever saw the display room upstairs. It’s where Mr. Kevin’s office is now. It was such a pretty room. Mrs. Brooks used to keep all the really nice stuff up there. The walls were a soft ecru color and made a nice backdrop for the mahogany furniture. She used an old chest of drawers to display antique linens. She always kept candelabra bulbs in the wall sconces so the light was soft. There was an old washstand with a pitcher and washbowl, too.” Dorothy was getting all misty-eyed. “It was so different when she was here. So much nicer. She loved the business and this store. Mr. Drew just cared about making more profit, and Mr. Kevin is dead set on making this some kind of soup emporium.”
She was getting off the subject, so I asked her again about the heirloom items.
“They were in an old-fashioned suitcase. You know, no wheels or handles. I think it was leather and had decals from different places stuck to it. Mrs. Brooks used the suitcase to display them in the room upstairs. There were some pieces I think she called Irish crochet. I think she even tried to show them to me. I just remember some lacy stuff she was oohing and aahing about. To me it all looked like doilies, which I don’t care for. There were other things, too. Some candle-sticks, I think, and a silver tea set.”
“But was there a handkerchief? Something with lots of trim?”
She gave me an odd look, then apparently remembered I’d said I was looking for a hanky for a gift.
“I’m sorry, but all those things sold. Too bad we don’t still have the brochure the seller provided. It probably listed all the items. I think it had the whole story about where the things came from and some photographs.”
I asked for more details, but she shrugged. “I can barely remember
I asked her if she knew who the seller was.
She seemed to be tiring of my questions and said in a dismissive manner, “Mrs. Brooks dealt with the person directly and never disclosed who it was.”
Dorothy seemed relieved when someone came in wanting soup and left me to help them. I headed back to the bookstore, disappointed that I hadn’t gotten more information.
I spent the rest of the afternoon going over a checklist for the Milton Mindell event and putting up the signs announcing it. It was a pleasure not to have any input from Adele—she had the afternoon off.
When I’d finished at the bookstore, I went to the grocery store. I’d received a frantic call from Dinah. She was stuck in the house with the kids and she was losing her mind. This from a person who could whip freshmen into shape in a semester. I would have cooked something and brought it over, but there wasn’t time. Dinah sounded on the edge.
I picked up garlic-roasted potatoes, rotisserie chicken, and salad for Dinah and me, and rice, soda, crackers and that liquid stuff for kids so they wouldn’t get dehyrdrated. Then I picked up some kids’ movies and a couple of toys, scented candles and both salts at the drugstore and headed to Dinah’s. She greeted me with a hug as if she were a shipwrecked sailor and I had just showed up with a lifeboat.
The throwing up had ended, and the kids were feeling better. “Just enough to be really annoying,” Dinah said. I could hear them in the other room playing the same
I gave Dinah the scented candle and the bath salts I had gotten at the drugstore and told her she needed a nice bath. I would take care of things in the meantime. She still had the rescued-sailor look as she headed off to her bathroom.
I replaced the
Dinah came out of the bath looking refreshed and relaxed. I’d set the table, and we all sat down. Dinah ate with gusto, but E. Conner and Ashley-Angela refused to eat the rice or saltines. Finally, I gave them regular food and hoped for the best.
“What would I do without you?” Dinah said as we went into the living room after we’d eaten. The kids took the toys I’d gotten them and went to rewatch the video I’d brought. Knowing they probably would watch it multiple times, I’d picked one about wildlife with a soothing-voiced narrator.
Dinah wanted to know what she’d missed at the crochet group. She was stunned when I told her what Eduardo had said about the hanky.
“Six hundred dollars?” she repeated.
