Elm Creek Quilts [04] The Runaway Quilt
Read Elm Creek Quilts [04] The Runaway Quilt Online
Authors: Jennifer Chiaverini
Tags: #Historical, #Adult, #Contemporary
“One of the most compelling storytellers I’ve read. . . . This is a series that has touched my heart. Chiaverini makes her characters and plots so real readers feel as if they’ve stepped back in time.”
—JEAN PEERENBOOM,
Green bay Press–Gazette
A
fter learning of her family’s ties to the slaveholding South, Sylvia Compson scours her attic for clues and discovers a window into the world of her ancestors: the memoir of her great–grandfather’s spinster sister, Gerda Bergstrom.
Gerda’s memoir chronicles the founding of Elm Creek Manor and the tumultuous years when Hans, Anneke, and Gerda Bergstrom sheltered fugitive slaves within its walls, using quilts as a signal of sanctuary. But little did the staunchly abolitionist Gerda know that a traitor was among them, placing the Bergstroms in grave danger and leading to family discord, betrayal, and a secret held for generations.
With the help of the Elm Creek Quilters and clues hidden within antique quilts discovered in the manor’s attic, Sylvia stitches together the pieces of her past and decodes the true nature of the Bergstrom legacy.
“Chiaverini’s fourth offering in her
Elm Creek Quilts
series weaves a modern–day family mystery around a pre–Civil War tale of bravery, deception and the Underground Railroad. . . . Chiaverini manages to impart a healthy dollop of history in a folksy style, while raising moral questions in a suspenseful narrative.”
—PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
J
ENNIFER
C
HIAVERINI
is the
New York Times
–bestselling author of sixteen Elm Creek Quilts novels, as well as four collections of quilt projects inspired by the series, and is the designer of the Elm Creek Quilts fabric lines from Red Rooster Fabrics. She lives with her husband and two sons in Madison, Wisconsin. Visit her online at
www.elmcreek.net.
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THE SOURCE FOR READING GROUPS
COVER DESIGN BY HONI WERNER
A
LSO BY
J
ENNIFER
C
HIAVERINI
The Aloha Quilt
A Quilter’s Holiday
The Lost Quilter
The Quilter’s Kitchen
The Winding Ways Quilt
The New Year’s Quilt
The Quilter’s Homecoming
Circle of Quilters
The Christmas Quilt
The Sugar Camp Quilt
The Master Quilter
The Quilter’s Legacy
The Cross-Country Quilters
Round Robin
The Quilter’s Apprentice
Elm Creek Quilts: Quilt Projects Inspired by
the Elm Creek Quilts Novels
Return to Elm Creek: More Quilt Projects Inspired by
the Elm Creek Quilts Novels
More Elm Creek Quilts: Inspired by
the Elm Creek Quilts Novels
Sylvia’s Bridal Sampler from Elm Creek Quilts:
The True Story Behind the Quilt
SIMON & SCHUSTER PAPERBACKS
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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2002 by Jennifer Chiaverini
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Simon & Schuster Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.
First Simon & Schuster trade paperback edition October 2010
SIMON & SCHUSTER PAPERBACKS and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
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.
Designed by Leslie Phillips
The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows
Chiaverini, Jennifer.
The runaway quilt : an Elm Creek quilts novel / Jennifer Chiaverini.
p. cm.
1. Underground railroad—Fiction. 2. Female friendship—Fiction. 3. Quiltmakers—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3553.H473 R86 2002
813'.54—dc21
2001057567
ISBN 978-0-7432-2226-6
ISBN 978-1-4516-0609-6 (pbk)
ISBN 978-1-4391-4261-5 (ebook)
To Marty and Nicholas,
with all my love.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book would not have been possible without the expertise and guidance of Denise Roy, Maria Massie, Rebecca Davis, and Tara Parsons. Thank you for your wisdom and your friendship.
I am grateful to author Barbara Brackman for providing me with important historical information regarding Civil War–era quilts and the use of quilts as signals on the Underground Railroad.
Thank you, Christine Johnson, for reading the manuscript of
The Quilter’s Apprentice
so many years ago and posing the question that became this novel.
I thank my friends and family, especially Geraldine Neidenbach, Heather Neidenbach, Nic Neidenbach, Virginia and Edward Riechman, Leonard and Marlene Chiaverini, Martin Lang, Rachel and Chip Sauer, Anne Spurgeon, Vanessa Alt, the Mad City Quilters, and the members of RCTQ, for your encouragement and support.
Most of all, I am grateful to my husband, Marty, and my son, Nicholas, who inspire me every day with their humor and their love.
THE
RUNAWAY
QUILT
1