When the woman first appears at Thimble Fingers, the needlework shop in The Orchards of Marina Colleen, owner Katherine is eager to aquire a new customer. After all, it’s not unusual for women who know nothing about needlework to come in, take a lesson in the fine art of cross stitch, and walk out with a bag load of supplies, a head full of projects too numerous to accomplish, and a free cup of coffee. But as the owner/customer relationship quickly develops into friendship, questions arise. Why is this woman asking about Katherine’s past behind her back? What is it about Pilar that makes everyone so suspicious? More importantly to the other store owners, what is Katherine hiding in her past? Could all those sharp scissors and needles be emblems of a darker psychotic history? Whatever it is, everyone is uncomfortable with the covert antics of this mysterious stranger. The answers start a series of events that threaten the peaceful life that Katherine had so carefully built for herself.
Travel to the Orchards, the outdoor mall on Vancouver Island where you’ll meet Gary, the sixty something draft dodger hippy who owns the glass blowing shop. He’ll most likely be protesting something and this time, he wears nothing but a diaper while doing it. There’s Bettina, the quilt shop owner. She always has Katherine’s back and will, if she has to, wield a pair of sewing shears to protect her. Chloe, the manager of the frame shop, has her own hidden agenda that hits Katherine in the face – literally. and Tony, the gorgeous owner of Java the Hut, is on a hunt to track down store owners giving away free cups of coffee. And then there’s Kelsey who is…well, he’s just serendipitous.