Night Falls Like Silk

Chapter One

Cassandra Westbrook languidly lifted her paddle for the man with the silky voice. The ornate fireplace poker was an unusual selection for her, but it was listed in the catalog as mid-eighteenth century, a gift from the ambassador of Sweden to railroad baron J. P. Hill. One could always use another poker.

It was a good thing the item she sought this trip was finally coming to the auction floor. She had started bidding on other items out of boredom, which could lead to mistakes. Cassandra seldom made a bad art or antique purchase unless she was bored.

It was the set of century-old Native American ledger drawings that had caught her eye in the Sotheby's of Chicago catalog. Primitives fascinated her. She loved knowing that the piece had been part of an ordinary person's everyday life in a world that to her would be, if she could drop in on it somehow, anything but everyday. Ledger drawings were particularly interesting. They were made during a transition period for Native Americans. The buffalo hides they had used to record their pictographic histories had become so scarce that they were forced to use ledger paper, often given them by their agency supervisors or their army jailors. No matter how bad conditions were, there were memori ... read full excerpt from Night Falls Like Silk ebook