“You have questions,” Diana commented.
“What can you tell us about it?”
Diana Jodion sat back at the desk. “As we know from the history of the Bayeaux Tapestry, very often they were an archive of important events—marriages, family life, celebrations, and war,” she added.
“There was a time they could be found in most of the great houses of Europe, but they have disappeared over time so that now there are only a handful in museums that have survived.”
The Bayeaux had survived for hundreds of years and was saved from destruction. The Raveneau Tapestry had also survived. The photograph was proof of that, but that still didn't explain the reason Cate had abandoned work on her latest book and come in search of information about it.
“Where is the tapestry now?” Kris asked. If she could see it, maybe that would provide some answers.
“Sadly, it was lost during the war, like so many artifacts when the Germans occupied France,” Diana explained. “The photograph you have is quite possibly the last one that was taken before it disappeared.”
Stolen, looted by the Germans, or destroyed in the Allied bombings. It was well-known that some of the great Masters’ paintings had been confiscated by the Nazis. Some had been recovered after the war and now hung in museums like the Louvre, but many, numbering in the hundreds, were never found and presumed lost forever. Over the past few years there had been reports of lost art discovered in an attic or apartment after the owner died, hidden for over seventy years. And there was the recent publicity over a lost 'gold train,' supposedly filled with looted gold and artifacts that disappeared in Poland in the last months of the war. So far, no gold train had been found.
“Are there any other photographs of it?” Kris asked.
“Some have survived, taken before the war,” Diana replied. “Let me show you.”
She turned to a computer screen and entered search information. Several images came up.
“These color photographs are from an early documentary. The lighting was not good, as you see, and the color technology was not what it is today, but this photograph will give you an idea of the size and scope of the tapestry. This was taken in 1937. Sadly, there are not more photographs of the individual panels but you can see some of the images.” She turned the computer screen so they could both see the images that came up.
“You see the hunt scene, a very common theme in Medieval tapestries, and then the scene of a young knight going off to war. This was during the last of the Crusades so it was not uncommon to find these images in artwork. Although you will see something very unusual in the next image if you look closely. It has caused much speculation over the years,” she pointed out.
“It is a young woman in a knight's tunic and armor. See the braid of long hair she is wearing?”
“Who was she?” Kris asked.
“It is thought that it might very well be Isabel Raveneau, a young noblewoman of the time, and so the name of the tapestry. Her family name was Montfort, a very prominent family during this period, very wealthy. Raveneau was the name of her mother's family.”
“Why would she take her mother's name?”
Diana shrugged. “There could be any number of reasons. History is filled with such stories. It is said that she was her grandfather's only heir to the Raveneau fortunes.”
“Where was this photograph taken?” James asked, leaning across the desk to study it more closely.
“At the Abbey Mont St. Michel,” Diana replied. “You can see in the background. It hung in the sacristy of the abbey before the war, supposedly a gift from Isabel Raveneau. It is said that she lived there for many years.”
“She was a nun?” James asked.
Diana shook her head. “She was a patron of the abbey, and for whatever reason chose to live there.”
It wasn't uncommon, Kris knew. Many wealthy and influential families of the Medieval period became patrons of churches throughout Europe. Atonement, absolution of sins, or possibly as a way to buy their way into heaven—religion and power.
“What would it be worth today?” James asked.
“That would depend on its condition. Your friend asked the same question. I told her the same—it is impossible to know. A mystery, no?” she added. She looked over at Kris.
“Are these not the things that novels are written about?”
Kris had come hoping to find answers. She had only more questions.
“You said there were stories about the tapestry? What sort of stories?”
“The most common one is that there was a secret in the tapestry, woven in the images.”
“What secret?”
