Chapter 21: The Grand Finale and the Future

Friday came around soon enough.

And as arranged the family along with both Erica and Anita, and Cynthia’s friend Myrtle were all there. The finishing touches were being put in place; a cleaning crew were working inside on all 3 floors. The tradies were all in good spirits, there was a lot of laughter and some were singing.

Each of the family were given a formal document by Erica and from ME Project Managers Pty Ltd. It documented all the work that had been done.

Erica started off by explaining the complexities of working with such old buildings, the heritage listings that had to be kept and what they could and couldn’t do. She, along with Mia were happy with the final outcome and they proudly stated that not much had been ‘left out’ of the original ideas and plans. Some changes were necessary as structural issues arose but were overcome with due diligence and modern building practices and codes implemented.

They were all standing at the foot of the staircase, Erica had positioned herself four steps up the Grand Staircase, which looked surprisingly like the staircase from the motion picture ‘TITANIC’. Michelle moved closer to Kathleen and took hold of her hand. She looked up at her Mistress and hugged her arm. Kathleen was beaming with pride. Even though she had seen most of the finished building in fits and starts, having her family there and seeing the look on their faces meant something to her.

Erica continued with her general summarizing of the building work, she left the details to Mia. Just as Mia was about to start a phone started ringing. Kathleen put her hand up, apologised and took the call away from the group.

“Hello, Kathleen Ambrose speaking. Hello Jean-Paul, what perfect timing. We are doing an inspection of the building. So what is the news?” She asked as she waved her hand to everyone to join her. “Jean-Paul, can you wait just a minute, I will put you on speaker so we all can hear you.” She told him.

“Oui Kathleen, of course.” Then once everyone was around her phone she told the Frenchman to continue.

“Ello everyone. We have concluded our investigation into the four paintings you found of your ancestor with Amalie Birkenfeld, who by the way was a ‘colourful’ character. Everyone, I am happy to inform you that the paintings are confirmed to be painted by Comte Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa. We are in no doubt. They are genuine. Everything about those paintings tells us they are real; the paints, the canvas, the frames even. We believe the artist may have taken a little ‘license’ as far as the subjects are concerned. We have no proof that Princess Amalie ever ventured out of Europe at that time. So most likely your ancestor would have travelled to Saxony or Paris most likely. Ello, Kathleen are you there? Ello.”

The last part of his conversation was lost on everyone as they were dancing around, hugging and screaming with delight.

Kathleen finally returned to the phone. “Jean-Paul, we are so excited. What happens now?” She asked bubbling over with joy, her face bright as the midday sun.

“Well Kathleen, this is a major find, an announcement has to be made. Of course,, we have to decide where and when and by whom.” He told her. “There have already been some suggestions in the art circles over here, and that some new works of Toulouse-Lautrec have been found and an announcement is imminent.” He explained. “Something this big cannot be kept a secret for long. I expect a lot of interest from our media, I am not sure if the Australian media would be so interested, I am not so sure.” He concluded.

“OK, so a joint media announcement then?” She asked. Michelle hadn’t let go of Kathleen’s arm all throughout the conversation and celebrations. She was beaming.

“Oui, Kathleen, but we must act quickly, our spring season starts on the 1st. To get as much publicity out to the public, we need to make a big announcement with the paintings.” He told her.

“Jean-Paul, the paintings have been cleaned and are due here tomorrow, I have arranged for two to go to Paris also tomorrow. We could cancel that, then would it not be quicker if you came here and we did the announcement from our new building?” Kathleen explained to him.

“Kathleen, that is very kind of you to offer such a splendid opportunity, however, the French media would never bother to come down to Australie [Australia] it would be too far for some of them. Unfortunately the important ones. We need a compromise somehow? I tell you now, I will make my gallerie available to you at no cost, of course, and maybe we could display all of their lettres d’amour. [love letters] and if the girls could come at the same time, I could arrange such things no?” Jean-Paul replied.

“Jean-Paul, let me talk to my family and I will call you back on this number, yes?” Kathleen informed him.

“Oui Kathleen.” He replied and hung up.

Kathleen clapped her hands to get everyone’s attention, she didn’t need to as everyone was watching her phone call and kind of knew what had just played out. Michelle pulled her Mistress down to whisper to her.

“I think he wants all 4 paintings in Paris along with the girls and the letters,” Michelle told her Mistress. “The French Media will come and I think the Australian ones will all of a sudden become very knowledgeable and involved with Toulouse-Lautrec” as she explained her thoughts.

“This Frenchman may look and sound nice on the outside, but he is only doing what is best for Jean-Paul and his gallerie. Believe me, Mistress, please.”

Kathleen stopped in mid-thought and looked at her young, small mademoiselle. Smiled and then kissed her forehead. “You are so special Mon Chérie.” [my darling].

“Everyone if I can have your attention for a second, that was Jean-Paul, he wants to do a special media announcement, he wants to announce that ‘he’ has found four new previously undisclosed Toulouse-Lautrec paintings, displayed in his gallery, in Paris to the whole world. He didn’t mention anything about the Ambrose family.”

Surprisingly it was Miriam who spoke up first. “Is he serious?”

Kathleen shrugged her shoulders. “He may be just trying it on, of course, but my Michelle, thinks he is very serious!”

Terry stepped forward, “I don’t speak for the family, our Kathleen does that, but I can read her and I know when to stay clear of her when she is ‘pissed off’ and I’m staying clear of her. I am pissed off too. I think it is fair to say, we can tell this Frenchman where to stick his gallery and his press conference. I say let’s do our own, here in this magnificent building at a time of our choosing.”

Terry got a lot of agreement with his statement and Michelle was nodding furiously at his comment about staying clear when her Mistress was not happy.

Kathleen stood there looking at each one of the family, wetting her lip, before she said anything, her mind racing, weighing up who should be the face of this announcement.

She looked at Mia a strong, powerful young woman, no-nonsense about her. She looked over at Emily and her family and smiled at her, young, sexy, she is more than she lets on. Miriam, her niece, is youngish, a wholesome woman, pretty in her own way, but years of being told what she couldn’t do, never let her reach her full potential. Myrtle, she didn’t know. And then looked towards Cynthia the cold fish, who had opened up her own heart these past 4 months, but it was ALL family.

Kathleen then looked at Erica she too was too close to the family, her business is so enshrined with the Ambrose family name. Anita, she could do it. Has the right connections, some political, mostly business, close to the family, yes, but not too close. She did consider Michelle for a brief second but knew that using her would only open up a can of worms.

No, she thought to herself, Anita it was.

“Sorry everyone, I’ve been thinking. We need someone to disclose to the world that we have 4 Toulouse-Lautrec original paintings, as authenticated by the world-famous Parisienne art Galerie Tokade”, Kathleen said.

“Anita sweetheart, who do you know in the media that does a cultural thing?” Kathleen asked her.

“Not sure, I will have to ask around.” She told everyone with a stunned look on her face. Erica whispered to her, then pushed her forward to put her centre of everyone’s attention.