The OWLS Club Pt. 11

There were multiple footsteps now as I heard them come towards the kitchen.

I got up and met them at the kitchen door, hugged Terry and kissed him on both cheeks. Hugged both Miriam and gave Cynthia and gentle hug. Warm but not too warm.

They all entered the kitchen and saw Michelle standing there smiling at them.

"Everyone meet Michelle Dumuir, she is staying here for a short while."

"Michelle, rencontrez mon frère Terence et sa femme Cynthia et leur fille Miriam."

"Michelle is French, she speaks a little English but not too much. I will need to interpret for you all. She also speaks German and has an acquaintance back in Paris who works at a Gallery which specialises in Henri Toulouse Lautrec." I explained.

Terry put out his hand and they shook hands, while Cynthia went to do the same thing, but Michelle moved forward, hugged her and kissed her on both cheeks as she did with Miriam.

"Customary to hug and kiss on the cheeks when first introduced." I explained.

Michelle turned to me smiling. "Votre belle-sœur est un poisson froid, mais votre nièce est chaude au toucher."

I smiled and nodded at her. Then explained that she was pleased to meet my family.

"Let's go into the front room, I have something to show you all." My three guests led the way back, I gave Michelle a loving glare.

We all went into the formal lounge where the paintings were we were looking at the paintings when the front doorbell rang. I left them there open mouthed as I went to answer the front door. It was both Mia and Emily. I took them into the formal lounge.

Emily went in first. "Hi grand ma, Hi grand pa." and she gave them the warmest of hugs. "It's great to see you. And grand pa, I have something for you in the car. Oh hi mum." And she went across and hugged and kissed her mum. "What's the matter?" she asked as everyone was looking at her, then at the paintings. Mia came across and held Emily by the shoulders and pointed her towards the paintings.

"What?" She asked again. Then she looked more closely at the paintings. She then went closer and looked again. The colour slowly drained from her face. "Oh wow, Oh my. Who are they?" She asked. Mia was standing behind her, with a total look of disbelief on her face. The room fell quiet. None of us too sure what to say, let alone how to say it.

I spoke up first. "We think the two women are Amalie Birkenfeld of Saxony and Mary Ambrose, but we are going to have some letters translated, before we are truly certain. They are very passionate letters between them, we think."

I looked at Terry and he back at me, nodded as if to say continue. "Emily, do you see the likeness between you and the woman in the painting?" I asked her.

"I little maybe. But that's just a coincidence, surely."

It was Miriam who spoke up and said the obvious. "If I didn't know better I would have sworn it was a painting of Emily." She had tears in her eyes.

Even Cynthia agreed. "The likeness is uncanny. If I hadn't seen this for myself, there is no way i would have believed it, no matter who told me." She went and sat down, as did Terry and myself.

Then I witnessed a most amazing thing. Mia went and held Emily in her arms, who started to cry. It started as simply weeping, but soon she opened up, more than just sobbing, it was as if she had a realization of what she was seeing, her heart opened up and she let years of torture and pain, the pent up emotion of hiding was released from her body. Mia cradled her, as did her mother. The three of them stood in the middle of the old family lounge, before a piece of family history. They were all crying, but hugging each other in a comforting, soothing way.

I could hear Emily, she was breaking my heart. I looked over at Cynthia, who also had tears in her eyes. Both of us wanted what was best for Emily. The problem was we had different ideas of what that was.

Then of all people, she too broke. My cold as a fish Sister in Law, got up and hugged all 3 of them. In the middle of all of this was our little Em, crying her heart out. I looked at Terry, he at me and shrugged his shoulders. It took some old paintings to bring these women of my family to a realization that Love is Love.

Terry turned to me saw the effect it had on me and whispered. "You couldn't have scripted this any better, EVEN if you had tried Kathleen."

I too had tears in my eyes. Michelle came across and hugged me.

I reached a hand out and Terry grabbed it, came over to both Michelle and I and hugged us both.

He then took the lead in a rare moment of being a true Ambrose male.

"Alright everyone, lets catch our breath and talk about what we have here." He continued in a forceful tone. "We need to get these paintings authenticated." Then turning to me, "This is where Miss Dumuir comes into the picture so to speak." I nodded. "I take it you plan to use her to translate those letters as well?" I nodded once again. Michelle squeezed me.

Cindy looked over at us and all I saw in her eyes was, puzzlement. I was about to ask, what her problem was when Terry stepped in between us, blocking my view and hers of us.

A sense of timing was something he had mastered.

Then turning around on the spot ask me. "What else is there big sister?"

"Well we have a letter signed by Napoleon Bonaparte the third. Michelle thinks it is legit. We have 75 bottles of rare French wine, which at the current market rate is valued at over 900 thousand dollars."

I was beginning to get me emotions back under control so I continued. "We need to see where we stand with that, legally wise, so I will be ringing Jen Halloran first thing to get her to look into it."

"Once we get everything either authenticated or dismissed as fakes, we can move on to the next step."

"The question is. What do we do with it all?"