48 A tour of the Private Gallery

"I remember being here," Changying said as she walked into the cavernous warehouse gallery. It seemed huge now that it was empty of people and the partition walls that had divided the space during the showing. Dante raised an inquiring eyebrow at her, and she explained, "Wang brought me here on our first date."

"After he burnt you and starved you to the point of fainting he brought you here?" Dante smirked, "and after all that you accepted a second date?" Changying giggled as Wang scowled.

"Your brother has his charms," Changying grinned.

"I do indeed," A voice sounded behind them and Emilio walked out from a large double doorway. Startled, Louisa looked between Dante and Emilio, her eyes wide at the identical twins. "Just a shame I have to share most of them with Dante. How are you, Changying? Long-time no see," He said embracing her and kissing her cheek. Changying introduced her friend Louisa and said she hadn't expected him to be here, but she was very glad he was.

"Wang promised the girls a tour of the private gallery, says there's something in it for us," Dante chuckled.

In a perfect copy of Dante's expression, Emilio raised an inquiring eyebrow at his little brother, "Is that right? Well you only brought one stunner with you, unless, of course, you're tired of Changying already." He said making Louisa blush and Changying laugh and shake her head at Wang, who moved closer putting an arm around her waist.

"Yeah, right," Wang chuckled, "That's not happening."

"Some of the stuff in here is pretty old," Emilio explained as he handed them soft white gloves to put on, "So we take precautions to protect it. Family history and all, we can't be too careful, it costs a fortune to restore, and the real restoration experts don't live in this country."

"Actually a woman who used to work in restoration has travelled abroad now," Changying said, "I met her once when I went to Canberra for an exhibition on the Renaissance Masters. One of my lecturers set it up for me, and we have kept in touch," she looked at their stunned expressions, "You know, occasional emails and stuff. She lets me know if any interesting shows are happening, they get a lot more of the big ones down there than come up north."

"Well do I have a surprise for you," Emilio took her arm and walked her through the large double doors he had opened when he arrived. Wang hung back a little with Louisa as Dante walked on the other side of Changying into an equally vast space that was full of paintings and sculpture.

"There's something over here that I think will interest you, it's my favourite part of this giant reliquary," Wang said quietly to Louisa leaving his brothers to show off their treasures to Changying. Standing before a small group of shelves he nodded, "Help yourself, just keep the gloves on," Louisa was beside herself. She took an old tome from the shelf and gently placed it on the reading stand before opening to the first illuminated page and gasping.

The time went by too fast for Changying; every new piece was a discovery for her. This had to be one of the most valuable private collections of art and historical relics she had ever heard of or not heard of as the case maybe.

"Wang, I could spend days, weeks, months, and years in here and not be satisfied," she gushed as he appeared behind her wrapping his arms around her waist.

"I'd offer you a catalogue, but their research and detailing leaves a lot to be desired," Wang laughed. "I doubt it's even up to date."

The twins rolled their eyes. "Locating and securing the missing objects and things we want to collect takes a lot of time and effort, we update everyone in our family newsletter," Dante defended their roles as trustees of the family archive. "Bad enough we let you take over the family history."

"I'll do it!" Changying cut in, "Oh, my god this is a dream come true, just to be here and see them all, but to be able to study and research and..." her head was swimming as she continued to look at the paintings in front of her.

"There are six rooms this size; it takes up the whole block in total, including an auction house and the big gallery we went through; it's probably too big of a job for one person," Wang said softly but smiling at her. "Let alone someone who would just do it part-time as a hobby."

"That's why they need help, any help is good help, right?" Changying looked up at Wang hopefully.

"Wholly shit!" Louisa's voice exclaimed from the other side of the room somewhere, and Wang led the way to where he had left her. Seeing them converge on her, she looked up and said, "That's it, I am not leaving, I am just going to sit here and grow old and you can keep me as a relic." She was hugging a book to her chest.

"I guess it might be nice to have something pretty to look at around here, until she starts to decay that is," Emilio said with a perfectly straight face.

Dante and Wang chuckled, but Changying understood her friend's sentiment and went to see what it was Louisa hugged so fiercely. The men moved away from the girls murmuring quietly amongst themselves.