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“So... who’s in here?” Mike stood in the doorway to the common room, looking over at Alison who was engaged in an argument with the chess board.
“I’m going to hide some of the pieces if you keep arguing! I don’t know who’s in the wrong-“ she held out a hand, pointing toward the window, “-I don’t want to know who’s in the wrong, but I would like you to be civil for FIVE MINUETS.” Julian and Robin looked up at Alison, the ghosts were still not used to Alison completely loosing her rag with them.
“But... Julian-“
“No! No i’m not listening to this!”
Mike looked between the two ‘empty’ seats in front of Alison.
“Bad time?”
Alison looked up, finally hearing Mike and shaking her head as she walked towards him.
“No. No, good time. What’s up?” She leant against the door frame, trying to ignore the arguing that had broken out behind her. She watched as Mike began talking but couldn’t hear a thing over the deep rumble of Robin’s voice and the shrillness of Kitty’s coming from further in the room.
“Hey.” Alison jumped as Mike placed a hand on her shoulder.
“Sorry… Lets go somewhere else. There’s way too much happening in there.” She pressed her fingers into her temples as she walked past him. Mike looked into common room, scanning the room and shrugging as he followed after Alison. He eventually found her in the kitchen with her head in her hands. Mike sat down next to her and placed a hand on her shoulder, rubbing gently.
“Who was it?” He asked,
“Julian and Robin mainly. Although Thomas and Kitty were not helping.” She groaned, looking up to find confusion across Mike’s face.
“The MP, the Caveman, the poet, and the Georgian lady…” she said, reaching over to the worktop and grabbing the notebook. She flipped through till she found her drawings of each of the ghosts.
“These ones.” Mike looked down at the drawings and nodded. They were not the best drawings as neither Mike nor Alison were any good at art but they helped to get the point across.
“Right… yeah. I have a question which is why I came to find you. I finally got the attic open and there’s some stuff in there that I think might be of interest.” Alison looked less than impressed,
“There’s a couple old chests with not much in them but I did find some portraits..”
“Portraits?” She raised an eyebrow, “of the ghosts?”
“Well…” Mike stood up, “they look nothing like your drawings.”
She pushed his shoulder as she stood up,
“Show me. It might help put a face to a name for you.”
As Alison followed Mike up to the attic she wasn’t sure if she wanted the portraits to be of the ghosts or not. On the one hand it would be helpful as Mike would finally be able to put a face to the names she was throwing around. She’d attempted to draw them before but her art skills were lacking and she’d offended Thomas by drawing his eyes wrong. On the other hand she knew it would cause all sorts of issues- the ghosts argued over old possessions in the house as it is. She could already predict the conversations that would follow; there would definitely be one of Fanny who would probably want it as far away from her as possible, especially if it involved her husband- george?- if it was a self portrait she’d still probably want it gone, Alison didn’t think she’s be the type to relive her alive days.
There would probably be ones of Kitty and Thomas. Those two would cause issues. Kitty would want hers up in ‘her’ room which they wouldn’t be able to do and then The Captain would be bitching because they upset Kitty but what were they meant to do! Thomas would also want his up- somewhere- probably in her and Mike’s bedroom because that damn poet still hadn’t learnt boundaries despite how long they’d been there. Then there would be the overall issue of why some people have portraits and why some don’t (Robin painting hadn’t even been invented) and then there would have to be a large discussion over what to do with them. Alison already wanted to sell them all.
They climbed the ladder to the attic and Mike switched on the light. He’d cleared most of the cobwebs and in front of them were several portraits and even just scanning over them she noticed at least two of Thomas and she could see Kitty peeping out too. Alison was pulled out of her thoughts by Mike,
“Tah Dah…” she gave him a long suffering look and nodded,
“There’s definitely portraits of the ghosts there.” She walked forward and stood next to one of the portraits of Thomas.
“So that’s… the poet…”
“Thomas. The poet. The one who wants me to kill myself to be with him. Yes.” Mike crouched down to get level with it and made a noise that sounded like an appreciative hum.
“He’s not bad-“
“Don’t you dare!” She laughed, beginning to leaf through the paintings. As predicted she found multiple portraits of Thomas as well as paintings of Kitty and Fanny too.
“I’m gunna have to get the ghosts. As much I want to say we should just get rid of these we should probably check with them- some of them might be important to them. They could have been gifts. Stay here.” She mused, heading back down the ladder to go and find the ghosts. Her first call was the common room where everyone had been earlier but it seems that in the time she’d been gone everyone had vacated all bar Robin who was still sat at the chess board. She stood in the doorway and sighed, hoping she hadn’t offended Robin too much earlier,
“Robin, do you know where I can find Kitty, Fanny, or Thomas?”
Robin looked up and shrugged,
“Everyone left after you shout.”
Alison nodded and turned to walk out, trying to remember where Thomas’ sighing place was and where Kitty usually hung out. She started to walk towards the library, sticking her head into each of the rooms as she passed.
“Kitty! Fanny! Thomas?”
She paused, listening for signs or life (death?). She shouted again and finally Kitty appeared with Fanny in tow.
“Alison! We heard you shouting, what do you need!”
Kitty smiled, looking expectantly at Alison who looked as though she was already regretting her choices.
“Mike found some paintings in the attic and there’s some of you so we wanted to check if you wanted us to keep them or get rid of them. Do you know where Thomas is? There’s more of him than anyone else..”
She looked up at the two women in front of her; Kitty looked excited by the prospect of these paintings but Fanny was less than impressed. She had that look on her face that appeared when Alison was doing something ‘unsightly’ or ‘un-lady-like’.
“You’re welcome to go have a look. Mike’s up there.” She offered gently before Fanny spoke briskly
“I don’t want to see any portraits. Just get rid of them! They were all commissioned by my husband and I don’t want anything of his in my sights.”
Fanny pulled away from Kitty and turned on her heel, walking back down the corridor. Alison stared after her looking only slightly shocked before Kitty laughed,
“She’s never liked paintings.” Was all Kitty had to say as Alison looked over to her.
“Right... You go up to the attic. I’m going to find Thomas.”
Alison walked away from Kitty and into the library. She found Thomas in his ‘sighing’ place.
“Thomas, I have a question for you, about the portraits in the attic.”
Alison sat down as she spoke, watching Thomas’ face which twisted from his usual melancholy smile into a frown.
“I’ve not seen those in years. My parents had them taken down after I died. I thought they’d gotten rid of them.” He turned away from the window to look at Alison,
“Where are they?”
“They’re, uh, in the attic. Do you want to talk about it?” Alison hadn’t anticipated this reaction at all; she was surprised.
“As I said, my parents got rid of all my portraits after I’d died. I overheard them saying it was too much to keep them around, I have a feeling it was also in part due to how and why I ended up dead in the first place.
“Some of the portraits were for family. As you’ve probably seen there are a few with me and others however there are two very personal paintings which I kept in my bed chamber. These two were from a close… friend of mine. A close friend who also happened to be a close friend of Lord Byron.” He mumbled, a tense tone in his voice. It was a similar tone to when he was shouting about Byron during the filming. Alison wanted to push but realised now might not be the time.
“Do you want to come and have a look at them? We’re thinking of just getting rid of them if no one wants them; we found ones of Fanny and Kitty too. Fanny doesn’t want hers, Kitty is in the attic with Mike now..”
“No, I don’t want too. I could not care less for my family portraits at present- they disowned me as soon as I died and I disowned them as soon as they wiped me from the family.”
Thomas turned his head to look out the window again, ignoring Alison who still sat there. There was a moment of silence before Alison rose from her seat next to Thomas and made her way back toward the library door. As she stepped out she heard the rustling of fabric and Thomas voice carry,
“Actually… Alison. If one of those portraits is off me in a green waistcoat, please may you leave it.” There was an odd sadness in his voice as he shouted. Alison didn’t reply as she walked away.
She returned to the attic finally to find Mike struggling to lift one of the larger paintings.
“Mike! What are you doing.” She clocked Kitty sitting in the corner and waved before grabbing onto the other end of the painting.
“Ah, you’re back. Was just trying to see how many of these baby’s we had.” Mike slapped the top of the picture frame.
“We have ten.” Alison looked around. In the time she’s been gone Mike had spaced the paintings out and separated them into ‘person’.
“Okay… those ones-“ she pointed at three pictures of Fanny, “-can go. Fanny doesn’t want those although keeping that one might be nice as they were the original Buttons.” There was a painting of Fanny and George with a small child on her knee,
“Although we will have to hide it.” She popped her lips and then turned to the three pictures of Kitty and her family. There was one large group picture, a solo picture of Kitty, and then a painting of Kitty with a child on her knee.
“Kitty, I didn’t know you had a child.” She turned to the woman sat in the corner who looked as though she didn’t remember either.
“Oh, Yes! Although I don’t know if it’s mine or not. It could be my brother!” Alison looked over at Mike who was staring at her as he always did when she spoke to the Ghosts.
“What does… she say?” He asked, still leaning on one of Fanny’s paintings.
“Do you want to keep any of these Kitty?”
“Maybe the solo one! It’s a lovely picture. I remember it being painted. It was a long day but the painter was such a nice man!” She coo’d, smiling at the painting and at Alison.
“She says she wants to keep this one-“ she walked over to it and placed a hand on it.
“And for these ones.-“ she moved to the final four of Thomas’ paintings. “-get rid of all of them apart from…” she flicked through the four paintings to find the one Thomas had asked for. It was the last one in the pile and she could understand why Thomas wanted to keep it. It was a gorgeous painting.
“This one!” She pulled it out from behind the stack. Mike looked at it and shrugged,
“If you say so. Are we done with the paintings now?”
“Yeah… the rest can go. The ones of the other people can also go. Why don’t we try and find a seller- we might get some money for these.” She smiled at Mike,
“Why don’t you try and find an evaluator. I’ll tidy up in here.”
“Are you sure?” Mike made to walk towards the attic hatch,
“Yeah. I’ll finish up in here.” She smiled and watched as Mike disappeared down the hatch, swiftly followed by Kitty who’s parting words were,
“Oh! I want to see how much i’m worth!”
Alison was left alone which was perfect as there was something she wanted to check. After she was sure there were no ghosts she turned the portrait of Thomas around and was unsurprised to find an inscription on the back;
My Dearest, Thomas.
I know you’re not such a fan of portraits but you looked too lovely to not try and capture that. Please, take this as a token of my love and admiration for you. Know it was painted with the love I cannot physically express to you.
From,
The name was missing.
This however did explain why Thomas would have wanted to keep it. She mailed to herself and propped the painting up somewhere where both sides could be seen. She left the attic to go and find Mike and on the way bumped into Thomas who was trying and failing to hide in the corridor.
“Alison! What a surprise- I had forgotten the hatch to the attic was here.”it was a feeble excuse.
“The painting-“
“What painting! I’m not here about a painting!
“-it’s up there. It’s a nice painting of you.” Was all she said as she began to walk off and if she heard the sound of footsteps going up the ladder she wasn’t about to tell anyone.