The Second Signature, Part 4: Now
advancedworking269 words
Part 4 of 4. The museum board must vote on whether to change twenty-three labels, and what that will cost. Margit Halloway finally gets her name back, or does she?
The board meeting lasted four hours. Nadia spoke for nine minutes.
She showed them the hidden M, the woman at the window from Clara's flat and the 1998 letter. She did not mention the two words underneath it. When she sat down, a board member who owned three Halloways of his own asked the question everyone was thinking: 'If we change the labels, what are these paintings worth tomorrow?'
It was Esterhaus who answered. 'If we had been honest in 1998, nobody would be asking that question today. They would simply be worth what Margit's work is worth. Which, I suspect, is more.'
The arguments that followed were long and, at times, unpleasant. One member threatened to resign. Another wanted to know who would pay for the new catalogues. A third asked, reasonably, whether a single hidden letter was enough evidence to rewrite a reputation.
They voted at six o'clock. Seven to four.
The exhibition opened in spring. Every harbour was relabelled: Margit Halloway, painted under the name of her husband. Clara's woman at the window hung alone on the end wall, and the museum had more visitors in a month than in the whole previous year.
On opening night, Clara found Nadia beside the window painting. 'If she had signed them all herself,' Clara said, 'she would be in every textbook now. Instead, she's in one museum.'
'If you hadn't sent that crate,' Nadia said, 'she wouldn't be in any.'
Esterhaus did not come to the opening. He sent flowers instead, with a card addressed to Margit, and on it, in his careful handwriting, a single word: 'Now.'