23
Aurelia and Julia started theorizing almost as soon as they’d found each other in the kitchen the next morning. Aurelia had been making tea, and Julia joined her at the counter, popping slices of bread into the toaster.
“Did you see the look on Mrs. Jamieson’s face when Cuff said they were there because of me?”
“She was not amused,” Aurelia said, mimicking Mrs. Jamieson’s disdain.
“She kept saying I should apologize for ‘dragging her into my mess,’ but I just kept smiling at her and pretending I couldn’t hear her.”
“You can’t ignore her forever,” Aurelia cautioned, carrying their mugs of tea to the table as Julia followed behind with toast and jam. “You’ll have to talk to her and try to work out why she appeared for you.”
“It’s like homework,” Julia groaned.
“Think of it more like… a mystery you have to unravel.”
“You have to do this every time you meet new characters?”
“Well, no. Usually they’re just in the shop for a visit. But Sergeant Cuff was right about my first set of characters—I really did learn something from each of them.”
“Aunt Aurelia, how old is Sergeant Cuff? He looks seriously ancient.”
“He probably is,” Aurelia laughed. “In his novel he’s retired but he comes back to solve one last mystery.”
“He didn’t seem to mind that you put his book on the table.”
“No, I think he likes being someone people rely on to step in and sort things out.”
“It was funny seeing you with him. It almost looked like you were old friends.”
“We are,” Aurelia smiled.
Julia shook her head and let out a quick laugh.
“I still can’t believe this! We’re sitting here talking about people who aren’t real. You’re old friends with a character in a book… We were in the shop talking to characters last night!”
“I know! It’s hard to wrap your mind around, isn’t it?
” Aurelia paused, then added, “Someone once told me—a character—that it helps to think of them as real people. They have thoughts and feelings, just like you and me. I’ve had fights with characters, made friends with them, cried with them, laughed with them… They feel like real people to me.”
“Me too,” Julia agreed at once. “I mean, you could see Kitty getting upset at some of the things Blanche said to her. It doesn’t feel like they’re made up or not really feeling things when you talk to them.”
Aurelia smiled, marveling less at the fact that they were discussing the fictional characters she’d met—she’d had a few years to get used to that—but that, for the first time, she could be open about it.
Julia looked up at the clock to check the time, then took a last sip of tea before standing.
“I’m going to get ready. We’ve got to open the shop soon,” she announced.
Aurelia watched as Julia skipped off to the bathroom, her steps light and her energy high, then took her own last sip of tea before getting ready for the day.
They worked in the shop for a few hours, each of them taking advantage of quiet moments: Julia to read, and Aurelia to work on her book.
Within a short time, Aurelia’s writing was back to its usual flow.
She looked up every once in a while—at the sound of a customer coming in, or a sigh from Biscuit as he rolled over on the floor beside her—but otherwise she was absorbed in addressing Louisa’s edits and polishing the final draft of her book.
The deadline was still looming, but that was outweighed by the relative calm that had settled over Aurelia.
Julia knew about the shop’s secret, which, for the first time in years, felt like final confirmation that the characters and the shop’s magic were real.
Telling Oliver felt possible now, even if it would still be hard, since Julia could back her up and confirm everything she would tell him.
Aurelia’s focus started to wane toward lunchtime, as Julia’s frequent yawning made her yawn and broke her concentration.
When Aurelia suggested that they go out to get lunch at a nearby café, she sensed that Julia was once again reluctant to leave the building, as though it might shift her back to reality and cancel out her ability to see the characters.
“I leave the building all the time,” Aurelia reassured her. “It won’t change anything tonight, I promise.”
“I know.” Julia’s tone was dismissive, but Aurelia could see her features relax a little.
As they walked back to the shop after lunch, Julia stopped in front of a stationer’s.
“Do you need something?” Aurelia asked as Julia hesitated.
“Yeah, I think I do. I’ll be right back.”
Aurelia waited until Julia reemerged with a small bag. Once they were back at the shop, Julia opened it and spilled the contents onto the desk.
“I got a notebook and pen, so I can take notes about why I think the characters are here. You mentioned clues, and we were talking about Sergeant Cuff, and it made me think of a detective writing things down in one of those little notebooks, like you see in movies.”
“That’s a great idea. You should keep it with you when you’re reading, too, in case you think of questions to ask the characters about their books.”
“Oh, right. I was thinking of something earlier, when I was reading,” Julia said, wrinkling her forehead in concentration.
“Um, what was it?” She picked up her notebook and pen and wandered up to the window seat, where she’d left her copy of Jane Eyre.
Aurelia loved seeing her niece so engaged in a book that she’d only recently described as ‘slow torture,’ and decided to congratulate herself on the victory, even if it might have had more to do with the shop than her.
By midnight, Julia’s notebook had several pages full of notes and questions.
She clutched it in one hand while holding Aurelia’s in the other as the characters began to materialize in front of them.
They grinned at each other before Julia cornered Sergeant Cuff, leaving Aurelia to entertain the others.
As Aurelia talked with Blanche, she watched Julia out of the corner of her eye. She could see her flipping through her notebook, asking Cuff questions, and getting flustered when—again and again—he answered by shaking his head or giving her one of his mischievous smiles.
Aurelia caught herself smiling as she watched them, and her distraction annoyed Blanche enough that she moved on to talk with Mrs. Jamieson.
Once Julia and Cuff had finished, Aurelia saw Julia seek out Kitty, and noticed Blanche looking longingly at them.
She could see why Blanche might want to join in their fun, rather than getting caught up in Mrs. Jamieson’s imperiousness, or Miss Clack’s smug lectures. Aurelia felt just the same.
Several hours later, as Aurelia and Cuff were just finishing a conversation, Kitty appeared at her side.
“Had enough of Julia, then?” Aurelia asked.
“No, but it seems she has had enough of me. She has fallen asleep.”
Kitty pointed upstairs, where Julia was curled up on the window seat.
“Not yet used to these late nights, I suppose,” Cuff said.
“It does take some getting used to,” Aurelia replied with a knowing smile. “How were you two getting on, before she fell asleep?”
“Very well.” Kitty smiled and then nodded as Sergeant Cuff took his leave.
Turning back to Aurelia, she continued, “I am quite jealous to know she lives in Paris. I have longed to visit that city. Lydia and I had been scheming to ask our aunt and uncle to take us there, but I doubt both of us could have gone.”
“Then it’s lucky for you that she’s married now. You won’t have to compete to see which one of you will get to go.”
“That is very true,” Kitty said, brightening.
“And maybe Lizzy might take you with her if she and Darcy ever go.”
“They very well might! Perhaps they may even take Darcy’s sister, Georgiana, so that we may be company for one another.”
Kitty’s entire face lit up at the possibility.
“Have you ever traveled outside Britain?”
“No, and I have only been to London a handful of times. I should like to see more of the world—Italy, Paris, perhaps even St. Petersburg one day.”
“Really?” Aurelia had always thought of Kitty as a flighty girl, one of a pair with her younger sister Lydia. She was pleasantly surprised to hear that she had an interest in the world beyond her small social circle. “I knew someone from St. Petersburg. He was from a novel by a Russian author.”
“A Russian novel! I should like to read one of those. Lizzy almost always used to read to us from novels by British authors.”
“Did she?”
“Yes, she always seemed to get first pick of the books from the circulating library, but I suppose—now that she is settled at Pemberley—I shall have more say in which books we borrow.”
Kitty was becoming more interesting to Aurelia by the minute, and she settled in for a long conversation with her that carried them through until dawn.