27
That night, Aurelia tried not to sigh when she heard Julia somberly informing the characters that she was running out of time to figure out why they’d appeared to her.
They didn’t seem to mind Julia’s teenaged dramatic flair, and worked hard to try and help her guess what might connect her to each of them.
But even with their help, every theory seemed to come up short.
The mystery of it had all the characters so engrossed, that even Mrs. Jamieson didn’t say a peep about wanting to return to her book.
As usual, Sergeant Cuff refused to give anyone a single hint, choosing instead to walk amongst them and smile at their attempts to work it out on their own.
Aurelia let Julia sleep in the next morning and set about opening the shop and getting to work on her edits. Julia didn’t make an appearance until just after eleven, when she slowly stepped down the spiral staircase.
“Okay, don’t freak out,” she said, holding her hands up—one of them clutching Aurelia’s phone—as though to calm Aurelia.
“Sorry?”
Aurelia had been so deep in the world of her book that she shook her head to try and return to the present.
“I did something and I think you’re going to be mad, but—really—it’ll be alright.”
Aurelia squinted as if that would help her work out what Julia was saying.
“Did you break something?”
The shop phone rang and Aurelia started walking over to it.
“Oh, merde,” Julia said under her breath.
“Julia! That’s enough cursing from you. What’s going on?” Aurelia asked.
But Julia just shook her head, so Aurelia answered the phone.
“On the Square Books.”
“So, I’m a little worried about Julia.”
It was Antonia, who had jumped right into a conversation, as usual. Her tone was calm but serious, adding to Aurelia’s confusion.
“She’s right here. She’s fine,” Aurelia said.
“Is she standing next to Jane Rochester?”
Aurelia’s face fell.
“Wh—What?”
“She just called and told me a tall tale about how both of you have spent the past few nights talking to characters from books who… What was it? Who magically appear in the shop each night?”
“She told you?”
It came out in a whisper as Aurelia felt her body slowly going numb, but Antonia hadn’t seemed to hear her.
“And she insisted that you talk to them too, and that you’d vouch for her. She was very determined, Aurelia—like she’s convinced what she’s saying is real.”
Aurelia looked at Julia, who was hiding behind the spiral staircase, just as she had the night she’d learned about the characters.
“Julia?” Aurelia whispered.
She peeked out from behind the stairs.
“It just slipped out.”
“It slipped out?”
It was a struggle for Aurelia to keep from shouting.
“Aurelia! What’s going on?” Antonia called out from the phone.
“I have to call you back, alright? I’m fine, Julia’s fine—I just… I have to call you back.”
Aurelia hung up and stared at Julia.
“We talked about this. You said you understood we couldn’t tell anyone.”
“Aunt Aurelia, I couldn’t help it! We have this unbelievable thing happening. How can we keep it a secret?”
“Because, Julia,” Aurelia said sharply as the phone rang in her hand, almost certainly Antonia again, “people worry when you say things that sound absolutely mad! What am I supposed to tell your mother?”
“Tell her the truth!”
The truth. Was this it, then? It was all happening too fast. Aurelia couldn’t get her bearings.
She’d wanted to tell Oliver first—he deserved to have her share this part of her life with him, even though it might be one of the hardest things she’d ever do.
But then Julia had found out, and now she’d told Antonia—and Oliver wasn’t home for her to run and tell him.
Aurelia’s poor planning, her fear, and her constant pushing off of this hard thing were finally catching up to her.
“I need more time,” she whispered to herself. Then she looked up and told Julia, “Not yet, okay? Oliver’s not here, and I need to talk to him first. I just need a little more time.”
“But I don’t have more time! Only two more weeks, and I’m not making any progress. And you said once Oliver gets back, we can’t go down as often.”
“I said we might not be able to go down as often.”
The phone was still ringing and Aurelia let out a huge groan before answering.
“What’s going on, Aurelia?” Antonia asked angrily before her sister could say so much as a ‘hello.’
“Nothing… Julia was just having a laugh.”
“No, I wasn’t,” Julia said, stepping out from behind the staircase.
Aurelia turned away from her, hoping to shield the phone so that Antonia wouldn’t hear her.
“It sounds like you’re filling her head with some strange stories about Marigold, and the shop—”
“I’m not filling her head with anything,” Aurelia said. “I don’t know why she told you that.”
“Because it’s true!” Julia said more loudly.
Aurelia walked toward the front of the shop to get some distance from her.
“Is she alright?” Antonia asked.
“Of course! We’ve just had a couple of late nights here, that’s all,” Aurelia said quietly, attempting a casual tone.
“That’s not all!” Julia said, nearly shouting now.
Aurelia turned and stared at her. It took a moment to recover from the shock of Julia’s outburst.
“Can I call you back? Someone’s just come into the shop,” she said, making no effort to sell the lie.
“I didn’t hear the bell at the shop door, Aurelia. And that was Julia yelling. Put me on speaker.”
“No, look—we’re in the middle of something. Can we just call you back?”
“We’re not in the middle of anything!” Julia cried out. “It happened! She’s lying if she says it didn’t!”
“Put me on speaker!” Antonia commanded.
Aurelia shook her head at Julia, completely undone by what was unfolding, at how any control she’d had of the situation was now irretrievably lost. She saw no choice but to do as Antonia said or risk her sister finding some way to fly through the phone to make sure Julia was unharmed.
“Okay, you’re on speaker.”
Aurelia considered for a moment whether she could feel any part of her body below her neck and decided she couldn’t. It was as though her head were floating in the shop, watching everything unwind.
“What is happening there?”
Julia and Aurelia both spoke at once:
“There are characters that come into the shop at night, and all the aunts have seen them, and now I have, too—”
“I think Julia’s just excited about the shop, and also it might have something to do with the heat—”
“One at a time or I can’t figure out what you’re saying,” Antonia scolded. “Aurelia, why is Julia saying that you’ve seen these imaginary characters, too?”
“They’re not imaginary!” Julia exclaimed.
“There are no characters,” Aurelia said, shaking her head furiously at Julia.
“Aunt Aurelia, there are! Tell her!” Julia began crying, her face crumpling so that she looked much younger than her fourteen years. “I already told her, but if you don’t tell her the truth—that you see them too—she won’t believe me.”
Aurelia put her hand over the phone and tried to reason with her niece.
“Julia, we agreed—”
“Yes, but that was before I knew the characters are here for me—they came because of me—and if I can’t figure out why they’re here before I leave, then I might not get to meet them again.
You said they’re different every time. Cuff said so too.
” Julia’s speech was rushed and interrupted by gasps as she tried to catch her breath through her tears.
“I’m sorry, Julia, but we can’t—I can’t—” Aurelia tried halfheartedly.
“I want Mum to know, Aunt Aurelia,” Julia said tearfully. “This is the most amazing thing that’s ever happened to me! I want Mum to know, and I want her to believe me.”
“Aurelia!” Antonia shouted from the phone.
“Yes, I’m here,” Aurelia said at last, her voice resigned.
“Do I need to come up to London?”
Julia sat down on the armchair, her face streaming with tears as she gulped for air. Aurelia looked at her niece, who was broken with hurt and anger at her own hands, and knew there was no use fighting it anymore.
“I think you do.”