8
Aurelia sat at their little dining room table the next morning, looking out over the square with a cup of tea in hand.
Julia had wanted to work in the shop again that day, but Aurelia decided to let her sleep in a bit so she could revise a few more pages ahead of her deadline.
With those few pages done, however, her mind had shifted back to her encounter with the characters the night before.
She’d been able to get downstairs without any trouble—Oliver and Julia didn’t stir—and had been pleased to think she might be able to keep up her visits during Julia’s stay.
After a while, she’d talked to Jane and Rochester, and had told them that her niece was visiting and was reading their book.
Rochester got a kick out of that and welcomed Aurelia to ask them questions, which she’d already been formulating in her mind.
She mentally logged their answers so that she could remember each one as Julia got further along in their book.
Correctly assuming that Julia would need a solid amount of time to get herself up, dressed, and ready given how she’d been dressed and made up the day before, Aurelia stood from the table and went to wake her.
Once Julia was lodged in the bathroom for what promised to be a good long while, Aurelia headed toward her own bedroom to pull herself together for the day.
Passing the guest room, her eye caught on something tangled up in Julia’s unmade bed: a stuffed animal.
Aurelia recognized it as Julia’s favorite from childhood, and smiled at the object that belied her niece’s efforts to grow up too quickly.
Mark stopped by that morning, giving Aurelia a chance to introduce him to Julia.
He’d been a longtime customer of the shop, ever since Aurelia’s aunt Marigold had owned it, and now he’d become good friends with Aurelia and Oliver.
Julia was polite in the way that children are when they’re not really invested in getting to know a random adult they may never see again.
After a few minutes, Aurelia set her to dusting the bookshelves so that she and Mark could chat.
“How is Rebecca doing?”
“She’s good. She was asking when you’re going to host another book talk?”
Aurelia had started a lecture series the year before and now held monthly events at the shop.
“Not until the fall. We’re taking a break for the summer, mostly because I don’t think many people would willingly sit inside when it’s so hot.”
“It’s always been warm in the shop in the summer months,” Mark agreed with a smile and a nod to the open door. “Oh, I can’t leave without asking: Rebecca wasn’t sure what to wear to the wedding. Should we be formal or more casual?”
“As casual as you like. We’ll just be across the street in the square for the ceremony, then a few minutes’ walk from there for dinner. I’ll be a little dressed up”—Aurelia smiled—“but we’re telling everyone to be comfortable.”
After he left, she sat at her desk to pay a few bills in between helping customers, and Julia settled in on the window seat on the mezzanine to read. Aurelia was happy to see her digging into Jane Eyre and left her to it.