13
Aurelia didn’t visit the characters that evening. She wanted to go down and explain what had happened and why she had left so abruptly—as Julia had put it—but she felt it best to give them a wide berth.
On Saturday, they planned to close early yet even the promise of a break didn’t seem to make the slow morning move any faster. Julia was once again vaguely swiping at books with the duster, this time at the front of the shop.
“You have to actually move the books around, Julia, otherwise a customer is going to pick one up and find a line of dust on the shelf. Here,” she took the duster and demonstrated on a shelf, with Julia barely containing an eye roll at her side.
“I know it seems tedious, but if you went into Zara and found dust covering the clothes and shelves, you might just walk out.”
“I wouldn’t walk out. But okay, I’d probably think they could try a little harder with the upkeep. Fine,” she said with a reluctant smile as she took the duster back and started lifting the books, just as Aurelia had shown her.
A customer came in and Aurelia led them up to the mezzanine to find a book they wanted, leaving Julia to continue dusting—now with slightly more conviction—at the front of the shop.
In the early afternoon, they left to meet Aurelia’s old university friend, Kali, at the National Gallery.
Kali had started a small business giving tours at London’s art museums for parents and toddlers, and had been so successful that the National Gallery had hired her.
Aurelia hadn’t mentioned the part about toddlers to Julia but had arranged for Kali to give them a private tour as a way to sneak in a cultural outing for her niece.
The visit had the added benefit of bringing them into air conditioning for a few hours.
Kali was marvelous; she’d planned a tour for them that highlighted artwork by female artists from France and Britain.
“All the books on your reading list are by female writers from Britain too, Julia,” Aurelia reminded her.
“Oh, right,” Julia said.
“I have her reading Jane Eyre, Pride and Prejudice, and Cranford for the summer,” Aurelia explained to Kali.
“You’re just like Marigold,” Kali said with a smile before turning to Julia. “She used to stuff books into my hands and insist I read them.”
“That’s exactly what Aunt Aurelia’s doing!” Julia laughed. “Aunt Marigold did that, too?”
“That’s how I first got to know her. She gave me a book and then demanded that I come back to the shop to discuss it.”
“Did you?”
“I had to! She was very persuasive. But I liked the book—and her—so I was lucky I followed her directions.”
“A very good lesson there,” Aurelia said somberly, before laughing as Julia narrowed her eyes at her.
“It’s like an enforced book club,” Julia said with a smile. “Oh! I had the weirdest dream the other night—I dreamt that Aunt Aurelia had a book club in the shop in the middle of the night, and there were all these people dressed in old-fashioned clothes, and I met a lady named Jane Rochester.”
Aurelia’s smile faltered. Julia hadn’t mentioned the ‘dream’ since the morning after it happened, which had made Aurelia think she’d forgotten all about it until now.
“Mrs. Jane Rochester herself, eh?” Kali asked.
“And Aunt Aurelia was being all weird, like ‘Um, you can see them? You can talk to them?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, they’re sitting right next to you.’ And then she practically pushed me back upstairs to go to bed.”
“Such a weird dream, right?” Aurelia asked Kali, laughing as naturally as she could under the circumstances.
“I don’t know… It does sound like you,” Kali said, considering. “You do bumble when you’re nervous.”
“I guess even dream me is pretty consistent with reality,” Aurelia conceded reluctantly. “What about that gallery?” she asked, pointing and hoping the distraction would change the subject for good. “Is there anything worth seeing in there?”
Kali turned and leaned through the doorway to check.
“Sure, follow me,” she said, leading the way.
Julia didn’t mention her ‘dream’ again for the rest of the day. They went out for dinner with Kali and then walked back to the shop, the last sensations of air conditioning fading from their skin with each step.
Once home, Julia showered and went to bed early.
Oliver called and he and Aurelia chatted for a bit before she took advantage of the opportunity to catch up on editing.
She had just over a week to finish on deadline, but she was sure it wouldn’t take her that long.
As Aurelia sat on the sofa with her laptop, Biscuit and Fezz were stretched out on the floor at her feet, their fur ruffling each time the fan turned in their direction.
The quiet of the flat, the whirring of the fan, and the silence from Julia’s room initially provided white noise to help Aurelia focus on her writing, but eventually it had the opposite effect and started lulling her to sleep.
She fought it at first but then found herself giving in as she drifted off to sleep.