25
Aurelia needn’t have worried since they made it home in plenty of time to meet with the characters that night. The following morning, as they were opening the shop, Julia made a confession.
“I tried something yesterday afternoon, but it didn’t work… I picked up Cranford and Jane Eyre from the table and put them back down again.”
Aurelia shook her head, confused, and asked, “Why?”
“I was hoping different characters would come out to replace Mrs. Jamieson and Blanche.” Julia bit her lip, as though waiting for Aurelia to scold her. “I like Kitty, but those two can get on my nerves, so I was hoping we could meet someone new.”
“But you haven’t figured out why they’re here yet.”
“I know, I just thought maybe some other characters would come out for the same reasons and I could get my clues from them instead.”
“I’m not surprised it didn’t work. They seem to be here for a reason—they must have a particular message or information that only they can give you.”
“I suppose,” Julia sighed.
Hours later, as Aurelia and Julia stood in the shop at midnight and watched the characters materialize, Julia turned to Aurelia.
“I tried another experiment this afternoon.”
“What? You picked up the books again?”
“Not exactly.”
“Wait a minute,” Aurelia said as she watched the mists form into characters. “There are two extra characters forming just there—Julia! What did you do?”
“They’re from Emma,” Julia said with a guilty grin.
Aurelia’s head whipped from Julia to the new characters.
“Have you put Emma on the table?” Aurelia whispered urgently, as the characters were now almost fully formed.
“It’s another book by Jane Austen—Kitty’s author—so I thought maybe I’d like whoever comes out of it.”
Aurelia couldn’t believe Julia’s daring. She’d been much more nervous about disrupting the magic of the shop when she’d first discovered it, but for some reason Julia seemed to take testing its limits in stride now that she’d experienced it a few nights running.
“You can’t just… Oh, well.” Aurelia sighed, putting the brakes on lecturing her niece. “Whoever they are, they’re here now.”
Aurelia managed to smile and wave at the newcomers, two young women who looked to be about twenty.
One was short and pretty and had an open smile that suggested she might be more of a Kitty than a Blanche.
The other was slightly taller and more elegantly dressed.
She carried herself with a bit more poise than her companion, though she also had a kind smile.
“Hello, welcome! I’m Aurelia, this is my niece Julia, and this is my bookshop. Have either of you been here before?”
“I have, though when I last visited, someone different told me that it was her shop,” said the slightly taller woman.
“That must have been one of my aunts. Do you remember her name?”
“It was Cristobel. She had just opened the shop, as I remember.”
Aurelia’s heart skipped in excitement.
“Really? I haven’t met many people who knew her way back then. I’d love to ask you about her if you wouldn’t mind? She was my great-great aunt, and I never had a chance to meet her.”
“A-hem,” Julia interrupted.
“What?” Aurelia asked, distracted.
“As my aunt said, I’m Julia. And you are?”
“Oh, right,” Aurelia said with a laugh. “I’m sorry, I didn’t ask your name.”
“Emma Knightley,” the woman said with a slight curtsy. “And this is my dear friend Harriet Smith.”
Harriet gave a curtsy too.
“Very good to meet you,” Aurelia said, smiling as she took in the two best friends.
From what Aurelia could remember, Harriet had been almost as flighty as Kitty—but maybe, like Kitty, there was more to Harriet than Aurelia had realized.
And Emma had been a bit of a schemer, though some of her schemes had actually worked.
“Dear me!” Emma said suddenly. “I keep forgetting. She is Harriet Smith no longer but is Harriet Martin now. She is newly married, as am I!”
“Aunt Aurelia, you’re going to have that problem soon.” Julia grinned. “You should start using Oliver’s last name now, so you can get used to it.”
“But Aurelia is newly married,” Kitty said, looking confused.
“They’re not married yet,” Julia told her. “Their wedding’s in a few weeks.”
Aurelia’s eyes widened. She hadn’t thought to fill Julia in on her white lie.
“Not yet married?” Mrs. Jamieson sounded scandalized. “But I thought you said he lives upstairs with you?”
Emma and Harriet leaned in to whisper to one another, both seeming to enjoy the sudden drama.
“No, Julia misspoke—” Aurelia began.
“He does,” Julia explained. “He moved in with her last year.”
“You live together? Yet the wedding is not for some weeks yet?” Blanche drew her hand to her chest, though Aurelia thought she saw a quirk of a smile on her face.
Miss Clack was similarly pleased at the hint of a scandal as she said, “Far be it from me to judge others, but I do believe this tract of mine might help you find your way out of this sinful arrangement.”
From her purse she drew out a printed booklet with the title, Fallen Woman: Defy Your Sinful Ways and Arise! Aurelia began to roll her eyes but instead ran them around the room to avoid being rude.
“Thank you, Miss Clack, but you’re forgetting that I can’t touch you or anything you bring into the shop. This is just a misunderstanding. Julia—can I speak with you for a moment?”
Aurelia motioned to the back of the shop and Julia followed her there.
“You can’t tell them that Oliver and I aren’t married yet!
” Aurelia whispered irritably. “They’re from a time when unmarried women couldn’t be alone in the same room with a man without a chaperone, let alone live together.
Hearing that I’m living with Oliver before marriage is like…
Well, it’s like telling them I’m a prostitute! ”
Julia started laughing and then, at a look from Aurelia, said, “Okay, sorry.” She put on a serious face but couldn’t help letting out another laugh.
Turning back to the characters, who—aside from an unfazed Cuff—were clustered together and whispering, Aurelia caught sight of Miss Clack sliding one of her tracts onto Aurelia’s desk. Once again resisting the urge to roll her eyes, Aurelia pulled Julia back toward their circle.
“I’m sorry,” Julia said waving her hands as though to dispel her faux pas. “Aurelia and Oliver are married. It’s my other aunt who’s getting married in a few weeks.” At a look of disbelief from Blanche, Julia continued. “No, they are married—I was there and everything.”
“How long have you been married to this husband, Aurelia?” Mrs. Jamieson asked suspiciously.
“Oh, well… I guess it’s been… it’s been about a year. We met a few years ago, just before we started working together, and then we got engaged, so… Yes, a year.”
“You worked together? What, were you the governess to his children?” Blanche’s ever-present sneer flared up at the idea.
“Was he a widower?” Harriet asked sympathetically.
“No, he was not a widower.”
There were gasps from Mrs. Jamieson and Blanche.
“Do you mean to tell us he was still married when you met him? You really never can trust a governess,” Blanche said scathingly.
“That’s not what happened,” Aurelia said, exasperated. “I wasn’t his children’s governess—he doesn’t have children—and he’s never been married. Before me, I mean. We worked together because I’m a writer and he’s a publisher. He is, or was, my editor.”
“But,” Kitty began, sounding confused, “you’re a writer and you run this shop?”
“That cannot leave you much time for running a household for your husband,” Mrs. Jamieson said with a frown.
Julia snorted out a laugh, which Aurelia ignored.
“In our time, men and women usually divide up the housekeeping. Oliver and I both work, so we have to swap who’s going to cook or take care of the house.”
Mrs. Jamieson and Miss Clack looked doubtful.
“It’s true,” Julia piped up. “At home, my dad does all the cooking.”
“No cook,” Mrs. Jamieson said to Miss Clack in an undertone, drawing her aside. “Straitened circumstances, it seems.”
Watching them whisper to one another, Aurelia sighed. “We’ll never win those two over.”
“We could just put their books away,” Julia said hopefully. At a raised eyebrow from Cuff—who had somehow overheard them—she groaned and walked over to ask Blanche if she’d be willing to sit and talk about her novel.