31
Apall had been cast over the shop, so that even Miss Clack and Mrs. Jamieson were quiet below.
“It’s alright, Julia,” Antonia called through the door. “Can I come into the shop now?”
“Yes, just a second,” Aurelia said before turning to the characters. “Thank you all for trying. When she comes in, you’re going to be sent back to your books, but we’ll see you tomorrow night.”
“You certainly will,” Cuff said confidently.
“Goodnight, Julia. All will be well, my friend,” Kitty said as she stepped away to join Cuff and Blanche.
Julia sniffed back her tears and nodded to Kitty.
“Is everyone ready?” Antonia asked gently.
“Yes, we’ve said our goodnights. You can come through,” Aurelia told her.
The handle slowly turned, and Antonia pushed open the door by millimeters at a time.
The light immediately dimmed and Blanche, Kitty, and Cuff were drawn quickly back downstairs to their books on the Recommended Reads table, along with Mrs. Jamieson and Miss Clack.
Julia gasped and Aurelia put out a hand to reassure her.
“They’re fine. It just happens a bit faster when it’s not dawn.”
Antonia walked straight over to Julia, who was standing at the mezzanine railing, and put an arm around her. She then let her eyes follow downstairs, to a spot where Julia was pointing.
There, just above the Recommended Reads table, the last tiny trails of mist were being pulled back into each stack of books. Antonia’s eyes shot over to Aurelia.
“That was them?”
“It was. They sort of appear like a fog from their books and then turn into fog again when they go back.”
“I could hear them,” Antonia said, looking at her daughter. “I believe you, Julia.” She looked back to Aurelia. “I believe you,” she said, tears falling from her eyes.
Back upstairs, Aurelia made tea while Julia stretched out on the sofa, her head on Antonia’s lap.
“The male voice, that was Sergeant Cuff?”
“Mm-hmm,” Julia muttered sleepily as Antonia stroked her hair.
“And what does he look like?”
“Old.” Julia laughed, then added, “Really old, but he’s nice.”
“The two aren’t mutually exclusive,” Antonia said.
“Yes, just look at your mum,” Aurelia called from the kitchen.
Antonia shot her a glare, but Aurelia was happy to be back on teasing terms with her sister. She was exhausted from the day’s drama, but now that Antonia was no longer looking at her like she’d committed a crime, she didn’t want the night to end.
“He wears an old black suit with a white cravat,” Aurelia explained, pointing to her neck.
“He’s just how Collins described him in the book, like a box-standard undertaker.
He’s a little different than what I imagined, though.
I think, when I first started seeing them, that’s what helped me to believe—the characters aren’t just spitting images of how I’d imagined them. ”
Julia’s breathing shifted to the slow tempo of sleep and the sisters looked at each other.
“I’m so sorry, Tonia.” Antonia just sighed, so Aurelia went on, “I never thought she’d be able to see them. I would have been more careful if I’d known, and I would have tried to find a way to tell you sooner.”
Antonia nodded slowly, then asked, “How is it that Julia can see and hear them, but in all the times we slept over here as kids, you and I never did?”
Aurelia frowned, trying to remember back to the sleepovers they’d had when the shop and flat had been Aunt Marigold’s.
“I don’t know… But if Cuff is right, back then we didn’t know which one of us would take over the shop, so I doubt we would have been able to see them, let alone hear them as clearly as Julia can.”
“Because back then there were two of us, and now she’s the only niece?”
Aurelia nodded.
“Do you think Aunt Marigold went down to talk to the characters when we were asleep?” Antonia asked.
“Maybe?” Aurelia answered with a smile. “I’d like to think she did. Maybe we even heard her talking to them but thought it was the television or the radio.”
“Wait… the radio? I think… I remember something about the radio being on.” Antonia looked around the room, as if trying to spot the memory.
“You were asleep, but I woke up and came into the kitchen for a glass of water… The radio was on, not loud, but I could hear it, and I turned it off, thinking Marigold had forgotten.”
“And?” Aurelia prodded impatiently, practically on the edge of her seat.
“And then Aunt Marigold came upstairs from the shop, which I remember thinking was strange. She spotted me near the radio and laughed, saying she’d wondered why the music had cut out.
” Antonia shook her head as the last of the memory came to her.
“She shooed me to bed, saying she liked leaving it on at night when we were visiting, so if we woke up and forgot where we were, we wouldn’t be afraid. ”
“You said she came upstairs, from the shop?”
“She did. But she was so efficient about turning the radio back on and getting me back into bed that I didn’t get a chance to ask her why.”
“I don’t remember hearing music in the middle of the night, but I suppose if I was sleeping, that makes sense,” Aurelia said with a shrug of her shoulder. “I bet she had the radio on so we wouldn’t hear her talking to the characters in the shop,” she added quietly.
“I think… I think you might be right.”
They stared at each other for a moment as this new clue fell into place.
“I do wish you’d told me. I understand why you didn’t,” Antonia added quickly, seeing Aurelia open her mouth to protest. “But I still wish you had. There’s been this giant thing happening in your life and I had no idea.”
“I hated keeping it from you.”
“And Oliver?”
“I knew I needed to tell him, but it’s a scary thing—not knowing how he’d react, what he’d think, what he’d do. Look at what happened when we told you.”
Antonia gave a grimace in acknowledgment.
“I’d planned to do it before the wedding, after Julia’s back with you. I knew he might be upset or not believe me. Seeing how hurt you were, how you thought I was lying or that something was wrong with me… I’d imagined all that, but going through it was so much worse. I was scared before, but now…”
“Now you’ll just have to push through,” Antonia said bracingly.
Aurelia nodded, trying to find the courage she’d been lacking.
“When does he get back?”
“Not until Sunday.”
“That’s today,” Antonia reminded her.
Aurelia looked at the clock on the wall, which read two in the morning.
“Today, then,” Aurelia said firmly, again feigning the courage she wasn’t yet feeling.
“Should we leave, let you two talk it through?”
“Maybe. No? I don’t know… Maybe it’s better if you’re here and you can tell him what you heard and saw, see if that helps him to believe me?”
“Why don’t we stick around until you tell him, then we can head up to Yorkshire to see Dad until things cool down here.”
“‘Cool down’? Right… because he might be upset. Or angry or sad or—I have no idea what he’s going to say. Tonia…” Aurelia’s eyes filled with tears as she could barely put into words the thought that she’d been refusing to let surface. “What if he—what if he doesn’t—”
“He loves you. Just hold on to that, okay? He loves you, he wants to be with you, and you’ll find a way to work through it. I mean, there are worse things. It’s not like you’ve had an affair or lost his dog.”
“I did lie to him, though,” Aurelia whispered. “And it’s a pretty big lie.”
The weight of her admission hung in the air, and neither of them was able to shift it for a good long time.