Chapter 11 #2
“Thank you, Miss Lyndham. What very nice things to say. I have no doubt my girls would be pleased to hear you speak so fondly of them.” Marmee gave Aurelia another warm smile.
“I visited the shop several times before with my daughter, Jo, who enjoyed talking with Marigold—your aunt?—about all things literary.”
“Of course! Jo, not Joe,” Aurelia said, remembering the conversation she’d overheard earlier. “Is she here?” Aurelia looked around, hoping to catch a glimpse of Marmee’s bookish daughter.
“Not tonight.” Marmee looked thoughtful. “Just Laurie and me.”
Sergeant Cuff stepped forward, inserting himself into the conversation by announcing, “I believe you will find, miss, that no more than two people from each book may appear at any given time. I first discovered this with Cristobel.”
“You knew my great-great aunt Cristobel?” Aurelia asked, incredulous. “And you said Aunt Marigold also knew about you?”
“Yes, as did Lucy, your great aunt.”
Everyone in her family who had run the shop had met a collection of characters from books, then. And now me, Aurelia thought.
“I have visited the shop on countless occasions. I seem to be quite popular with the ladies of this establishment.” Cuff straightened himself and puffed out his chest.
“But Aunt Marigold never said—she never told me anything about this.” Aurelia wasn’t fully convinced of the reality of this new discovery but still felt hurt at the idea that Marigold might have kept it all a secret.
“No, indeed. She and I discussed how to tell you and determined it best if I explained things,” Cuff said importantly.
“She thought you might not believe her if she told you herself, before you’d met us.
But then, you said her time came sooner than expected.
She must not have had the chance to make our introductions. ”
“No, but… She didn’t even give me a hint.”
“I cannot speak for Marigold, but I can understand why she might not have shared such an incredible tale,” Marmee said gently.
“Would you have believed her if she had told you?” Laurie asked. “I don’t think I would have believed even Jo if she had told me that her favorite characters from Charles Dickens or Sir Walter Scott had appeared before her.”
Aurelia nodded, conceding the point.
“You were here, when I came in last night, and the night before?” she asked Cuff, though she was certain she knew the answer.
“I was. As was Rachel.”
“Why didn’t you call out to me or say something?”
“You didn’t give me a chance, miss!” Cuff said, laughing. “You scampered away each time, scared of your own shadow.”
“Well,” Aurelia said defensively, “in fairness, it was pretty shocking to walk into what should have been an empty shop only to see it full of people.”
Cuff inclined his head, though his mischievous smile suggested he still found her reaction amusing.
Other characters began to venture closer to the circle around Aurelia, including the two women from the mezzanine who had come down the spiral staircase to join them.
“Were my aunts the only people you’ve met in the shop? The only people other than characters from other books?”
Many around her nodded.
“I have only ever met Marigold and Lucy,” Marmee said.
“And I have only ever met Cristobel,” said Laurie. “This is my first time back in the shop since then.”
“Do you have any choice over whether you come here?”
“Apparently not. It was a surprising turn of events to find myself here tonight, but not unpleasantly so,” Vronsky said with a smile.
“Indeed, we have no foreknowledge as to whether we shall appear or not. We simply arrive here and return home as though no time had passed.” Cuff seemed unable to resist adding his account of things.
“That must be a bit alarming?”
“Oh, no. It’s rather an adventure,” Laurie insisted.
The others chimed in to agree.
“Do you know when it’s about to happen, or is it very sudden?”
“When it’s time for a visit, it feels as though a child is pulling at me, wanting my attention,” said Marmee. “Once I feel that, I know that within a few moments I’ll find myself here in the shop. The same happens in reverse—I feel a gentle pull when it’s time for us to return.”
Aurelia nodded, taking it all in and trying to order the dozens of questions that kept multiplying in her head.
But she began to realize that no matter how well explained, she might never fully understand it.
She looked around at the characters and decided she might as well enjoy the experience while it lasted.
“Could someone introduce me to the others?” she asked.
Laurie stepped closer and swept his hand forward, indicating that she should lead the way.
“Miss Lyndham, this is Elinor and her sister, Marianne.”
I must have slept for a good while if they’re already on a first name basis with one another, Aurelia thought as Laurie gestured to the two women who had been discussing Barton Park on the mezzanine.
Nodding a greeting to each woman, she recognized them now as the Dashwood sisters from Sense and Sensibility.
“Good to meet you—and please, you should all feel free to call me Aurelia.”
“Well then, Aurelia,” Laurie said with a smile, “this is Rachel.”
He was gesturing to the other young woman Aurelia hadn’t been able to place. She had to think for a moment before remembering that Rachel was the strong female character at the center of The Moonstone.
A dawning realization spread over her and she swung her head around to look at the Recommended Reads table.
Her eyes ran over the books, one by one.
She looked up, taking in the roomful of characters around her.
The only characters in the shop tonight were from the books on the table: Laurie and Marmee from Little Women; Rachel and Sergeant Cuff from The Moonstone; Elinor and Marianne from Sense and Sensibility; and Count Vronsky from Anna Karenina.
Putting the pieces together at last, Aurelia remembered Aunt Marigold’s insistence that the Recommended Reads table and its display of books remain a fixture in the shop.
Marigold must have wanted to ensure that Aurelia would discover the shop’s secret in time.
She watched the characters as they began circulating around the room, talking and laughing with one another.
A jumble of emotions ran through her—elation at this night and its discovery, frustration that it had taken her this long to find out about it, and, overriding everything, a lingering fear that she would wake up to find that it was, in the end, all a figment of her imagination.
Deciding to focus on her excitement, Aurelia walked back into the crowd of characters, resolved to enjoy this remarkable magic.