Chapter 48
Aurelia’s drive to keep writing was coming at a cost. More and more she missed a deadline to pay an invoice or bill for the shop, or forgot to place a special order for a customer only to have them show up wanting to collect it.
Days started running into one another, so that she’d open the shop on a Sunday for a few hours before realizing her mistake or forget to open it on a weekday.
One morning found Aurelia sitting in her flat revising a chapter of Vronsky’s story when she heard faint knocking coming from the street below.
She thought it might be a mistimed delivery for the shop and made her way downstairs, pages and pen in hand.
When she spotted Mark through the blinds, she quirked her head in surprise before letting him inside.
“I wasn’t sure whether you were on holiday, only you didn’t mention anything last week,” he said by way of a greeting.
“No, I’m not on holiday—I was just upstairs editing,” Aurelia said, waving her pages. Her face fell in shock. “It’s not Monday, is it?”
Mark nodded with a laugh.
“What time is it?”
She looked behind her at the mantel clock and couldn’t believe it was nearly half past ten.
“Oh, honestly,” Aurelia said, shaking her head at herself. “Come in, come in! I was lost in revisions. I can’t believe I almost missed you!”
A few minutes later, after Aurelia had raised the blinds and made them both tea, Oliver appeared.
“I’m just on my way to meet one of my authors, but I thought I’d stop by for a quick hello,” he announced. Seeing Mark with his mug of tea, he added, “Good morning.”
Aurelia introduced them. She’d told Oliver about some of her regulars but hadn’t told him Mark’s story, worrying that Oliver might take it lightly or make fun of him.
As it turned out, Mark wasted no time in telling Oliver himself, and Aurelia was pleased to see that Oliver seemed touched by Mark’s love of the shop and Marigold.
They chatted quietly outside of Aurelia’s hearing for a few minutes, making her slightly nervous that they might be discussing her tendency for tears.
But when Oliver turned back to join her at the desk as Mark continued wandering the shop, he seemed normal—no looks of sympathy or concern.
“I wanted to ask—since we both like walking around the city—would you want to walk together? Maybe tomorrow?” he asked.
“Walk… together?”
Somehow, those two words weren’t making sense. He wanted to go for a walk. And he wanted to go for that walk with her?
“We could talk about the book,” he added quickly. “I usually take a break to walk in the early afternoon, so maybe you could pick a spot for us to meet and we can go from there?”
Aurelia’s mind was still trying to process this: a walk, with Oliver. Something about it felt like a date, but no, he’d said it was to discuss her book. She looked over at Mark, who was nodding encouragingly, and she started nodding too as she turned back to Oliver.
“Sure, that sounds great.”
They made a plan to meet at two o’clock the next day at Russell Square.
“What do you think?” Aurelia asked Mark as soon as Oliver was out the door.
“He’s a lovely fellow,” Mark said, sounding confused. “When you first mentioned him, he sounded a bit…” He trailed off and Aurelia could just imagine the colorful words she’d used to describe him.
“I might have been a little quick to judge,” she admitted with a wince. “But I think we’re friends now.”
“Well, you let me know when that book of yours is finished. I’d like to see the result of all this hard work. Will you be selling it here?”
“Here?”
Aurelia hadn’t thought about selling her book in the shop. She hadn’t thought about selling it anywhere, come to that. She was just working toward having one published copy to put on the table for Vronsky.
“I know it might seem out of place with all the old books, but I think customers would like buying a book from the author herself.”
“Maybe,” Aurelia mused. “I’ll have to think about it.”
After Mark left, her mind continued working over their conversation.
Time was racing forward and her time with Vronsky was growing shorter as they got closer to having a published book for their big experiment.
She hadn’t taken much time to think about the mechanics of what would happen once they put his new book on the table.
Would Vronsky and another character come out of the new book?
What would this ‘new’ Vronsky be like? Would he remember her? What if Vronsky didn’t come out at all?
As questions ran through her mind, she decided to see if Sergeant Cuff had any answers, as he so often did.
Aurelia had wanted to catch Cuff on his own that night, but Vronsky was at her side before she could slip away.
“I’m just going to speak with Sergeant Cuff for a moment,” she said, hoping Vronsky would wait for her by her desk. Instead, he stepped in alongside her.
“Does this concern our experiment?” he asked.
“Well, yes. How did you know?”
She’d stopped walking and Vronsky had to turn back a few paces to stand beside her again.
“We are nearing the date when you will have a book to place on the table,” he said softly. “I myself have questions about how to proceed.”
Aurelia nodded, saying, “We’ve been so focused on writing the book that I haven’t had time to think about what’s actually going to happen.”
She stopped short of listing all the questions that had been spinning through her mind that day, but she was sure Vronsky had thought of them too.
“Let us ask Sergeant Cuff if he can enlighten us further now that we are so near the end,” he suggested.
They found Cuff sitting in the armchair, with Marmee and Laurie standing beside him as they discussed Laurie’s hothouse and its various roses.
“I would only need one guess as to why you are here, and I assure you that would be sufficient to get at your reason,” Cuff declared as he spotted them.
“I see you anticipate our every maneuver, Sergeant Cuff,” Vronsky replied with a charming smile. “You would make a formidable chess opponent.”
“I am satisfied with having been a formidable opponent of lawlessness prior to my retirement,” Cuff said, puffing up at his own compliment.
“Sorry to interrupt,” Aurelia said. “We were just hoping to ask you a few questions about the experiment.”
“Yes, time is drawing near, is it not?” Cuff asked. “When will you have a book ready to set out on the table?”
“It’ll be a few months still.”
“Time is indeed drawing near,” Cuff said again, now with a dramatic flick of his eyebrows.
Although Aurelia had hoped to speak with Cuff confidentially, a crowd was gathering around them. Everyone else seemed curious to know what would happen next, and Aurelia couldn’t blame them. They were all invested in Vronsky’s new story since they’d been witnesses to the making of it.
“If we put the new book on the table, you think Alexei might appear from it, right?” she asked.
“Ah, that I cannot say for certain,” Cuff said as he shook his head. “The characters who appear vary each time their book is set out.”
“But perhaps two other characters would appear that could give a good report of Count Vronsky?” Marmee asked.
“I should think so.”
Aurelia knew that was the goal—to be assured of Vronsky’s happiness—but still her heart sank to think she might not get to hear about his new life directly from him.
“And if he doesn’t appear from the new book, and we put his original book back on the table, will he come back to the shop again?”
“That I also cannot say,” Cuff said sadly.
“It may be considered a new selection, in which case different characters may be due to appear. If the experiment has worked, two new characters might appear, rather than Count Vronsky alone. He may be one of the two, or they may be two different characters entirely.”
Aurelia’s and Vronsky’s eyes met, both looking uncertain over how they felt about Cuff’s theories.
She realized she would have to speak next, to give permission for him to leave despite the fact that it might mean losing one of her closest friends.
She took a deep breath, looking around at the faces of the characters she’d grown to love as they waited for her to speak.
“We’ve come this far—we can’t let fear stop us now. Once your new book is published, we’ll pick a date for me to take your old book off the table and put the new one in its place.”
She tried to sound decisive but wasn’t sure she’d convinced anyone that she was confident about that plan.
“But you mustn’t put our books away,” Rachel said suddenly. “We should like to see if the experiment works, and to ask Count Vronsky how he likes his new life.”
“You would never put us away before then, would you?” Marianne joined in.
“No, of course not. We should all get to hear how he’s doing in his new book.” Aurelia smiled, trying to feel the encouragement she was giving everyone else.
“I should like that very much,” Vronsky said, looking around and nodding at each character in turn.
The others seemed satisfied and began to wander back into small groups. Aurelia and Vronsky thanked Cuff and walked to her desk, where they took their seats and sat silently for a moment.
“I would like you to promise me something,” Vronsky said in an undertone, looking around to make sure the others weren’t listening.
Aurelia caught his eye and saw that his expression was heavy.
“Once you have removed my old book from your table, promise me you will not put it back again.”
“I’m not sure I can make that promise,” she said, stunned by his request. “What if you don’t come out of your new book? What if I never see you again?”
“As Marmee said, you will know from the other characters in my new book that I am well and that we have succeeded in changing the course of my life for the better.” He paused, waiting for her to meet his eyes before continuing.
“I look forward to living the new life you have created for me, and to letting go of the past.”
She knew he was right, but it was hard to accept the possibility of losing someone who’d come to feel like family.
“If I do not return to the shop, you must not think of my loss as something to grieve over, Aurelia. You have truly given me a gift, and we must both ensure that I make good use of it.”
Words failing her, she nodded her understanding.
They looked at each other for a long moment, then she attempted a smile.
Turning back to her desk, they kept working on his new story, sobered by the knowledge that their progress was also bringing them closer to what might be his last night in the shop.