“Fifteen? Who’s Lydia?” Antonia asked.
Aurelia opened her mouth, ready to begin the smoothing over process, but Julia beat her to it.
“Lydia’s inPride and Prejudice,” Julia explained.
“I thought you were readingJane Eyre?”
“I am. I just… I’m learning things aboutPride and Prejudicetoo.”
“We watched one of the adaptations,” Aurelia explained, her eyes a warning to Julia. “They mention her age after she runs off with Wickham.”
“They do?” Julia asked.
Aurelia shot Julia a look of frustration, before saying, “They do, that’s how you know her age,remember?”
“Oh, right.” Julia shrugged her shoulders.
“We’d better get going,” Aurelia said, thinking it best to wrap things up before Julia confessed to learning some other detail from the characters. “We have to open the shop in a few minutes.”
As soon as they said their goodbyes, Aurelia put on a stern look as she turned to face her niece.
“Julia! That was a little too close!”
“What? I didn’t tell her it was Kitty who told me about Lydia.”
“No, but you’ve got to be more careful. Otherwise something will slip out, and it won’t always be so easy to cover for yourself.”
“So… no chance of us telling Mum?”
“We can’t,” Aurelia said, her tone softening. “We’ve got to keep this between us for now.”
“Alright, I’ll try,” Julia said as she stifled a yawn.
“And we’re going to have to start you on a napping schedule.”
“A what?”
“A napping schedule. You’ll keep falling asleep in the shop if you don’t get more sleep during the day. I usually nap after closing until Oliver gets home, then I go to bed until just before midnight, and then in the morning I sleep in until around nine.”
“Wow… It must feel like you’re constantly getting in or out of bed,” Julia said, shaking her head. “Does it really work?”
“It does, but it takes some getting used to. And I don’t usually go down every night, so that helps too. You just have to make sure to tell the characters not to worry if you’re not there.”
“I don’t think Mrs. Jamieson would be too worried if you went missing,” Julia said with a smirk.
“No, probably not,” Aurelia sighed.
Not long after they’d opened for the day, the shop’s phone rang.
“On the Square Books,” Aurelia answered.
“It’s me, David.”
“Good morning! I’m surprised to hear you up when you could be sleeping all day on your teacher’s holiday.”
“No, I got that out of my system the first week. Now I’m at the stage where I’m slightly bored but still don’t want to admit that the benefit of work is that it gives me something to do every day.”
“It does at that,” Aurelia said as she looked down at the inventory list she’d been reviewing just before he’d called.
