“It doesn’t help having James away. Since we’re both book fair widows, I thought I’d see if you and Julia want to meet me for dinner tonight. We could see a movie afterward, get into some air conditioning?”
“Oh… What time were you thinking?”
“I don’t know—dinner at eight, movie at nine thirty or ten?”
Aurelia tried to do the math to see whether they’d be back by midnight, knowing that Julia wouldn’t want to miss the characters, especially after she’d fallen asleep and lost time with them the night before.
“Could we make it a little earlier? Or could we do lunch?”
“Lunch? This is déjà vu, me asking you to dinner and you asking if we can do lunch instead. That was your constant refrain when you were working on your first book and you’d practically locked yourself away in the shop.”
Aurelia closed her eyes, remembering all the times she’d refused to leave the shop after dark, needing the time to nap and worrying that she’d be back after midnight and miss a night with her fictional friends.
“No, you’re right. Let’s do something tonight. But how about seven instead?”
25
Aurelianeedn’thaveworriedsince 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 upCranfordandJane Eyrefrom 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 fromEmma,” Julia said with a guilty grin.
Aurelia’s head whipped from Julia to the new characters.
“Have you putEmmaon 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?”
