Aurelia walked to the front of the shop to leave them to it, but she made sure to keep an ear on their conversation. Julia always seemed on the verge of sharing a little too much with Antonia, and Aurelia wanted to be ready to do some more smoothing over if needed. After a few minutes, she heard them wrapping up their call and let out a breath of relief that Julia had managed to get through it without any other slip-ups or hints about their midnight visitors.
“She’s being so mean,” Julia said as she tossed the phone onto the desk.
“Honestly, Julia, things are going to be hectic just before the wedding. I’m not sure I’ll be able to get down to see everyone much myself that last week,” Aurelia reasoned.
Julia groaned, leaning dramatically against the desk as though she were about to collapse from frustration.
“There are plenty of nights left before then. I’m sure we can figure it out in time. Although… we’ll have to be a bit more careful once Oliver is back. With two of us going down at midnight, we’re likely to make more noise coming in and out of the flat… We might need to skip a night or two.”
“Skip a night?” Julia pitched her voice high with indignation.
“Maybe. Maybe not. Let’s just focus on the time you’ve got, okay? What have you learned so far?”
“I don’t know…” Julia said, working at her lip. “I don’t have any ideas yet.” Then, with determination she added, “I’m not going home until I work it out.”
“Then we’ll have to keep at it,” Aurelia said, managing not to escalate her own tone in response to Julia’s.
Thinking that a distraction might help, she walked over to the shelves to collect a copy ofEmmaand handed it to Julia, saying, “Here, you’ll need to add this to your reading list now.”
Julia took the copy ofEmmaand looked appraisingly at the cover.
“I’m definitely going to read it, but maybe I’d better focus on talking to the characters we’ve already got. Do you think I could take Emma and Harriet’s book off the table? Would it be rude not to say goodbye to them?”
Her face was so sincere and concerned that Aurelia couldn’t help but smile.
“I think it’d be fine. Wise decision, in fact. If you subject them to another night with Miss Clack, they might not want to come back again, anyway.”
“They won’t be upset the next time one of us puts their book on the table?”
“No, I don’t think so. I think the characters get used to the fact that things don’t quite work to a plan around here.”
Julia reshelved the copy ofEmmathat Aurelia had given her, then walked over and took the copy from the Recommended Reads table and began flipping through it.
“This is it, now,” Aurelia called after her. “No more additions, no more sneaking books onto the table. We’ve got enough on our plates as it is.”
“Promise,” Julia said solemnly. “This is it.”
Later, after dinner at home and a call with Oliver, Aurelia and Julia went for a walk around the city. Aurelia had planned to work on her book that evening since she’d only managed to edit for an hour or two earlier in the day, but Julia was anxious to keep talking through ideas about the characters before they arrived again.
“A few nights ago, Kitty mentioned wanting to travel. You should ask her about that tonight,” Aurelia suggested.
“You think travel could have something to do with why she appeared for me?” Julia asked doubtfully.
“I don’t know. You’ve done a bit of travel. Maybe you’re supposed to talk to her about what you’ve seen of the world?”
“Maybe…”
At first, they’d been cautious about their conversation, but as they kept walking, they realized there was a certain freedom in being out amongst strangers who would never suspect that the ‘Kitty’ they were talking about was fictional. The liberation of it, of sharing this thing out in the open, put them both in a lighter mood after Julia’s sulking over not having much time left in her stay.
They kept at it, with Julia pulling out her notebook and scribbling down ideas, until they were ready to head back to the shop to sleep for an hour or two before midnight.
27
Thatnight,Aureliatriednot to sigh when she heard Julia somberly informing the characters that she was running out of time to figure out why they’d appeared to her. They didn’t seem to mind Julia’s teenaged dramatic flair, and worked hard to try and help her guess what might connect her to each of them. But even with their help, every theory seemed to come up short. The mystery of it had all the characters so engrossed, that even Mrs. Jamieson didn’t say a peep about wanting to return to her book. As usual, Sergeant Cuff refused to give anyone a single hint, choosing instead to walk amongst them and smile at their attempts to work it out on their own.
Aurelia let Julia sleep in the next morning and set about opening the shop and getting to work on her edits. Julia didn’t make an appearance until just after eleven, when she slowly stepped down the spiral staircase.
“Okay, don’t freak out,” she said, holding her hands up—one of them clutching Aurelia’s phone—as though to calm Aurelia.
