Julia laughed and Aurelia shrugged a shoulder.
“You’re not saying you suspected what was happening?” Antonia asked, disbelief lacing her voice.
“No, certainly not,” her father admitted. “But I suppose I sensed there was something to do with the shop that she wasn’t letting on.”
“I think the next question is, who else do we let in on that something?” Oliver said.
“I want to tell Dad,” Julia said immediately. “And my friends?” she added hopefully.
“No,” the adults all said at once.
“Okay, alright,” Julia said, holding her hands up defensively.
“Julia, everyone here loves you and has had a chance to… verify what you’ve seen,” Antonia said. “But the more people you tell, the less we can control it.”
“That’s right,” Aurelia cut in. “Having all of you come to the shop to hear the characters is manageable, but I don’t think it’s fair to ask them to stand at the door night after night while a parade of people come through to have a go. And… I like my life. I like running a shop and having my flat with Oliver without being ‘that lady with the weird shop.’ It’s a choice you can make when you take it over, but while it’s mine I’d like to have it my way.”
Julia looked disappointed but didn’t argue, seeming to understand that Aurelia’s point was a valid one.
“There are a few other things to consider,” Aurelia’s father added kindly. “For one, people don’t like feeling left out. It tends to make them mean and sometimes angry. Add to that, people don’t like feeling the fool. Telling them that only you can see fictional beings, and that only you can really hear them, might make some people think you’re playing a game at their expense.”
“Which is likely to lose you some friends,” Antonia said.
“Look at me,” Oliver said ruefully. “I thought Aurelia was taking a joke too far.”
“We also have to think about the possible publicity,” Antonia added. “A story about you telling tales about the shop would follow you for a long time, even at university or a future job.”
“But I’ll be working in the shop after uni,” Julia declared.
“Maybe not,” Aurelia said, then at a look of protest from Julia, she continued. “The shop will definitely be yours one day, but you might want to be a doctor or something. I’m not going to check your references, but someone else might find an article reporting that you’d got carried away with your imagination and wonder how reliable you were.”
“I’m not going to be a doctor. I’m going to run the shop,” Julia said, her tone just as determined.
“You should keep your options open, Julia. You have time to have a career or two before taking over. I was lucky—I wanted to write and I can do that in the shop.”
“Aurelia’s right,” Antonia said, adding a brief eye roll when she saw her sister’s smug look. “If you wanted to be… I don’t know… a barrister, you couldn’t exactly argue cases from inside the shop.”
“So I can never tell anyone?” Julia asked.
“I wouldn’t say that,” Aurelia said. “But for now, maybe talk to me and your mum before you tell anyone outside of this room.”
“And Dad?”
“Max should know,” Aurelia said to Antonia. “I think that’s only fair.”
Antonia nodded.
“I’ll tell your dad when I get back to Paris, okay?” she told Julia. “But I think your brothers are too young. They won’t be able to keep it to themselves, even assuming they believed us. We can think about whether and when to tell them, but not yet.”
“One of their daughters will be taking over the shop one day,” Aurelia said with a smile. “You can make sure your brothers find out before then.”
“Oh, yeah…” Julia drew the word out as a delighted smile lifted her face.
It was contagious, and soon everyone in the room was smiling along with her.
40
Astheysatatdinner that night, the shop was still the main topic of conversation.
