“Good morning,” she said as she made her way into the kitchen.
She looked into the living room and saw that Julia was fast asleep on the sofa. Antonia, meanwhile, was still shut up in the guest room.
“Good morning,” Oliver said in a near-whisper. “Did I wake you?”
“Yes, but I’m glad you did. It’s given me a chance to give you a proper kiss before sending you off to work.”
She leaned in to do just that.
“How was your night?” Oliver asked.
“It was good. Julia’s still trying to work out why the characters showed up for her. She offered my services to rewrite their novels, so that was a near disaster.”
“What, rewrite them full stop?”
“Yup. Kitty wants to marry Darcy or Wickham or Bingley—she isn’t particular about which one. And Mrs. Jamieson and Blanche weren’t shy with their demands, either.”
“You turned them down?”
“Obviously! I’m not about to undo literary history.”
“Keeping to your strict literary moral code?” Oliver laughed softly.
“That’s right.” Aurelia nodded firmly. “Anyway, I have my own book to finish. I’m hoping for a quiet day in the shop so I can get a few more chapters to Louisa. I think Antonia’s going to take Julia out for the day since she’s heading back to Paris tomorrow.”
“She knows she can stay with us, right? She was planning to be in London next week, anyway, so she might as well stay.”
“I offered, but she said she wants to get back.” Aurelia reached out a hand to his arm and nodded into the living room where Julia was sleeping. “Are you still okay with having her stay? Do you want Antonia to take her home?”
Oliver shook his head and smiled. “No, I wouldn’t dare. I know she wants to work things out with the characters, and she’s easy enough. Maybe we can plan another dinner with Jack? Oh—” he said suddenly. “My parents.”
“Right! Dinner with your parents. That’s this week?” Aurelia asked.
“It’s Thursday night. Do you want me to put them off? I can.”
“No, Thursday’s fine. I doubt Julia will want to join, but we can set her up with an adaptation ofCranfordand she’ll be happy.”
Just as she’d hoped, Aurelia had been able to get some solid editing done that day. It felt good being back to her old writing routine, getting lost in her book in between chatting with customers.
On their return late in the afternoon, Antonia and Julia were exhausted from a busy day of running around the city. Julia had gone up to the flat to drop off a few shopping bags and then had come back down to keep Aurelia company until closing.
“Did you learn anything new from Kitty last night?”
A customer had just stepped out of the shop, leaving Aurelia to pick up the conversation she’d started with Julia before they’d arrived.
“It was sort of more of the same. She’s worried she won’t find a husband, she doesn’t really get along with her sister Mary, and she’s really into soldiers,” Julia recounted. “Something about their uniforms,” she added with a grin.
“Hmm,” Aurelia said, furrowing her brow. “I was thinking… You know how you told Blanche that she could find a job?”
“Uh, yeah—” Julia put a hand to her chest and adopted Blanche’s tone of outrage, “‘Are you referring tolabor?’”
Aurelia laughed. “You absolutely scandalized her.”
“I don’t get it, though. Jane had a job—she was a governess.”
“But Jane was an orphan with no inheritance. She had to either rely on her extended family, who—at least at first—refused to help her, or find her own way to earn a living. Being a governess was one of the only positions a woman of her social standing and background could take on without losing all respectability.”
“She couldn’t have been a ‘shopkeeper’?”
