She kissed him again and he squeezed her hand as she turned to take the stairs down to the shop.
When the characters appeared, Julia cornered Cuff almost immediately and brought him up to the window seat, her notebook in hand, to walk him through her theory about the characters. Aurelia watched them as Cuff nodded slowly while Julia spoke, then smiled as she saw him give Julia a broad grin of satisfaction.
“She did it,” Aurelia marveled quietly.
“What did she do? And who is ‘she’?” Kitty asked.
“Oh, well… It looks like Julia’s figured out why you all came to visit her.”
“Has she?” Blanche asked, sidling over to them.
“From Cuff’s expression, I think it’s official.”
Mrs. Jamieson and Miss Clack took a few steps toward Aurelia, looking up to watch as Julia and Cuff came down the spiral staircase to join the small crowd gathered on the shop floor.
“What is it, then? Why have you dragged us out of our books to meet you?” Mrs. Jamieson demanded.
Julia looked uncertainly between Aurelia and Cuff. Aurelia struggled to think of what Julia might say by way of explanation, something other than, ‘Because your lives were small and I don’t want mine to be.’ But Cuff came to the rescue and spared both of them the trouble.
“Julia required the benefit of the perspective each one of you was uniquely able to provide her. Is that not so, Julia?”
“Exactly,” she said with a smile of relief. “There were things I needed to learn about your time to help me understand mine.”
“Oh. All that trouble for a little information?” Blanche asked, looking skeptical.
“Well, it was very helpful information,” Julia said quickly. “And even if I can’t rewrite your stories—and Aunt Aurelia won’t—Sergeant Cuff thought maybe I could give you some ideas to help you when you get back to your books.”
Aurelia shot a questioning look at Cuff, since the characters she’d met had always told her they couldn’t remember things they’d done or heard in the shop.
“They may not remember precisely what Julia suggests, but I believe they might carry the seed of it somewhere in their memory. Like Count Vronsky’s new ending,” Cuff suggested with a nod to Aurelia.
She gave a faint smile. She’d always thought Vronsky must have carried some sense that his story would continue when he’d returned to his original novel. That had been the point of writing him a sequel, to give him hope that he’d have a better future, but they hadn’t been sure whether or how that might work once he was back in his original book. Maybe Julia could give each of these characters the same thing, a kernel of hope—even if they couldn’t remember the shop or Julia, or even the exact contours of what she’d tell them—that they could bring back to their novels.
Julia had fun wandering amongst the characters, giving them ideas and suggestions for things they might want to do next in their lives. Aurelia was happy to hear she wasn’t suggesting anything too out of the ordinary for the women given when their stories were set, but her ideas still imparted a little of her own time and freedom. It reminded Aurelia of the character she’d written for Vronsky’s new story, Vivienne, and how Aurelia had snuck in some modern sensibility to her thinking and attitude.
Dawn found them all circled around the Recommended Reads table, saying their goodbyes. Julia and Kitty were tearful and bordering on melodramatic, while the goodbyes with Mrs. Jamieson, Blanche, and Miss Clack were much more restrained. Once again, Aurelia had the urge to hug Sergeant Cuff, but had to settle for thanking him for his help and promising to bring him back again soon.
54
Whentheywentdownstairsto open the shop in the morning, Aurelia and Julia stood in front of the table, silently considering the books that had released the misfit group of characters they’d come to know over the past few weeks.
“Ready?” Aurelia asked.
“Ready.”
Aurelia picked up the stacks of books and held them in her arms for a moment, practically juggling them as she tried to keep them from toppling to the floor. Julia reached out to help, but then quickly pulled her hands back.
“Maybe I shouldn’t touch them?”
“Maybe not,” Aurelia agreed, finally getting a good grip on the books.
She staggered over to her desk and put the copies ofThe Moonstoneon the ledge running along the front of it. Slightly less laden down now, she walked back to the Recommended Reads table.
“Alright—here goes.”
She began putting the books back on the table, organizing each stack by title. When her arms were empty once more, she and Julia regarded the table again.
“Well, then,” Aurelia said with a shrug of her shoulders. “I guess we’ll see who we get tonight.”
