“No, please!I’m enjoying it.I was thinking that it reminded me of discussions I had at university in my literary theory courses.”
“You have taken courses at a university?”
“Yes, I graduated from UCL with a degree in English literature.”
“U-C-L?”
“Oh, sorry—that’s short for University College London.”
“And you obtained a degree!How very fascinating.I believe we had one university in Russia that admitted women, but it closed not long after it opened.You say this university with women is in London?”
“It is.In my time, most universities admit men and women.”
“Your time, you say—when exactly are we?I presumed from what I have observed of the shop and its wares that we are not in my own time, but I am undecided as to how many years beyond it you and your shop exist.”
“I think your novel started in the early 1870s?”
“Yes, I believe that is when Count Tolstoy chose to begin his account of my life.”
“Then I live over one hundred years later—we’re a little way into the twenty-first century here.”
“The twenty-first…” Vronsky trailed off as his eyes widened in surprise.“Can it be?I guessed a few dozen years, but… well over a century?”
“I imagine it’s a lot to take in, but some things are just the same as they were in your own time.Like… Well, people still read books.Some people still ride horses, though I never learned.We still like wine, and parties, and the theatre.”
“That is a comfort.It would be difficult to believe that such pastimes could fall out of fashion entirely.”
Aurelia decided not to mention that some people rode in cars instead of carriages, or read books on screens instead of on paper.
Vronsky shifted gears, then, saying softly, “I have observed you asking others in the shop about their lives and stories.You must feel free, Miss Lyndham, to ask questions of me.”
Her heart went out to him at his offer.Knowing everything he’d gone through in his novel, his willingness to be an open book was extremely generous.
“Thank you.First, though, please call me Aurelia.I’ve been asking the others to do the same.”
He seemed taken aback, then recovered himself.
“I must remind myself that we are in modern times in this shop.If I am to call you Aurelia, then you must call me Alexei.”
Aurelia held out her hand, as though to shake his.He quirked an eyebrow at her.
“If we’re being thoroughly modern, Alexei, we should shake hands—or at least pretend to,” she said, laughing.“In modern times, men and women shake hands when they introduce themselves.”
A wide smile broke across his face as he said, “Then I should hate to be left behind.”
He reached his hand toward Aurelia’s and, as close as he could get without passing through her, they both motioned a single shake, up once and down once.
With that settled, Aurelia’s brow creased as she started debating where to begin with her questions.
“Well, Alexei, I do have questions for you.I’ve read your novel many, many times—probably more than any other.”
His eyebrows rose in surprise.
“It’s very odd to be sitting next to a—”
Aurelia stopped herself from saying ‘character,’ feeling it wasn’t quite right to use the word to refer to someone who seemed as real as herself.
“Next to apersonwho feels like a friend even though we’ve only just met.”
