Christine was in the shop alone, as she let Ellie out of the house to eat dinner with her family and play with her friends. She was young and it was important to the woman that her servant still enjoyed her child hood a little longer.  She was restless and was boredly staring at her small abode. The rows upon rows that surrounded her like a tomb, full of books. It gave the place a familiar smell that she wasn't sure ever truly left her. She had gone to the front of the store and pulled open the windows to let in some air, leaning out on her elbows as she looked around at people passing.

She offered a smile to a few and watched some lovely faces pass by with a little wave. This was a busy town and yet she had met so few people. This was really an uneducated town full of illiterates who cared more about their jobs than even considering reading a book. She couldn't truly blame them. Who wants to read when you have to put food on the table or could do something like run wild in the woods or play at the beach, it was warm enough, right? She chewed her lip in thought and then promptly shut the windows and locked them.

"She won't be back for hours",she told herself as she stepped out and locked the door behind her. She glanced around and took a direction that would lead out to some nature. She would feel the grass in between her toes that day or die trying.

“Mes chéris…please,” she had thought today would be a good day to take her children out without any aid of the help or their father as he was out to sea, and though she may have been better suited for a life dealing in gunpowder and iron, Aurore enjoyed these little lost moments more than she thought she would. 

“Non non, we do not touch,” Before her child even had a chance to reach out, Aurore reprimanded them and the little girl in more lace than needed was eager to keep looking 

“Pardon,” Her accent thick despite how many years it has been since she was last in France, “But we are looking for…” She couldn’t remember the name, but looked to her oldest daughter to recite the title and as the child of no mare than 12 spoke out as though bored. The younger two children were twins, different enough by the way they looked but close enough to make it easy to suspect, 

“Maman, wishes for A Romance of the Three Rs.” 

Aurore nodded and kept hold of one of the twin’s hands, “Yes please, by Walter Crane?”

Christine hadn't gotten far when a woman who was propriety in human form got her attention wanting to go into the shop. She looked from her to the children and immediately forced a professional smile upon her face. "Of course..."

She turned back and opened up the place letting them inside. She leaned down to pick up Archimedes, the bundle of white fur, before the children could go after him. The woman seemed quite in control and they seemed well behaved, but sometimes children lost their minds around animals. "Romance of the Three R's, you said?" She seemed in thought and began to walk through narrow row upon narrow row of books. "It is here, no worries..."

Ah, yes. It was in a section of books she knew well. Her father had her read it several times, she'd almost memorized the thing. "Here, madam." She said as she offered it over with a smile. The woman's speech was perfect but with an accent as if she'd just stepped out of France. It reminded her fondly of someone she'd hope would visit again soon for more reading lessons.

"Is there anything else I can help you with? I have some fun books the children might enjoy. As well as other books that are good for learning."

“Yes, if there are further copies I would like those as well.”

These were the little things that she enjoyed doing for her children, something that in a time long gone felt like a distant dream. This was all the luxury would never take for granted again, and as she went over the options of her children’s education it brought her pure joy that these were the decisions she got to make.

Lucian wasn’t with her today, he with his father but her first born was never very far from her mind, and where there had once been laughter that lit his eyes. Luc she worried was slipping into that dark storm that seemed to follow him wherever they went.

“Actually…Mes Petits, Peut-être voulez-vous choisir une histoire que papa lira le soir?” The girls were excited to do as their mother asked and look through the books for something to read at night, and this gave Aurore a moment to speak with the keep.

“My son, he has no interest in his studies nor literature at all, could you perhaps—“ She searched for the right word in English, “Recommend to a young man’s mind that is how you say…restless? He seems to be so bored with his studies. Perhaps something with a bit of adventure?”

Christine eyed the woman as she listened and looked over at the children. She moved through the aisles before returning with two extra copies. "I am afraid that this is all I have in stock." And she didn't care enough to order more unless there was real demand.

There seemed to be something in the woman's mind, but Christine would never say anything. She politely waited and accidentally over heard her speak to the children. "There's some very good anthology collections of bedtime stories. I like Grimm Brothers myself. But there is The Blue Fairy Book, that new and fun as well. I mean, just if you were interested..."

A book that could take the attention of a boy? There was several things in that statement that made it definitely not in her line of expertise. She took a deep breath and scrambled to think. "I could perhaps give you an educational book on something macabre since some boys like that sort of devious thing. But for something far more acceptable, may I suggest Treasure Island? It is a fictional book about a boy looking for treasure with pirates. It might gather his attention."

Every little eye was upon the book-tender as she spoke of the fairy book and of the Grimm Brothers, and when Aurore allowed them to look on she smiled at the woman. 

Treasure with pirates…

Aurore knew the story of Treasure Island all too well, and just the mention of it made her heart race. If she could she would keep Luc from that world forever, but it ran in his blood—burned within his soul. Perhaps this was a sign and she should give in…

“What about the book of the man who survived when his ship wrecked? I do not recall the author but I believe the character was Crusoe?” Her light Picardy accent giving the name a near musical sound, and as she considered the woman’s other offer on the book of macabre she shook her head. 

“No no, if anything I need him to focus elsewhere. He is…so difficult anymore. I do not know what to do with him.  He has been fighting, me, his father, other children.” Damn this poor woman was about to get her life story. 

“Forgive me, but are your children the same?”

Christine resisted the urge to lean against her desk as the woman spoke and pet her large white cat. She listened intently and looked from the woman to the children and back. It seemed she was not up for letting this boy read a book that would let his mind wander to the thrill of adventure in that manner. "I do have Robinson Crusoe.. But.. if you may let me suggest another. I was going to let someone else borrow this book, but I think perhaps it's more fitting." She walked silently towards the book in question. It was down three aisles, and past another row.

"It has traveling to distant shores... fantastical people... but doesn't really reward adventurous behavior." She lifted the book from the shelf and handed it over. "Gulliver's Travels. I'll bet if the boy enjoys reading at all, he'll be sucked right in. If it isn't what you really like, I still have the other book."

It was hard to stifle it, but the corners of her lips did turn up. "Oh no, my lady. I am not married. It is how I am able to run such a successful store." She raised her hand not filled with feline to the mostly empty shop.

That large white cat certainly had Aurore’s attention as well and she took a small step away from it. Things as this boggled her, but it also made her so very proud of how far women have come. She wondered if Christine was the sort who would want to join the cause.

Or was she already there?

As the book keeper went on about this new book, Aurore herself found she wanted to read it. Perhaps she too was missing the wild, and maybe a trip to India was in her future.

“And for little women?” She asked of the book as he held it in her hands, “Perhaps this will be what we read by the evening fire. I think even Papa would be like it?” She asked the oldest daughter who too was interested. “It is not too frightening?” One of her youngest had a tendency to wake up in the middle of the night as it was.

“Ah I see, good for you then.” She said to the woman again as she went on about her childless life and in that Aurore saw a true kinship. Though she would not trade the life she had now for anything in the world, she too came from a bit of freedom to do as she pleased.

“We have a rather extensive library at home, but they are all books of sermons or dull accounts of English life. Perhaps if you would have the time. I would like to see it replaced with books as this, and perhaps some more progressive texts.”

Christine noticed the woman seemed nervous of Archimedes. "Oh? Are you not a fan of cats?" She pet her bundle of fluff and held him up high on the air and he climbed up onto a book shelf where he could look over his domain safely.

When she slapped away a few small cat hairs on her hands she looked to the woman and smiled brightly. "Oh it is a good book for everyone I think! I am sure you will all enjoy it, and if not I will let you return it no questions asked." She was being extra kind, perhaps because the woman seemed genuinely nice and trying for her family and while Christine couldn't understand, she wanted to.

She shrugged, "Few women are as lucky as I am so I want to live it up." She didn't mention for as long as she could because she had no intention of stopping.

The brunette perked up at the word progressive and her eyes shifted towards the woman looking her up and down as if deciding something. "I have just the book... for you. But it is our little secret." She walked to another aisle and returned with a book she placed in her hand. "Ruth Hall. I hope you find it right up your alley.. if you haven't already read it?" Based on how she described their collection, she doubted it.