What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours

“Books and Roses” opens with a young girl whose mother left her at a chapel in Catalonia when she was an infant. She is named Montserrat at her mother’s request (because the chapel is named Santa Maria de Montserrat), and she wears a key around her neck that her mother gave her. She was left with a note that read:

1. You have a Black Madonna here, so you will know how to love this child as much as I do. Please call her Montserrat.
2. Wait for me. (2)

The monks raise her and give her the last name Fosc, which in Catalan means “obscure.”

When she is old enough, she gets a job at a building known as the Casa Mila as a laundry worker. The Casa Mila is an ugly, old mansion filled with colorful and interesting residents, including Señora Lucy, a pretty artist who lies about being 50 years old though she is really 35. Montserrat finds reasons to deliver Lucy’s laundry and becomes enamored with her. They bond over Lucy’s paintings, and Montserrat soon discovers that Lucy also wears a key around her neck because she is waiting for someone.

Lucy recounts the story of how she met a woman named Safiye at the five-year reunion for graduates of the University of Seville, though neither of them ever attended the school. They both came to the event to swindle jewelry off of the unsuspecting graduates and inadvertently stole fake jewelry from each other. Mutually impressed, Lucy and Safiye began a passionate romance. After some time, the two parted ways, and Safiye suggested that they exchange books and roses by mail, which is the St. Jordi’s Day custom in her new city of Barcelona. Ironically, Lucy was working on a book of pressed roses as an art project.

After the couple parted, Lucy dated a married man whom she referred to as “the gambler” and settled happily into a life of earning money making art. Safiye became a lady’s maid for Señora Del Olmo. The two exchanged letters back and forth. Eventually, on April 23, Safiye sent Lucy a key on a necklace along with a map marked with a black rose. Lucy followed the map, hoping to find Safiye, but instead found a locked door that the key opened, leading into a garden full of roses. She also discovered from a newspaper that Safiye was now wanted for murder, though she refused to believe Safiye was guilty. Unable to find Safiye, Lucy returned home to find that the gambler was hospitalized; his wife broke his arms once she discovered their affair. They agreed to stop seeing each other, but she nursed him back to health, and the two remained friends.

A few weeks later, Safiye showed up at Lucy’s doorstep on a rainy night. They shared a passionate kiss, and Safiye told Lucy about the mysterious murder of Señora Del Olmo. The Señora took Safiye to the secret garden and told her to wait outside, but when the Señora emerged she seemed shaken by something. When questioned, she denied that anyone else was there, though Safiye thought there was. Señora Del Olmo returned home with yellow roses; later that night, when Safiye checked to see if the Señora needed anything, she found the woman dead, standing at her window and clutching an orange rose. The rose, she discovered, was only orange because it was stained with blood; the stem had punctured the Señora’s chest. Scared, Safiye ran, taking the key necklace from the Señora. After finishing this story, Safiye fell asleep with Lucy, but when Lucy woke up the next morning, she found Safiye gone and a note that read, “Wait for me” (24). Lucy made a name for herself selling books of roses that were meant for Safiye. She waited for 10 years, but Safiye never came.

Lucy asks Montserrat about her key, but Montserrat doesn’t think it’s anything special. As a kind gesture, Montserrat decides to get Lucy a book and a rose for St. Jordi’s Day. After she leaves the gift for Lucy, the girls at the laundry tell Montserrat about a newspaper ad seeking someone named Montserrat who “is in possession of a gold key one- and one-half inches in length” (32). She goes to meet the lawyer, who tells her that they need to try her key in a particular lock to make sure that she is the person he’s looking for; they head to the Salazar Gallery, with which Montserrat is very familiar.

The key fits into the locked door of a library, and the lawyer gives her a letter from Zacarias Salazar, the wealthy man who owns the Salazar Gallery and the large home where it’s located. The letter explains that Zacarias was fond of Montserrat’s mother, Aurelie, and never believed she stole from him. His brother Isidoro, who also liked Aurelie, wanted Zacarias to leave his extensive library to her, but since he never found Aurelie, he decided to leave it to Montserrat.

Zacarias also gives Montserrat the last letter her mother wrote to her. In the letter, Aurelie explains that she left her the library key because she and Isidoro thought it would bring Montserrat back to her, although she fully expected to return for her daughter. Montserrat’s father was a man whom Aurelie loved, but he ran off before she knew she was pregnant. Aurelie explains that she wished for a million books when she was 30; she was working for Zacarias at the time, and when the library key fell out of his coat pocket, she took it as a sign. She first used the key when she was four months pregnant with Montserrat and found peace reading in the library until she saw a mysterious pair of eyes watching her. The young man whom they belonged to never showed his face and referred to her as a “pretty thief,” but their bond grew over shared books and conversation. She fell in love with him and learned he was Isidoro, Zacarias’s sickly brother. Isidoro took her into his secret garden and quickly became enamored with her too.

Aurelie started to receive gifts that she initially assumed were from Isidoro, though Isidoro seemed confused when she showed them to him. Nevertheless, as they got increasingly expensive, the other staff became curious about them, and Fausta Del Olmo enviously warned Aurelie to stay away from Isidoro. Isidoro proposed marriage, leaving a diamond ring under Aurelie’s pillow and suggesting that they marry that very night. Aurelie asked Fausta to fetch a priest. Fausta brought the priest, and Aurelie took him to the library, where she saw the door to the garden slam closed. She went to look for Isidoro in the garden, but the priest and Fausta found his body in his room. The priest said that Isidoro appeared to have been dead for at least a day, and when Aurelie reached for her engagement ring in her pocket, she found it gone.

After the priest left, Fausta accused Aurelie of stealing and selling valuables from the house, claiming she bought the mysterious gifts herself. As proof, Fausta pointed to where Isidoro had written “pretty thief” on slips of paper in the books that he wanted her to read. The staff angrily chased Aurelie out of the house, but she went into the garden and hid the letter among the roses before fleeing.

In the library, Montserrat opens the door to the rose garden with the same key and finds Lucy standing there. She offers to swap a rose for a book.