He placed more petals in her hands. They felt velvety, like Lulu's skin, and Nola squeezed her eyes shut and prayed to be a wonderful mom to this amazing baby. Then she opened her eyes and dropped the petals onto the paper swan’s other wing. Daniel crouched and gave the swan a gentle nudge. The graceful creation glided away, awash with its own glow, its body cutting through the lights that twinkled on the inky surface. What would be this man’s wish? World peace?

He nudged away a second paper swan.

“Why another?” Nola asked, as she picked another flower.

“Swans mate for life. I wouldn’t want to mess with the order of nature.”

The light of a blue lantern made Daniel's scar visible, like a fine line of glaze. Nola poked the stem into Daniel's lapel. “May I?” she asked, then, as his body heat reached her, she stepped back.

For a few moments, the only sounds were the gentle lapping of the water, the distant exotic music, and the jumbled soft concert of crickets and night fowl.

“This is an awesome country,” Nola finally said. “I wish I had time to study its art and architecture.”

“Most are products of past glory. Modern times have not produced anything half as enchanting. In fact, a lot of good stuff was destroyed.”

She giggled. “And you’re the one in charge of my program here? You’re supposed to extol China’s virtues.” Leslie might have been right; maybe Daniel was a spy.

“I can only give you a well-rounded view of this land, so you can take with you more than a saccharine-coated picture of a system that would never admit to going wrong.”

A bird let out an odd, keening cry. “Like the orphanage you mentioned?” Nola asked.

“Like many social experiments gone awry. The Cultural Revolution subjected a whole generation of educated people to untold suffering.”

“Margot Ashford and I visited a nice orphanage the day of my arrival,” Nola said. “The children were well-dressed and they sang in a room full of toys.” She didn’t say how, looking at them, she had felt numb with the pain of their loneliness. No toys, she knew, could wipe away the fear of never belonging to anyone.

“That’s a showcase institution, one of several built here after the International Women’s Conference in ’95 and a ’96 report from Human Rights Watch made the government aware that their practices were frowned upon. Until then, the Chinese government maintained that natural selection should do its work without human interference. Out-of-quota and abandoned babies were ‘surplus population’ to be disposed of. The Chinese were shocked to discover that the West didn’t take kindly to this view.”

She thought of Lulu, of Jenna, of herself. “I lost both my parents at twelve.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”

She bit her lip. “It’s not in my press releases.”